
Learning from History? Build Infrastructure Great Again
Both the Suez and Panama Canals had charters and were a huge success. Lessons from both were learned, and CCI’s model of charter cities incorporates these lessons.
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Non-Resident Fellow
Dr. Ethan Chorin is a Founding Partner of Perim Associates. A former U.S. diplomat posted to Libya from 2004-2006, Chorin was Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sr. Manager for Government Relations and Communications at Dubai Ports World. As a Foreign Service Officer, Chorin was posted to Libya, Washington D.C., and the United Arab Emirates. He has been an e-business developer at Shell Oil, a Director at the Berkeley Research Group, and a Senior Fellow at CSIS. He was a member of the Obama Campaign’s 2008 Foreign Policy Advisory Group, covering Libya and Iran. Chorin is the author of two books, Exit the Colonel: The Hidden History of the Libyan Revolution (PublicAffairs, 2012) and Translating Libya (Darf, 2015), and a monograph on Dubai’s relationship with Djibouti (DSG, 2010).
A two-time Fulbright fellow (Jordan, Yemen), Chorin received a Meritorious Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State for his support to U.S. business in Libya, and a Sinclaire Award for language achievement in Farsi. Chorin’s work on Libya, the Gulf, Iran, and Africa has written for numerous publications, including The Financial Times, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Forbes, Foreign Policy, Forbes, Prospect and Words Without Borders. Chorin has been a regular commentator on Libya for the BBC.
Chorin has been Nonresident Fellow at the Dubai School of Government, Social Enterprise Fellow at Yale University School of Management, a Director at the Berkeley Research Group and is currently a non-resident Research Associate at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London (SOAS). Chorin holds a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in Agricultural and Resource Economics (2000), an MIPS from Stanford University (1993) and a BA from Yale (1991), cum laude, with distinction in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. He speaks French, Arabic and Farsi.
Both the Suez and Panama Canals had charters and were a huge success. Lessons from both were learned, and CCI’s model of charter cities incorporates these lessons.
Dr. Linda Colley, a leading expert on British imperial and global history, joins us on the podcast. We talk global constitutions and their relationship between war and revolution, and much more.
Urban planning is ultimately a dynamic process that must evolve as the needs of the city evolve. These guidelines provide an overview of how charter city planners can effectively create a charter city that generates sustained and inclusive economic growth.
Today’s episode is a bonus episode, where we take a deep dive into the Italian Renaissance (with a focus on Venice) with world-renowned expert, Professor Corey Tazzara. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the formation of independent city-states, to the financial and political ramifications of the crusades, to the rise and fall of Venice as an economic powerhouse, this conversation has it all!
In Honduras, the National Congress unanimously repealed the constitutional amendment and enabling law for charter cities, known as Zonas de Empleo de Desarrollo Económico (Zones for Employment and Economic Development) or ZEDEs. Now we take a deeper look at what happened in Honduras, and what comes next.
Welcome to Seeding the Future, a podcast from CCI, where we explore how giving and philanthropy are changing. In the first episode, we hear from John Arnold, American philanthropist, former Enron executive, and Founder of Arnold Ventures, about philanthropy for policy change.
The Charter Cities Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to empowering new cities with better governance to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.