Mark your calendars for Great Decisions Thursdays in February and March at Isothermal Community College’s Polk Center in Columbus.  The lecture series will be held on Feb. 4, 11, 18, 25 and March 3 and 10 from 2 – 4 p.m.

Of the eight topics the Foreign Policy Association has chosen to address in this national program, WAC-WNC will cover six: Middle East alliances, climate change, the Koreas, ISIS (Daesh), Cuba and migration.

Our “faculty” this year is knowledgeable, up to date, engaging, and compelling.

Samer Traboulsi of the UNCA History Department who will be returning from an end-of-the-year visit to Beirut opens our series addressing the complex issues of Middle East alliances.

In week two we consider the ISIS/Daesh threat, when Major General Rick Devereaux, Director Operational Planning, Policy and Strategy of the Air Force, will address the military, diplomatic, and strategic steps that are being taken to confront it.

Climate change and the science and data gathering involved will be reviewed in our third week by Tom Peterson, a widely published climate scientist, current president of the Commission for Climatology Structure at the World Meteorological Organization, and recently retired NOAA climatologist.

The end of February spotlights issues of the Koreas featuring Marc Mullinax of the MHU Philosophy and Religion Department. Mullinax, who has taught at Ewha Women’s University in South Korea, speaks and reads Korean, and blogs about Korea.

The first topic in March is global migration. Our discussion will be directed and led by Natalie Teague, a multi-lingual attorney who has been specializing in immigration law, litigating in state and federal courts while practicing in Asheville the last several years.

The 2016 Great Decisions series ends when Cuba – and its changed status – will be covered by Stan Dotson, Founder of InOurElements, a leadership and curriculum development resource for churches and community organizations, who has spent the better part of the last two years teaching at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Matanzas, and will be just returning from the island to the US prior to his lecture.

2016 Great Decisions booklets are available for purchase at the Foreign Policy Association website, www.fpa.org/great_decisions/.