Sarwar A. Kashmeri

Sarwar A. Kashmeri has served as a strategic communications advisor to such international companies as Capgemini, Oracle, and PeopleSoft, and he has put pen to paper as a business columnist and author. He is well-known as the host of Wall Street to Main Street, the popular ongoing series of forthright conversations with CEOs of small businesses on the current recession and the government’s stimulus plans.

Kashmeri is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as a specialist and commentator on US-European business and political relations and has been publicly cited by the US Commerce Department for his work in assisting American exporters to understand the threats and opportunities presented by the European Union.

Kashmeri’s recent book, America and Europe after 9/11 and Iraq: The Great Divide, is based on his experience as a transatlantic businessman, talking with eminent leaders such as former President George H. W. Bush and former British prime-minister John Major.

Part of the information technology business for over 30 years, Kashmeri founded and ran two technology companies in New York prior to setting up his own communications practice in 2004. He also served as the founding chairman of Accounting Systems International, the first global consortium of accounting systems integrators.

Kashmeri has written numerous opinion pieces on transatlantic issues and chaired business and public policy panels. He has participated in the National Security Seminar at the United States Army War College, and was a panelist at the FedEx sponsored discussion of global business during the first US Presidential Debate held in September 2008 in Oxford, Mississippi. He is a Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association of New York, a member of the American Advisory Board of the Ditchley (UK) Foundations, and is on the National Advisory Board of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. Kashmeri teaches an annual course at Dartmouth College’s Institute for Lifelong Education (ILEAD).

Topics

Wall Street to Main Street: Small-business CEOs on the Recession and Stimulus Plans

It is not just the average American who is fed up with large corporations seeking handouts and bailouts from Washington – small business CEOs are even more furious. Since December 2008, Kashmeri has been interviewing CEOs of small businesses across America for Wall Street to Main Street, a weekly interview program of the Foreign Policy Association (FPA).

The program was started by the FPA to inject the views of small businesses into the national dialogue on the economic recession, and the federal government's stimulus and bailout plans – a dialogue dominated by large companies and financial institutions even though small businesses account for over half of private sector payroll, and over 70 percent of new job creation.

In this keynote, Kashmeri explores this powerful, yet often overlooked, group of CEOs, their views on the current economic malaise, the Obama administration and its stimulus plans, and what small businesses would really like to see the federal government do moving forward.

United States and the European Union: The Great Divide

American foreign policy toward Europe is rolling along the path of least resistance in the belief that nothing is amiss with the European–American relationship that multilateralism will not fix. Not true, contends Kashmeri, who argues that the alliance is fragile and must be renegotiated to accommodate Europe’s emergence as a major power.

A “United States of Europe,” with foreign priorities different from those of the United States, has arrived at America’s doorstep. But America still forges foreign policy for Europe using Cold War realities; both Democrats and Republicans expect the European Union to fall into step and report for service as needed, under American leadership. Events since President Obama’s election to office have all demonstrated the increasing divide: NATO’s continued mediocre performance in Afghanistan; discordant US-EU policies for economic stimulus; absence of sympathy for receiving prisoners from Guantanamo, Cuba.

In a speech based on his popular book, America and Europe after 9/11 and Iraq: The Great Divide, Kashmeri offers prescriptions for forging a “special relationship” with the European Union beginning with a “Partnership of Equals” to engineer an internationally acceptable end game in Iraq and Afghanistan. His agenda is inspired by world leaders who spoke to the author specifically for this book, among them former President George H. W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, James A. Baker, III, Wesley K. Clark, Brent Scowcroft, Paul Volcker, US senator Chuck Hagel, and the late Caspar W. Weinberger.

Pakistan/Afghanistan: The World’s Most Dangerous Real Estate

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