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News Archive 2011

Augusto and Students Discuss 'Future Imaginaries'

October 16, 2011

Geri Augusto met with students from The Triple Helix, a student organization that explores the intersections of science, society, and law, as well as other science concentrators, last month at the Brown Bookstore. Augusto, a Watson Fellow and assistant professor of public policy, engaged the students about connections between sciences and the humanities, using images of art, science fiction, and myths regarding knowledge, humans, and “nature” drawn from Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. Her conversation was titled “Future Imaginaries – What if our Scientific Imaginaries Could Roam?”

Japan's Ambassador Depicts 3/11 Recovery

October 14, 2011

Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki returned to Brown this week after several decades to lecture on the progress Japan has made after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. He spoke to a packed Joukowsky Forum, also addressing foreign policy questions and sharing anecdotes. The ambassador had attended Brown in his early 20’s and was back on campus for a talk co-sponsored by the Watson Institute and Office of International Affairs.

Blyth Asks: 'Should the Poor Insure the Rich?'

October 14, 2011

Institute Faculty Fellow Mark Blyth has one message amid recent Occupy Movement protests: The poor should not be the insurers of the rich. He has delivered this message in several settings. He dropped in on Occupy Boston protests on Friday, giving a lesson on economics to a section of the crowd that was temporarily renamed "Free School University," as reported by Reuters. His lecture can be viewed here. He and other professors were also part of the "Thinking Crisis: Thinking Change: a Teach-in on the Occupy Movement" at Brown on Wednesday.

Of Wall Street Protests and Echoes of Gdansk

October 13, 2011

Activists and analysts are increasingly comparing the current Occupy Wall Street protests with the recent Arab Spring demonstrations, but other comparisons can be drawn, and ultimately, “I look back to 1980 for my final historical frame,” writes Institute Professor Michael D. Kennedy. He evokes Poland's movement of the time, saying "Solidarity, more than any other policy prescription, might be the greatest good to be realized in 2011, in anticipation of what 2012 can bring.” He and other professors were part of the "Thinking Crisis: Thinking Change: a Teach-in on the Occupy Movement" at Brown on Wednesday.

Afghanistan: Marking the First Decade of Many

October 6, 2011

“This is the first decade of a many-decade war.” So declared Institute Prof. Catherine Lutz, co-director of the Costs of War project, at a talk falling one day before the 10-year anniversary of the US military engagement in Afghanistan. Lutz presented the project’s major findings to a packed house Thursday at the Institute’s Joukowsky Forum.

OAS Secretary General Aims to Ease Concerns over New Latin American Blocs

October 5, 2011

US concerns over the rise of new regional intergovernmental bodies in Latin America are largely unfounded, according to José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS). In a talk at the Institute, he discussed the nascent Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC), asking: “Does this mean that the inter-American system is under threat? I don’t think so, really.”

Lagos Calls for 'Democracy that Delivers' in Latin America

October 4, 2011

A dramatically changing Latin America can only face the challenges and opportunities ahead with policies that advance economic and social equality through progressive taxation, according to former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos. Progress in democracy, human rights, and poverty reduction since the early 1980s has changed regional dynamics. And the past 10 years have largely spared Latin America – and especially South America – from the economic crises of Europe and the United States, with exports to China and the rest of Asia leading double-digit increases in gross domestic product. “Now you have middle income countries,” Lagos said in a recent lecture at the Watson Institute, where he is in residence as a Brown professor at large. But with a growing middle class come greater expectations for “democracy that delivers,” as he termed the current demand in the region for better education, healthcare, and participation in government affairs.

In Anthropology Now: Review of Human Terrain Film Asks 'Is Empathy a Weapon?'

September 29, 2011

Human Terrain, a documentary film from the Watson Institute’s Global Media Project, was recently recognized in the September 2011 issue of Anthropology Now. In a full-length article entitled “Is Empathy a Weapon?” Rutgers University research fellow Kenneth MacLeish praises the film’s use of commentary, interviews, and photography to explore the intersection of academia and warfare.

On Australian Radio: Blyth Lays out Case against Deepening Austerity Measures

September 29, 2011

As governments around the world enact deep spending cuts in to diminish their debt, people are taking to the streets. Protests against austerity measures are commonplace, particularly in Europe, where many countries have already tightened their belts – and now the European Commission is asking governments to do even more. But is austerity a “dangerous idea?” Institute Faculty Fellow Mark Blyth thinks so, and, appearing on Australian radio in late September, he explained why.

OAS Secretary General to Keynote Conference on Scholar-Policy Impact in Americas

September 29, 2011

How does scholarship influence policy in the Americas? A conference exploring this question in depth on Monday will feature keynote speeches by José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, and Ricardo Lagos, the former president of Chile who is now in residence at the Watson Institute as a Brown professor at large.

President Lagos: Greek Crisis Calls for Strong and Long Response by European Central Bank

September 28, 2011

Former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos is no stranger to financial crisis. Drawing on past crises in his own country and across Latin America, he sees a clear path for Europe to take as Greece teeters toward defaulting on its national debt and destabilizing world markets. In a video and in a public lecture at the Watson Institute, where he is in residence as a Brown professor at large, Lagos called for the European Central Bank to assume Greece’s debt and give the beleaguered country a long horizon of some 40 years to repay.

Chilean President Lagos to Speak on Latin Economy

September 25, 2011

Former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos will be back in residence at the Watson Institute in late September and early October as a Brown professor at large. On Tuesday, September 27, he will deliver his first major public lecture of this academic year: "Developing Latin America: Challenges after the Crisis."

Blyth on Marketplace: Prepare for Greek Default

September 25, 2011

Despite G20 leaders’ assurances last week that they will avert Europe’s financial meltdown and its global spread, Greece is headed toward defaulting on its debt, according to Institute Faculty Fellow Mark Blyth. “If there is a solution, it is to push banks to build up capital for the day that Greece cannot pay,” he said on Friday’s Marketplace public radio program. Blyth’s prescription: Let the insolvent banks go and push the others to recapitalize right now. Countries that are instead trying to protect their banks are the ones keeping this crisis from being solved.

Seeing the Arab Spring through Counterrevolutionary Eyes

September 23, 2011

The Arab Spring that has swept across the Middle East and North Africa over the past year was presented in a recent talk at the Institute from the perspective of counterrevolutionaries and the motivation of preserving privilege. Toby Jones, assistant professor of history at Rutgers University and author of Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia, drew upon Saudi Arabia’s case to spin a tale of elite fears and oil dependency. His lecture was the first of the new Human Security in the Middle East Seminar Series.

Advancing Research on Human Security in the Middle East

September 21, 2011

Middle East Studies Program Director Melani Cammett is launching a research cluster at the Watson Institute on human security in the Middle East and North Africa. Given this year’s Arab Spring and its aftermath, “now more than ever, serious research on the evolving political economies in the Middle East is essential,” says Cammett, an associate professor of in Brown’s Political Science Department. “An understanding of the factors that shape living conditions in this strategically important region is critical both for answering enduring scholarly questions about political and economic change and for crafting development policy in the region.”

On 10th Afghanistan Anniversary, Choices Program Publishes Teaching Guide

September 21, 2011

With the approach of the October 7 anniversary of the US military engagement in Afghanistan, the Watson-affiliated Choices Program has published a curriculum unit for secondary school deliberation of US policy toward Afghanistan.

Blyth Channels Brothers Grimm, Blogs Global Crisis

September 20, 2011

Institute Faculty Fellow Mark Blyth, who is currently writing a book about how austerity became the policy response to the global financial crisis, tested out his theory in the form of a children's fable, a la Brothers Grimm, in his regular blog on Triple Crisis.

Evans, Singh Join Watson Institute

September 20, 2011

The multidisciplinary research team at the Watson Institute has been joined this academic year by sociologist Peter B. Evans, as senior fellow, and anthropologist Bhrigupati Singh, as postdoctoral scholar in international studies.

Mehta Analyzes Path to Progress

September 20, 2011

“The mechanisms of progress that you take for granted don’t always turn out how you’d think,” according to Pratap Mehta, president of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. In a talk last semester, Mehta sought to identify the key drivers of current political change in India, suggesting that increases in social and economic equality will not come from grassroots social movements, but rather, from political choices at the top.

Andreas: Post 9/11 Sees US-Canada Border Woes

September 11, 2011

Institute Professor Peter Andreas is among the experts explaining how the US-Canada border, once a point of pride as the world's longest undefended border, has become a case of bureaucratization run amok, in an article in the Toronto Global and Mail.

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