Archive for middle east

SIPA Events for the Week of September 23

The semester just began and we are already have a great roster of speakers and discussions scheduled. Below is a flavor of the events happening at SIPA next week.  Some of these events are opened to the public, so you are welcome to register for those events (if you are interested in a particular topic).  See more events on the SIPA Web Calendar.

 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

CGEG: Reforming Europe Out of the Crisis — Nordic and Danish Perspectives and Solutions

10:00 am to 11:00 am

International Affairs Building, Room 1501

A conversation with Villy Søvndal, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Denmark. Registration required.

Sponsor: Center on Global Economic Governance

 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Ramush Haradinaj on “Challenges to Kosova’s Democratization and European Integration”

11:00 am to 12:15 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1219

Discussion with Ramush Haradinaj, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosova and Chairman for the Alliance for the Future of Kosova. Event facilitated by David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights.

Sponsor: Institute for the Study of Human Rights

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Moral Interventionism: The Gas Question and Syria

4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Heyman Center, 2nd Floor Common Room

A roundtable discussion addressing the issue of moral interventionism from the perspectives of political theory, international security, and the history of peacekeeping.

Sponsor: European Institute

 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

China/Brazil: Two Tales of a Growth Slowdown

6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 802

Talk with Octaviano Canuto, Senior Advisor on BRICS in the Development Economics Department.

Sponsor: Institute of Latin American Studies

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

CGT Undergraduate Film Screening: “Ten Years of Terror”

6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 918

The Undergraduate Committee on Global Thought invites you to a film screening of “Ten Years of Terror” followed by a discussion with director, Brad Evans. The film explores the impact of 9/11 and reflects on the subsequent political and military responses.

Sponsor: Committee on Global Thought

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Remembering Edward Said

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Lerner Hall, Roone Arledge Cinema

On the tenth anniversary of the passing of Professor Edward Said, we invite you to join us as we reflect on his legacy. We will also screen excerpts from documentaries on Edward Said.

Sponsor: Center for Palestine Studies with the Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Heyman Center for the Humanities, and the Middle East Institute

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

CGEG: FED Tapering and the Fortunes of Nations

4:00 pm to 5:30 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1512

Panel discussion with Guillermo Calvo, Director, Program in Economic Policy Management and former Chief Economist, Inter-American Development Bank; Jan Svejnar, James T. Shotwell Professor of Global Political Economy; Director, Center on Global Economic Governance (CGEG), Columbia SIPA; Andrés Velasco, Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia SIPA; former Finance Minister of Chile; with introduction by Miguel Urquiola,Vice Dean of SIPA.

Sponsor: Center on Global Economic Governance

 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Effective Policies in Poverty Reduction Beyond the Millennium Development Goals

6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1501

A lecture and discussion on effective policies in poverty reduction with José Antonio Ocampo, Professor of Professional Practice and Economic and Political Development Concentration Director at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and Esther Duflo, Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sponsor: Economic and Political Development Concentration

 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Geopolitics of the Global Energy Revolution

2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1512

A presentation by Carlos Pascual, Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the U.S. State Department.

Sponsor: Center on Global Energy Policy

 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Comfort Women Wanted

2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 918

A video screening and panel discussion with Chang-Jin Lee, visual artist; Charles Armstrong (moderator), Professor of History, Columbia University; Elazar Barkan, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Pablo Castillo-Diaz, Protection Analyst, Peace and Security at the UN; Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of Humanities, University of Delaware; Joyce Yu, UN Resident Coordinator. No registration required.

Sponsor: The Center for Korean Research

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

CGEG: French Proposals for the Future of Europe, with Laurent Fabius, Foreign Minister of France

2:30 pm to 4:00 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1501

CGEG: Lecture with Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister. Registration and ID required.

Sponsor: Center on Global Economic Governance

 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Abe and the LDP Are Back. Now What?

4:15 pm to 5:45 pm

Davis Auditorium, Room 412

Ninth Annual Lecture on Japanese Politics with Gerald L. Curtis, Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University. Moderated by Hugh T. Patrick, R.D. Calkins Professor of International Business Emeritus; Director, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School. Followed by reception. Registration required.

Sponsor: Weatherhead East Asian Institute

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Russian Politics and the Sochi Olympics

6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

The Italian Academy, 1161 Amsterdam Ave 5th Floor Conference Room

A discussion among experts focusing on the influence that this global event has on Russian politics, and vice versa.

Sponsor: Harriman Institute

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

New Avenues for Global Illicit Drug Policies

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1501

Presentation and discussion on global illicit drug policies with Otto Perez Molina, President of the Republic of Guatemala, and Luis Fernando Carrera Castro, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala. Moderated by Professor José Antonio Ocampo, Director of Economic and Political Development Concentration at SIPA. Registration required. CUID only.

Sponsor: Economic and Political Development Concentration, Institute of Latin American Studies

 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Building Resilience in a Climate and Resource-Constrained World: Investment Strategies and Policy Innovations

3:30 pm to 4:45 pm

Alfred Lerner Hall, Satow Room (5th floor)

A presentation by James Cameron, Chairman and Founder of Climate Change Capital on how investment in sustainable energy, low-carbon, and resource-efficient infrastructure is expanding rapidly and what this means for investors, policymakers, and entrepreneurs.

Sponsor: Center on Global Energy Policy

 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Development Workshop: Jan Christoph von der Goltz

4:15 pm to 5:45 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1101

As part of Columbia University’s Fall 2013 Development Workshop, Jan Christoph von der Goltz will discuss his latest paper. Topic and paper title to be announced.

Sponsor: Center for Development Economics and Policy

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Do you want to make a profound difference on global poverty and climate change? A book talk with Sam Daley-Harris

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm

Earl Hall, Auditorium

A book talk with Sam Daley-Harris, author, activist and founder of Results Global Microfinance Campaign and Citizen Climate Lobby on the 20th anniversary edition of his book Reclaiming Our Democracy.

Sponsor: Columbia’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing, Economic and Political Development Concentration, Management Concentration

 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Cuba-U.S. Relations: Possibilities for the Future

6:30 pm to 7:30 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1501

Lecture with Dr. Josefina de la Caridad Vidal Ferreiro, Director, North America Division, Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations. Doors open at 6:00 p..m. Registration required. Seating is limited; first come, first seated.

Sponsor: Institute of Latin American Studies

 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Tadeusz Dabrowski: Twelve Poems From Black Square

4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

International Affairs Building, Room 1219

Tadeusz Dąbrowski will be reading from his book, Twelve Square. A discussion with Anna Frajlich will follow.

Sponsor: Harriman Institute

 

concentrations, specializations, and co-curricular programs (oh my)

Let’s face it SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs) is a land of acronyms starting with the name itself. As if that didn’t make things confusing enough, every policy school has its own language when it comes to courses of study. Applicants frequently call the office wondering if they concentrate in Latin America or specialize in social policy (the answer is no to both, in my opinion) so I thought it might be useful to walk you through the difference between SIPA’s concentrations, specializations, and co-curricular programs.

SIPA offers six concentrations: Economic and Political Development (EPD), Energy and Environment (EE), Human Rights (HR), International Finance and Economic Policy (IFEP), International Security Policy (ISP), or Urban and Social Policy (USP). Energy and Environment, IFEP and USP offer two tracks each. For example my concentration is Urban and Social policy- Social track. Someone else might be International Finance and Economic Policy- Economic Policy.  Very loosely speaking, concentrations are the equivalent of undergraduate majors. All MPA and MIA students choose a concentration, except for students who are pursuing a dual degree.

Concentrations consist of five courses each. Some concentrations, for example Human Rights (HR) and USP, are extremely flexible allowing students to take one core course and then tailor the track to their interests through focus areas. Other concentrations, for example IFEP, are more structured and require students to fulfill five specific requirements from a distinct set of courses. When choosing a concentration, as either an applicant or a student, it is important to consider the skills you want to acquire during your time at SIPA and how you plan to market yourself afterward. If you need to gain a strong quantitative background, then IFEP might be the right choice for you. If you plan to market yourself as a Human Rights advocate, you might want to concentrate in HR. While students do not officially “double concentrate,” SIPA’s curriculum offers the flexibility to take courses outside of your concentration to gain additional skills or background in whatever area you choose.

In addition to concentrations, all non-dual degree seeking MIA and MPA students select a specialization. These would be the loose equivalent of an undergraduate minor. Specializations take one of two forms: regional (AfricaEast AsiaEast Central EuropeEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastRussia and the Former Soviet StatesSouth Asia or United States); or skill/policy based including, Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis (APEA),  Applied Science (AS),  International Conflict Resolution (ICR),  International Media, Advocacy and Communications (IMAC), International Organization (IO) and Management.  Students specialize in either a region or a skill/policy area, not both. The specialization requirements are three courses each so most students wind up fulfilling the requirements for at least one specialization just by following their own interests. Again, when considering a specialization students balance the skills and background they want to acquire while at SIPA with the ways in which they plan to market themselves post-graduation.  I will qualify for both a United States and Management specialization, but have chosen to specialize in management because I want to highlight expertise in organizational leadership as I apply to jobs. Any MIA or MPA student can concentrate or specialize in any combination, meaning that there are 180 possible combinations available to MIA and MPA’s alone!

Finally, we come to SIPA’s three co-curricular programs: Gender Policy (GP), Humanitarian Affairs (HA) and United Nations Studies Program (UNSP). Unlike concentrations and specializations participation in co-curricular programs is optional although from my personal experience, highly recommended! The three co-curricular programs are very different from one another in their requirements and you can find more about each program by clicking here. The co-curricular programs are extremely useful in establishing oneself as an expert if students plan to pursue post-SIPA careers in these specific fields. I will be able to list a certificate in gender policy alongside my MPA degree on my resume.  They tend to focus on gaining practical experience even more so than concentrations and are designed to give students a solid foundation and background in policy and practice in their professional field.   Anecdotally, I will share with you that the courses I have taken to satisfy the requirements for my Gender Policy co-curricular have been hands down my favorites at SIPA and have left me feeling confident and prepared to market myself as an expert in gender policy.

Incidentally, if you factor in our co-curricular programs, this brings the possible MIA and MPA combinations to 540! Whatever your policy interest there is a way to gain the skills you need here at SIPA.

 

 

Faculty in the News: The Fight for Iran

GarySick-80x94_000In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Professor Gary Sick said “As the regime has cracked down harder and harder, they’re getting better at it. Repression does work. And they are now much more organized in terms of keeping things quiet and keeping the opposition down than they were before.  Click here to view the CNN video.

Professor Sick served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. He was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis.

Grassroots Diplomacy in the Middle East

The following was contributed by Nora Gordon, an MIA student concentrating in Human Rights.

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On Wednesday, January 27,  I had the honor of participating in an event on campus entitled, “Grassroots Diplomacy in the Middle East.”  The event was co-sponsored by the Arab Student Association, the Conflict Resolution Working Group, The Middle East Institute, and the UN Studies Program Working Group, and was organized by the American Mideast Leadership Network (AMLN).

The event focused on issues of grassroots diplomacy in Syria and showcased AMLN’s United States-Syria Grassroots Diplomacy Program.  We began with a presentation by AMLN’s founding director, Rami Nuseir, and a question and answer session with Dr. Mazin Adi, the permanent representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations.

mazin

Following Dr. Adi, three SIPA students, Heidi Rosbe, Nick Jaeger, and myself (Nora Gordon) spoke about our experiences with the United States-Syria Grassroots Diplomacy Program of which we were participants in 2009.  Ms. Rosbe and I discussed our work as co-facilitators of the conflict resolution dialogue sessions which were a main component of the program, and we all discussed our experiences as a participants and travelers in Syria.

panel

The question and answer session after the presentation was particularly interesting.  Audience members wanted to know about women’s rights, the controversy over the occupied Golan Heights and other issues regarding US-Syrian relations.  These questions were difficult, but it was important to bring up these issues that are crucial to discuss in order to develop diplomatic relations between the two countries.

At the end of the event, it was inspiring to hear Dr. Mazin Adi emphasize the importance of AMLN’s efforts.  “Because of the program,” he said, “we now have 12 additional citizen ambassadors that have visited Syria.”

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The American MidEast Leadership Network (AMLN) is a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to empowering the Arab-American community in the United States and to bringing together American and Middle Eastern students and young professionals in cultural exchange programs that give these future leaders a more thorough understanding of each other’s cultural, religious, and political lives.

Iran: After the Election

The following was posted to our Web site and I thought I would re-post it here in case you missed it.  The links below will take you to the videos of the panels referenced and all of the videos, plus the Q and A links can be found here.

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The recent elections in Iran, and subsequent challenges to their legitimacy, have been a matter of enormous internal conflict in Iran, and of seemingly endless debate in the rest of the world. As protesters continue to take to the Iranian street to voice their opposition to the elections, fault-lines are emerging amongst the ruling elite. These momentous events constitute a significant challenge to the legitimacy of the Iranian regime and the future of the Islamic Republic.

In a conference co-hosted by SIPA and the Middle East Institute in December 2009, leading Iranian scholars and analysts discuss the impact of the recent elections, Iran’s relationship with the international community and the theocratic foundations of the Islamic Republic.

The Aftermath of the Election

Richard Bulliet, Columbia University
Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Asef Bayat, Leiden University
Shahla Talebi, Arizona State University
Ervand Abrahamian, Baruch College

International Challenges

Gary Sick, Columbia University
Farideh Farhi, University of Hawaii
Judith Yaphe, The National Defense University

Appraising the Life of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Hossein Kamaly, Barnard College
Mansour Farhang, Bennington College
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, University of Pennsylvania
Houchang Chehabi, Boston University
Richard Bulliet, Columbia University

"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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