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In Memory of Michael Vinay Bhatia '99
May 12, 2008
Michael Vinay Bhatia ’99 died Wednesday in Afghanistan, where he was working as a social scientist in consultation with the US military. In addition to graduating magna cum laude in international relations from Brown University, Michael was a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute from July 2006 to June 2007. Of his work in Afghanistan, Michael wrote in November: “The program has a real chance of reducing both the Afghan and American lives lost, as well as ensuring that the US/NATO/ISAF strategy becomes better attuned to the population's concerns, views, criticisms and interests and better supports the Government of Afghanistan.”
For more information about Watson Institute news and personnel, please contact Karen Lynch
May 5, 2008 : Foreign Policy Magazine Ranks Cardoso among 'Top 100 Public Intellectuals'
Foreign Policy magazine has named former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso one of this year’s top 100 public intellectuals. The work of Cardoso, a Brown professor at large based at Watson, was the centerpiece of a recent two-day conference at the Institute. Video of his talk at the conference is available, as well as a recent interview on Open Source.
May 1, 2008 : Today: Analyzing Kosovo's Independence
Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in February continues to set off aftershocks. Western policymakers back the move by the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo; Serbia and Russia reject it. On Thursday, US Institute of Peace Vice President Daniel P. Serwer will analyze “Kosovo: Why Independence? Why Now? What Went Wrong?” as part of the European Politics Seminar Series.
April 30, 2008 : C-SPAN to Air Chafee Book Talk
This weekend, C-SPAN’s Book TV channel will feature former US Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75 and his recent book launch event at Brown for Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President (St. Martin's Press, April 2008). The candid political memoir, which Chafee wrote as a distinguished visiting fellow at Watson, “offers a behind-the-scenes look at the first six years of the Bush administration from the vantage point of one of the few Republican moderates in the Senate,” according to the publisher.
April 30, 2008 : Resurrecting Goodwill
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, said to be built on the spot in Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was crucified, was in danger of collapse following a 1927 earthquake. Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Christians Came Together to Rescue Their Holiest Shrine (Oxford University Press, May 2008) tells how three groups – Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Orthodox – overcame centuries of division to restore “the mother of all churches.”
April 30, 2008 : Disarming in Afghanistan
Afghanistan, Arms and Conflict: Armed Groups, Disarmament and Security in a Post-War Society (Routledge, April 2008) assesses small arms and security-related issues in post-9/11 Afghanistan.
April 30, 2008 : Rhodes Honored for Lifetime Achievement
William R. Rhodes '57, a member of Watson's board of overseers, this month received a lifetime achievement award from Latin Finance magazine. “Bill's renown as an international financial diplomat and the critical role he has played in sovereign risk restructuring throughout his career has left an indelible mark on the global financial community,” the magazine said in presenting the award.
April 30, 2008 : Pulver Awarded Fulbright Grant
Watson Assistant Professor Simone Pulver has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar grantee to India. With support from the six-month grant, she will study the environmental practices of Indian enterprises, while based in New Delhi at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
April 29, 2008 : Morales Traces the Saga of Human Rights in Bolivia
“For the first time in my life I find myself in agreement with both the IMF and the World Bank,” Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, told an audience during his recent delivery of the 78th Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture. “The development of biofuels is harming the world’s poorest people,” Morales said in his address, titled “From the Andes: New Visions, New Voices.” Morales’ lecture to the Brown community was filled with such combinations of passion and wit, as he led his audience through a personal and political history of human rights in Bolivia.
April 29, 2008 : Author Sees Energy Causing Large-Scale Conflict
Discussing the future of world energy supplies at the Watson Institute, Professor Michael Klare painted an apocalyptic picture of global energy supplies, resource shortage, and conflict, based upon his forthcoming book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy (Macmillan, April 2008). In Klare’s view, there are three driving forces in this new energy crisis: a huge increase in energy consumption caused by the rise of developing economies; a drop in supplies of traditional energy sources, such as oil; and the tendency of states to securitize and militarize their interests in scarce natural resources.
April 28, 2008 : US Diplomat Maps Progress in Asian Relations
Ambassador Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, addressed the rise of China and the status of nuclear weapons negotiations in North Korea during his recent talk on “US Foreign Policy in Korea and the Asia-Pacific.” While important issues remain on the table, he said, US relations with China are improving, and nuclear disarmament is progressing in North Korea.
April 28, 2008 : Newsweek Names Senior 'Vanguard International Innovator'
Johnny Lin ’08, who is concentrating in international relations, has been named a Newsweek “Vanguard International Innovator” for his work organizing the Strait Talk Symposium/Dialogue Project, an annual conference that brings Taiwanese, Chinese, and American students together at Brown to discuss issues surrounding the Taiwan Strait and other areas of conflict.
April 23, 2008 : Friday: Ass't Secretary of State to Discuss Korea
Recently returned from nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea, Ambassador Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, will speak at Brown on Friday. His lecture, “US Foreign Policy in Korea and the Asia-Pacific,” will take place at 3pm in Room 106 of Smith-Buonanno Hall.
April 22, 2008 : Hamburg Receives Earth Day Honors
On the occasion of Earth Day, the US Environmental Protection Agency today presented Global Environment Program Director Steven P. Hamburg with a 2008 Environmental Merit Award. Hamburg was honored for his “significant contributions to environmental awareness and problem solving.” Specifically, the award acknowledged his work advancing the use of energy-efficient light bulbs known as CFLs.
April 21, 2008 : Cardoso and Colleagues Revisit 'Dependency and Development'
The work of former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso was the centerpiece of a recent two-day conference at Watson, as his seminal research on economic development was revisited on the 40th anniversary of its completion and recast for today’s global economy. Video of Cardoso’s description of his thinking on Dependency and Development – then and now – is available here. An Open Source podcast with Cardoso is available here.
April 20, 2008 : Bolivian President Morales to Lecture at Brown
Bolivian President Evo Morales will deliver a Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Affairs at Brown on Tuesday. The unprecedented visit follows a trip to Bolivia by Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Watson Institute, to invite the president. Morales’ lecture also comes in the wake of the recent “Changes in the Andes” conference at Brown.
April 18, 2008 : Klieman Critiques Israel's Foreign Policy
“At 60, Israeli foreign policy defies any neat characterization,” according to Aharon Klieman, visiting professor at Brown’s Judaic Studies Program and Political Science Department. It is “torn between opposing poles of optimism and pessimism, idealism and cynicism, of unilateralism and multilateralism, provincialism and cosmopolitanism, historical grudges and future horizons, exceptionalism and normalcy,” he said in a recent talk on “Israel’s Unfinished Diplomatic Revolution.” The results have been a collection of “singular achievements, abject failures, and missed opportunities.”
April 16, 2008 : The Situation in Sudan: Not Entirely Bleak
While Sudan is almost uniformly associated with the genocide in Darfur in the Western consciousness, the developments, problems, and successes of the rest of the country are not as widely disseminated. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, an anthropology professor at Rhode Island College, recently gave a talk on the country as a whole – including demographic changes caused by the country’s civil wars and the results of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005. While the situation in Sudan remains bleak, Fluehr-Lobban said she sees some cause for optimism based on its people’s hopes for economic opportunity and peace.
April 15, 2008 : Video: Writers Project Fellow Explains Role and Inspiration
International Writers Project Fellow Chenjerai Hove describes his writing in a new video by Renata Sago ’09. He begins by telling how he grew up with stories in the countryside. Now, “in my writing, I am more comfortable with the countryside. I set most of my stories in the countryside.” About the role of a writer, he says: The most important job of a writer is to write well – even when you are writing about the ugliness of a dictator… The writer is a seer. The writer sees and records and warns.”
April 14, 2008 : Xu Sees Chinese Motive behind Violence in Tibet
Who was really behind the riots in Tibet in March? The question is still being debated weeks after the clash between Tibetan protesters and Chinese government forces. In an opinion piece in Sunday’s Providence Journal, Watson Institute Senior Fellow Xu Wenli said he sees preemptive tactics on the part of the Chinese government – timed to avoid later disruption of the Olympic Games this summer in Beijing.
April 11, 2008 : Saudi Women's Lot Improves Slowly but Noticeably
In her three decades of traveling in, and reporting from, Saudi Arabia, Karen Elliott House has seen the kingdom take tentative steps toward reform, she said in a recent lecture at the Institute. There has been slow but noticeable progress in the treatment of women, said House, a Watson Institute overseer and former publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Yet women’s rights remain at the epicenter of an internal struggle among the country’s political and social leaders.
April 11, 2008 : New Videos: 'Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories'
Video is now available of a groundbreaking gathering of soldiers, journalists, bloggers, and academics last semester at the Institute. “Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories” explored media coverage and public opinion of the war – particularly, why so few stories of ground-level experiences in Iraq reach the American public. As Associate Professor Keith Brown put it: “There is a national fault line dividing the American public from the people who are directly touched by war.”
April 11, 2008 : Blurring the Line between War and War Game
The line between war and war game has started to blur and become more porous, Global Security Program Director James Der Derian said in a recent interview for “Het oorlogsspel” (“The War Game”), a documentary on Dutch public TV station VPRO. “It’s important to understand the extent to which games now shape not only the preparation for war but also the execution and the representation of the war during and afterward,” he said.
April 9, 2008 : Leading Iraqi Archaeologist Comes to Brown, Will Lecture April 10
Behnam Abu Al-Soof, an Iraqi archaeologist with decades of experience in teaching, research, and government administration of antiquities, is spending a year at Brown University as a visiting professor of archaeology and international studies. On April 10, Al-Soof will give his introductory public lecture, titled “One Man's Iraq: Ten Thousand Years of Myth and Memory,” moderated by national media figure and visiting fellow Christopher Lydon. Al-Soof and Lydon have also conducted a wide-ranging interview that is now available online, as part of the Open Source at Brown podcast series.
April 9, 2008 : 'Battle of Algiers' Resonates Today
The Battle of Algiers, recently shown as part of the Occupation/Liberation/Collaboration Film Series, is “a fiction film that speaks to the contemporary presence of US military in Iraq,” said Watson Institute Associate Professor Keith Brown, who coordinates the series. The movie explores the interplay among the French army, the National Liberation Front (FLN), and civilians on both sides during the struggle for Algerian independence in the late 1950s and early ‘60s.
April 7, 2008 : Today: Pulitzer Winner Questions Saudi Arabia's Commitment to Reform
Saudi King Abdullah, who just turned up #4 on a global list of "worst dictators," doesn't deserve that billing, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Karen Elliott House. But how real is the reform image he has sought to cultivate since assuming the throne in 2005? In a lecture today at 4pm, House will describe how women, in particular, remain the battleground between religious conservatives and modernizers in Saudi Arabia. A book on the subject is forthcoming from House, who is also a member of the Watson Institute’s board of overseers, as well as former senior vice president of Dow Jones & Company.
April 6, 2008 : New Venue: Chafee Releases Book on Washington and War; Book Signing at Brown on April 8
Last week marked the release of former US Sen. Lincoln Chafee ‘75’s candid political memoir: Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President. The book, which Chafee wrote at Watson, where he is a distinguished visiting fellow, “offers a behind-the-scenes look at the first six years of the Bush administration from the vantage point of one of the few Republican moderates in the Senate,” according to the publisher. A book signing is scheduled at the List Art Center on Tuesday, April 8, at 6pm.
April 4, 2008 : Zimbabwean Writer in Residence Observes Elections
Chenjerai Hove, Brown’s International Writers Project fellow for 2007-2008, sees the threat of his home country Zimbabwe becoming convulsed by violence if the current presidential election process produces contested results. After a disastrous 28-year rule, President Robert Mugabe must go, Hove says in a video produced by Renata Sago ’10.
April 2, 2008 : Stallings Book on Development Honored as 'Outstanding Academic Title'
The American Library Association has honored Finance for Development: Latin America in Comparative Perspective as one of 2007’s Outstanding Academic Titles. Authored by Institute Director Barbara Stallings, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank's Rogerio Studart, the book offers policy guidance for strengthening Latin American banks and capital markets. Stallings has also provided her analysis of China’s growing economic influence in Latin America in a new edited volume, China’s Expansion into the Western Hemisphere.
April 1, 2008 : Tonight: Occupation/Liberation/Collaboration Film Series Continues with 'Battle of Algiers'
The Battle of Algiers, a story of the urban insurgency against French rule in Algeria in the 1950s, will be screened today at 6:30pm as the Occupation/Liberation/Collaboration Film Series continues. Brown faculty members will also analyze the film from various academic perspectives.
April 1, 2008 : Kennedy to Assume New Watson Leadership Role
David Kennedy, Brown University’s vice president for international affairs, will become interim director of the Watson Institute in July. The move follows the decision by Barbara Stallings to step down as director to resume her work as a full-time member of the Institute’s faculty.
March 31, 2008 : World Premiere Set for 'Virtual JFK' Documentary
Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived will have its world premiere in April at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto. The film analyzes the responses by President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson to pressures to take the nation to war in Vietnam. The Virtual JFK premiere at Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary film festival, marks a major milestone for the director, Visiting Fellow Koji Masutani ’05, and producers, Professor James Blight and Adjunct Professor janet Lang.
March 30, 2008 : Soldiers in Iraq Tell their Stories in Scranton's Frontline Documentary
“We’re rolling around in armored vehicles waiting to get blown up.” Such is the commentary captured by Deborah Scranton ’84, director of Bad Voodoo’s War, airing on PBS’s Frontline and on the Frontline website as of April 1. A visiting fellow at Watson last year, Scranton produced the documentary by supplying cameras to the soldiers of California-based National Guard soldiers who called themselves the “Bad Voodoo Platoon” and then working with them to tell their own story of war.
March 27, 2008 : New Issue of SCID Treats China's Policy Experimentation and More
Policy experimentation has played an important role in China’s economic transformation – albeit more effectively in stimulating entrepreneurial activity than in providing social goods, according to Trier University Political Science Professor Sebastian Heilmann. In the new issue of Studies in Comparative International Development (SCID), Heilmann’s article on “Policy Experimentation in China’s Economic Rise” also points to China’s pattern of central-local interaction in generating policy as a notable addition to the types of governance that have been tried for achieving economic transformation.
March 27, 2008 : Der Derian Airs Findings on War and Media
“Virtuous war” is Professor James Der Derian’s term for what is perceived as “technological and ethical superiority in which computer simulation, media dissimulation, global surveillance, and networked warfare combine to deter, discipline, and if need be, destroy the enemy.” It is one of the global security and media research topics he presented this month at New York University, the International Studies Association's Annual Convention, the University of Tromso, Norway, and the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO) in Oslo. The concept also underpins a forthcoming book and film from Der Derian.
March 26, 2008 : Watson Scholars and Research on International Studies Association Agenda
A roundtable discussion of Associate Professor Nina Tannenwald’s new book on The Nuclear Taboo and another session dedicated to the memory of Hayward Alker, a longtime associate of the Watson Institute, are among the highlights of Watson faculty members’ participation in this year’s International Studies Association Convention. Research interests of the Institute are reflected on panels this week ranging from Screening Global Politics: Film, Pedagogy and Critical Practice to The Global Political Economy of Biofuels.
March 25, 2008 : Action Films Inspire Child Soldiers
Bands of child soldiers are increasing in number in the Congo. Employed by political opposition parties, they use humiliation tactics and threats to assert power in villages. According to social activist and contemporary African writer Emmanuel Dongala, bad governance, corruption, and pirated films are at the root of the problem. “Child soldiers are the victims of failed states in Africa,” he said in a recent talk at the Institute.
March 24, 2008 : Military Rules of Engagement under Fire
The US military’s rules of engagement are “inconsistent and loose to the point of legitimating widespread abuses against civilians,” according to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who gathered this month in protest near Washington, DC. Watson Institute Professor Catherine Lutz co-authored an op-ed in Saturday’s Providence Journal with Watson Faculty Associate Matthew Gutmann, recounting testimony about the abuses from the gathering, Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan. Lutz also described them in an interview on Friday on WBAI in New York City.
March 24, 2008 : Zimbabwean Author Cited Pre-Election; African Writers to Gather for Brown Literary Festival
In the runup to Saturday’s elections in Zimbabwe, International Writers Project (IWP) Fellow Chenjerai Hove was interviewed in the recent Journal of Commonwealth Literature. One of Zimbabwe’s leading writers, Hove speaks of hope in the article – if not for this election then at least for the future. “Dictatorships, tyrannies, they are transient: they come and pass,” he says. Hove will also speak at Under the Tongue: A Festival of Literature from Africa on April 15-16, when prominent African writers gather at Brown to discuss their work and barriers to their freedom of expression.
March 21, 2008 : Students' NGO Wins JPMorgan Funds
The JPMorgan Good Venture Undergraduate Competition has awarded $25,000 to Gardens for Health International, a nonprofit founded by Brown Development Studies concentrator Emma Clippinger ’09 and fellow students at Yale University. The NGO works in Rwanda developing community gardens run by people with HIV/AIDS, Clippinger recently told the Brown Daily Herald.
March 19, 2008 : Grad Students Exchange Field Experiences
A group of graduate students in anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology gathered last semester to share results of their field work in developing countries, learn from each others’ practical experience, and provide insights across disciplines. The workshop – uncommon by its cross-disciplinary nature – is emblematic of the approach of the Graduate Program in Development. This Watson-based program enhances existing training in participating departments at Brown by providing courses in the field of development, as well as interdepartmental colloquia, graduate student fellowships, new collaborative research initiatives, and funding for summer field work.
March 18, 2008 : Choices Program Focuses on Iran
The Choices Program has published new secondary school educational materials that lend historical context to modern Iran, as part of a multifaceted initiative to bring this topic to American classrooms nationwide. Iran through the Looking Glass: History, Reform, and Revolution helps students consider the issues facing Iranians in 1978, when millions of citizens risked their lives to protest against the shah then in power.
March 14, 2008 : Chafee, Inducted into Huffington Post's 'Iraq Honor Roll,' Watches War Enter Sixth Year
As the Iraq War marks its fifth anniversary, the Huffington Post blog yesterday inducted former US Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75 into its Iraq Honor Roll of elected officials, journalists, and others “who spoke out early and boldly against what they saw as an inevitable disaster.” Reflecting back on the vote for war, from his current position as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Watson Institute, Chafee said: “It was a time you needed cool heads. But we didn’t have them.”
March 14, 2008 : Brazil's Ambassador Reinterprets US Relationship
Brazilian Ambassador Antônio Patriota discussed the benefits and drawbacks of being a neighbor of the United States in a recent talk at the Institute. Not only is the Brazil-US relationship Patriota described closer than many perceive, but he predicted that the US would have to rely more heavily on Brazil and other nations in the future to retain influence over world affairs.
March 13, 2008 : WATCH THE VIDEO: Ex-UN Ambassadors Spar over Institution's Role
Former United Nations Ambassadors John Bolton and Richard C. Holbrooke ‘62 sparred over the future of the UN on Thursday afternoon in a lecture sponsored by the Janus Forum. “Having John Bolton and I on the same platform will give you a clear choice,” Holbrooke, a University professor at large based at Watson, said in his opening remarks. Holbrooke sees the UN as a “flawed but vital institution,” one of many ways for the US to coordinate international policy with other governments. Bolton, on the other hand, worries that UN policy might constrain the United States’ ability to make its own decisions on foreign policy. A video of the debate is available here.
March 11, 2008 : Pinheiro Urges Jamaica to Protect its Children
Visiting Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro last month urged the Jamaican parliament to do all it can to end that country’s cycle of violence – starting with children. Pinheiro, author of the United Nations’ 2006 World Report on Violence against Children, told parliament that, “In an environment where violence breeds more violence, the ways in which Jamaican children are subjected to violence are inextricably linked to the unrelenting levels of crime and violence affecting the island.”
March 10, 2008 : Bankers Set Climate Change Policies
The issue of climate change has been at the forefront of the environmental discussion around the world for years, but now, after a slow start, major banking institutions are beginning to take notice.
March 10, 2008 : Filmmaker Manchevski Gives Violence its Due
Award-winning Macedonian filmmaker Milcho Manchevski’s theory of violence on film is a take on director Ingmar Bergman’s, as he puts it: “Film is a perfectly legitimate way of ritualizing violence.” In an interview conducted by Watson Associate Professor Keith Brown and published in the January-February issue of World Literature Today, Manchevski added that, “ritualizing has been a central way of dealing with violence since time immemorial.”
March 5, 2008 : High School Students Voice Global Concerns to Policymakers
Hundreds of high school students across the country will discuss global issues with elected officials and civic leaders at their state capitols as part of the Choices Program’s 10th annual Capitol Forum on America’s Future. Students in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington are participating in the Forum, which seeks to raise students’ awareness of critical international issues and to help develop a foundation for long-term civic engagement.
March 4, 2008 : Applications Invited for Visiting Fellowships
Watson is seeking several recent PhDs for one- and two-year visiting fellowships affiliated with existing Institute research projects. Successful candidates will develop their own research in collaboration with one or more Watson projects, teach undergraduate students, and be actively involved in Institute activities.
March 4, 2008 : USA Today Recognizes Development Studies Senior
Development Studies concentrator Caitlin Cohen ‘08 was recently named by USA Today to one of its All-USA College Teams, in recognition of her community work in Mali. Each year, the newspaper selects a group of undergraduates to recognize in this way for their efforts to benefit society. Cohen received the award for co-founding the Mali Health Organizing Project to improve health in slums.
March 4, 2008 : Khrushchev: Russian Election Advances Democracy
Russia’s election of incoming President Dmitry Medvedev represented an important step for democracy in the country, according to Watson Institute Senior Fellow Sergei Khrushchev. “The biggest difference between democracy and autocracy is respect for the law,” Khrushchev said in an interview on Russia Today. Outgoing President Vladimir Putin set a major precedent for all who follow by stepping down at the end of his constitutionally mandated term, rather than changing the constitution in the face of massive popular support, he said.
March 3, 2008 : Prof. Lutz's Co-Authored 'Local Democracy under Siege' Takes Prize
Local Democracy under Siege: Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics (New York University Press, 2007), co-authored by Professor Catherine Lutz, has been awarded the Delmos Jones and Jagna Sharff Memorial Book Prize for the Critical Study of North America by the Society for the Anthropology of North America.
February 29, 2008 : Author Declares New Cold War
In the runup to Russia’s presidential election next Tuesday, author Edward Lucas spoke this week at Watson of the new dynamics that could emerge between current President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to assume the role of prime minister, and Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s hand-picked successor as president. Lucas, who recently released The New Cold War: Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), also described what he sees as “sinister echoes of the Stalinist past” in Putin and his administration, and he prescribed ways to forestall the spread of this behavior into Eastern Europe and beyond.
February 29, 2008 : Director Alex Gibney: From Watson to the Red Carpet
This year’s Academy Award for best documentary feature went to Taxi to the Dark Side – but not before a rough cut was screened at a session of the Global Media: History, Theory, Production course at Brown.
February 29, 2008 : Population Growth Pressures China's Environment
The Voice of America today included an interview with Assistant Professor Leiwen Jiang in an article titled “China’s Environment Sacrificed for Economic Growth.” Drawing from his work on demographic trends and the environment, Jiang said that China's population is not increasing at an alarming rate, but it is still cause for concern.
February 25, 2008 : Author Lucas to Speak Tuesday on 'New Cold War'
“Russia’s presidential election is both predictable and mystifying,” author Edward Lucas writes in an op-ed in Saturday’s Providence Journal. On March 2, “everyone knows who will win. But nobody knows what it means,” says Lucas. He has been appearing in the media in the run-up to his talk Tuesday at the Watson Institute on his new book, The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West.
February 21, 2008 : Iraqi Author: 'A Better Future Can Be Salvaged'
Ali Allawi, former minister of the Iraqi transitional government, explored current problems facing the government of Iraq and offered solutions during his talk Wednesday night at the Watson Institute. “A better future for Iraq can be salvaged out of this unholy mess,” said Allawi, who is also author of The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace (Yale University Press, 2007).
February 21, 2008 : Khrushchev: US Should Take First Step toward Cuba
The US government should make the first move to improve relations with Cuba, according to Senior Fellow Sergei Khrushchev. Press coverage of Khrushchev’s lecture this week at Rowan University in New Jersey captured his remarks on the news of Fidel Castro’s retirement announcement on Tuesday. “Relations between the United States and Cuba depend 100 percent on the White House,” he said.
February 21, 2008 : Choices Program Helps Students Grapple with Castro's Retirement
In the wake of Fidel Castro’s retirement announcement Tuesday, the Choices Program has developed an online lesson for secondary schools. Castro’s Legacy and the Future of Cuba, part of Choices’ Teaching with the News initiative, is a one-day lesson that helps students explore reactions to Fidel Castro's decision, categorize competing perspectives on Castro and the future of Cuba, and consider the international response to Castro's resignation.
February 19, 2008 : Faculty Members Screen 'Fog of War' in Tehran
Watson Institute Professor (Research) James Blight and Adjunct Professor janet Lang this month screened The Fog of War: Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara at the 26th International Fajr Film Festival in Tehran. The screening was part of the traveling series of “critical oral history film festivals” recently launched by Blight and Lang.
February 19, 2008 : Book by Prof. Tannenwald Explains the Nuclear Taboo
In The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons since 1945 (Cambridge University Press), Associate Professor Nina Tannenwald delivers new research explaining how use of the military’s “ultimate weapons” has been averted for over 60 years. Tannenwald argues that a nuclear taboo has played a critical role in inducing restraint when US leaders decided against using such weapons in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Gulf War of 1991.
February 18, 2008 : Research Studies Climate Change in Developing World
Simone Pulver and Leiwen Jiang, both assistant professors with the Watson Institute’s Global Environment Program, presented research on climate change trends in the developing world earlier this month, as part of the Environmental Change Initiative’s Rapid Fire Symposium on Energy: Creation, Conservation, Conversion. Pulver described growth in the market for climate-friendly innovations in developing countries, while Jiang focused on demographic trends and their implications for climate change.
February 18, 2008 : NewsHour Teacher Center Highlights Choices Program
The Institute’s Choices Education Program has been featured with a dedicated page on the NewsHour Teacher Center, a blog hosted by the public TV news program as an “online resource and collaboration hub for teachers using current events and real world issues in their classrooms.” Comments on the blog so far praise Choices’ approach to empowering young people to be engaged citizens capable of addressing international issues. They also discuss how teachers have incorporated Choices' approach and its instructional materials into their classrooms.
February 17, 2008 : Open Source's Christopher Lydon Heads to Class
Christopher Lydon, the media figure and visiting fellow at Watson, is bringing his distinctive style and view of broadcasting, podcasting, blogging, and more into Brown classes this semester. Earlier this month, he joined in a session of the “Global Media: History, Theory, Production” course, taping an interview with The Second World author Parag Khanna in its midst. He is also leading a study group for students on “The Transformation of Media.”
February 15, 2008 : Cautious Optimism on Eve of Pakistan's Elections
The Bush administration has had little success in Pakistan because of its personality-focused approach to bilateral cooperation, according to Watson Adjunct Associate Professor Saleem Ali. First, President Pervez Musharraf was expected to save the day – then former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. “For Benazir, it ended up being lethal,” he said recently at the World Affairs Council of Rhode Island. Instead, the US should look to work with “institutions rather than individuals and also appreciate that there are many other capable politicians in Pakistan." Ali said.
February 14, 2008 : Andes Conference Surveys New Political Landscape
Scholars and politicians from North and South America gathered at the Watson Institute this week to discuss recent changes in the political system in three Andean countries: Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. During his introduction, James N. Green, director of Brown’s Center for Latin American Studies, said that the goal of the conference was to “engage scholars, students, and policymakers in a serious academic discussion about recent developments.” Added Watson Institute Director Barbara Stallings: “Something new and important is happening in the Andean countries.”
February 14, 2008 : Scientists Warn Washington of Biofuels' Downside
The move to biofuels could actually increase global warming, according to Global Environment Program Director Steven Hamburg and fellow members of an adhoc group of eminent scientists. Hamburg recently submitted a letter to President Bush and congressional leaders on behalf of the group, saying that “Emerging calculations now indicate that over a reasonable time frame and within a broad, reasonable set of assumptions, the increased emissions of greenhouse gasses from direct and indirect land use changes are likely to exceed the greenhouse gas savings of most biofuels.” The findings were also reported in the New York Times, NPR, and Science magazine.
February 13, 2008 : Andean Diplomats Condemn US Foreign Policy
Diplomats from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela last night engaged in a frank discussion of their relationships with the United States during a roundtable at Brown. US foreign policy toward Latin America has failed in several ways, they said. Among them: the inability to come to grips with the sweeping political changes in the region, continued promotion of neo-liberal policies there, and a broad brush approach to what are very diverse nations with complex issues. The roundtable was part of a two-day conference on Changes in the Andes: Realities, Challenges, and Opportunities for Inter-American Relations.
February 12, 2008 : TODAY: Ambassadors Roundtable to Discuss Political Changes in the Andes
Former US Sen. Lincoln Chafee and the Bolivian, Ecuadorian, and Venezuelan ambassadors to the US will participate in a roundtable discussion of the dramatic political changes that have swept through the Andean Region. The event, on Tuesday at 7pm in the Salomon Center, is part of a two-day conference gathering top government officials, preeminent scholars, and civil society leaders to analyze the new regional dynamics and their impact on relations with the US and other world powers.
February 11, 2008 : Book Explores the Politics of Welfare Reform in the Former Soviet Bloc
In her new book, Watson Faculty Associate Linda J. Cook traces social welfare reform from 1990 to 2004 in the former Soviet Bloc. Postcommunist Welfare States: Reform Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe (Cornell University Press, 2007) shows how the inefficient, financially unsustainable welfare systems of the early 1990s have been reformed at speeds that vary widely from country to country – with domestic politics strongly influencing the pace.
February 11, 2008 : Op-ed Calls for Serious New Thinking on the Andes
“Something is happening in South America and we would do well to pay attention.” So begins an op-ed piece published in Monday’s Providence Journal, describing the political changes sweeping through Latin America and their implications for US political and economic interests in the region. Co-authored by former US Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Institute, and James N. Green, director of Brown’s Center for Latin American Studies, the op-ed describes the United States’ shrinking influence in the region as other global powers rise.
February 6, 2008 : Students Invited to Apply to Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference
The International Relations Program is soliciting applications by February 15 for participation in April’s Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference (NAFAC) in Annapolis, Maryland. One student will be selected. With a focus on Latin America, the event is expected to draw delegates from over 100 colleges, universities, and service academies in the US and abroad. During the fall, IR concentrator Steven Butschi ’08 was selected to participate in a similar conference, the Student Conference on US Affairs (SCUSA) at the US Military Academy in West Point, New York. There, he provided input on what he said was a lack of transparency and a tendency to expediency in US foreign policy.
February 4, 2008 : Bloggers Take up Sen. Chafee's New Memoir
From the Daily Kos to the Washington Post, blog sites have overnight become taken with Distinguished Visiting Fellow Lincoln Chafee ’75’s forthcoming book, Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President (St. Martin’s Press, April 2008). Separately, the New York Times cited an account Chafee wrote last year questioning senators' war votes, in an article on Saturday titled "Clinton and the Iraq War Amendment."
February 1, 2008 : Openings Posted for International Summer Fellowships
Several summer fellowship programs administered by the Watson Institute are now accepting applications. They are: the Jack Ringer Summer in Southeast Asia Program, Marla Ruzicka International Public Service Fellowship, Richard Smoke Summer Internships, and Luce Graduate and Undergraduate Environmental Fellows Programs.
January 31, 2008 : IR Senior Featured for Work in Dominican Republic
Ed Cheung ’08, a concentrator in international relations, is featured in today’s Brown Daily Herald for co-leading, with John Molina ’08, a group of 12 Brown students in community work in the Dominican Republic. Over the winter break, the students engaged in such projects as water purification.
January 28, 2008 : Sen. Chafee's Forthcoming Book Condemns the Architects and Enablers of the Iraq War
Watson Distinguished Visiting Fellow Lincoln Chafee ’75, the only Republican senator who voted against going to war in Iraq, takes Washington to task in his forthcoming book, Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President (St. Martin’s Press, April 2008). As previewed in Sunday’s Providence Journal, “the new political memoir is remarkable for its candor, its delicious window into life in America’s most exclusive club, and its condemnation of President Bush and the combination of right-wing Republicans and Democratic enablers who plunged the nation into an ill-fated war.”
January 27, 2008 : Ex-General Assesses US Military Command in Africa
After decades of neglect the United States recently established a military command for the continent of Africa. Gen. Carlton W. Fulford (USMC, ret.) said he would consider the decision to “stand up” AFRICOM successful if in four years there is no conflict on the continent, US peacekeepers have moved on, and African countries are participating in global trade.
January 24, 2008 : Amb. Holbrooke Calls for New Approach to Curb Afghanistan Narcotics Supply
The US administration’s counter-narcotics program in Afghanistan is not just failing, but it is strengthening American enemies, former UN Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke ’62 says in his monthly column in the Washington Post. He points out that Bush favors aerial spraying to eradicate the poppy fields in Afghanistan, along with incentives to plant alternative crops. However, “this policy pushes farmers with no other source of livelihood into the arms of the Taliban without reducing the total amount of opium being produced,” says Holbrooke, a Brown professor at large based at Watson.
January 23, 2008 : Prof. Lutz Presents Research on the Militarization of the American Way of Life
“Overinvestment in military power has often been the symptom of an empire whose other forms of power, economic and political, are already in decline… Signs of trouble are on the horizon.” So Professor Catherine Lutz told the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association late last year in Washington, as she presented her research on the militarization of the American way of life.
January 22, 2008 : Watson International Scholars of the Environment Arrive from across the Globe
This year’s seven Watson International Scholars of the Environment have arrived – from Brazil, India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe – to do advanced training in land-change sciences and policies at Brown. The program, supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme, gathers environmental leaders from universities, governments, and nongovernmental organizations in developing countries for a full semester of courses, workshops, field trips, symposia, mentorship, professional networking, and research projects. The aim is to provide them with tools to enhance the sustainable development capacity in their countries.
January 22, 2008 : Prof. Kelleher Portrays Doubt Surrounding US-Russia Arms Treaties
In the runup to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s December decision to suspend membership in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, interest in US-Russia arms treaties began to rise in the United States, Watson Institute Senior Fellow Catherine Kelleher told a gathering late last year in Washington. Unfortunately, she added, actual treaty expertise is on the decline.
January 22, 2008 : Visitors Bring New Dimensions to Watson
The Watson Institute hosts a changing cohort of visiting faculty and fellows from around the world, bringing a diversity of views and expertise to bear on the Institute’s exploration of global issues. Visitors include scholars and practitioners such as government and nongovernmental officials, writers, and filmmakers who participate in the Institute’s research and teaching. This semester, the Institute has 17 new visitors in residence, from 15 countries.
January 22, 2008 : Choices Program's New Online Videos Address Nuclear Issues and More
Nuclear terrorism is the most serious of four major nuclear threats facing the world today, according to Joseph Cirincione, director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress. His remarks are part of an online video interview on the subject of nuclear weapons – one of the new Scholars Online videos for secondary school teachers and students offered by the Choices Program.
January 18, 2008 : Class Shopping: This Semester's Offerings
International financial crisis, Middle East diplomacy, illegal global markets – these current issues and more are the subject of the International Relations Program’s senior seminars this spring. Other offerings at Watson include undergraduate and graduate courses in development studies.
January 17, 2008 : Former Polish Minister's Economic Prescription: Radical, Comprehensive Reform
The economic and social achievements of the former Soviet Bloc countries have differed greatly since the fall of communism. Why? Watson Institute Visiting Fellow Leszek Balcerowicz answered this question last semester from his perspective as Poland’s former deputy prime minister, minister of finance, and president of the national bank. In a talk on “Developments after the Collapse of Communism,” he said the greatest successes were achieved through radical and comprehensive reform, implemented as fast as possible – a lesson that could also be applied to other countries around the world.
January 15, 2008 : Choices' Work on Genocide Meets Growing Demand
A recent article in Education Week cited the Choices Program’s secondary school course materials on the subject of genocide, in an article on how the topic is claiming a larger place in middle and high school lessons.
January 11, 2008 : National Identity versus Cultural Globalization
What is the new youth culture in the former Soviet Union and what are the forces shaping it? In National Identity and Globalization: Youth, State, and Society in Post-Soviet Eurasia (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Adjunct Professor Douglas W. Blum explores this question in three globalizing states and cities: Astrakhan, Russia; Almaty, Kazakhstan; and Baku, Azerbaijan. His goal is to understand more broadly the local processes involved in mediating cultural globalization and national identity.
January 9, 2008 : Anniversary Edition of Skidmore Book Tracks Birth of Modern Brazil
When first issued, Politics in Brazil 1930-1964: An Experiment in Democracy (Oxford University Press, 1967) was proclaimed the most important book on the politics of modern Brazil. Late last year saw the release of the 40th anniversary edition of the book, by preeminent Brazil authority Thomas E. Skidmore. With a new foreword by James N. Green, director of Brown University’s Center for Latin American Studies, the book endures as a definitive political history of the turbulent birth of democracy in Brazil.
January 8, 2008 : Research: Developing World's Private Sector is Key to Solving Global Warming
New research refutes the widely held view that local businesses in developing countries have little or nothing positive to contribute in the global fight against greenhouse gas emissions. Case studies published in the recent issue of the academic journal Studies in Comparative International Development (SCID) have produced three key findings: (1) Businesses in developing countries are not locked into a single, polluting pattern of growth; (2) Some are exceeding the environmental performance of their counterparts in industrialized countries; and (3) They are crucial players in the global effort to mitigate climate change.
January 7, 2008 : Prof. Ali Reflects on Benazir Bhutto's Relationship with Pakistan's Radicals
Until recent years, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had attempted to build bridges with the radical Islamist forces now suspected in her assassination, according to Watson Adjunct Associate Professor Saleem Ali. In a column last week in the Pakistan Daily Times, Ali reflected on this appeal – later publicly withdrawn – and how it cost her efficacy as a potential revolutionary.
January 7, 2008 : The Kingdom of Mankon: Where Traditional and Modern African Rule Unite
Fon Angwafor III, king of the Mankon people of Cameroon, made a noble entrance into the crowded Joukowsky Forum and was met warmly by an audience of captivated professors, students, and visitors. His visit last semester was a rare opportunity for the Watson Institute to welcome African royalty. Traditional African models of governance and Western models of governance can coexist through understanding and cooperation, he told his audience. “Our problem is not to magnify the differences, but to narrow them,” he said.
December 20, 2007 : Milestones 2007: From Anthropology to Zimbabwe
Over the past year, the Watson Institute has covered a world of issues, graduated a new wave of internationalists, generated problem-solving ideas, and produced media to increase its impact at home and abroad. Some of the year’s highlights are reviewed.
December 17, 2007 : Study Tests Human Rights at War
How effective are the Geneva Conventions in time of war? Watson Institute Associate Professor (Research) Nina Tannenwald has launched a systematic analysis of the practice of states and selected non-state actors with regard to the conventions.
December 13, 2007 : Project Focuses on Slums in Brazil's Distant Suburbs
Megacities and medium-sized cities in Brazil are undergoing a decline in central urban areas at the expense of “wild” growth in distant suburbs, often characterized by shantytowns and irregular settlements of low income families in environmentally fragile areas. The Spatial Inequalities in the Global South Working Group, a new partnership between Brown University and the Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Pesquisa, Brazil’s premier social science research facility, will apply innovative tools including geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and participatory mapping to explore such resulting issues as increased racial segregation, shortfalls in social services, and environmental impact.
December 13, 2007 : When Does Military Action Serve Humanitarian Goals?
As a senior program officer at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Taylor Seybolt has taken on the difficult problem of determining when it should be permissible to use force to protect civilians. Last month at the Watson Institute he described his deliberations, as published in a book titled Humanitarian Military Intervention: The Conditions for Success and Failure (Oxford University Press, 2007).
December 13, 2007 : Andreas Analyzes Drug Enforcement in Rolling Stone Magazine's 'Anatomy of a Failure'
"What we're seeing is the Colombianization of Mexico," Watson Institute Associate Professor Peter Andreas recently told Rolling Stone magazine. His description of the doubling of drug-related murders in Mexico’s border states over the past year was among the litany of failures cited in the magazine feature titled “How America Lost the War on Drugs.”
December 12, 2007 : Film Festivals Advance Research Method
Watson Institute Professor (Research) James Blight and Adjunct Professor janet Lang have launched a traveling series of “critical oral history film festivals.” Blight and Lang pioneered the method of critical oral history in the study of recent US foreign policy, and it in turn has been featured in several documentary films involving the two researchers. The first film festival in the series took place recently in Russia.
December 12, 2007 : International Relations Students' Research on View
The International Relations Program has posted abstracts of its honors students’ theses on its website. There visitors can gain an insight into students’ work over the past two years on subjects ranging from the implications of blogging in developing countries to the relationship between China and Japan to conflicts over natural resources.
December 12, 2007 : Global Security Matrix Capturing New Vantages
The Global Security Matrix is being further developed, with one of its four sections beginning to capture new vantages on two fundamental security questions: “What makes us safe? What makes us feel threatened?” Initially, four recent interviews on these questions are presented in the upgraded “Witness” section of the Matrix using an innovative new video player, along with summaries and recordings from the Innovating Global Security Lecture Series.
December 11, 2007 : Research Shows Ongoing Decline in Size of US Households
The number of people living in a single household in the US has been declining since the founding of the country – a trend that will continue in the coming decades albeit at a slower rate, according to a new study by a pair of Watson Institute researchers. The findings, published recently in the journal Population and Development Review, may have wide-ranging social policy applications in such areas as the environment, the needs of the elderly, and savings and consumption patterns, as well as housing.
December 11, 2007 : Choices Program Develops Instructional Tools on US-Iran Policy
Should the US use military force to achieve regime change in Iran? Use military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities? Engage in multilateral diplomacy to stop Iran’s nuclear program? Normalize relations with Iran and begin trade negotiations? These policy options make the news almost daily, and now they are also the basis of a new Teaching with the News offering on the Choices Program’s website of resources for secondary school teachers and students.
December 11, 2007 : Peacekeeping in Lebanon despite the Politics
The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon has a challenging job, as it navigates complex Middle East politics. “There is only so much a peacekeeping force can do without a political or diplomatic solution,” said Visiting Fellow Susan S. Allee, while leading a Watson study group session focused on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Allee is in residence at the Institute on sabbatical from the UN, where she ran the Middle East desk in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations for six of the past seven years, and she was joined in the session by Lisa Buttenheim, director of the department’s Asia and Middle East Division in the Office of Operations.
December 8, 2007 : Burma Report Unearths New Levels of Abuse
A new report on the human rights situation in Myanmar/Burma contains grave, specific, and quantified accusations of abuse not previously reported. It has been released in advance of its formal presentation on Tuesday to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by Paolo Sérgio Pinheiro, who is the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, as well as the Cogut Visiting Professor at Brown University.
December 7, 2007 : Rhodes Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
The Banker magazine this week gave a lifetime achievement award to William R. Rhodes '57, a member of Watson's board of overseers whose $10 million gift earlier this year established the Rhodes Center for International Economics at the Institute.
December 6, 2007 : When Child Soldiers Go to War
Discussing the importance of covering overlooked consequences of war, journalist Jimmie Briggs talked to students this week about his work telling the stories of child soldiers and rape victims all over the world. “In journalism, we usually say that truth is the first casualty of war,” said Briggs. “But I’ve found that it’s actually women and children.” In his 2005 book, Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War (Basic Books), Briggs documents the lives of child soldiers in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Uganda, Congo, Sri Lanka, and Colombia. “In each country I was trying to document what war does to children and to families, caregivers, and those who have to deal with the kids when they come back [from war] as combatants, refugees, and victims of sexual assault.”
December 6, 2007 : Der Derian Gives his Take on Military Videogames
Global Security Program Director James Der Derian appears in the five-part series on the “Rise of the Videogame” currently running on the Discovery Channel. He addresses the US military’s use of videogames for training and recruitment in Part 3, which ran last night and will run again on Saturday. Der Derian is in final production of a related film, The Culture of War. A new edition of his 2001 book, Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network (Routledge) is due out next year.
December 5, 2007 : Brazil's Favelas: Battlefields in the War on Drugs
People living in the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro are the victims of violence between Brazilian drug lords and the national government, according to Maria Helena Alves, the international relations coordinator of Viva Rio, one of Brazil’s largest nongovernmental organizations. Alves recently spoke at Watson on the social justice issues entangled with the Brazilian government’s war on drugs.
December 5, 2007 : Anthropologists React to Guidance on Military Work
Response has been strong in the wake of the American Anthropological Association’s release of new guidance for members facing an increasing demand for their services as military advisors and researchers. The guidelines were published at the AAA’s annual meeting last month, following a special commission’s year-long study, including a deliberation in March at Watson. Institute Professor (Research) Catherine Lutz, a member of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, was among many at the annual meeting who were critical of the report and of the military’s Human Terrain System, which has been hiring anthropologists to advise battalion commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her comments and later presentation of her research at the meeting were featured in Inside Higher Education and the Washington Post.
December 4, 2007 : 'Counting the Dead' Studies Human Rights Activism in Colombia
In Colombia, the language of human rights can serve radically different purposes, according to a new book by Watson adjunct faculty member Winifred Tate. In Counting the Dead: The Culture and Politics of Human Rights Activism in Colombia (University of California Press, 2007), Tate draws on more than 18 years of research in Colombia to create an ethnographic account of activism in one of the world’s most complicated conflict areas.
December 4, 2007 : Books Link Environment and Jewish Identity
The relationship between Jewish identity and land has been the subject of a multitude of news stories; however, two new books, The Way into Judaism and the Environment (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2006) by Jeremy Benstein and A Crack in the Earth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) by Haim Watzman, explore new conceptions of this relationship between earth and identity. Both were reviewed in the Jewish Daily Forward in recent months by Watson Visiting Fellow Daniel Orenstein.
December 3, 2007 : Andreas Weighs in on Border Fence Options
Putting a fence along the US-Mexico border presents design challenges to US government engineers, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times: “The fence must be formidable but not lethal; visually imposing but not ugly; durable but environmentally friendly; and economically built but not flimsy.” Watson Institute Associate Professor (Research) Peter Andreas was among the border security specialists participating in the Times' research for the article, titled "A Fence without Offense."
December 3, 2007 : UN Envoy Aims to Keep Pressure on Myanmar
In his first US public appearance since his five-day fact-finding mission to Myanmar/Burma, Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, emphasized the importance of obtaining any information – even incomplete information – on the state of human rights in the country. Pinheiro’s trip to the country from November 11 to 15 was his first return since 2003, when he was last allowed to visit on behalf of the UN. Video of his talk is available here.
November 30, 2007 : Eckert Analyzes Flaws in Counterterrorist Sanctions
Sanctions on travel, access to bank accounts, and other financial activities have been important tools for counterterrorism, according to Senior Fellow Sue E. Eckert. “But there’s no denying that there have been problems in terms of a lack of fairness and transparency,” she said yesterday on NPR’s Day to Day program. She was interviewed after businessman Ahmed Idris Nasreddin was quietly removed this month from a list of people and organizations subject to such sanctions for terrorist-related activities.
November 29, 2007 : Hart Debates Attacking Iran with John Bolton
“We shouldn’t get pushed into this dangerous position about getting tougher on Iran, because that’s when we could get into another shooting war,” according to Watson Institute Adjunct Associate Professor Jo-Anne Hart. Earlier this month, she faced off against John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews.
November 26, 2007 : UN Envoy Profiled on Eve of Tuesday's Burma Lecture
As Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro sifts through new information he gathered this month in Myanmar/Burma, he is carefully analyzing allegations of abuse far in excess of government reports, as well as the question of whether some of that abuse constitutes torture, he said in a front page interview in today’s Providence Journal. Pinheiro, who is the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the country, will also discuss his findings with the Brown community on Tuesday at 6:30pm at the Watson Institute.
November 19, 2007 : Author Weaves Memory, Identity, Struggle
Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove recently introduced himself to the Brown community as the University’s 2007-2008 International Writers Project fellow, with a reading of his works and a separate talk on “The Writer and Public Responsibility.” Widely regarded as a leading figure of post-colonial African literature, Hove is a novelist, poet, essayist, and social commentator in residence at Watson. At his first appearance, he underscored the importance of memory, identity, and struggle.
November 19, 2007 : Launching 'Open Source at the Watson Institute'
A new podcast series, Open Source at the Watson Institute, has been launched as a follow-on to public broadcasting’s Radio Open Source. Nationally recognized radio host Christopher Lydon, a visiting fellow at Watson, will continue his groundbreaking combination of interviews, blogs, and other media at Brown, where the podcast series will include leading figures in world politics, art, and other fields. “‘An American conversation with global attitude’ could be the motto of the revived Open Source,” Lydon says.
November 19, 2007 : Introducing 'The Ethical Blogger'
The Ethical Blogger has been launched, blogging such current developments and trends as anonymous sources online, citizen journalism in China, media blackouts by martial law, and perceptions of civility on the web.
November 16, 2007 : Professor Pinheiro Urges Action Following Mission to Burma; Will Speak at Brown this Month
Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar/Burma, is urging better medical treatment for political prisoners, permission for visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and better coordination within the international community to prod the military government toward reform. Pinheiro, who is the Cogut Visiting Professor at Brown's Center for Latin American Studies, has just completed a five-day fact-finding mission in the country. At Brown on November 27, he will give his fresh analysis of this ongoing human rights crisis in a talk titled “Burma Report: The Facts on the Ground.”
November 15, 2007 : Senior Fellow Xu Describes Hopes, Fears for China
Senior Fellow Xu Wenli is both optimistic and pessimistic about China’s future, he told an audience yesterday at the University of Rhode Island. The few are getting rich while the many remain poor, which is creating instability, said Xu, a leading Chinese dissident. He also urged an end to one-party rule, according to a report on his lecture in the Providence Journal.
November 15, 2007 : Report: Oaxacans Remain in a State of Fear
In the summer of 2006, the Mexican government sent federal police to break up a strike and sit in staged by 70,000 teachers in the city of Oaxaca. Over the next few months at least 23 people were killed and more than 300 were imprisoned with 1,200 human rights complaints filed. The situation has eased somewhat, but a recent report by a delegation from the Latin American Studies Association, led by Watson Institute Faculty Associate Matthew Gutmann, has found that a fear of continued government repression remains in the citizens of Oaxaca.
November 15, 2007 : Tackling the Challenge of Doing Research in Cuba
“Scholars are the investigative arm of society. It is their duty – though a challenge – to find ways to negotiate the incompatible dialogue between the United States and Cuba,” according to Lynn Stoner, one of the few US scholars allowed to conduct doctoral research in Cuba in recent years. The current status of US scholarly engagement in Cuba reflects the unstable relationship between both nations: one of political and economic tension, she said recently at Watson. While the conflict is evident in the reluctance of both nations to promote academic travel, scholarly discourse reveals an even greater hostility and misunderstanding, she said.
November 14, 2007 : Zimbabwean to Address Writers' Public Responsibility
Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove, Brown’s 2007-2008 International Writers Project Fellow, will speak Thursday on “The Writer and Public Responsibility.” Widely regarded as a leading figure of post-colonial Zimbabwean literature, Hove is a novelist, poet, essayist, and social commentator in residence at Watson.
November 14, 2007 : Professor Pinheiro Meets with Myanmar Government
In the fourth day of his five-day visit to Myanmar/Burma, Visiting Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro’s met with government officials in his role as UN special envoy for human rights in the country. According to a Reuters report, “he was disturbed by Myanmar's arrest of prominent labor activist Su Su Nway as he met junta officials” and intended to bring up her arrest during his meetings.
November 13, 2007 : Visiting Professor Tallies Abuses in Myanmar/Burma
News agencies are reporting on Visiting Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro’s visit to Myanmar/Burma as UN special envoy for human rights in the country. Arriving in the country on Sunday after a four-year ban, Pinheiro is reported to have visited a Myanmar prison for political prisoners and a Buddhist monastery raided by the military government during its crackdown on peaceful protestors in September. “He is determined to gain access to the prisons and other sites to assess allegations of abuse,” according to an AP report.
November 13, 2007 : Symposium Recalls Nikita Khrushchev's Life and Times
A recent symposium gathered Cold War specialists, Russian and US biographers, and journalists at the Institute to explore the life and times of Nikita Khrushchev. Discussions ranged from the former Soviet leader’s personal development and domestic policies to his influence on the global stage then and now. “Nikita Khrushchev Memoirs and Their Legacy” also marked the completion of a joint project between the Watson Institute and Penn State Press, which produced the three-volume Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev in English, under the editorship of Watson Senior Fellow Sergei Khrushchev.
November 12, 2007 : In Financial Times, Watson Adjunct Professor Assesses Possibility of Iran Strike
The Financial Times is reporting that a US strike on Iran is not being prepared, despite bellicose rhetoric from the Bush administration. The report cites US military officials and quotes Watson Adjunct Associate Professor Jo-Anne Hart on the ill-advised nature of even a “limited strike” on Iran. In September, Hart also briefed the US Navy command leadership of a Carrier Strike Group deploying into the Persian Gulf on the subject of crisis prevention.
November 9, 2007 : Series of Events Aims at Conflict Resolution in Asia
Between China and Taiwan – and India and Pakistan – there has been enduring conflict that has at times verged on crisis. At Brown University, scholars, policymakers, analysts, and students will come together in an annual project that aims to advance resolution of these two pivotal conflicts. The student-organized Dialogue Project 2007 will take place Monday to Wednesday, November 12–14, at various campus locations.
November 9, 2007 : Diplomatic Correspondent Catalogs Rice's Failures
Over the course of her career in the public and private sectors, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has played the role of chameleon, shifting her way of thinking to match her bosses', according to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler ’81. It is a method she has perfected over time, he noted in a talk this week at Watson. From her days at Stanford University to the administrations of George H.W. Bush and now George W. Bush, she has evolved from foreign policy realist to a true believer in the current president’s unilateral goals abroad. Kessler was on campus to discuss his new book The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy (St. Martin's Press, 2007).
November 8, 2007 : Pinheiro Travels to Myanmar after Brown Burma Event
Watson Institute Visiting Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro will arrive in Myanmar/Burma to meet with government officials and others as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the country. Forbidden entry to Myanmar since 2003, Pinheiro said he will seek to assess the situation following the military government’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in recent months. In a report last month to the UN General Assembly, he said there were already 1,200 political prisoners before the crackdown. And last month at Brown, Pinheiro gathered academics and activists to analyze the situation on a panel titled “Burma: Saffron Revolution versus Authoritarian Consolidation.” Watch the webcast here.
November 7, 2007 : UK Diplomat Touches on Wide Range of Global Issues
The United Kingdom and United States have several foreign policy concerns in common – if not always a common approach to them. Alan Charlton, Britain’s deputy ambassador to the United States, recently touched on several in a wide-ranging talk at Watson: nuclear proliferation, terrorism, conflict resolution, trade, climate change, and development. But while noting that the two allies also share a great deal more, he rejected the label “special relationship” so often applied to them.
November 6, 2007 : Choices Program's Matching Gift Invites Small Donors
The Institute’s Choices Program is launching an individual donors program, with a small contributions component catalyzed by an anonymous $10,000 matching gift. The new program seeks to broaden Choices’ base of support beyond its current grants, larger gifts, and fees.
November 6, 2007 : 'Passion, Craft, and Method' Views Research Process
The recently published Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) illuminates the human dimension of scholarship and the intricacies of the research process, through in-depth interviews with 15 leading scholars in the field of comparative global politics. The book was co-authored by Political Economy of Development Program Director Richard Snyder, who was also recently awarded a prize for his article titled “Does Lootable Wealth Breed Disorder? A Political Economy of Extraction Framework.”
October 31, 2007 : Visitors Hail from around the Globe
The Watson Institute is increasingly including practitioners as well as academics from around the world in its work – for more diverse ideas, greater policy relevance, and a wider global reach. The profile of the new group of visiting faculty, fellows, and scholars at the Institute this fall underscores the effort.
October 26, 2007 : 'Peace Parks' Book Links Environment and Peace
Decades-long territorial conflicts have stifled the development of international relations, thwarting the prospect of cooperation and consequent resolution. Conventional political discourse has led policy advisors to assert that economic, ethnic, and territorial issues are at the root of international dissent and must be handled accordingly. A newly released book, Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution (MIT Press, 2007), states otherwise. Edited by Watson Institute Adjunct Associate Professor Saleem Ali, Peace Parks instead explores the positive relationships between physical space, economic development, and conflict resolution.
October 26, 2007 : Saturday Symposium Remembers Nikita Khrushchev
With their recent completion of an ambitious three-volume translation of the Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, the Watson Institute and Penn State University Press are hosting Russian and US biographers, historians, and other academics for a day-long symposium on “Nikita Khrushchev Memoirs and their Legacy.” The event aims to improve the understanding of the former Soviet leader, his impact on the world in which he lived, and his enduring influence on Russia and the world today.
October 25, 2007 : Exploring America's Disconnect with Soldiers in Iraq
The recent two-day conference, “Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories,” brought together soldiers, journalists, and academics at Watson to try to understand ground-level experiences in Iraq and why so few of these stories get out to the American public. “There is a national fault line dividing the American public from the people who are directly touched by war. Bridging that fault line is our goal today,” said one of the event’s coordinators, Associate Professor (Research) Keith Brown. Discussions addressed such matters as the lack of first person war narratives, journalists’ attempts to cover various angles of the war, the incomplete nature of the coverage, and the reasons it falls so short.
October 22, 2007 : Tonight: Panel Addresses Ongoing Conflict in Burma
Amid ongoing confrontation between Myanmar/Burma’s military government and its civilians, Watson Visiting Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro has been deeply involved in multilateral negotiations to stem the violence, as UN special rapporteur on human rights in the country. Pinheiro is convening a panel of scholars, policymakers, and students – some of them recently arrived from Burma and the region – to analyze this humanitarian crisis and possible ways forward.
October 18, 2007 : Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories
Military bloggers, war reporters, filmmakers, and photo-journalists are among the leading media figures gathering at the Watson Institute to describe their experiences documenting the war in Iraq, during “Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories.” The two-day conference, Friday and Saturday, will also explore how these various forms of storytelling can address today’s often divided sentiments between the general public and the families and individuals touched by the war. A live video stream of the event will also be available here.
October 17, 2007 : Interview with Lincoln Chafee, 'Citizen in Exile'
Open Source at the Watson Institute continues its podcast series with an interview with former US Senator and Visiting Fellow Lincoln Chafee ’75. “Lincoln Chafee has suffered more for being studious, independent, and foresighted – in short, for getting Iraq ‘right’ back in October 2002 – than the Senate majority that got it ‘wrong,’” says radio host and Watson Visiting Fellow Christopher Lydon, in setting up the interview. Now Chafee has similar worries about Iran.
October 16, 2007 : Holbrooke Urges Student Engagement in a World in Crisis
When the next president takes office, he or she will face an array of foreign policy problems unlike anything faced by an incoming US chief executive in the history of the republic, Richard C. Holbrooke ’62, a Brown professor at large based at the Watson Institute, told a crowd gathered Monday evening at the Salomon Center for Teaching. “Iraq is going to trump Vietnam as the biggest mistake in American foreign policy,” said Holbrooke, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton and is the foreign affairs advisor to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
October 16, 2007 : Watson Faculty on Nobel Prize-Winning IPCC
Global Environment Program Director Steven Hamburg and Associate Professor (Research) Brian O’Neill have both been engaged over the years in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared this year’s Nobel Prize for Peace with environmental advocate Al Gore.
October 15, 2007 : TODAY: Amb. Holbrooke to Lecture on World Issues
Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke ’62 will deliver a lecture titled “The World Crisis” on Monday at 4:30pm in Salomon Center for Teaching. He will speak on a range of issues, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and the war on AIDS. He will also sign copies of his book, To End a War, beginning at 3:45pm in the lobby. The event is part of the Watson Institute's Directors Lectures Series on Contemporary International Affairs.
October 14, 2007 : Brown Appoints First International Vice President
David Kennedy ‘76 has become Brown’s first vice president for international affairs, to lead the University’s international agenda and oversee the Watson Institute on behalf of the provost. At Watson, Kennedy is charged with expanding the Institute’s role in support of the University’s international initiatives and in its capacity to contribute to scholarship and international policy. He was also appointed a faculty fellow at Watson, where he was a visiting professor during the past academic year. Currently a professor of law at Harvard Law School, Kennedy will take up his new duties at Brown in January.
October 14, 2007 : Chinese Policymaker Plots Course for 'Green GDP'
China can no longer continue its development strategy of sacrificing the environment for economic growth, according to Xia Guang, director general of the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy at China’s State Environmental Protection Administration. New policies are being implemented to protect the environment, Xia said in a lecture at the Watson Institute. And in fact, the new official view in China is that environmental protection is not just a necessary cost, but a potential source of economic gain, he said.
October 11, 2007 : Holbrooke Advocates Honest Admission: The World is Losing the War on HIV/AIDS
The world is not winning the war against HIV/AIDs, according to Brown professor at large Richard Holbrooke ’62, and World AIDS Day in December should focus attention on this devastating fact – not on achievements to date. “Real progress must be measured by the only criterion that ultimately matters: Is the number of people who are HIV-positive declining? The answer is a resounding no,” Holbrooke, who is also president of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, says in his monthly column in the Washington Post. He will address global issues in an October 15 lecture at Brown, titled “The World Crisis.”
October 11, 2007 : Top Chinese Policymaker to Speak on Environment
In China, past policies advocating economic growth at the expense of the environment have caused serious damage. But times are changing. The country’s new, more environmentally friendly policy will be presented at the Watson Institute this week by a top Chinese policymaker. Xia Guang, director general of the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy at the China State Environmental Protection Administration, will give a talk titled “Environmentally Optimized Economic Growth: A New Era of Environmental Protection in China” on Friday at noon in the Joukowsky Forum.
October 9, 2007 : Exhibition Commemorates Past-President Howard Swearer
An exhibition commemorating the Brown University presidency of the late Howard R. Swearer is currently running at the Watson Institute. Swearer’s many achievements as Brown’s 15th president, from 1977 to 1988, included the consolidation of Brown international programs into a leading center for research and teaching on international affairs – now known as the Watson Institute. Swearer ran the Institute he had helped found as director, from 1988 to 1991.
October 6, 2007 : Close Ties between Cuba and Jamaica Analyzed, as CLAS Launches New Focus on Cuba
The ties that bind Cuba and Jamaica run deep, according to Brian Meeks, Professor of Social and Political Change at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. The interconnections stem from several episodes in their shared history, Meeks said in a recent lecture, as well as from past migrations of people between the two countries. His talk, “Cuba from Due South: An Anglo-Caribbean Perspective,” launched the Center for Latin American Studies' (CLAS's) new thematic focus on Cuba.
October 4, 2007 : Liftoff: Celebrating Sputnik's 50th Anniversary with Sergei Khrushchev
Watson Senior Fellow Sergei Khrushchev is featured in a short video produced at the Watson Institute on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Spunik, the first man-made satellite. Khrushchev, son of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, also exchanged memories of the watershed event with veteran reporter-commentator Daniel Schorr on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Saturday. His many appearances in the runup to the anniversary on Thursday have also included speaking engagements and interviews in major newspapers around the world.
October 4, 2007 : Inequality Initiative Launched with Presidential Dialogue on Latin America
October 3, 2007 : TODAY: Former Latin American Presidents to Speak on Inequality
September 28, 2007 : Leading Watson Figures Support Student Rally against Violence in Myanmar/Burma
September 28, 2007 : Islamic Funds Committee Calls for Proposals
September 27, 2007 : UN Special Rapporteur at Watson Calls for Release of Myanmar Protesters
As the confrontation between Myanmar’s military government and civilians escalates, China is in a position to play a positive role in defusing it, according to Watson Visiting Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, who is the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights for the country. Meantime, Pinheiro has issued calls for Myanmar authorities to immediately release the peaceful protestors who have been detained amid ongoing demonstrations.
September 25, 2007 : Countdown to Sputnik's 50th Anniversary Begins
September 25, 2007 : Holbrooke Holds Forth on Foreign Affairs in Podcast Interviews
September 24, 2007 : Article Points out Risks of Premature Climate Change Consensus
September 21, 2007 : Benefits of Information Technologies Cited in Developing Countries
September 21, 2007 : Two Books Take on 'Political Islam in West Africa' and 'Zion in the Desert'
Two books recently published by William F.S. Miles, a Watson adjunct faculty member, take on matters of Islamism and Judaism. Political Islam in West Africa: State-Society Relations Transformed, edited by Miles, explores the relationship between religion and state in African nations with sizeable Muslim populations. Zion in the Desert, authored by Miles, provides a firsthand account of a group of American Jews who established the only two Reform Movement kibbutzim in Jewish history.
September 20, 2007 : WATCH THE WEBCAST: Pearlstine Reviews the Plame Affair and its Damage to Journalism
September 19, 2007 : TODAY: Former Time Editor Pearlstine to Speak on the Media and the 'Plame Affair'
September 19, 2007 : Occupation/Liberation/Collaboration Film Series Opens with Chinese Black Comedy
September 18, 2007 : Amb. Holbrooke Launches 07-08 Study Group Series
September 18, 2007 :