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.”
March 15, 2010
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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.
March 15, 2010
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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.
March 15, 2010
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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.
March 15, 2010
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March 13, 2010
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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.
March 10, 2010
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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.
March 09, 2010
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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."
March 05, 2010
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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.
March 05, 2010
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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.
March 04, 2010
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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.
March 03, 2010
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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.
March 03, 2010
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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.”
March 02, 2010
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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.
March 01, 2010
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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.
March 01, 2010
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Global business leader N.R. Narayana Murthy, considered to be one of the fathers of India’s information technology revolution, will deliver an Ogden Lecture on Monday, March 1. His lecture, titled “Global Economic Future and the Role of Indian IT,” will address India’s national strides, its powerful new international position, and the role technology has played.
February 26, 2010
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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.
February 26, 2010
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Economist Magazine is hosting a six-day debate between Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Brown Economics Professor Ross Levine, director of the Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance.
February 23, 2010
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There is no “global sweet spot” when it comes to determining the right type and level of bank regulation in the wake of the recent financial crisis, according to Institute Faculty Fellow Mark Blyth. And yet, “This one-size-fits-all presumption concerning regulation seems to have been accepted by regulators and commentators as a necessary background condition for reform, swaddled under the idea of fair competition and ‘level playing fields,’” he said in a recently co-authored response on the Financial Times’ op-ed page.
February 23, 2010
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The migration of Moldovan women to Turkey has helped the migrants forge new identities as workers, consumers, and mothers, according to Leyla Keough, an anthropologist at Bridgewater State College. At the same time it has caused social tension due to the shifting gender roles back in the Moldovan villages, she said this month in a lecture on “‘Driven Women': Gendered Moral Economies of New Migrations to Turkey.”
February 18, 2010
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The traditional space between the public and private is disappearing, a phenomenon increasingly reflected not only in international relations but in literature as well, according to Sir Salman Rushdie, who gave a wide-ranging lecture Tuesday evening on "Public Events, Private Lives: Literature, and Politics in the Modern World."
February 17, 2010
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World-renowned author Sir Salman Rushdie will give a lecture at Brown titled "Public Events, Private Lives: Literature and Politics in the Modern World" on Tuesday, February 16, at 5:30pm.
February 15, 2010
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In the runup to the screening of the Human Terrain documentary in San Antonio earlier this week, the Current and Express newspapers published interviews with co-producer James Der Derian, an Institute professor. "We tried to bring out of the shadows a program that is having a profound impact on American academics working with the military,” Der Derian told the Express.
February 12, 2010
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February 12, 2010
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A screening of the new Human Terrain documentary will take place during the International Studies Association’s annual convention this month in New Orleans, as Watson Institute researchers and their work are featured throughout the program.
February 04, 2010
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Brown faculty examined South Asia's might and fractures – from thriving Bollywood to ethnic strife in Sri Lanka – during a panel last semester on "South Asia Rising."
February 03, 2010
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The story of international law over the past century is being retold through the lens of its relationship to religion, by a new Religion and Internationalism Project launched last year by Nathaniel Berman, the Rahel Varnhagen Professor of International Affairs, Law, and Modern Culture.
February 02, 2010
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America will not take second place to its competitors in the global economy, President Obama said this week – a statement perhaps more patriotic than realistic, according to Institute Professor James Der Derian. Today, “nation-states aren’t as powerful in calling the shots, particularly in the global economy. No one nation-state can now determine these incredible spasms and tidal waves that ripple through the system … and to claim that we have control over the international arena has an illusionary component to it,” he said in an NPR interview analyzing Obama’s State of the Union Address.
January 29, 2010
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The Watson community is remembering with fondness and gratitude the life and service of Sen. Charles McCurdy (Mac) Mathias Jr., a past board member who has died at the age of 87.
January 28, 2010
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"As war goes virtual and cultural in the name of justice, unintended and tragic consequences result," Professor James Der Derian said in a recent keynote address and video presentation on "The Culture, Technology, and Ethics of Virtuous War." Drawing on research from his Human Terrain and Virtuous War projects, Der Derian critiqued US counter-insurgency and counter-terror strategies that use "military cultural awareness" and "high-tech warfare" to resolve the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. His address was given at the Contemporary Dilemmas in Canadian Security Lecture Series hosted by York University in Ontario.
January 28, 2010
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How should development in the Global South be conducted in a “post-neoliberal” world where free-market economic policies have run their course? In a special issue of the Institute-based journal, Studies in Comparative International Development (SCID), scholars address this question through critical and comparative lenses.
January 27, 2010
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Recipients of Watson Institute summer fellowships presented their research at the Institute last semester, sharing with audiences the challenges and successes of international engagement. Though their projects varied greatly in regional and thematic focus, students agreed that their research will shape their future endeavors at Brown and beyond.
January 27, 2010
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Brown’s Choices Program has developed an online lesson for high school students, The Haitian Crisis: Thinking Historically. Through video, audio, and other media, it challenges students to think beyond Haiti's recent earthquake, consider the role of the country’s rich history in the current crisis, and think about global influences in long term reconstruction.January 27, 2010
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Read the new Development Studies Newsletter to learn about the concentration, spring semester courses, fellowship opportunities, and more.
January 26, 2010
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Find updates on the Brown community's response to disaster in Haiti.
January 20, 2010
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Brown faculty members are invited to apply for grants supporting summer undergraduate research assistantships to work on new media components of research on global issues. The application deadline is March 15 for this summer's AT&T New Media Research Assistantships.
January 19, 2010
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