April 15, 2008
In this issue
- Coming up at the Mershon Center
- Other events
- Study abroad scholarships available from OIA
- Featured organization: Hoover Institution
Having trouble reading this newsletter? You can read it online.
Friday-Saturday, April 18-19, 2008
Conference
Cold War as the Periphery: Global Change in the 1960s and Beyond
Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Cold War as the Periphery will explore how the "diffusion of power" from Washington and Moscow toward the developing world transformed global politics in the 1960s and beyond. Bringing together graduate students and junior faculty, it will examine the connections between three broad conceptual questions: How did the political and material terrain of the pan-European world change during this period? How did actors inside and outside government bureaucracies interpret and value these changes? How did geopolitical "flashpoints" in the global South rally, reflect, and reconstitute understandings of global power after 1960? Taken together, these questions aim to investigate the paradoxes of global change in the postcolonial era. Read more and
RSVP
Monday, April 21, 2008
Ebrahim Yazdi
"Iranian Politics and U.S.-Iranian Relations"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Ebrahim Yazdi served as foreign minister of Iran in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He resigned in protest after the Ayatollah Khomeini endorsed the takeover of the U.S. Embassy by radicals. Yazdi is currently secretary-general of the Freedom Movement of Iran, a group declared illegal by some Iranian officials. He continues to promote political freedom in Iran. Recently, Yazdi has called on Iran to adopt democratic values, pluralism, and cooperation, while calling on the United States "to negotiate with Iran without preconditions." A longtime resident of Houston, Texas, Yazdi was a faculty member at the Baylor College of Medicine. He is the author of several medical, religious, and political texts. Read more and RSVP
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
David Siegel
"Repression, Social Networks, and Collective Action"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
David Siegel is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Florida State University. His research interests include Interests include American politics, comparative politics, international relations, formal and computational methods, political violence, elections, terrorism, and social networks. Siegel studies the manner in which institutions, both formal and informal, mediate the interactions of people with different motivations. In applying these concepts to political violence, Siegel studies the efficacy and evolution of terrorist organizations, and the degree to which both state and substate repression inhibit participation in collective behavior such as turnout, protest, or rebellion. New projects extend these ideas to the development of institutions in early societies and the formation of social identities. Read more and RSVP
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Shibley Telhami
2 p.m., Spencer Room, Derby Hall, 154 Oval Mall
Sponsored by the Department of Political Science
Shibley Telhami is Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, and non-resident senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. Telhami has also been active in the foreign policy arena. He has served as advisor to the U.S. Mission to the UN (1990-91), advisor to former Rep. Lee Hamilton, and as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Trilateral U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee, which was mandated by the Wye River Agreements. Most recently, he served on the Iraq Study Group as a member of the Strategic Environment Working Group. His best-selling book, The Stakes: America and the Middle East (Westview, 2003) was selected by Foreign Affairs as one of the top five books on the Middle East. He is co-author of Liberty and Power: A Dialogue on Religion and US Foreign Policy in an Unjust World (Brookings, 2004) and author of Reflections of Hearts and Minds: Media, Opinion and Identity in the Arab World (Brookings, 2005).
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women
Film screening and discussion with the filmmaker Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
6:30 p.m., 180 Hagerty Hall, 1775 College Road
Sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center
A powerful documentary about Korean women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Military during World War II, Silence Broken dramatically combines the testimony of former comfort women who demand justice for the "crimes against humanity" committed against them, along with contravening interviews of Japanese soldiers, recruiters and contemporary scholars. Dai Sil Kim-Gibson received her Ph.D. in religion from Boston University. Her movies include Sa-I-Gu, A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans, Wet Sand: Voices from LA, and her most recent film, Motherland. She is also the author of the book Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women, and is currently working on a joint memoir, Shoulder Friends, with her husband, Donald D. Gibson.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Somali Studies at Ohio State: A Snapshot
Noon, 122 Oxley Hall, 1712 Neil Ave.
Sponsored by the Center for African Studies
The many Somalis who have resettled in Columbus, making it the second largest community in the United States, have become an integral part of the city's urbanscape, economy, and cultural mix. At Ohio State, interest in Somali history, culture, language, and politics is on the rise among graduate, undergraduate and faculty across campus. In this presentation, three doctoral candidates will provide brief synopses of their research, along with an overview of Somali language and other Somali Studies initiatives at Ohio State. Presenters include Richelle Schrock, PhD Candidate in Women's Studies; Nahla al Huraibi, PhD Candidate in Rural Sociology; and Marnie Shaffer, PhD Candidate in Anthropology.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Michael Byungnam Lee
12:20 p.m., 335 Gerlach Hall, 2108 Neil Ave.
Sponsored by the Fisher College International Programs Office/CIBER
Michael Byungnam Lee is a graduate of the Fisher College of Business, with a PhD from the University of Minnesota. After several years of teaching at the university level in the United States, the LG Corporation attracted him back to Korea. He now is CEO of LG Academy, a large company within the LG group that provides training and development services to a variety of firms in Korea and surrounding countries. Founded in 1947, the LG Group is comprised of 36 companies in electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications. At the core is the "LG Way," which puts the philosophy of value creation for customers and human respect by management into the practice of fair management. LG Academy has prepared the LG Entrepreneur Development Education System to ensure that LG is the leading enterprise of the 21st century. For more information please visit http://www.lg.net/index.jsp. Lunch will be provided for those who respond to Joana Ferreti-Meza by Friday, April 18.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Graham Allison
"Nuclear Terrorism: The Economic and Social Effects of an Attack"
5:30 p.m., OCLC-Online Computer Library Center, 6565 Kilgour Place, Dublin, OH
Sponsored by the Columbus Council on World Affairs
Graham Allison is Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. As Founding Dean of the modern School of Government, under his leadership from 1977 to 1989, a small, undefined program grew to become a major professional school of public policy and government. Allison has served as Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense under President Reagan and as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans under President Clinton, where he coordinated DOD strategy and policy toward Russia, Ukraine, and the other states of the former Soviet Union. He has the sole distinction of having twice been awarded the Department of Defense's highest civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, first by Secretary Cap Weinberger and second by Secretary Bill Perry. Allison's publications include Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (1971), recently released in an updated and revised second edition (1999), which ranks among the bestsellers in political science; Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (2000); Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy: Containing the Threat of Loose Russian Nuclear Weapons and Fissile Material (1996). Allisons latest book, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, was published in 2004 and was selected by The New York Times as one of the "100 most notable books of the year." To attend this event, register online.
If undergraduate and graduate students are looking for scholarships to fund a study abroad program, the Office of International Affairs is coordinating four grant opportunities that have a deadline of May 9, 2008. The various scholarships provide funding between $500 and $1,000 for various short-term and quarter/summer long-term study abroad programs.
Studying abroad enables students to gain a sense of independence, become more confident, and acquire valuable skills in preparation for today’s job market. Ohio State offers more than 100 programs in 40 different countries.
Undergraduate student grants available for study abroad include:
• Francille M. Firebaugh Study Abroad Scholarship
• Jutta and Peter Neckermann Study Abroad Scholarship
• Endowed Fund for Short-Term Study Abroad
• Daniel G. Amstutz International Studies Scholarship for Study Abroad
Graduate student grants currently available for study abroad include:
• Daniel G. Amstutz International Studies Scholarship for Study Abroad (Deadline May 9, 2008)
• Sonkin-Bergman-Wasserman Families' Scholarship for International Understanding and Peace (Deadline April 11, 2008)
Located at Stanford University, the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank which seeks to study politics, economics, and international affairs.
Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover founded the Institution 1919, and the focus of its research follows Hoover’s core democratic beliefs. These values involve ensuring the continuation of a free society, representative government, private enterprise, peace, personal freedoms, and the American political system.
The Hoover Institution attempts to further its goals by promoting scholarly research in three overarching programs:
• American Institutions and Economic Performance
• Democracy and Free Markets
• International Rivalries and Global Cooperation
Each of these research areas is devoted to the principles of limiting government intrusion on the freedom of individuals, improving the human condition, and securing and safeguarding peace internationally.
Interested scholars can become involved with the Hoover Institution through fellowships that include Resident Hoover Fellows, Affiliated Fellows, Visiting Fellows, and Media Fellows.
The Institution’s publications include scholarly essays, articles, books, radio and television broadcasts, and the quarterly Hoover Digest, which publishes articles on international politics and international affairs pertinent to the United States. They can be viewed through the institution's website http://www.hoover.org
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