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News Archive 2010

What's Next in European Politics? Former Austrian Chancellor to Give 2 Public Lectures

March 19, 2010

Former Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is back in residence as a visiting professor in late March, when he will give two talks on the dramatic political changes sweeping Europe. Join him on Monday at noon for ""Global Economic Crisis Brings the Next Wave of Change in Post-Communist Europe," and on Thursday at noon for “What Next Left? The Implications for the World of the European-Wide Debate on Social Democracy’s Renewal.”

Grads Present Work on Chile, Cities, and Public Health in Latin America

March 19, 2010

Graduate students Maria Bautista, James Doyle, and Andrea Maldonado recently presented their research in political violence, urban development, and public health in a graduate student forum titled "New Perspective on the State in Latin America," hosted by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Choices Program Students Go to the Capitol

March 19, 2010

This coming week, Rhode Island high school students will discuss global issues with US Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis and other elected officials and civic leaders at the State House. Hundreds of high school students in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Nebraska will hold similar sessions as part of the Choices Program's 12th annual Capitol Forum on America’s Future.

On VOA: Brown and Stefoska Describe a Cultural Border War

March 16, 2010

Greece and Macedonia’s rival claims to such cultural icons as Alexander the Great aggravate relations between the two countries today, according Watson Institute Associate Professor Keith Brown and Visiting Fellow Irena Stefoska. Both spoke in Washington at a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars event covered by Voice of America.

Tuesday: Public Intellectuals Gather to Address 'India Abroad, India Within'

March 15, 2010

This Tuesday, the "India Abroad, India Within" conference will explore central issues in contemporary India's domestic and international policies, including relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan; Islam in India; climate change and energy strategy; and local governance. The day-long conference features four noted public intellectuals – former cabinet minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, former senior administrator Sunjoy Joshi, and senior journalists Saeed Naqvi and Siddharth Varadarajan.

Eckert Advises G8 on Terrorist Sanctions

March 15, 2010

Institute Senior Fellow Sue Eckert has seen “lots of discussion but not much visible progress” since the UN Security Council voted in December to reform its procedures for imposing sanctions on terrorists and rogue nations, she recently told policymakers preparing for the G8 Summit in June.

'Argentia' Reviews Obama, Gelb, and the Popularity of 'Energy Security'

March 15, 2010

From energy policy to constitutional rebalancing, the US Foreign Policy Group of the British International Studies Association (BISA) addresses a broad range of foreign policy topics in the latest issue of its biannual newsletter, Argentia. Co-edited by Watson Institute adjunct professor Linda Miller, the January issue combines a pointed look at key issues with commentary on the sum-total of 2009’s victories and setbacks.

'Review of International Political Economy' Makes Watson its Home

March 15, 2010

The Review of International Political Economy (RIPE) has established its new editorial headquarters at the Watson Institute. A leading international journal, RIPE dedicates its pages to “the systematic exploration of the international political economy from a plurality of perspectives.”

Mexican Immigrants Redefine Citizenship, Healthcare

March 13, 2010

In New York City, Mexican immigrants’ articulations of rights are neither uniform nor straightforward, suggested Alyshia Gálvez at a recent talk co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Working Group on Anthropology and Population. Assistant Professor of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies at Lehman College, Galvéz described two projects of ethnographic research that testify to the diverse ways in which Mexican immigrants navigate, and in some cases look beyond, American political and economic structures.

Friday Talk: Free Speech vs. Property Rights Online

March 10, 2010

Take a world tour of the legal minefield of intellectual property on the web, from court actions against Google to your personal digital rights. Attorney Chris Watson, of CMS Cameron McKenna, gives a talk, on "Commercial Rights vs. Communications Rights: Walking the Tightrope," on Friday at noon at the Watson Institute.

Book Talk on 'A Liberal Education' Entertains, Informs

March 9, 2010

On a recent Monday afternoon, a large crowd gathered at the Joukowsky Forum for a personal and often humorous book talk by History Professor Emeritus Abbott (Tom) Gleason, a long-time associate of the Watson Institute. Titled A Liberal Education, Gleason’s memoir chronicles an academic career spanning over 30 years in the field of Russian history and Cold War studies. Gleason also discusses his childhood and his formative years as a student at Harvard University. With a dry wit, Gleason responded to questions on his methodology and personal history from Open Source host Christopher Lydon and Ted Widmer, the director of the John Carter Brown Library.

Indian IT and Global Change

March 5, 2010

A recent lecture by Infosys Technologies Ltd. Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy pointed to a sweeping array of global challenges and their technological solutions. Among them: green technology to combat global warming; e-government to increase democratic accountability; computer mapping to ensure water security; remote medical services to lower healthcare costs.

Now on Video and on Open Source: Gleason Book Talk

March 5, 2010

A book talk on Professor Abbott Gleason’s new memoir, A Liberal Education (Tidepool Press, 2010), was what Open Source host Christopher Lydon described as “a musical-conversational extension on the memoir of a beloved teacher and historian of Russia at Brown University, connecting dots from Tolstoy to Orwell to Louis Armstrong in a big roomful of friends at Brown’s Watson Institute."

Berman on the Emerging One-State Consensus

March 4, 2010

The “two-state solution” long raised as a way out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has now come to function as “an apologetic myth for the Jewish mainstream… a refusal to confront the concrete situation… and a means to maintain an unjust status quo,” according to Institute Professor Nathaniel Berman. “One-state” is neither a solution nor a dream nor a nightmare: “it is what we have now, have had for almost 43 years, and likely will have for the next several decades,” he writes in Zeek, a Jewish journal of thought and culture. “Everyone who lives in, or is passionate about, Israel,” should consider what kind of state this is and what it should be.

Reporting on the Year of India

March 3, 2010

Follow the Year of India program, based at the Watson Institute; visit the Year of India website for reports on lectures by major public figures, research by faculty, and more.

Andreas Awarded Salomon Grant to Research History of Smuggling

March 3, 2010

Institute Associate Professor Peter Andreas will research the role of illicit commerce – and the policing of such commerce – in America’s birth, consolidation, growth, and international engagements as a recipient of one of the University’s Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Awards for 2010.

Visiting Brazilian Professor Talks Money

March 2, 2010

Ruben Oliven, an anthropologist from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, took stock of one of the most predominant aspects of American culture – money – in a recent talk titled “The Money Rhetoric in America: A Brazilian Perspective.”

Innovative Global MBA Program to Tap into Watson Knowledge

March 1, 2010

The Watson Institute will play a key role in establishing a groundbreaking new global MBA program, as part of a larger partnership just launched by Brown University and the IE Business School of Spain. The new IE Brown Executive MBA Program is described as a one-of-a-kind offering that integrates the innovative approach to management education at IE Business School with Brown’s excellence in the humanities, social, biological, and physical sciences.

Khalidi: Cold War Legacy Continues to Strain Middle East

March 1, 2010

To fully understand the causes of the present political upheaval in the Middle East, one must first examine American and Soviet policy in the region during the Cold War, according to Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. This struggle between the world’s two superpowers for political and cultural hegemony “created enduring patterns that we are still living with” on both regional and international levels, he said in a recent talk at the Institute.

Book Talk Monday on New Gleason Memoir

February 26, 2010

A vivid portrait of the Cold War era emerges through the personal reflections and academic insights in A Liberal Education (TidePool Press 2010), a new memoir by Brown History Professor Emeritus Abbott (Tom) Gleason. The fall of the Soviet Union is just one of the many remarkable events that come into closer focus as Gleason recalls an academic life spanning the last half of the 20th century. With a historian’s attention to multiple perspectives, Gleason explores how interactions with family members and scholars alike shaped his liberal worldview in fields as diverse as civil rights and modern art. A book talk is planned for Monday, March 1. Details are available here.

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