The world-renowned journalist, who specializes in international affairs, will be presenting two lectures with a decidedly optimistic bent at the University College of the Fraser Valley on Thursday, February 22. His first lecture, War: Downshift?, will be presented at the Chilliwack campus theatre at 11:30 a.m. The second, The New Canada and the Globalization Shuffle (Reasons to be Cheerful), will be given at 7 p.m. at the Abbotsford campus lecture theatre.

The first lecture in Chilliwack will look at how war has changed since the evolution of technology — both the weapons of mass destruction and the means of mass communication — has changed the character of both war and mass societies in ways that invalidate our old assumptions about the feasibility and likelihood of large-scale war, according to Dyer.

"Human conflict is far older than organized war, and will certainly last as long as human beings do," says Dyer. "But the big wars waged by great states that have disfigured all of our history, and that threatened to blow away most of the Northern Hemisphere during the latter half of the 20^th century, are an endangered species."

Dyer will speak about the peaceful "almost magical" evaporation of the Cold War and recent actions taken by world powers to protect innocent people in East Timor and Kosovo as indications that "something big" is going on.

The evening lecture in Abbotsford will examine how a country that can "bring together people from every culture on the planet, give them a common language and goal, and avoid crippling ethnic conflicts, wins the lion’s share of new jobs and does very well indeed," according to Dyer. Good news for Canada!

Dyer acknowledges that the new global economy means that industrialized countries like Canada lose labour-intensive jobs to those who will work longer and harder hours, and also that Canada is still threatened by the old ethnic quarrel between the British and the French.

"We Canadians live in dangerous times — but there is a silver lining in the clouds that darken our future, because 30 years ago we did something very clever," says Dyer. "We changed the immigration laws, and set in train a process that is turning us into the most ethnically diverse country in the world. That will enable us to compete in the emerging world marketplace far better than most older industrialized countries, because we have globalized our own country.

"For countries like ours, the name of the game in the new global economy is to capture a big chunk of the new high-end service jobs — information, educational services, entertainment, financial services of all kinds.... But the competition for market share in these sectors is intense, and the secret to success is creativity, and the key to creativity is diversity of input."

Dyer adds that Canada’s increasingly multicultural profile has a hidden bonus: "we are in effect burying the old Anglo-French ethnic quarrel that has bedevilled this country since its creation."

For more information about the Gwynne Dyer lectures call Dave Stephen at 864-4612 or 792-0025, local 4612.

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GWYNNE DYER has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years, but he was originally trained as an historian. Born in Newfoundland in 1943, he received degrees from Canadian, American and British universities,

finishing with a PhD in Military and Middle Eastern History from the University of London. He served in three navies and held academic appointments at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Oxford University before giving up on day jobs in 1973.

Since then, his major activity has been his twice-weekly column on international affairs, which is published by 175 papers in some 45 countries. It is translated into more than a dozen languages.

Dyer's first television series, the 7-part documentary 'War', was aired in 45 countries in the mid-80s. One episode, 'The Profession of Arms', was nominated for an Academy Award. The accompanying book, also titled 'War', won the Columbia University School of Journalism award in 1986.

Since then, Dyer has been involved in about another dozen hours of television documentaries. His more recent works include the 1994 series 'The Human Race', a personal inquiry in four parts into the roots, nature, and future of human politics, and 'Protection Force', a three-part series

on peacekeepers in Bosnia first aired in 1995.

He has been been making radio documentaries since the late '70s. Notable recent ones include 'The Gorbachev Revolution', a seven-hour series based on Dyer's experiences in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in 1987-90, and Millennium', a six-hour series on the emerging global culture.

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