INTRODUCTION Ladies and Gentlemen, join me in welcoming Mrs/ We are privileged to welcome / Let me to extend a sincere welcome to / I am delighted to welcome / Let me at the outset extend a warm welcome to the distinguished speaker that is joining us today/ Distinguished guest, Ladies and Gentlmen, let me, on behalf of FPVMV UMB and myself, extend a very warm welcome to Amanda Taub. Amanda Taub is an American journalist. She received his master´s degree from Yale University. She is a former human rights lawyer. Now she writes for american newspapers and blogs covering foreign policy and human rights. Lucia Bartalová MV1

Now I would like to give the floor to / It's my great pleasure to turn it over to/ Without further ado, I would like to turn it over to Amanda Taub. Thank you very much for your nice introduction. I am very honored to be/ It´s a pleasure to be here... at the FPVMV UMB first time. Today´s talk is concerned with / My today´s topic will be about Why some wars get more American and world attention than others Before I get to the heart and soul of my talk / before I get to the nuts and bolts of my talk.... I wanna make three preliminary points.... OUTLINE The today´s talk is /I am going to divide my talk into several parts... First, I am going to do a brief overview of some observations in general of American attitudes to foreign news Next, I would like to focus on some reasons of US involvement and attention in Syrian war. My final point would briefly highlight on destructive wars of the 21 centuries of that are not paid attention

FIRST SECTION Let me start with/ Maybe I should begin by the United States..... The United States is the world’s sole remaining superpower, but Americans often seem so inward-looking as to be almost provincial. Foreigners often express wonder that American television news, for instance, spends fewer minutes covering the rest of the world than the rest of the world’s news shows spend covering America. A result is that American attention seems both vitally important and frustratingly elusive. But when the world asks why America has forgotten Yemen and other conflicts like it, that has the situation backward. The truth is that inattention is the default, not the exception. Where does that lead us? /Why is this important?/ Let's consider this in more detail./ Translated into real terms, The significance of this is that....conflicts gain sustained American attention only when they provide a compelling story line that appeals to both the public and political actors, and for reasons beyond the human toll. That often requires some combination of immediate relevance to American interests, resonance with American political debates or cultural issues.

SECOND SECTION Turning to / Moving on now to / Let’s turn now to /The next issue/topic /area I’d like to focus on …/I’d like to expand/elaborate on /…Now we'll move on to./. I'd like now to discuss.../ Let's look now at the reason why Syria gets more attetion than most wars — including those in South Sudan, Sri Lanka and, yes, Yemen - they go ignored. Syria is a rare exception, and for reasons beyond its severity. To ilustrate this point / For example/ A good example of this is the fact that .../As an illustration,... To give you an example,... /To illustrate this point....Syrian war is now putting United States’ interests at risk, including the lives of its citizens, giving Americans a direct stake in it. Considering the Islamic State has murdered American hostages and committed terrorist attacks in the West. And the war offers a compelling tale of innocent victims and dastardly villains. The Islamic State is a terrorist organization with a penchant for crucifixions and beheadings. What´s more syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his patrons in Iran are hostile to the United States and responsible for terrible atrocities. And now Russia, which is at best America’s frenemy, is fighting on their side as well. So that are the reasons why we every day hear and watch current affairs about Syria.

THIRD SECTION Now couple of words on devastating war in the world which from my perspectives deserve attention. I would like to begin with Yemen, which is actual conflict. Brutal civil war has killed almost billion of citizens so far. But this conflict had not impact on American and European interests that Syria’s has. The reason is the war’s narrative is less appealing to American political interests. Yemen’s Houthi rebels pose little direct threat that American politicians might rally against. On the other side of the conflict are Saudi airstrikes that are killing civilians and targeting hospitals and aid workers, at times with United States support. One word on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, for instance, became a national cause célèbre in the early 2000s even though it had little direct effect on American interests. Darfur came to symbolize an alternative vision of American power that appealed to those who did not agree with Mr. Bush’s policies but also did not want the United States to withdraw into isolation.

The last example / issue I would like talk about is accident in Nigeria when Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in northern Nigeria in April 2014, Americans responded with outrage, spreading #BringBackOurGirls on Twitter and demanding that something be done. But as the months wore on and the Nigerian government failed to rescue the children, attention waned

FINISHING Before I terminate my speech, let me briefly recap../ Right, let's sum up, shall we?/ Let's summarise briefly what we've looked at.../ If I can just sum up the main points../ Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues we've covered/ So, to remind you of what I’ve covered in this talk/ has been covered in this talk. In the first section the American attitude to foreign affairs in general was analyzed. Then I moved to the Syria and gave reasons why Syria attracts not only US but also worldwide attention. In the final section the wars that were more brutal than the war in Syria and the lack of attention to this issue was/ were touched. And now If you would like me to elaborate on any point, please ask / Let´s open up now the space for question session.... I wonder If you could talk little bit about... Thanks XY for your interesting and provoking question.... If nobody has the question, I would like to thank / Please join me in thanking... Mrs Taub for an terrific hour/ though- provoking lecture. We hope you will visit our faculty ever again in the future...... Thank you for having me here ....