February 18, 2008
In this issue
- Coming up at the Mershon Center
- Other events
- 'Origins' examines upcoming Russian presidential elections
- Featured organization: The Carter Center
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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
Edgar S. Furniss Book Award Winner
Monday, February 25, 2008
Jacques E.C. Hymans
"The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Jacques E.C. Hymans is Assistant Professor of Government at Smith College. He is author of The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2006), which received not only the Edgar S. Furniss Award from the Mershon Center, but also the Alexander L. George Award from the International Society of Political Psychology. In this book, Hymans explores why few states have acquired nuclear weapons even though dozens have long been capable of doing so. He finds that the key to this surprising historical pattern lies not in externally imposed constraints, but in state leaders' conceptions of the national identity. Read more and RSVP
Friday, February 29, 2008
Christina Davis
"The Politics of Opening Markets: A Comparison of Bilateral and Multilateral Trade Negotiation Strategies"
3:30 p.m., Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Christina Davis is Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her teaching and research bridges international relations and comparative politics, with a focus on trade policy. Her interests include the politics and foreign policy of Japan and the European Union, and the study of international organizations. She is currently doing research on a book about how domestic institutions influence the choice of trade negotiation strategies and adjudication cases at the World Trade Organization. Davis is author of Food Fights Over Free Trade: How International Institutions Promote Agricultural Trade Liberalization (Princeton, 2003).
Read more and
RSVP
Monday, March 3, 2008
Gen. John D. Altenburg Jr.
"Military Commission Process: November 2001 to March 2008"
Noon, Moritz College of Law Barrister Club, 25 W. 11th Ave.
Gen. John D. Altenburg is former Appointing Authority for Military Commissions. In this role, he was responsible for reviewing charges and evidence against people detained by the United States in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Altenburg was a major force behind changes in Military Commission procedures from the time of the first presidential order until today. He is currently a principal with the Washington, D.C., law office of Greenberg Traurig. Read more and
RSVP
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Anita Bucknam
"Historical Origins of U.S. Intelligence"
Noon, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave.
Anita Bucknam is the CIA Officer in Residence for 2006-07 and 2007-08 at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. She joined the CIA in 1992 to conduct analytic assessments of Russian economic and political issues. After the events of 9/11, Bucknam transferred her analytic work to counterterrorism issues, particularly related to homeland security. She also served short tours in the National Security Agency, the State Department, and the White House, and she served overseas in Moscow. During this lecture, Bucknam will discuss ancient uses of intelligence from Sun Tsu and the Bible through Medieval times, the use of intelligence in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and how World War II and the Cold War shaped the U.S. intelligence community. Read more and
RSVP
Monday, February 18, 2008
Richard Ned Lebow
3:30 p.m., Spencer Room, Political Science Department, Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall
Richard Ned Lebow is the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. His research is in the intersections of history, psychology and political science and he uses historical evidence and psychological concepts to address substantive political questions. His research interests include international relations, conflict management, psychological models of learning, philosophy of social science, conflict prevention, regional conflict, bargaining and negotiation, case studies, psychological experiments, and scenario generation. Lebow is author of A Cultural Theory of International Relations (Cambridge, forthcoming); Counterfactuals and Politics (Princeton, forthcoming); Unmaking the West: Counterfactuals and Causation, co-edited with Phil Tetlock and Geoffrey Parker (Michigan, 2007); The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe, co-edited with Claudio Fogu and Wulf Kansteiner, (Duke, 2006); Learning from the Cold War, co-edited with Richard Herrmann (Palgrave, 2004); and Ethnics, Interest and Order: The Tragic Vision of Politics (Cambridge, 2003). Read more and RSVP
Monday, February 18, 2008
Danielle Fosler-Lussier
"American Cultural Diplomacy and the Mediation of Avant-Garde Music"
4:30 p.m., Room 66, Music and Dance Library, Sullivant Hall, 1813 N. High St.
During the Cold War, many musicians from the United States traveled to distant places under the sponsorship of the U.S. government. They were sent to enhance the reputation of American culture, compete with Soviet and Chinese performers, forge personal connections with citizens of other lands, and create a positive impression of the United States. and its foreign policy. From its inception in 1954, the most prominent American cultural program emphasized art music in the Western classical tradition, but officials soon found it desirable to include other kinds of music, including jazz, folk, and rock and roll. As the music was carried to different places in the world, its role was defined by local circumstances, and the relationships created through these performances reveal both the desires and the prejudices of the participants in each place. By applying the anthropological concept of the "gift economy" to a variety of archival sources, Danielle Fosler-Lussier, Assistant Professor of Music at The Ohio State University, seeks to reveal these relationships as they were played out in American musical presentations all over the world. Fosler-Lussier is author of Music Divided: Bartók's Legacy in Cold War Culture (University of California Press, 2007). Her current research uses archival documents and oral history to explore the many different kinds of musical and political interaction occasioned by Cold War cultural diplomacy.
Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective is pleased to announce the publication of its March 2008 issue, which features "After Putin? The Russian Presidential Elections," by Marlene Laruelle.
Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin since 2000, Russia has become ever richer, ever stronger on the world stage, and increasingly restrictive at home. Now that Putin's term as president is up, Laruelle offers insight into the March 2008 presidential elections and what the future holds for Russia at home and around the world.
Origins is a monthly online news magazine published by the Public History Initiative and eHistory in the History Department at The Ohio State University.
In each issue of Origins, an academic expert will analyze a particular current issue -- political, cultural, or social -- in a larger, deeper historical context. In addition to the analysis provided by each month's feature, Origins will also include podcasts, images, maps, graphs, timelines, and other material to complement the essay.
Recent issues of Origins include:
• "The Second Amendment Goes to Court," by Saul Cornell
• "The Politics of International Adoption," by Peter Conn
• "Conflict Termination: How to End -- and Not to End -- Insurgencies," by John Guilmartin
• "Tradition vs. Charisma: The Sunni Shi'i Divide in the Muslim World," by Stephen Dale
• "Populism and Anti-Americanism in Modern Latin America," by Justin Lance
Next month: "(Fore)Closing On The American Dream," by Lawrence Bowdish.
Origins is online at http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins. The podcast is at http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/podcasts.cfm.
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982. In partnership with Emory University, the center’s mission is to alleviate human suffering, enhance freedom and democracy, prevent and resolve conflicts, and improve health worldwide.
Based in Atlanta, the Carter Center supports 150 part-time and full-time staff, with field representatives working in Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and Central America. In addition, the center employs more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students as interns as well as 160 volunteers.
The programs at the Carter Center are directed by resident experts or fellows, some of whom also teach at Emory University. The center runs Peace Programs subdivided into tracks on democracy, human rights, conflict resolution, the Americas, and China, as well as Health Programs in numerous subfields.
News and publications are made available through the center website such as published articles and reports, press releases, feature stories, and resources for l teachers. For more information, please see http://www.cartercenter.org/homepage.html
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