UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations

Nobel Laureate Michael Spence: The Next Convergence: Developing Country Growth & the Transformation of the Global Economy

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:46:22 PDT

The 2012 Arnold C. Harberger Distinguished Lecture delivered by Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate & Professor of Economics at New York University.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Nobel Laureate Michael Spence joined New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business as a professor of economics in September 2010. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Professor Spence, whose scholarship focuses on economic policy in emerging markets, the economics of information, and the impact of leadership on economic growth, was chairman of the independent Commission on Growth and Development (2006-2010), a global policy group focused on strategies for producing rapid and sustainable economic growth, and reducing poverty. He also serves as a consultant to PIMCO, a senior adviser at Oak Hill Investment Management, and as a member of the board of the Stanford Management Company as well as a number of public and private companies. A Rhodes Scholar and the recipient of many honors and awards, Professor Spence was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association in 1981. He is the author of three books and 50 articles, and is a member of the American Economic Association and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society.

Professor Spence served as Philip H. Knight Professor and dean of the Stanford Business School from 1990 to 1999. Before that, he was a professor of economics and business administration at Harvard University, chairman of its economic department, and dean of its Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Spence earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972, a B.A./M.A. from Oxford University in 1968 and a B.A. (summa cum laude) from Princeton University in 1966.

ABOUT THE ARNOLD C. HARBERGER DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES:

In sponsoring the Arnold C. Harberger Distinguished Lecture Series, the Burkle Center for International Relations celebrates Harberger as an eminent scholar and teacher. The lectures provide a special forum for outstanding students of international economics and policy to present their thoughts and research on issues like those that Harberger himself has addressed. Arnold Harberger's pioneering studies on taxation, development, cost benefit analysis, and trade policy have marked him as an economist with incredible breadth, from theory to policy, from the United States to developing countries. Past speakers in the lecture series have included Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and professor at Columbia University, and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

Former supermodel screens debut documentary at UCLA

Fri, 11 May 2012 09:45:28 PDT

Maternal mortality is brought to light through film, upcoming talk

UCLA Today

Somewhere on the planet, there's a woman facing death in the midst of giving life.

One thousand women die each day due to pregancy-related causes. For every woman who dies, there are 20 to 30 more who will suffer from lifelong disabilities caused by childbirth.

Less than a week before Mother’s Day, former supermodel Christy Turlington Burns was at UCLA to discuss these issues and to share her gripping directorial debut, “No Woman, No Cry,” which chronicles the stories of at-risk pregnant women from four parts of the world — a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a Bangladesh slum, a post-abortion–care ward in Guatemala and a prenatal clinic in the U.S.

The screening, held May 7 at the Tamkin Auditorium at the Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center, was followed by a panel discussion featuring Turlington Burns, Ted Braun writer and director of the 2007 documentary "Darfur Now," examining the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and an associate professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Dr. Paula Tavrow director of UCLA's Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health and an adjunct assistant professor of community health sciences at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, and Dr. Christopher Tarnay, director of urogynecology in the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, who recently returned from a Medicine for Humanity mission in Uganda. The discussion was moderated by Julie Cantor, an adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Law.

“I think sharing our stories is one of the best ways to positively… and collectively affect change,” said Turlington Burns, who shared her own personal account of complications during childbirth.

The film, which is part of the Every Mother Counts campaign, an advocacy and mobilization initiative founded by Turlington Burns to increase education and support for the global reduction of maternal mortality, addressed a variety of issues, including lack of medical services in remote areas of Africa, the cultural and philosophical principals that may shape a women’s choice to give birth at home rather than in a hospital setting, and lack of access to prenatal, labor and post-partum care for women lacking health insurance in the United States.

“Unfortunately giving birth in poor countries is very dangerous,” said Tavrow, who has worked with women in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Gambia.

Tavrow spoke not only of the health risks associated with labor but also of some of the other long-term costs for women in the areas where she has worked. “It’s extremely difficult for a girl who has given birth to stay in school,” she said, noting that some first-time mothers may be as young as 12 years old. She said that in most places in sub-Saharan Africa, as soon as a young woman’s pregnancy is noticed she’s no longer allowed to stay in school. In addition, returning is a challenge because of the social stigma associated with her pregnancy, the time she has lost due to being forced to leave school, expenses that may be associated with going to school, and lack of reliable childcare.

In addition, Tarnay spoke about the work that he and his colleagues are doing with Medicine for Humanity to help improve the lives of women in southwestern Uganda who live with obstetric fistula, a condition that results from long, obstructed labor and that causes “an abnormal connection between the birth canal to the bladder or the rectum, or both” and that often leaves women leaking urine, which, in turn, leaves them socially ostracized. Medicine for Humanity holds twice annual “Fistula Camps,” airing radio announcements encouraging women to come to the Mbarara University of Science and Technology hospital to receive surgery to repair this condition.

“Part of what we do is try to get them not only repaired, but integrated back into society so they can be functional and working.”

The May 7 event was sponsored by the UCLA School of Law, the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and Harlen, a luxury brand that supports the empowerment of women, in association with the UCLA Health and Human Rights Law Project, the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the UC Global Health Institute.

Reducing maternal mortality in Africa is the focus of an upcoming talk organized by Tavrow as part of the Women’s Health and Empowerment in Africa talk series sponsored by the UCLA African Studies Center and the UC Global Health Institute, and funded by a grant from the UCLA International Institute.

The talk, which will be held on May 16, features Dr. Grace Kodindo, an assistant professor in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and the medical and advocacy advisor for the Reproductive Health Access, Information, Services in Emergencies (RAISE) Initiative, also at Columbia. Born and raised in Chad, Kodindo received the Chad Medal of Honor in 1997; the Distinguished Community Service Award for Emergency Obstetric Care from Columbia University and international Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2000; and the MDG 3 Champion Torch for Action from the Denmark government in 2009. She was also involved in the BBC documentaries “Dead Mums Don’t Cry” and “Grace Under Fire.”The series concludes May 23 with Dr. Nawal Nour from Harvard University, who will discuss female genital circumcision in Africa and the associated health implications. Both talks will be held in the School of Public Health, 17-256 CHS, beginning at 1 p.m.

"No Woman, No Cry" panel discussion

Tue, 8 May 2012 15:36:36 PDT

A special panel discussion from the screening of "No Woman, No Cry." The panel included Director/Producer, Christy Turlington Burns, Darfur Now Writer/Director Ted Braun and Dr. Paula Tavrow from the UCLA School of Public Health, and was moderated by UCLA Law Adjunct Professor Julie Cantor.

ABOUT THE FILM:

In her gripping directorial debut, Christy Turlington Burns shares the powerful stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.

A panel discussion will follow the screening at 7:30 p.m. The panel will include Director/Producer, Christy Turlington Burns, Darfur Now Writer/Director Ted Braun and Dr. Paula Tavrow from the UCLA School of Public Health. The panel will be moderated by UCLA Law Adjunct Professor Julie Cantor.

To learn more about the film visit http://everymothercounts.org/film.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

CHRISTY TURLINGTON BURNS

With nearly thirty years at the forefront of the fashion industry, having graced every magazine cover from Vogue to Time, Christy Turlington Burns has established a diverse career as a model, writer, entrepreneur, spokesperson, advocate, and filmmaker. Philanthropy and service have long been a part of Christy's personal and professional mission to make a lasting impact on the world. In 2005, Christy became an advocate for maternal health for both CARE and (RED). In 2010, she completed and debuted her documentary film, NO WOMAN, NO CRY, about the global state of maternal health, at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on Mother's Day 2011. Concurrent with the debut of her documentary, Christy launched Every Mother Counts, an action and mobilization campaign designed to educate and support maternal, newborn and child health. Christy currently serves on the Harvard Medical School Global Health Council and as an advisor to the Harvard School of Public Health Board of Dean’s Advisors, Mother’s Day Every Day and the White Ribbon Alliance. Christy graduated cum laude from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Studies where she earned a BA in Comparative Religion and Eastern Philosophy. She is currently pursuing a MPH at Columbia University’s Mailman School in New York City, where she lives with her husband - filmmaker Edward Burns - and their two children.

TED BRAUN

Writer-director Ted Braun's critically acclaimed first feature film, Darfur Now, won the NAACP Image Award for best documentary of 2007 and was named one of 2007’s top five documentaries by the National Board of Review. The film was produced by the Academy Award winning producer of Crash, Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle and Mark Jonathan Harris. Warner Independent Pictures distributed and financed the film, along with Participant Media which spearheaded a global social action campaign. For his work on Darfur Now, the International Documentary Association awarded him their 2007 Emerging Filmmaker of the Year. In addition, the Winter 2008 issue of Movie Maker Magazine named Braun, along with Errol Morris, Oliver Stone, Michael Moore, Robert Redford and George Clooney, one of 25 filmmakers whose work has changed the world. He recently closed a deal with New Line Cinema to write and direct a theatrical feature about Lopez Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who was a US Olympian at the 2008 Beijing Games. Braun taught screenwriting at Amherst College before joining the faculty at USC where he is an Associate Professor in Screenwriting at the School of Cinematic Arts. He regularly lectures, conducts seminars and serves as a consultant in the U.S and around the world.

CHRISTOPHER TARNAY

Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and also co-director of the Fibroid Treatment Program at UCLA, is a recognized authority in the specialty urogynecology and laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Christopher Tarnay returned to UCLA in 2005 to direct care in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. Bringing expertise to UCLA after 5 years as Director of Urogynecology at an outside institution, the Department now provides a full spectrum of urogynecologic care to women experiencing bladder and pelvic floor problems. Dr. Tarnay specializes in both surgical and behavioral therapies with an emphasis on a compassionate and tailored approach to women’s health care. Dr. Tarnay has extensive experience and offers many options in the treatment of pelvic fistulas, urinary incontinence, and pelvic organ prolapse including: Suburethral slings, urethral bulking therapy, and advanced vaginal reparative surgery with ability to incorporate the latest advances in minimally invasive surgery.

PAULA TAVROW

Paula Tavrow, PhD, MSc, MALD is the Director of UCLA’s Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Community Health Sciences Department at the UCLA School of Public Health. Her current research interests center on adolescent reproductive health, coerced sex and the quality of primary health care in East Africa. Prior to coming to UCLA in 2002, Dr. Tavrow was the Deputy Research Director for the USAID-funded global Quality Assurance Project (1997-2001). She oversaw eleven operations research projects to improve the quality of rural health services in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Dr. Tavrow also has served as a women’s health advisor and researcher at the University of Malawi's Centre for Social Research (1993-95), a USAID health officer who helped design Tanzania's National AIDS Control Program and National Family Planning Program (1987-90), a USAID assistant food for peace officer who assisted Ogadeni refugees in Somalia (1984-86), and a project evaluator for nutrition activities in the Bandundu region of Zaire (1984). She received her AB (magna cum laude) from Harvard-Radcliffe College, her MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and her MSc and PhD from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Sponsor(s): Burkle Center for International Relations, UCLA Law, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, HARLEN, UCLA Health and Human Rights Law Project, UCLA Department of OB/GYN, USC School of Cinematic Arts, UC Global Health Institute Center of Expertise on Women's Health and Empowerment

Osama bin Laden Was Not Caught Because of Torture but in Spite of It: Daily Beast Op-Ed by Burkle Center Fellow Matthew Alexander

Tue, 8 May 2012 16:08:01 PDT

Contrary to the claims by the man who ran the CIA’s torture program, attempts to find and kill Osama bin Laden were hindered by waterboarding and other torture techniques.

May 3, 2012

By MATTHEW ALEXANDER

While some may celebrate the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden, perhaps time would be better served evaluating why it came nine years too late. The sad truth is that bin Laden should have been dead twice in the first two years after 9/11.

The first opportunity was missed in the mountains of Tora Bora early in the war in Afghanistan, when former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insisted that local Afghan forces kill bin Laden rather than allowing our own elite fighters to do so when they had him in their sights. It was also Rumsfeld’s decision not to seal off the border with Pakistan, declaring victory too early because of his arrogance (a theme that would be repeated in Iraq), thus allowing bin Laden to escape.

The second opportunity was missed when the Bush administration approved the CIA's waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the mastermind of 9/11 and former al Qaeda operations officer. Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA officer who ran the agency's torture program, now insists in his new book, Hard Measures, that torture led to the identification of an al Qaeda courier and the killing of Osama bin Laden. The truth, however, is that KSM lied to his interrogators and told them that Abu Ahmed, the nom de guerre of bin Laden's courier, had retired when in fact he was still active. That lie cost us almost a decade in the hunt for bin Laden. As al Qaeda's chief of operations, KSM certainly knew that Abu Ahmed could prove to be the key piece to finding the former al Qaeda leader, but he did exactly what professional interrogators have been saying people do when faced with coercion—they lie or give limited and misleading information. In the end, it turned out Abu Ahmed was one of the vital pieces of intelligence that led to bin Laden's demise.

When Rodriguez, who was not an interrogator, wanted to develop an interrogation capability post-9/11 to handle the numerous detainees being captured and turned over to American forces during the early days of the Global War on Terror, he turned to two contract psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, neither of whom had ever conducted an interrogation. They, in turn, decided to create a program that would instill in detainees a condition known as “learned helplessness,” through the use of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques,” better known as torture and abuse. The fact that Rodriguez could not distinguish between the so-called expertise of two charlatans and the plethora of successful interrogations experience that existed in the military and FBI, is reason to doubt his competence.

Or was it arrogance? Is it that far of a walk to any public library or computer with a search engine to discover that World War II interrogators, facing enemies just as committed and ruthless as al Qaeda, were extremely successful against their foes using non-coercive techniques? Perhaps the most famous interrogator in American history, Marine Major Sherwood Moran, was able to get numerous Japanese prisoners of war to provide information during World War II using compassion, rapport-building, and showing respect for their culture. The CIA, on the other hand, did just the opposite, engaging in acts that mirrored the unlawful brutality of Japanese guards during World War II, many of whom were executed or given life sentences for torturing prisoners.

Torture and abuse will be a black stain on America’s moral cloth for a long time.

Despite President Obama's policy of looking forward and not backward with regards to the crimes committed by those who tortured detainees and those who authorized it, the fact remains that history will not prove so forgiving. Torture and abuse will be a black stain on America's moral cloth for a long time.

The good news is that while these fake interrogators continue to argue for torture, the real interrogators are busy improving non-coercive interrogation techniques through academic research and by sharing expertise throughout the law enforcement, military, and intelligence communities such as they do on the High Value Interrogation Group set up by the Obama Administration. These are the types of efforts that allow us to continue to gain the vital intelligence required to stop terrorist attacks, unlike torture as advocated by those who committed war crimes.

Matthew Alexander (a pseudonym) is a twenty year veteran of the Air Force and Air Force Reserves. He supervised or conducted over 1,300 interrogations in Iraq and led the interrogations that located the Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in an airstrike. Alexander's latest book is Kill or Capture: How a Special Operations Task Force Took Down a Notorious Al Qaeda Terrorist. He is currently a Fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations.

To view the original op-ed in The Daily Beast click here.

NY Times Op-Ed by Burkle Center Sr. Fellow Gen. Wesley Clark: Bosnia Still Needs Fixing

Fri, 4 May 2012 19:45:57 PDT

Bosnia Still Needs Fixing

By SWANEE G. HUNT and GEN. WESLEY K. CLARK

May 3, 2012

In the Bosnian city of Mostar, a beautiful Ottoman-era limestone bridge called the Stari Most arched over the Neretva River for 427 years, surviving earthquakes and two world wars. After a barrage of shelling in 1993, during the Bosnian civil war, the bridge collapsed. Citizens were stranded on opposite sides of the riverbank. Ethnic strain wasn’t the cause. It was the effect. Across the country, the war itself was dividing citizens into three ethno-nationalist clusters: Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks). Twenty years after the war began, and 17 years after the Dayton accords brought the fighting to an end, the bridge stands again, and a shallow peace prevails.But now, the compromises we made to end the killing increasingly look inadequate, and it’s time to begin fixing them.

Mostar is still split: the west bank is primarily Croat, the east Bosniak. It is one city, but it has separate universities, postal services, health care systems and phone networks — and it can’t agree on how to elect a city council. Political institutions that were supposed to reconcile a divided society are ineffective; ethnic quotas at all levels of government breed nepotism; children study in classes divided according to their parentage; economic development has stagnated. And the populace feels angry and hopeless about the future.

Meanwhile, the international community has mostly turned its back on its own handiwork.

The 1995 Dayton agreement ended the worst bloodletting in Europe since World War II. The warring factions were brought together only with enormous pressures and incentives from the outside, including military strikes and the promise that other countries would continue to enforce the peace and extend economic assistance. The agreement provided for early elections and set up an unusual political structure, but it was imperfect. We knew that then.

Still, it was the best we could achieve, and, as the late Richard C. Holbrooke said at the time, the most important thing was to stop the killing.

In retrospect, we can see how some of Bosnia’s difficulties are our own fault. Early on, we had too simply labeled the violence as a clash of ethnic groups, roughly equal in their responsibilities to reconcile, when in fact they had been manipulated toward war primarily by Serbian nationalist leaders. We had ignored Bosnia’s experience before 1992, when its citizens from different ethnic groups were very often friends, colleagues, neighbors and spouses — and even during the war, when there were immeasurable acts of generosity across the ethnic divides. Had we outsiders realized that the violence was not inevitable, and had we been willing to name Serbs as the primary aggressors early in the war, NATO forces could have intervened much earlier and saved tens of thousands of lives.

But we came in late, and by the time we did, hatred and fighting had shaped the political and military balances we had to work with. That produced an agreement that institutionalized ethnicity as the deciding factor in political and social identity. It divided power and representation according to whether citizens were Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats, leaving little room to organize along other lines — for example, gender and level of urbanization.

Today, as set out at Dayton, Bosnia’s presidency is a triumvirate; each of the three members must be identified with one of the so-called constituent peoples. This slows down decision making and excludes minorities, as well as the large number of Bosnians who don’t identify with one of the major groups. In fact, two would-be presidential contenders, a Roma and a Jew, won a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights in 2009 that required constitutional revisions that would give neglected minorities equal opportunities to serve in government. Three years later, that reform is still being debated by Bosnian political leaders, who owe their positions to the status quo.

Dayton also divided the country itself into two separate statelets — a Bosniak-Croat federation and a Serb republic — governed by the same legislature and presidency. At the time, many Bosnian women’s groups, religious leaders, civil society activists and students warned that the arrangement wouldn’t work because the country historically had been integrated. But they weren’t at the negotiating table; only those with the power to fight or to lay down their weapons were invited.

In retrospect, perhaps we could have done better to engage politically unrepresented groups who craved stability, so that they could sit alongside those who knew how to fight.

The compromises at Dayton stopped the killing, but also helped perpetuate the ethnic chauvinism, fear and greed that had set it off. And now, the international community bears some responsibility to keep Bosnia from ever relapsing into violence. We also must help Bosnians fashion a better political system, one that promotes national unity, effective decision making and democratic participation.

Three moves would make a huge difference.

First, the American and European governments must help Bosnia change the Constitution we helped create.

Second, after the Constitution has been revised, the European Union should reward Bosnia by granting it membership. Serbia, after all, was given candidate status — a critical step toward full membership — in March, and Croatia is scheduled to become a full member next year. Europe should also extend more financial and technical assistance to implement the reforms needed to re-establish a pluralistic society and secure candidate status for Bosnia (which the European Union treats as a “potential candidate” for membership).

Third, NATO needs to offer the country a clear path for joining the alliance; it will have an opportunity to do so later this month when NATO holds a summit meeting in Chicago. Many Bosnians of all ethnicities look at membership in NATO as a guarantee of security, prosperity and stability. In addition, the military is the one Bosnian institution in which ethnic differences have mattered least; recently, when Serbian veterans’ benefits were cut, Bosniak veterans raised money to give to the people who once fought against them.

We also need to encourage and support the kind of moderate high-level and grass-roots leaders we overlooked during the negotiations 20 years ago. They are the real heroes of the war — and of the peace.

One such person is Kada Hotic, a leader of Bosnian Muslim survivors of the war. Only last June, she was finally able to bury three small bones — the only remains that could be identified of her son, who died in the infamous massacre of Muslims by Serbian fighters in 1995.

Yet Ms. Hotic offers: “Maybe one day we can close the story of war and move toward genuine reconciliation. Everyone has suffered. When those men killed my son, they killed themselves. I forgive them, and so I live.”

Swanee G. Hunt, a former United States ambassador to Austria, is the author of “Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security.” Wesley K. Clark, a retired Army general and former supreme allied commander of NATO in Europe, is a senior fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations at the University of California, Los Angeles.

To view the original op-ed click here

Multitasking in the Middle East: Obama and the Challenges of Israel, Iran, and the Arab Awakening - a talk by Jeremy Ben-Ami, President of J-Street

Tue, 1 May 2012 10:42:32 PDT

A talk by the President & Founder of J-Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami. This event was co-sponsored by the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jeremy Ben-Ami is the founder and President of J Street, bringing to the role both deep experience in American politics and government and a passionate commitment to the state of Israel. Ben-Ami’s family connection to Israel goes back 130 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva. His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.

His political resume includes serving in the mid-1990s as the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton and working on seven Presidential and numerous state and local campaigns. He was Howard Dean’s National Policy Director in 2004 and helped manage a Mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. For nearly three years in the late 90s, Jeremy lived in Israel, where he started a consulting firm working with Israeli non-profit organizations and politicians. He was chosen by America’s weekly Jewish newspaper, the Forward, for three years as part of the Forward 50, their compilation of the most influential Jewish Americans. He was one of 50 “People of the Decade” selected by Ha’aretz, the influential Israeli daily newspaper, and the Jerusalem Post included him in its list of the 50 Most Influential Jews in the world. Ben-Ami received a law degree from New York University and is a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Relations at Princeton University.

International Online Piracy Panel

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:38:45 PDT

The International Online Piracy panel featured panelists Noam Dromi, Dr. John Richardson Jr., Nat Segaloff and Danielle Van Lier. This event was co-sponsored by the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, The Generation and the Undergraduate International Relations Society (UIRS).

ABOUT THE PANEL

This panel was meant to spur discussion about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) pieces of legislation, the first which aimed to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods before it was stopped in late January of 2012, and the second – a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement, to target counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet.

Reza Hessabi, UCLA student and co-editor of The-Generation newsmagazine (www.the-generation.net), moderated the discussion.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

NOAM DROMI is a media executive specializing in cross platform communications programs for corporations, brands & entertainment companies. He currently serves as VP, Biz Dev for SocialType, digital media strategist for Alcon Entertainment and SVP, Interactive Marketing and Social Media for New Medici where he consults for a range of clients. He previously served as the Executive Producer & Sr. VP of New Media for CMP, a film and television advertising agency where he was responsible for overseeing digital media strategy on behalf of the firm's clients as well as developing & producing original programming. From 2001-2003, Mr. Dromi served as the Senior Vice President of Content Development for Mandalay Branded Entertainment (MBE). Noam & his team developed cross platform media programs for clients including Health South Corporation, Miller Brewing Company, Yahoo & Nokia. In addition to his new media and marketing professional responsibilities he's the co-founder of the production company NoCo Media Group & has produced the films A Place to Live & Mad Skills. He co-hosts the award winning podcast MIPtalk - Conversations with the World's Most Interesting People (www.miptalk.com). He also co-wrote the recent Warner Bros/Alcon Entertainment film Dolphin Tale.

JOHN V. RICHARDSON JR. has served the UCLA community for more than thirty years as a professor of information studies. He has guided dozens of graduate students into print. At the moment, Dr. Richardson's teaching interests revolve around Facebook in the context of ecological informatics; he is completing a certificate in field ecology at UCR. In demand as an international consultant on developing information economies, he has traveled to Eritrea, Russia, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Uganda and Zambia. Dr. Richardson's fiat lux course on Google explores the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web as an important, if not authoritative, source of information; furthermore, it highlights significant social issues such as anonymity, cultural hegemony, self-identity, personas, self-respect, community building, copyright and fair use, and privacy rights.

NAT SEGALOFF is a journalist (The Boston Herald, CBS Radio) turned college teacher (Boston College, Boston University) turned author (11 books) turned producer (A&E, TLC, USA, SyFy, HBO) with a background in motion picture marketing and publicity (Paramount, Disney, Columbia, Fox, UA, MGM, etc.). His varied writings include works on filmmakers William Friedkin, Arthur Penn, Stirling Silliphant, Walon Green, Paul Mazursky and John Milius, and he has produced Biography TV shows on John Belushi, Larry King, Stan Lee, Darryl F. Zanuck, and Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop. His The Everything® Etiquette Bookand The Everything Trivia Book and The Everything® Tall Tales, Legends and Outrageous Lies Book are in multiple printings and reflect Nat’s interest in a wide range of subjects. He formed the production company Alien Voices with John de Lancie and Leonard Nimoy to produce science fiction programs with Star Trek® casts, and is co-author of The Waldorf Conference, about the secret meeting that began the Hollywood Blacklist. He was staff producer for The Africa Channel and is frequent guest panelist on the NPR show “Says You!” Nat is also a member of the ACLU/SC Board of Directors. He co-chairs ACLU's First Amendment Committee.

DANIELLE VAN LIER is senior counsel, intellectual property and contracts lawyer at Screen Actors Guild (SAG) - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). She began her position at the former SAG in 2000, and is now responsible for managing SAG-AFTRA’s third-party contracts and intellectual property, as well as other efforts aimed at protecting the rights of SAG-AFTRA and its members. Van Lier has co-authored several amicus curiae briefs on behalf of Screen Actors Guild and other affected parties to various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court on issues related to performer rights of publicity, copyright and the California Talent Agencies Act. She is also an adjunct professor of Entertainment Law and Sports Law at Western State University, College of Law. Prior to entering practice, she served as a legislative fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives where her work focused on intellectual property, Internet issues, international law and other legal matters.

You can also read a spirited debate about SOPA between The-Generation.net co-editors Brad Rowe and Reza Hessabi here.

Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:08:08 PDT

A lecture by Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security and the former governor of Arizona.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

JANET NAPOLITANO is the third Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and is leading our nation's collective efforts to secure the country from threats ranging from terrorism to natural disasters.

To counter the threat of terrorism, Napolitano has forged new partnerships with international allies, and expanded information sharing with federal, state and local law enforcement - building a collaborative effort to detect and disrupt threats early on.

She has initiated a new, more strategic course to strengthen security along our southwest border, deploying additional personnel and advanced technology, while working closely with Mexico to combat violent international drug cartels - resulting in increased seizures of illegal contraband along the border and throughout our country's interior.

She has strengthened the nation's ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters by cutting through red tape and expediting decision-making along the Gulf Coast, providing new resources to build resilient communities and bolster their response capabilities, and calling on all Americans to play a role in the shared responsibility of making our homeland secure.

Prior to becoming Secretary, Napolitano was in her second term as Governor of Arizona and was recognized as a national leader on homeland security, border security and immigration. She was the first woman to chair the National Governors Association and was named one of the top five governors in the country by Time Magazine. Napolitano was also the first female Attorney General of Arizona and served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.

Napolitano was born in New York City and grew up in Pittsburgh, Penn., and Albuquerque, N.M. She graduated from Santa Clara University, where she won a Truman Scholarship and was the university's first female valedictorian, and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Congratulations to the 2011-12 Alice Belkin Memorial Scholarship Recipients

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:32:49 PDT

The UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2011-12 Alice Belkin Memorial Scholarship.

These scholarships are intended to reward outstanding minority UCLA graduate students in the field of International Relations who need financial assistance.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2011-12 ALICE BELKIN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS:

AARON ALEJANDRO OLIVAS, PhD Candidate, UCLA Department of History

Aaron Alejandro Olivas is a doctoral candidate in the UCLA Department of History. His research interests include the history of colonial Latin America and the Spanish empire (1492-1808), particularly relations between Spanish America and early modern France. His dissertation, entitled “Loyalty and Disloyalty to the Bourbon Dynasty in Spanish America and the Philippines during the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1715),” deals with the global economic and political alliances formed between Spanish colonial elites and French slave traders, cloth merchants, and ministers of state at the end of Louis XIV’s reign. Additionally, his project examines the complex nature of resistance to the Spanish crown in the century before Latin American independence. Aaron is a member of the Centro de Estudios Coloniales Iberoamericanos de UCLA (CECI) and has also worked as a research assistant at the Getty Research Institute. His career goal is to become a professor of World History and teach at the college level.

ALMAS SAYEED, JD Candidate, UCLA School of Law

Almas Sayeed is a law school student, Class of 2012 and is enrolled in the law school's David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy Program, a selective program for law school students focused on public interest work. Almas's coursework has focused on international law - she is enrolled in the law school's International Justice Clinic and has completed a number of courses in international and human rights law. Almas came to law school with significant international experience. She was a 2003 Fulbright Fellow at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she earned her MA in International Studies and worked for the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling and the European Commission for Cooperation and Development. Following this, she earned her MSc in Economic Development from the London School of Economics. Almas is the recipient of the highly competitive and prestigious law school post-graduate Skadden Fellowship through which she will work on affordable housing and community economic development issues with the Inner City Law Center in Los Angeles.

CYNTHIA UGWUIBE, Masters Candidate, UCLA Department of African Studies

Cynthia Ugwuibe is a second year student in the Master of Arts in African Studies program UCLA. Prior to starting her master’s degree, she pursued an internship with TransAfrica Forum, a policy advocacy organization in Washington D.C., where she followed legislative and media developments on the political situation in Zimbabwe. At UCLA, Cynthia research focuses on oil revenue management, in particular sovereign wealth fund (SWF) management in Nigeria. For her thesis, she is analyzing the governance structure of the newly created Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and comparing it to internationally recognized best practices for SWFs. Last summer, she participated in the Yoruba Fulbright-Hays intensive language program in Ife, Nigeria where she studied the Yoruba language, a language widely spoken in Nigeria. Also, while in Nigeria, Cynthia interned with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a prominent public policy organization in Abuja. As a CDD intern, Cynthia contributed to the CDD’s grant proposal to research the Nigerian government’s plans to remove the country’s oil subsidy. Following the completion of her master’s degree, Cynthia hopes to work with an international NGO, a Nigerian non-profit organization, or the Nigerian government on issues related to successful oil revenue management. Cynthia is a Duke University alum. In the long term, Cynthia would like to pursue a career in natural resource management and policy as it relates to developing countries.

To learn more about the scholarship program click here.

Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:07:39 PDT

A lecture by Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security and the former governor of Arizona, delivered at the Anderson School of Management on April 16, 2012.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Homeland Security chief speaks about challenges facing U.S., global cooperation

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:18:32 PDT

Janet Napolitano stops at UCLA to discuss national homeland security issues

UCLA Newsroom

The United States is stronger and more secure than it was prior to 9/11, but threats from overseas remain and must be proactively managed, said Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who visited campus April 16 for a public talk sponsored by the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. (listen to podcast)

In a globalized world, international cooperation is the key to identifying those who intend to do harm, she said, adding that threats to the global supply chain, the activities of drug and human smuggling organizations, and the prevalence of cyber-criminals who attempt to steal information and intellectual property and disrupt critical networks are among the major challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security.

Napolitano told the audience of approximatly 400 inside UCLA's Korn Hall that her agency has signed more than 130 international agreements since 2009 for the mutually beneficial exchange of information and noted that she recently met with officials in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and Canada to negotiate and sign agreements.

She cited several examples of how international collaboration is contributing to security efforts, including the improvement of supply-chain security between the U.S. and Canada and the development of technologies that allow Central American border and security officers to screen passengers and identify those who present risks.

Napolitano's appearance at UCLA, which was met with a protest by about 40 people who chanted and held signs outside the event, ended with a question-and-answer session that touched on a variety of topics and concerns, including the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Communities program and the deportation of undocumented individuals.

"It has been somewhat controversial ... but it is an important tool," she said, sparking outbursts from some in the audience, including a group of roughly a dozen people who chanted "Education, not deportation" before voluntarily leaving the room.

Napolitano went on to say that her department's immigration-enforcement priorities include identifying those who violate U.S. criminal law, as well as fugitives and repeat offenders. She noted that last year, more than 90 percent of the individuals deported from the U.S. fell into those categories.

"That's really the first time we've actually seen priorities intersecting in the immigration system," she said. "That doesn't mean that we don't need immigration reform ... that doesn't mean that we weren't disappointed that the Dream Act wasn't passed by the Congress. I testified in favor of it, and we worked very hard to get it passed ... We need to keep those efforts ongoing. That's going to be a marathon, not a sprint. But in the meantime, we can do smart, effective enforcement."

Other questions focused on the Department of Homeland Security's role in the recovery and repatriation of stolen art and artifacts, Napolitano's experiences as a woman working in a high-profile position in the male-dominated field of security and law enforcement, her opinion about recent internal reforms at her agency and what she considers the most necessary reform moving forward.

Napolitano's talk at UCLA was part of a lecture series in which she is visiting colleges and universities across the country to discuss the most important homeland security issues facing America.

The UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations fosters research on and promotes discussion of international relations, U.S. foreign policy and complex issues of global cooperation and conflict.

2012 Spring International Career Panel

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:14:59 PDT

The 2012 international career panel featured panelists Justin Connolly, Dalia Dassa Kaye & John Maris. The Burkle Center and the Undergraduate International Relations Society (UIRS) co-sponsored this panel to provide insight about various fields and professions in the international arena, and to guide students on how to best prepare for international careers. Alexandra Lieben, Deputy Director of the UCLA Burkle Center, moderated the discussion.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

JUSTIN CONNOLLY is Director of Development and Outreach at Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. Previously, Connolly worked at Really Useful Information, which partnered with the USC Marshall School of Business to provide businesses with information about the changing media landscape. His extensive prior career in the entertainment industry began at the Creative Artists Agency where his clients included winners of the Tony, Emmy and Academy Awards. Subsequently, he leveraged his skills and relationships for clients in digital media and online industry. Connolly has consulted for Compulsion.tv, Humanoids Publishing, and Warner Brothers Pictures, among others, and has a degree in economics and political science from Yale University.

DALIA DASSA KAYE is a senior political scientist at RAND, and a Visiting Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. From 2008 to 2009, she served as associate director of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy. Before joining RAND, Dalia served as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow at the Dutch Foreign Ministry in the policy planning division, specializing in transatlantic relations and Middle East policy. She taught at the University of Amsterdam and was a visiting scholar at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. Dalia is the recipient of many other awards and fellowships, including a Brookings Institution research fellowship and The John W. Gardner Fellowship for Public Service. From 1998 to 2003, she served on the faculty at The George Washington University as an assistant professor of political science and international affairs.

JOHN MARIS is Relief International's Senior Vice President for Programs, responsible for program design, project execution, and technical assistance. Since joining RI in 2002, Maris has overseen RI's entry into a number of new countries including Sudan, Somalia, and Iraq. He has also played a pivotal role in the organization's expansion into new sectors such as financial intermediation and biosecurity, as well as in the establishment of program development and grant compliance functional units within the organization. Maris joined RI from the private sector, where he worked for a tech startup, a private equity firm, and in the corporate strategy department of a Fortune 500 company. Maris holds a BA degree in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Visiting Fellow Dalia Dassa Kaye: Containing Iran - What Does it Mean?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:10:46 PDT

Burkle Center Visiting Fellow Dalia Dassa Kaye and Eric Lorber explain containment strategy and whether or not this is an effective policy towards Iran.

Middle East Policy Council - Journal Essay

Containing Iran: What Does It Mean?

by Dalia Dassa Kaye and Eric Lorber

Dr. Kaye is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and currently a visiting professor and fellow at UCLA's International Institute and Burkle Center. Mr. Lorber is a PhD candidate in political science at Duke University and a JD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Even before the onset of the Arab Spring of 2011, leading analysts spoke of containment as the dominant prescription for America's Iran policy.1 Yet the Arab uprisings have sharpened concerns about Iran and its nuclear ambitions, with many believing that Iran is well placed to capitalize on the turmoil to enhance its regional position.2 Not surprisingly, "containment" options again feature prominently in Washington assessments about how to address the Iranian challenge.3 Growing debate about military options,4 and even an actual attack against Iran, would not reduce the salience of containment in U.S. strategy, given that such a strike would be unlikely to halt Iran's program and may even accelerate it.5

Containment, of course, provides a familiar way for analysts and policy makers to think about Iran policy. The definitive U.S. grand strategy during the Cold War, containment is increasingly touted as the best available option for dealing with hostile states like Iran, where neither war nor peace appears an attractive or viable alternative. Containment during the Cold War was not a panacea; its variations were plagued with theoretical inconsistencies, difficulties in application and many close calls, when the Cold War almost became hot. Despite these challenges, containment did ultimately contribute to what many view as a successful strategy in eroding Soviet power. But can this approach work with adversaries like Iran?

In order to answer this question, we need to understand what containment means. The concept has proven to be problematically broad and ill defined. Scholars and practitioners have, under its mantle, advocated a range of policies, including rollback, internal intervention, punitive sanctions, deterrence, and even accommodation and acceptance of problematic behavior.⁶ As Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis observed, "Containment is something with which most people in the national security community have spent most of their lives.... We have become so accustomed to it that we rarely stop to consider what its precise goals are supposed to be.…"⁷

The lack of clarity about containment — both its means and its goals — is particularly astonishing with respect to U.S. Iran policy. The United States has arguably pursued de facto containment of Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but a review of U.S. policies over the last 30 years suggests that the understanding of containment has varied significantly — so much so that proponents of the strategy occasionally call for completely contradictory policies, from preventing an Iranian nuclear capability to living with one.⁸

The full essay is only available in the print edition of Middle East Policy. To view this abstract online or to subscribe to view the full article, click here.

The Generation gives students a voice

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:34:46 PDT

New online journal provides news and views related to international topics and issues

It’s provocative, timely and educational. It’s citizen journalism with a UCLA twist.

The Generation, led by a team of dynamic undergraduate and graduate students, is a new online foreign affairs journal produced by students for students. Initiated by UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations, which fosters research on and promotes discussion of international relations, U.S. foreign policy, and complex issues of global cooperation and conflict, The Generation is offering up student perspectives on a wide variety of international issues and topics.

“We’re not trying to be blindly provocative, but we’re trying to get people to think about things in new ways,” says Brad Rowe, a master’s student in public policy.

Recent stories include that of a man who is using humor and humanity to help those struggling in the aftermath of the tsunami and earthquake that rocked Japan in March 2011, one woman’s perspective on the importance of bullfighting in Spain and an insider’s view of the London Riots.

“Very rarely do you see a story about international relations or an international issue that is from the ground up,” says Reza Hessabi, a fourth-year neuroscience major who is minoring in Middle Eastern and North African studies. “If you do see it, it’s a video blog. Nobody really sits down and writes about these things.”

Hessabi and Rowe recently went keyboard to keyboard, so to speak, to address the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) from opposing viewpoints. The relevancy of the issue to American students and the heated debates that surround the topic have inspired The Generation’s first public event, a panel discussion on SOPA that will be streamed live over the Internet during the spring quarter. Planning is currently underway.

In addition to Hessabi and Rowe, the journal’s editorial team includes a dedicated group of interns who aim to build awareness of the publication and further develop content and scope.

“I really couldn’t find any opportunities for that here until I learned of this,” says Jennifer Ching, a fourth-year communications and political science student. “This is something that I can feel invested in and excited about.”

Second-year communications and political science student Shadee Ashtari, who, along with Hessabi, interviewed Angelina Jolie on the red carpet at the premiere of her film "In the Land of Blood and Honey," agrees. (see video) She says that the team’s synergy, unwavering curiosity and desire to contribute to global understanding through the exchange of ideas are unlike anything she’s ever experienced. “There is so much passion in every single person involved with this journal. It’s so exciting to be part of something so incredible. It’s so refreshing, and I love being part of it.”

The Generation is always looking for new and inspiring contributors. Submissions from UCLA students are welcomed, as are those written by college and university students from around the globe. Articles must relate to foreign affairs and should be between 400 and 700 words.

In addition to visiting the journal's website, you may also follow The Generation on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to its RSS feed for the latest news.

UCLA law students locate compound of Congolese militia leader wanted by the ICC

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:24:00 PDT

Bosco Ntaganda unexpectedly spotted in the town of Goma

By Lauri Gavel for UCLA Newsroom

A UCLA law professor and six of his students have located Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges, and obtained video of his compound.

Ntaganda, also known as "the Terminator," is alleged to have led a militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that massacred civilians and forcibly conscripted child soldiers. In 2008, the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest, charging Ntaganda with war crimes for conscription of child soldiers. He remains at large and is alleged to violently control much of the conflict minerals trade in Eastern Congo. Ntaganda was a close associate of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who was found guilty by the ICC today of recruiting and deploying child soldiers during a five-year conflict until 2003. An estimated 60,000 people were killed in the violence, part of much wider bloodshed in central Africa.

The group from UCLA School of Law, supported by the Sanela Diana Jenkins Rights Project, unexpectedly spotted Ntaganda in the Eastern Congolese town of Goma. Ntaganda was traveling on one of the town’s main roads in a convoy of three heavily armed jeeps, one with a mounted heavy caliber machine gun and the other two with soldiers carrying automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

After investigating, the group located what several reliable sources identified as Ntaganda’s compound on Avenue des Tulipiés, about 100 yards from the Rwandan border. The sources said that Ntaganda lives in the compound, which also serves as his operational headquarters, and speculated that the location was chosen by Ntaganda to facilitate escape into Rwanda if an arrest attempt were made. One source said that six houses between the Ntaganda compound and the border were controlled by him, facilitating his smuggling conflict minerals into Rwanda. A clandestine video taken from the street shows the compound and some of Ntaganda’s soldiers on guard duty.

See photos

UCLA Law Professor Richard Steinberg, a member of the faculty advisory board for the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and director of the Sanela Diana Jenkins Human Rights Project, led the group of students to the Eastern Congo for human rights field research unrelated to Ntaganda. "If our group from UCLA Law could stumble upon Ntaganda and locate his compound, then the Congolese government and the intelligence services of Western countries have surely located him as well," Steinberg said. "This shows that Ntaganda lives with impunity, and he does so while enriching himself through conflict minerals trade, injustices that continue to destabilize the Eastern Congo."

"It is our hope," Steinberg said, "that the United States government will press the Congolese government to arrest Ntaganda and send him to The Hague for trial."