John writes: “The two years since the last class letter have passed quickly. Due to work commitments I wasn’t able to make the 50th reunion in 2013. I managed to go to the 50th of the Class of ’64, with whom I entered St. Olaf, and while the college allowed Jan Clausen ’65 and me to go to the class dinner, my badge said class of ’63, so that is my real identity. Jan’s 50th is next year and she is on the planning committee, so we will make sure we make it. If anyone from the class of ’63 plans to be there, please let me know.

As far as nostalgia goes, I have always been forward-looking, mindful of what Satchel Paige said: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” I have now been at Cornell for two years and I have been promoted to Lecturer from Visiting Lecturer, implying that I am somewhat more permanent. I have four sections per year instead of two, teaching public administration graduate students about managing the international public sector. I also work for my company (AIMS), whose main contract is still with Swedish SIDA. Foreign travel this year has included Sweden, France, Switzerland, Uganda, South Africa, and Bolivia. In April 2013 I did travel to Lebanon to run a workshop in Beirut, which was a rather scary place as the government fell the week I was there. One of my former Syracuse students who was working there told me about the violence and the refugee situation along the border with Syria. This year I was asked to go again, but we agreed that I could run the workshop over the Internet. I have also helped the UN Division for Social Policy and Development organize a workshop on rethinking social development, which seeks to incorporate social development more thoroughly in the post-2015 sustainable goals being negotiated at the United Nations. I have been drafting the chapter on the General Assembly for Oxford University Press’ Annual Review of United Nations Activities for the last several years.

Jan and I did manage to do our annual summer pilgrimage to France, visiting my Alsatian cousins’ three star auberge, having our 10-course meal in Burgundy, and stopping at Chassagne-Montrachet to get wine.

I continue my interest in climate change and edited a special issue of the Journal of International Organizations Studies on international management of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report is now coming out and, as predicted, is much scarier than its predecessor that was issued in 2007. I believe that if we really care about our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we really need to push our political and business leaders to embrace policies and programs to address our carbon-based emissions now rather than later (when all of the agreed models show will be too late).”