January 28, 2008
In this issue
- Coming up at the Mershon Center
- Other events
- Featured organization: Woodrow Wilson International Center
Having trouble reading this newsletter? You can read it online.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Michael Tomz
"The Credibility of International Commitments"
3:30 p.m., Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Michael Tomz is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, where he is also a Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center for International Development and an affiliate of the Social Science History Institute and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. Tomz is author of Reputation and International Cooperation: Sovereign Debt across Three Centuries, and Modern Political Economy and Latin America: Theory and Policy, edited with Jeffry Frieden and Manuel Pastor. In this lecture, Tomz will present material from "The Credibility of International Commitments," a multi-year project supported by an NSF CAREER grant in which he examine what makes threats and promises believable to international audiences. Read more and RSVP
Friday, February 8, 2008
Melvyn Leffler
"For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Melvyn Leffler is Edward Stettinius Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. He is author most recently of an analysis of the Cold War, For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. Drawing on extensive research in American and Soviet archives, Leffler offers an account of the forces that constrained Soviet and American leaders in the second half of the 20th century. The book examines four crucial episodes when American and Soviet leaders considered modulating, avoiding, or ending hostilities and asks why they failed: Stalin and Truman devising new policies after 1945; Malenkov and Eisenhower exploring the chance for peace after Stalin's death in 1953; Kennedy, Khrushchev, and LBJ trying to reduce tensions after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962; and Brezhnev and Carter aiming to sustain detente after the Helsinki Conference of 1975. Read more and
RSVP
Monday, February 11, 2008
Marc Warren
"Legal Support in Wartime: Reflections of a Judge Advocate"
Noon, Saxbe Auditorium, Moritz College of Law, 55 W. 12 Ave.
Marc Warren is the former Staff Judge Advocate for Combined Joint Task Force 7/Multi-National Forces in Iraq, V Corps in Iraq and Germany, and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). In this capacity, he served as the top legal advisor for Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in Iraq in 2003-04. This was the first full year of the Iraq War, when American forces set up the Iraqi constitution and captured Saddam Hussein, and when the counterinsurgency took root and the Abu Ghraib scandal became public. In his talk, Warren will reflect on the wide range of legal issues and problems he faced during this critical period. Read more
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Gen. John P. Abizaid
"Strategic Challenges in the Middle East"
3:30 p.m., Film Video Theater, Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N. High St.
Gen. John P. Abizaid is former Commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which directs the operations of 250,000 American troops in a 27-country region that includes the Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, South and Central Asia, and much of the Middle East. He is currently the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Abizaid, who led CENTCOM from 2003-07, will discuss strategic challenges in the Middle East, including the rise of Islamic extremism, Iran’s development of nuclear power, the corrosive effects of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the global reliance on oil. Read more
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Paul Beck and Herb Asher
"Super Tuesday with the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences"
7-10 p.m., Ohio State University Faculty Club, 181 S. Oval Drive
Sponsored by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Alumni Society
Come watch Super Tuesday primary returns with Ohio State political experts Paul Beck and Herb Asher. Beck, Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Asher, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, will be offer live commentary and analysis, and answer your questions as primary results roll in. Admission is $10 with all proceeds going to the SBS Alumni Society Student Scholarship Fund. Check or cash only please. Reserve your space now by e-mailing Jennifer Storm, SBS Alumni Society President, at Jennifer.Storm@xerox.com.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Bill Ellis
"From Satanic Cults to Latino Gangs: The Hazleton Illegal Immigration Crusade as Rumor Panic"
5:30-8 p.m., Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Sponsored by the Center for Folklore Studies
Bill Ellis, Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Pennsylvania State-Hazleton, is an authority on urban legend and contemporary versions of the occult. His books include Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture (Kentucky, 2003); Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media (Kentucky, 2000) and Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live (Mississippi, 2001). He has served as President of the International Society for Contemporary Legend and on the Executive Board of the American Folklore Society. All members of the Ohio State community are welcome to attend, but space for dinner is limited. If you wish to attend, please respond to Sheila Bock (bock.42@osu.edu) by Friday, February 1.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Peter Brimelow and Richard D. Kahlenberg
"Are Unions Destroying American Education?"
5:30 p.m., Faculty Club Grand Lounge, 181 S. Oval Drive
Sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and John Glenn School of Public Affairs
Do teacher unions create more harm than good in the American education system? Peter Brimelow and Richard D. Kahlenberg will explore this topic at a public debate. Brimelow is a British American financial journalist, author, and founder of VDARE.com, an anti-illegal alien website. Brimelow has been the editor of many publications, including Forbes, the Financial Post, and National Review. His books include Alien Nation: Common Sense about America's Immigration Disaster, and The Worm In The Apple: How The Teacher Unions Are Destroying American Education. Kahlenberg is a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, where he writes about education, equal opportunity, and civil rights. He is the author of Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race and Democracy; All Together Now: Creating Middle Class Schools through Public School Choice; The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action; and Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School. This debate is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and reservations are required. Please visit http://glennschool.osu.edu/rsvp/ISI_debate.php by February 8, 2008.
Friday, February 29, 2008
TARGET: Getting to Global
8-10:30 a.m., Blackwell Inn, Fisher College of Business, 2110 Tuttle Park Place
Sponsored by the Center for International Business Education and Research
The international expansion of Ohio companies is key to the future of the state. Businesses and corporations are invited to use the Fisher College’s network of global experts and international students to grow their business by attending TARGET: Getting to Global, an opportunity to learn about practical tools to assess their readiness to expand in the global marketplace. Featured speakers include E. Gordon Gee, President of The Ohio State University, on "The Internationalization of Higher Education and What It Means to the State of Ohio." To reserve your spot, RSVP to Joana Ferreti-Meza at (614) 292-0845 or ferreti-meza_1@osu.edu by February 1, 2008.
Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is a non-profit institution aimed at combining the nation's strongest scholars with its public policy architects.
Built in honor of Woodrow Wilson's belief that scholarship and policy-making are forever linked, the Institute offers 20 to 25 residential fellowships each year to people whose project proposals are essential to current national and international issues.
The institute also publishes Wilson Quarterly and produces the regular radio and television program Dialogue that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Dialogue is known for featuring presidents, ambassadors, cabinet ministers and scholars as guests.
Through its programs, publications, and research, the Wilson Center aims to benefit the American public through more effective foreign and domestic policy-making. For more information, please see http://www.wilsoncenter.org.
About Mershon Memo
Mershon Memo is a weekly e-mail newsletter distributed by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. You have received this newsletter because you have been identified as a party to whom these mailings may be of interest. If you would like to unsubscribe, please e-mail becker.271@osu.edu.
