Archive for Columbia University – Page 49

SIPA News – Non-State Actors

The latest issue of SIPA News is now available.  The magazine is published twice per year and features articles written by students and faculty at SIPA.   Incoming students will have the opportunity to contribute ideas and content for future issues.  Information on how to do so will be communicated in the coming months.

The topic for this issue is Non-State Actors.  The following is part of the introduction written by Dean Coatsworth:

“Non-state actors” are nongovernmental organizations that participate in the public arena but do so with goals, policies, structures, and leaders that are not directly determined by governments. They are almost always “political” in the broad sense that they seek to substitute for or supplement public policies they deem ineffective, challenge and reshape policies they wish to change, or make use of publicly defined spaces to promote a cause or secure a benefit. Non-state actors include local NGOs and international corporations, trade unions and trade associations, banks that are too big to fail, and opposition groups too small to survive. Non-state actors do not exist in a stateless vacuum. Their activities are often regulated, encouraged, or suppressed by the power of governments. Taken together, nonetheless, they constitute an emerging global civil society of immense complexity and influence.

Some of the articles in this issue include:

  • WikiLeaks and Westphalia
  • Awakening India’s Young Voters
  • Twitter Revolutions? Old and New Media in the Middle East and North Africa
  • New York Education Nonprofits Create Synergies for Success
  • Business and the State: A New University Challenges the Status Quo in Russia
  • Egypt’s Youth on the Frontline of the Revolution

The full magazine is available for viewing as a PDF by clicking here.  All previous issues of SIPA News can also be viewed on line by clicking here.

New Student Photo Series 2011 – Post #11

My name is Ana Berenguer, an incoming MPA student, and I would like to share some pictures with you:

I took these two pictures in December 2010 at one of the student contests organized by the Foundation that I manage. The student with the highest score of a multiple choice exam on History represents their school in the second phase of the Spanish Heritage History Bee, consisting of an oral examination with a panel of judges responsible for asking the oral questions until a winner is selected.  We prepared amazing awards such as an airline ticket to take a class on Spanish culture in Salamanca (Spain) during the summer of 2011….You may understand now the happiness of Miranda, the winner of Elementary, and the big nervous of Santino.

This is a great phone pic of Miami way of life: my little boy at the pool the day he turned 5 months, only a few days ago.

I would say the best thing about Miami is its great location: only 2 hours and ½ flight far from great places such as Chicago, Mexico, Colombia…and 5 hours to one of my long dreamed trips: Peru. I took this picture at Matchu Pichu on November 2009, after 5 hard days of Inca Trail. Get away from my camera you curious llama!

Summer Reading – Part 7

A few more incoming students have passed along content for summer reading/following.  If you are an incoming student and you want your information published see here for details.

Ronald Calderon (Incoming MIA – Energy and Environmental Policy and Management Concentration)

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ekologica

Bob Fitchette (Incoming MPA – International Security Policy)

Twitter: @bob_fitch

Nathaniel Parish Flannery (Incoming MIA)

Twitter: @LatAmLens

Blog: http://blogs.forbes.com/nathanielparishflannery/

Writing: I blog for Forbes.com and have written articles for The Atlantic, The Nation, Lapham’s Quarterly, the Global Post and a few other news groups.

Example: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/chile/110228/chinese-food-restaurants

Helene Roy (Incoming MIA)

Blog of thoughts about urban sustainable development in New York, France and Europe.

http://heleneroy.wordpress.com/

Twitter:  @helenem84

New Student Photo Series 2011 – Post #10

The new student photo series continues again today.  If you have sent photos, thank you and we will work on posting.  If  you have yet to send photos see this entry for details.

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Ramón Peña-Franco (Incoming MPA)

The first picture was taken during a trip to southern Mexico in the spring of 2009, near the border with Guatemala and Belize.   This is the symbol and a small group of supporters of  the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), a revolutionary leftist movement based in Chiapas, the southernmost State of Mexico. Since 1994, the group has been in a declared war “against the Mexican state,” though this war has lost strength through the years. Their social base is mostly rural indigenous people, like the ones shown in this photo.

I built a company along with some American businessmen that invests in agricultural projects across US-Mexico border to develop organic production and other agroindustrial activities. This photo was taken during a business trip to a Northern State in Mexico in the summer of 2010. One of our workers is driving a tractor and putting a plastic on the land where other workers would start the planting process afterwards.

In the summer of 2009 I made a trip along the Pacific coast of Michoacán, a Western State of Mexico, and I found several wild beaches that are visited by a very small group of people. I was amazed by the  beauty of the place and felt fortunate to enjoy such a wonderful scenery before it is filled with hotels and massive tourism projects.

New Student Photo Series 2011 – Post #9

The new student photo series continues again today.  If you have sent photos, thank you and we will work on posting.  If  you have yet to send photos see this entry for details.

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My name is Kristina Rosales, I am an incoming MIA student at SIPA. Here are some pictures from my Fulbright experience in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Picture 1 – Escadaria do Selaron in Rio de Janeiro

Picture 2 – Complexity of housing in Complexo do Alemão

Picture 3 – Complexo do Alemão (biggest agglomeration of favelas in Brazil).

"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."

—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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