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Date: Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Time: 7pm -9pm
Location: Brooks Memorial Library
Stanger, professor of international politics and economics at Middlebury College, comes to admirably nuanced conclusions in this important assessment of the trend of outsourcing critical tasks in the areas of foreign aid, defense, diplomacy and domestic security. Her analysis finds nothing inherently pernicious in the Bush administration’s outsourcing of Iraqi security and reconstruction; contracting is a necessity given the ascendancy of the private sector as a key player in diplomacy in a globalized world. The executive branch’s error has been to outsource proper oversight and contractor accountability—a laissez-faire approach she finds dangerous. Stanger is also troubled by the Pentagon’s usurpation (and militarizing) of diplomatic and nation-building roles previously under the aegis of the State Department. She argues that the government must recognize that power in the 21st century flows from new sources and complacency at this stage threatens the government with enervation and possible obsolescence. These are vital, well-made and worrying points—readers will hope that the executive branch will heed the author’s call to take the plunge and re-imagine government itself.
The lecture is a First Wednesday program sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council.
Supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Vermont Department of Libraries.
Additional sponsors are (for the VHC) Brattleboro Historical Society, Dakin & Benelli, P.C.; and KSE Partners, LLP; (for Brooks Memorial Library) Brattleboro Savings and Loan; Downs Rachlin Martin, PLLC; the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library; and Windham World Affairs Council of Vermont.
 Friday, December 9, 2011
SIT/World Learning, 7:00pm (Coffee with the Speaker at 6:30pm)
Please join the Windham World Affairs Council for an evening with Javier Corrales, PhD, to discuss his new book, Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela (Brookings Institution Press, 2011).
Javier Corrales is professor of Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He obtained his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. He is the co-author of Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), the co-editor of The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: A Reader on GLBT Rights (University of Pittsburgh Press 2010), and author of Presidents Without Parties: the Politics of Economic Reform in Argentina and Venezuela in the 1990s (Penn State University Press 2002). His research has been published in academic journals such as Comparative Politics, World Development, Political Science Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, World Policy Journal, Latin American Politics and Society, Journal of Democracy, Latin American Research Review, Studies in Comparative International Studies, Current History, and Foreign Policy. He serves on the editorial board of Latin American Politics and Society and Americas Quarterly. In 2009, he was a visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard and a visiting fellow at the Center for Latin American Research at the University of Amsterdam. He is also working on a book manuscript on constitutional reforms in Latin America. In 2005, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Caracas, Venezuela. In 2000, he became one of the youngest scholars ever to be selected as a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. In 2010, he was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to the board of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. He also serves on the editorial board of Latin American Politics and Society and Americas Quarterly. He has also been a consultant for the World Bank, the United Nations, the Center for Global Development, Freedom House, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ambassador Kenneth S. Yalowitz
Friday, November 4, 2011, 7:30pm
World Learning/SIT, Rotch Hall
Coffee with Speaker at 7:00pm
Ambassador Kenneth Yalowitz will be joining the Windham World Affairs Council for an evening discussion on “The Effect of WikiLeaks on the Conduct of US Diplomacy”.
Ambassador Yalowitz and Ambassador Courtney have written an article in the Christian Science Monitor, “How the U.S. Government – and You- Should Assess Secrets in the Wikileaks Age”
Kenneth Yalowitz is director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College and was US ambassador to Belarus and Georgia.
Anita Fabos, PhD, will be joining us on Monday, 10/17 at World Learning/SIT, Room IC – 101. Coffee begins at 7pm and the talk will begin at 7:30pm.
Below please find a description of her talk:
‘Brothers’ or Others: Are Northern Sudanese in Egypt Refugees?
Northern Sudanese in Cairo have played a fundamental role in Egyptian history and society during many centuries of close relations between Egypt and Sudan. Although long-standing Egyptian policies describe them as “brothers” in a united Nile Valley, recent political developments in Egypt have underscored the precarious legal status of Sudanese ‘refugees’ in Cairo. Refugee policy is largely promulgated upon the idea of discrete categories of nationals who can prove individual experience of persecution on the basis of “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”. Neither citizens nor foreigners, the uncertain position of Sudanese creates dilemmas for policy makers concerned about their circumstances in exile, but also allows Sudanese flexibility with regard to their continued presence in Egypt, particularly after the events of the ‘Arab Spring’ in the region.
Biography
Anita Fábos is an anthropologist who has conducted research on issues of ethnicity and race, gender, refugees in urban settings, immigration and naturalization policy, Arab nationalism, and Islam. Fábos comes to IDCE from the University of East London, where she served as Programme Leader for the M.A. programme in Refugee Studies. Formerly the Director of the Program in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies and assistant professor of Anthropology at the American University in Cairo, Fábos lived and worked in Cairo for ten years, researching issues of gender, displacement, citizenship and identity. She has conducted ethnographic research among Muslim Arab Sudanese forced migrants in Egypt, analyzing their gendered discourse of propriety and morality as expressed in ethnic terms.
Fábos has also conducted research on Middle Eastern immigration and refugee policies; livelihoods of urban refugees in Cairo, and discourses of ‘race’ and racism as these pertain to refugees in Egypt and the U.K. Her current ethnographic research investigates the transnational strategies of women and men in the Sudanese diaspora, particularly in the context of global Islam. Fábos
Economist David Roberts will join us for an evening discussion on “Government Debt: Are Greece and U.S. in the Same Sinking Boat?”
Government debt has been in the news lately from the debt ceiling stand-off in the US to the down graded status of the US bonds to efforts being made by the European Union to keep its members afloat. This is an important topic both at home and abroad.
Friday, September 23, 2011 from 7:30pm
Marlboro College Graduate School, Room 2East
28 Vernon Street, Brattleboro VT 05301
June 13, 2011 at 7:30 PM
Dining Hall, School for International Training
Dr. Dirk Vandewalle, Associate Professor of Government, Dartmouth, will give a talk on:
A New Arab Awakening? Change and Continuity in the Arab World
As an expert on Libya and the Middle East, Dr. Dirk Vandewalle has been much in demand lately for interviews and articles. In the past few months he has contributed articles to The New York Times Foreign Affairs Newsweek and Foreign Policy; and has been interviewed and quoted in news outlets all over the nation and the world, including Al Jazeera, the BBC, CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also shared his knowledge of Libya with the United States Agency for International Development, and the United Nations.
The author of History of Modern Libya A (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and many other publications, Dr. Vandewalle developed his interest in the Arab world while a student at Columbia University. He lived in Libya during 1986-87 and has maintained contact with many Libyans since that time.
Dr. Vandewalle has been at Dartmouth for over 20 years, and finds that his teaching and his writing are closely intertwined. Preparing lectures and works for publication often go hand in hand, and his students’ questions help him to refine and clarify his arguments. He has also led Dartmouth study abroad programs in London and Morocco, and is a staunch advocate of the benefits of international study in promoting cultural awareness and enrichment.
Also, please join us for a Brief Annual Meeting, Wine and Cheese at 6:30 PM.
Free and open to the public.
Dirk Vandewalle will be speaking on June 13 for the Windham World Affairs Council’s final program of the 2010-2011 season. More details coming soon.
Dirk Vandewalle teaches in the department of government and at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is the author of A History of Modern Libya.
If you have been following developments in Libya, you have likely heard Dirk Vandewalle speak on the subject. Here is an article he wrote for Foreign Policy on “How Not to Intervene in Libya.”
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/10/how_not_to_intervene_in_libya
The Windham World Affairs Council (WWAC) is seeking a new member for its board of directors. This director would be responsible for public relations, including the following duties: writing press releases about speakers, events, and various initiatives; cultivating media relations; and assisting at events. There are approximately 10 events (September-June) and 10 monthly board meetings a year. The board is looking for someone passionate about international affairs and looking to get more experience with PR or a seasoned professional to lend his or her skills to a worthy cause.
WWAC is an all-volunteer, nonpartisan, non-profit, educational organization, serving Southeastern Vermont, Southwestern New Hampshire and Northwestern Massachusetts since 1961. WWAC is part of a system of Councils affiliated with the World Affairs Council of America, located in Washington, D.C.
WWAC’s mission is to foster better understanding of important world issues, stimulate constructive discussion of world affairs, and promote responsible citizen participation in the foreign policy of the United States.
WWAC offers a variety of activities to engage local communities on world affairs issues including:
- Sponsoring and co-sponsoring lectures and video series
- Promoting and organizing discussion groups
- Assisting groups and individuals to develop programs concerned with international relations.
WWAC is has strong collaborative relationships with the Brooks Memorial Library, the School for International Training/World Learning, and Marlboro College, local schools and others. Major funding comes from members and donors, with additional corporate sponsorship of specific events.
Recent events include speakers on:
- Meltdown: Climate Change and Geopolitics in the Artic
- The War in Afghanistan: Obama’s Strategy a Year Later
- Great Negotiations: Agreements that Change the Modern World
- Micro-lending and Credit Cards: Reflecting on Parallels and Differences Across the Globe
For more information and to apply, please contact:
Katie Wilson, Program Chair
Board of Directors
windhamworldaffairs@gmail.com
The World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) released their network leadership survey results today that concluded that the Six Top National Security Issues facing the United States in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election are:
- US Education: Competing Globally
- US Energy Policy
- Afghanistan/Pakistan
- US Economic Competitiveness
- Middle East
- China
The World Affairs Councils of America is the largest non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization in the United States dedicated to educating and engaging the American public on global issues. Over 500,000 people a year benefit from the network programming, including members and participants.
The survey, which was conducted March 3-10, 2011, asked the council leadership from over 90 non-partisan, non-profit educational world affairs councils from across the country, to determine the Six Top National Security Issue areas that need to be debated and discussed by the presidential candidates and the American public over the next year and a half in the run-up to the Presidential election.
Windham World Affairs will work to bring programs on these issues in the 2011-2012 season.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Undercroft at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Brattleboro
The Crescent Greets the Dove
Speaker: Dr. Qamar-Ul Huda, Senior Program Officer at the U.S. Institute for Peace and editor of
Crescent and Dove, Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam
 Qamar-ul Huda is a Senior Program Officer in the Religion and Peacemaking Program and a scholar of Islam at U.S. Institute of Peace. His area of expertise is Islamic theology, intellectual history, ethics, comparative ethics, the language of violence, conflict resolution and non-violence in contemporary Islam. His forthcoming USIP book, The Crescent and Dove: Critical Perspectives on Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam, provides a critical analysis of models of nonviolent strategies, peace building efforts, conflict resolution methods in Muslim communities. His research is on comparative Sunni-Shi’ite interpretations of social justice, ethics, dialogue, and the ways in which the notion of justice is used and appropriated. Dr. Huda has examined the production of religious knowledge, the diversity of religious practices, identity, and peacemaking in Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercises for Suhrawardi Sufis (RoutledgeCurzon). He taught Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion at Boston College, College of the Holy Cross and Brandeis University. He earned his doctorate from UCLA in Islamic intellectual history and his B.A. from Colgate University.
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