Great Decisions 2008 Lecture Schedule

Topics and Speakers for Spring 2010

Preventing genocide:Andrea Bartoli
Post-election rioting in Kenya in December 2007 brought pressure on Nairobi, from international and regional diplomats, to end tensions and avert bloodshed on a massive scale. What lessons can be learned from the intervention in Kenya? What does it mean for the UN's emerging “responsibility to protect” doctrine?

Special envoys: Daniel Kurtzer
Special envoys can help bring attention and diplomatic muscle to resolve conflicts and global challenges but they also bring with them their own "special" problems. Will the Obama administration's reliance on special envoys increase the ability of the U.S. to deal with major international issues or complicate our diplomatic options?

U.S.–China security relations: Michael Hunt
China's influence is growing, along with its military expenditures. How will this growth affect China's relations with its neighbors and with the U.S.? Will China's expanding military and economic power affect traditional U.S. roles and U.S. alliances in East Asia? How will countries like Japan, South Korea and India respond?

Global crime: Bruce Bagley
From the booming sex trade in Eastern Europe, to online fraud syndicates in Africa and the drug cartels of Asia and Central America, crime is becoming increasingly organized and globalized. How can countries better protect citizens seeking the benefits of a globalized world from being exploited? What international actors can effectively fight global organized crime?

Russia and its neighbors: Ellen Mickiewicz
Russia's policy of maintaining a “sphere of influence” in former Soviet satellites has been challenged in recent years by movements against pro-Russia regimes. Russia has pushed back by cutting Ukraine's natural gas supply and intervening in Georgia's campaign in South Ossetia. Will Russia regain its traditional leadership role in the region?

The Persian Gulf:: Michael Scheuer
Now more than ever, the Persian Gulf region offers many difficult challenges to U.S. policymakers. How will Obama's direct appeal to Arabs and Muslims impact U.S. foreign policy in the region? What will the fallout of withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq be? Can the U.S. and its allies prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons?

Peacebuilding and conflict resolution
: Georges Nzongola
U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that military force alone cannot ensure peace in all conflicts. How can the U.S. successfully integrate the tools of peace building into its statecraft? At what point do poverty, disease and climate change threaten national security? What role can non-governmental actors play in supporting government led efforts? 

Global financial crisis: Stanley Black
The global financial crisis that began in late 2007 revealed major deficiencies in the regulation of markets and institutions – all of which came perilously close to collapse. Emergency measures to prevent a full collapse of the global financial system have led to mixed results. How will governments and the world community respond to this challenge?

Speakers' Biographies

Andrea Bartoli

Andrea Bartoli is ICAR’s Drucie French Cumbie Chair. He has been at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University since 2007. He works primarily on Peacemaking and Genocide Prevention. The Founding Director of Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR), a Senior Research Scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), a Teaching Fellow at Georgetown University, and at the University of Siena,  Dr. Bartoli has taught in the US since 1994. He chaired the Columbia University Seminar on Conflict Resolution. He is a member of the Dynamical Systems and Conflict Team (http://www.dynamicsofconflict.iccc.edu.pl/) and a Board member of Search for Common Ground (http://www.sfcg.org/ )

He has been involved in many conflict resolution activities as a member of the Community of St. Egidio (http://www.santegidio.org/en/), and has published books and articles on violence, migrations and, conflict resolution. He was co-editor of Somalia, Rwanda and Beyond: The Role of International Media in Wars and International Crisis. Dr. Bartoli served as Associate Director, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University from 1992-99. He was a lecturer at the University of Rome-Tor Vergata, 1987-92, and director of the Center for the Study of Social Programs, 1986-92. He was president of Unita Sanitaria Locale 7, 1983-87 and a consultant to Consiglio Nazionale dell’Economia e del Lavoro, 1980-84. An anthropologist from Rome, Dr. Bartoli completed his Italian dottorato di ricerca (Ph.D. equivalent) at the University of Milan and his laurea (BA-MA equivalent) at the University of Rome.

 

Daniel Kurtzer

Daniel C. Kurtzer holds the S. Daniel Abraham Chair in Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. During a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Ambassador Kurtzer served as the United States Ambassador to Israel and as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. Kurtzer has held a number of senior policy and diplomatic positions, including political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research.  He was instrumental in formulating and executing American policy in the Middle East peace process. Since leaving government service, Kurtzer has authored numerous articles on U.S. policy and is the co-author, with Scott Lasensky, of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East. 

 

Michael Hunt

Michael Hunt is the Everett H. Emerson professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Now a free-lance historian, he maintains broad and varied interests in U.S. foreign relations and international/global history including an active program of research and writing. 

Born into a military family, he spent a part of his youth abroad -- in Japan, Turkey, and Vietnam.  After taking his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University (1965), he did his doctoral work in the history department at Yale (Ph.D. 1971) while also spending substantial time on Taiwan and in Italy and Iran.  He taught at Yale and Colgate before moving to North Carolina in 1980.

His publications fall into three overlapping clusters: U.S. involvement in eastern Asia (especially China and Vietnam); twentieth-century U.S. foreign relations; and contemporary global history.  Over his four decades of professional activity, he has authored seven books (all but one still in print) and edited three (two still in print) as well as many articles.  His most recent book is The American Ascendancy: How the United States Gained and Wielded Global Dominance.  It won the Choice Outstanding Academic Title award for 2007 and appeared in a paper edition in early 2009.

 

Bruce Bagley

Dr. Bruce Michael Bagley (Ph.D. in Political Science, University of California at Los Angeles - UCLA - 1979) is Professor of International Studies and Chair of the Department of International Studies at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL. He also served as the Director of UM’s Center of Latin American Studies (CLAS) during 2007-08. Prior to his arrival at UM in 1987, Dr. Bagley taught at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University (1978-87) in Washington D.C and at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia (1972-1978). Dr. Bagley has also taught at various universities in Latin America including the University of the Americas in Puebla, México and CEBEM in La Paz, Bolivia, among others. From 1968 to 1970, Dr. Bagley served as a Peace Corp. volunteer in Fusagasuga, Cundinamarca, Colombia. 

Professor Bagley’s current research focuses on U.S.-Latin American relations, with an emphasis on drug trafficking and security issues in Colombia, the Andean region, and Mexico. He has recently completed a book on “Drug Trafficking and U.S.-Colombian Relations -1978-2008” that will be published in 2010 and is preparing a second volume on “The Drug Trade and U.S. Mexican Relations” for publication. He has authored 12 other academic books and monographs and more than 100 academic journal articles and book chapters. His articles have appeared in various professional journals in the United States and Latin America, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs, Foro Internacional, Colombia Internacional, Foreign Affairs en Español and Global Crime.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Bagley occasionally serves as an expert consultant for the United Nations (United Nations Development Program -UNDP), for the U.S. Government (Department of State, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration), and for several governments in Latin America (Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia Panama and Mexico) on issues of drug trafficking, money laundering and public security. Dr. Bagley has also testified in US Federal court on numerous occasions as an expert witness on drug trafficking and organized crime issues relating to Latin America.

 

Ellen Mickiewicz

Ellen Mickiewicz is a professor of political science at Duke University.  Dr. Mickiewicz's areas of interest include mass media, democratization and the former Soviet Union.  Dr. Mickiewicz received her B.A from Wellesley College and her PhD. from Yale University.  She has taught at Yale, Michigan State University, Emory and is currently at Duke.  Her
recent publications include her book, Television, Power and the Public in Russia (2008) and multiple journal articles regarding the role of media in current day Russia.

 

Michael Scheuer

Dr. Scheuer recently concluded a 22-year career with the CIA in which he served in both the Directorate of Intelligence (DI) and the Directorate of Operations (DO).  During his tenure at the CIA, Dr. Scheuer held various positions including Chief of the CIA's Bin Laden Unit, Chief of the Southwest/Southeast Asia Counternarcotics Operation, and Chief of the Sunni Militant Unit. Dr. Scheuer is the author of New York Times Bestseller Imperial Hubris - Why the West is Losing the War on Terrorism; Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam: and the Future of the United States; and Marching Towards Hell: America and Islam After Iraq. Dr. Scheuer has appeared on CBS, CNN, Meet the Press, Fox News, C-Span, and PBS, as well as authored numerous journal articles. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University.

 

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

Dr. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is a professor of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Davidson College, a M.A. in Diplomacy and International Commerce from the University of Kentucky, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Dr. Nzongola-Ntalaja’s major area of research interest is the political history of Africa since the struggle for independence.  Having produced many works on the topic he regards “Challenges to State Building in Africa,” published by the academic journal African Identities, as his most important publication.  He also wrote the award-winning book entitled The Congo From Leopold to Kabila: A People's History (London and New York,: Zed Books, 2002).

 

Stanley Black

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Stanley W. Black graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Honors in Economics in 1961. Subsequently, he received his Ph. D. in Economics from Yale University and taught first at Princeton University and then at Vanderbilt University. In 1983 he returned to the University of North Carolina as Georges Lurcy Professor of Economics, serving as Department Chairman from 1985 to 1990.  His government experience has included service with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Department of State. He has been a visiting scholar or professor at the Institute of International Economics in Stockholm, the University of Siena, Yale University, the Brookings Institution, the International Monetary Fund, and was Bundesbank Visiting Professor at the Free University in Berlin in summer 1997. From 1994 to 1997 he was nonresident Director of Economic Studies for the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. Most recently, he was Senior Policy Advisor at the IMF Institute of the International Monetary Fund during 2000-2001. He became an emeritus professor in 2008. 

Dr. Black has worked primarily on problems of floating exchange rates and macroeconomic policy, especially the asset market theory of floating exchange rates with rational expectations. His work relates to the behavior of exchange rates, the international use of currencies, and European economic issues. His books include Floating Exchange Rates and National Economic Policy (1977), and most recently Europe's Economy Looks East(1997), Competition and Convergence in Financial Markets (1998) and Globalization, Technological Change, and Labor Markets (1998). Recent papers include “Convertibility Risk: the Precautionary Demand for foreign Exchange in a Crisis”, “Obstacles to Faster Growth in Transition Economies: the Case of Mongolia” and “From Wirtschaftswunder to Kaltstart: German's Economy and Economics 1950-2000”.

 

Special thanks to all of our sponsors:





 


The UNC Dean of Students Office

The UNC Honors Program

The Board of the Order of Gimghoul

The Parr Center for Ethics

 

Additionally we would like to thank UNC Professors Blau, Shields, Pérez, Escobar, Oatley, Gangi, Bapat and Arnosti for guiding the committee in selecting these outstanding speakers.



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