November 2, 2009
In this issue
- Coming up at the Mershon Center
- Other events
- Plans emerge for global university
- Mershon offers faculty, student research grants
- Mershon faculty in the news
Having trouble reading this newsletter? You can read it online.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Global Military Issues Symposium: Russia, China and the SCO
5:30 p.m., Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Slavic and East European Studies and East Asian Studies Center
Students, faculty and the public are invited to attend the first annual Global Military Issues Symposium at The Ohio State University. This symposium will explore the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a permanent intergovernmental international organization created in 2001 in Shanghai by the Republic of Kazakhstan, People's Republic of China, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan and Republic of Uzbekistan. The SCO member states occupy a territory of around 30 million square kilometers, equal to three-fifths of the Eurasian continent, and have 1.5 billion people, a quarter of the planet's population. The discussion will be led by Peter Mansoor, Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History, and will include presentations on both the Russian and Chinese militaries. Read more and RSVP
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Nicholas Rankin
"Secrets and Lies: How the British Used Camouflage and Deception in Two World Wars"
3:30 p.m., Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Nicholas Rankin worked for 20 years for the BBC World Service, producing a wide range of radio documentaries. His eight-part series on ecology and evolution, A Green History of the Planet, won two UN awards. His six-part series on drugs in nature and culture, Plants of Power, was widely praised. Another radio feature on Picasso's masterpiece of 1937 led to his book, Telegram from Guernica: the Extraordinary Life of George Steer, War Correspondent (Faber, 2003). He gave a presentation about this book at the Mershon Center in November 2003. This year, Rankin will discuss his most recent book, A Genius for Deception: How Cunning Helped the British Win Two World Wars, forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Read more and RSVP
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Catherine Weaver
"The Politics of IO Accountability: Transparency and Evaluation in the International Monetary Fund"
3:30 p.m., Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Catherine Weaver is assistant professor of international relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at University of Texas-Austin. She focuses on international organizations, international political economy and development. Weaver's book, Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform (Princeton University Press, 2008) received both the Chadwick Alger Prize for best book on International Organizations and Multilateralism from the International Studies Association and the Harold D. Lasswell Prize from the Society of Policy Scientists. She is also co-editor or co-author of three books in progress, The Politics of International Organizations: Bridging the Rationalist-Constructivist Divide (with Alexander Thompson and Michael J. Tierney), International Political Economy and the Transatlantic Divide (with Nicola Phillips), and Theory and Practice of International Organizations (with Michael Lipson and Michael Mosser). She is also working on a new book called The Paradox of Accountability: Transparency, Evaluation, and the IO Learning Curve. Read more and RSVP
Friday, November 6, 2009
Janice Bially Mattern
"The Emotional Politics of Transnational Crime"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Janice Bially Mattern is associate professor of international relations at Lehigh University. Her research focuses on the social dynamics of world political orders and their transformations. She teaches courses on international relations theory, criminality and transnational crime, international ethics, sovereignty, as well as international organization, especially global governance and transformations in world order. Her current project, tentatively entitled Illicit Sovereigns, examines the role of emotion in mobilizing transnational crime networks to transnational political violence. Bially Mattern is the author of Ordering International Politics: Identity, Crisis, and Representational Force (Routledge, 2005). She has written a number of journal articles and book chapters on topics ranging from soft power and language power to the politics of identity. Read more and RSVP
New event!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Afghanistan: The Choices
A Mershon Center and Humanities Institute Faculty Panel
5 p.m., Saxbe Auditorium,
Moritz College of Law,
55 W. 12th Ave.
Should we alter our strategy, stay the course, bring our troops home, increase their number? Afghanistan: The Choices is an interdisciplinary discussion of the way forward for the United States in Afghanistan, with a panel of leading Ohio State experts including Richard Herrmann, Social and Behavioral Distinguished Professor of Political Science; Peter Mansoor, Gen. Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History; John Mueller, Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies; and Alam Payind, Director of the Middle East Studies Center. Discussion will be moderated by Fred Andrle of the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities and former host of WOSU's Open Line. Read more and RSVP
Friday, November 13, 2009
William Scheuerman
"What Cosmopolitans Can Learn From Classical Realists"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
William Scheuerman is professor of political science at Indiana Univeristy-Bloomington. His primary research interests include modern political thought, German political thought, democratic theory, legal theory, and normative international theory. In addition to publishing a variety of articles in professional journals, Scheuerman is author of Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time (Johns Hopkins, 2008); Frankfurt School Perspectives on Globalization, Democracy, and the Law (Routledge 2008); and Hans J. Morgenthau: Realism and Beyond (Polity Press, 2009). He is co-director of an annual international conference for critical theorists held in Prague. Read more and RSVP
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Research Expo
8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Thompson Library, West Reading Room
Opening Remarks from President Gee at 9 a.m.
Please join us as we kick off our Research Awareness Month celebration with the Research Expo -– a full day of exhibits, events, and educational sessions focused on research at Ohio State. The Expo is open to the entire Ohio State research community: faculty, staff, and students. Expo Highlights:
- Discover how to build strategic multidisciplinary collaborations on campus from a panel of Ohio State researchers who have done just that
- Obtain tips from the pros on how to write winning NIH, NSF, DOE, DOD, and NEH proposals
- Learn to how to explain your research to the media and the general public
- Gain insight into building successful industry collaborations and how to move your intellectual property towards commercialization
- Tour the Expo and find out about the newest electronic research tools as well as the many research support services available to facilitate your research
- Learn how to search for funding opportunities
- Network with fellow Ohio State researchers
- Meet representatives from the Office of Research
Check out the entire schedule of events and register here.
William Brustein, Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs, outlined a strategy for integrating international experiences and perspectives into the teaching, research and engagement mission of Ohio State at a University Board of Trustee committee meeting on Wednesday, October 28. Brustein explained to the Academic Affairs and Student Life Committee that the foundation of a global university is one in which internationalization is perceived as value-added across all disciplines rather than one that operates alone as a silo.
Brustein outlined six strategies for creating a global university that included:
- Increase the percentage of international faculty and students
- Promote scholarship on the major global issues
- Create international dual degree programs
- Promote collaboration with Ohio’s international business ventures
- Develop an international physical presence
- Increase the international experience for undergraduate, graduate and professional students
To learn more about Brustein's strategies for Ohio State, please view the complete presentation (pdf).
Each year, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies holds a competition for Ohio State faculty and students to apply for grant funds. Grants may be used for a variety of purposes including travel, research, seminars, conferences, interviews, experiments, workshops and more. Applications must be for projects related to the study of national security in a global context. Please keep in mind that the Mershon Center is interested in participating in the university’s efforts to open global gateway communities in China, India, and Brazil. For more, including an application form and instructions, please see http://mershoncenter.osu.edu/grants/grants/grants.htm. The deadline is January 29, 2010.
Mershon-affiliated faculty members are often sought out by the media for their expertise, and their written work is often cited by journalists and bloggers. Recent examples include:
Tuesday morning book club
Foreign Policy, October 27, 2009
Expert: John Mueller
On his Foreign Policy blog, Stephen Walt reviews "four new books you ought to read." First up is Mueller's latest book, Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al Qaeda, which "relentlessly punctures the various ways that analysts of all persuasions have overstated the dangers and the importance of nuclear weapons. ... It is an equal-opportunity critique, as Mueller goes after hawks, doves, realists, and other Cassandras with equal relish and a playful but pungent wit. He emphasizes that nuclear weapons are in fact highly destructive and need to be handled with great care, but convincingly shows that policymakers and pundits have 1) routinely exaggerated their destructive power (i.e., by suggesting they can "destroy the world"), 2) inflated their importance in deterring war, imparting influence, or enhancing status, and 3) overstated the risk of nuclear accidents, nuclear terrorism, or other very low-probability events. ... Added bonus: It's immensely fun to read."
Troops already outnumber Taliban 12-1
Associated Press, October 28, 2009
Expert: Peter Mansoor
There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn't led to anything close to victory "The ratio of friendly to enemy forces would be a crucial aspect only if you could actually get at the enemy. But with an enemy that doesn't wear uniforms and hides among the population, that's very hard to do," said Mansoor. "The crucial aspect in this case is the ratio of security force to population — this is much more relevant. This would require one security person to every 50 people. In a country of about 32 million, this means about 600,000 security personnel would be needed to clamp it down."
'09 casino war is quirky
Columbus Dispatch, October 26, 2009
Expert: Paul Beck
The story discusses the battle for endorsements for a proposal on November ballot to place casinos in the downtowns of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. The endorsement sweepstakes might be a big deal for partisans on both sides of the ballot measure, but it's not likely to make a huge difference with voters, said Beck. "There's probably a significant number of voters (that) will relate to the issue on (a gut) level right away," Beck said. "They don't need to know who's endorsing on both sides."
Prerequisite: Experience in War
Inside Higher Education, October 22, 2009
Expert: Dorothy Noyes
The story discusses Ohio State's new Veterans Learning Community, coordinated by Susan Hanson. Noyes said that although pulling military students out of the general population taking classes on war might make it seem like non-military students are missing out on hearing firsthand about life in war, the goal is actually to give them a better understanding of those experiences. After military students have "more sheltered conversations in the two-course sequence, we can then have these students as guest lecturers in classes or bring them into public venues," she said. "We want to use this as a way to get vets more comfortable talking about their experiences with nonvets, whether other students, their families or anyone else."
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.
