DOCSLIB.ORG

Presidential Decision-Making and the Emergence of Foreign Policy Crises

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Presidential Decision-Making and the Emergence of Foreign Policy Crises Durham E-Theses RISK VS. RISK TRADE-OFFS: PRESIDENTIAL DECISION-MAKING AND THE EMERGENCE OF FOREIGN POLICY CRISES TRENTA, LUCA How to cite: TRENTA, LUCA (2014) RISK VS. RISK TRADE-OFFS: PRESIDENTIAL DECISION-MAKING AND THE EMERGENCE OF FOREIGN POLICY CRISES, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10551/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 RISK VS. RISK TRADE-OFFS: PRESIDENTIAL DECISION-MAKING AND THE EMERGENCE OF FOREIGN POLICY CRISES LUCA TRENTA Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations School of Government & International Affairs University of Durham 2013 1 2 Abstract. With the radicalisation of the ‘War on Terror’ and the chaos following the 2003 Iraq War, the concept of ‘risk’ emerged as central to a wide-ranging set of claims about the extent and significance of the changed post-Cold War strategic environment and its impact on policy-making. International Relations (IR) scholars argued that ‘risk’ and ‘risk management’ defined foreign policy-making, with the US as the principal exemplar of such a change. The thesis explores the two, sociologically rooted, accounts of risk that underpin this literature – indebted to Ulrich Beck and Michel Foucault respectively – to identify the deeply contrasting and contradictory conceptualisations of risk they produce. Returning to some classic, and badly neglected, writing on risk and highlighting an alternative account originally developed by John Graham and Jonathan Wiener, the thesis establishes Presidential decision-making in foreign policy as a series of ‘risk versus risk trade-offs.’ This framework focuses on the ways in which risk operates simultaneously in different environments via concepts of ‘political risks’ focusing on the domestic environment and ‘strategic risks’ focusing on the international dimension. The concept of trade-off elucidates the ways in which actions aimed at countering a ‘target risk’ frequently produce ‘countervailing risks’ of their own. Using this approach, the thesis assesses the build-up to three crises in US foreign policy; two from the Cold War (the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Iran hostage crisis) and one from the post-Cold War period (the road to Srebrenica). The case studies, based on archival research and interviews, effectively challenge the claim that the end of the Cold War represented the onset of an era of foreign policy-making as risk management, by showing how the Kennedy and Carter administrations engaged in policy-making practices and processes that are not markedly dissimilar from Clinton’s. In addition, the case studies enrich the ‘risk literature’ and demonstrate how the analysis of crises can be advanced by understanding the moment of crisis as the culmination of a series of neglected ‘countervailing risks.’ More generally, the thesis points to the initial validity of an approach that can be applied to diverse issues in foreign policy-making. 3 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................. 14 1.1 MAIN ARGUMENT OF THE THESIS ...................................................................... 14 1.2 PLAN OF THE THESIS ........................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 2: RISK IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ........ 21 2.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 21 2.2 RISK IN THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD: FROM SOCIOLOGY TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS .................................................................................... 22 2.2.1 The Power of Risk ............................................................................................................. 25 2.2.1.1 From Foucault’s ‘notion of risk’ to governmentality studies ........... 25 2.2.1.2 A ‘dispositif’ of precaution: risk and the War on Terror ................... 29 2.2.2 Welcome to the risk society: reflexive modernity and uncontrollable risks .................................................................................................................................................... 35 2.2.2.1 Beck’s Risk Society: the ageing of modernity ......................................... 35 2.2.2.2 The Risk Society goes to War ........................................................................ 39 2.2.3 The two scholarships reconsidered ........................................................................... 43 2.3 DECISION THEORY: RISK AND RISK-TAKING IN FOREIGN POLICY ................... 47 2.3.1 From Bernoulli to VertzberGer ................................................................................... 48 2.3.1.1 Bernoulli meets Allison’s Rational Actor Model .................................... 48 2.3.2.2 Prospect Theory’s reality check ................................................................... 50 2.3.2.3 Vertzberger’s ‘convergent synergism’ ....................................................... 54 2.4 AN INTERIM REPORT CARD ................................................................................ 56 CHAPTER 3: RE-CONCEPTUALISING RISK IN FOREIGN POLICY ........................................................................................... 58 3.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 58 3.2 RISK, UNCERTAINTY AND RISK MANAGEMENT: A FOREIGN POLICY PERSPECTIVE ............................................................................................................... 59 3.2.1 SchellinG’s uncertain competition in risk-takinG ................................................ 59 3.2.2 Neustadt’s ‘fire-fighter’ behaviour: risk manaGement and Presidential decision-makinG ................................................................................................. 62 3.2.3 Lamborn and GeorGe: risks and trade-offs ............................................................ 65 3.3 UNCERTAINTY, RISK, AND RISK MANAGEMENT: A NEW PERSPECTIVE .......... 68 3.3.1 Towards operational definitions ............................................................................... 68 5 3.3.1.1 Knight and Keynes: risk, uncertainty, and that ‘awkward fact’ ...... 69 3.3.1.2 Uncertainty, risk, and risk management: the risk management perspective ........................................................................................................................... 71 3.4 ESTABLISHING THE CONNECTION ..................................................................... 77 3.4.1 Presidential decision-makinG and ‘risk vs. risk trade-offs’ ............................. 77 3.5 COUNTERVAILING RISKS, UNCERTAINTY AND FOREIGN POLICY CRISES ........ 80 3.5.1 The crisis literature ......................................................................................................... 81 3.5.1.1 The heated debate: lost in definitions ....................................................... 81 3.5.1.2 The ‘explosion thesis’ and the origins of crisis ...................................... 85 3.5.2 The nature of crisis: enter risk and uncertainty ................................................. 87 3.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ALONG THE COLD WAR/POST-COLD WAR DIVIDE .......................................................................................................................... 90 3.6.1 Towards the case studies ............................................................................................... 93 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS .................. 95 4.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 95 4.2 THE ‘WHY’ QUESTION ......................................................................................... 95 4.3 THE ‘WHAT’ QUESTION ....................................................................................... 97 4.3.1 Interpretation: a Game of Scrabble .......................................................................... 97 4.3.2 From interpretation to foreign policy decision-makinG ............................... 101 4.3.3 Interpretation, foreign policy decision-makinG and risk ............................. 104 4.3.4 Case studies: case studies as cases of somethinG ............................................. 107 4.3.5 Which case studies? And why? ................................................................................. 109 4.4 THE HOW QUESTION: INTERROGATING THE HISTORICAL RECORD. ........... 110 4.5 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 114 CHAPTER 5: ‘I SHOULD HAVE SAID THAT WE DON’T CARE:’ THE KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION AND CUBA, 1961-1962 ................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • DIRECTING the Disorder the CFR Is the Deep State Powerhouse Undoing and Remaking Our World
    DEEP STATE DIRECTING THE Disorder The CFR is the Deep State powerhouse undoing and remaking our world. 2 by William F. Jasper The nationalist vs. globalist conflict is not merely an he whole world has gone insane ideological struggle between shadowy, unidentifiable and the lunatics are in charge of T the asylum. At least it looks that forces; it is a struggle with organized globalists who have way to any rational person surveying the very real, identifiable, powerful organizations and networks escalating revolutions that have engulfed the planet in the year 2020. The revolu- operating incessantly to undermine and subvert our tions to which we refer are the COVID- constitutional Republic and our Christian-style civilization. 19 revolution and the Black Lives Matter revolution, which, combined, are wreak- ing unprecedented havoc and destruction — political, social, economic, moral, and spiritual — worldwide. As we will show, these two seemingly unrelated upheavals are very closely tied together, and are but the latest and most profound manifesta- tions of a global revolutionary transfor- mation that has been under way for many years. Both of these revolutions are being stoked and orchestrated by elitist forces that intend to unmake the United States of America and extinguish liberty as we know it everywhere. In his famous “Lectures on the French Revolution,” delivered at Cambridge University between 1895 and 1899, the distinguished British historian and states- man John Emerich Dalberg, more com- monly known as Lord Acton, noted: “The appalling thing in the French Revolution is not the tumult, but the design. Through all the fire and smoke we perceive the evidence of calculating organization.
    [Show full text]
  • Whitman-Daniel.Pdf
    The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project DANIEL WHITMAN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: November 20th, 2012 Copyright 2013 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Michigan raised in Ohio 1946 %ewish upbringing in Cleveland Oberlin College Brown University French language study Longy School of Music Paris France volunteer Paris Review Boston MA French language instructor,interpreter Foreign travel Escorting Africans in US .French interpreter/ Kaidara% Ancient African epic poem Tierno Bah Fulbright grant to the Congo 1901 Congo2Bra33aville4 Fulbright Program English Professor Universit5 Marien Ngouabi International faculty members Political orientation 8overnment The French Soviet s Cubans Environment Ambassador 9illiam Lacy Swing Contacts with local Congolese Russian language study .Pushkin Institute/ Tribes Kinshasa Student body Chad students Bernard Malamud 1 University operations Providence Rhode Island4 Awaiting job offer University Ahmadou Bello 9ashington DC4 Delphi Research Associates; International 190321905 Visitors USIA Soviet visitors Operations Reagan inauguration televised ceremony Entered the USIA Foreign Service 1905 9orldwide staff reductions Director Charles 9ick Alex Almasov USIA Staff and operations in 1901s Cultural Centers Changes in programs LibrariesA effectiveness Officer training program Edward R. Murrow State Department4 Foreign Service Institute .FSI/4 Danish 1905 language training Copenhagen Denmark4 Information Officer,Press Attach5
    [Show full text]
  • The Politician Truth Will Ultimately Prevail Where There Is Pains Taken to Bring It to Light
    The Politician Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light. —George Washington Obvious pressures to smother and ignore The Politician since its official publication are unmatched in the history of the American book world. Now that this explosive volume is available to anyone who will read and judge for himself, the hundreds of periodicals which were quoting and misquoting from it regularly for two years have failed to give it a review or a mention of any nature. There have been many case histories showing the influence exerted on the seven thousand regular bookstores in the United States which has resulted in a virtual boycott of the book—even by those stores that wanted to offer it for sale. In spite of these problems, the sale of forty thousand copies in the first six months after publication and the continuing strong sale have been encouraging. The truth, so fully documented, is not easy to keep buried, even by all of the powerful influences that are so determined to hide it. BELMONT PUBLISHING COMPANY Belmont, Massachusetts 02178 Copyright 1963 by Robert Welch All rights reserved. Except in quotations for review purposes, of not more than five hundred words in any one review, and then with full credit given, no portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 64-8456 Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS Please Note vi Prologue vii Again, Please Note xvi Dear Reader 1 Introduction 3 1.
    [Show full text]
  • JULIAN ASSANGE: When Google Met Wikileaks
    JULIAN ASSANGE JULIAN +OR Books Email Images Behind Google’s image as the over-friendly giant of global tech when.google.met.wikileaks.org Nobody wants to acknowledge that Google has grown big and bad. But it has. Schmidt’s tenure as CEO saw Google integrate with the shadiest of US power structures as it expanded into a geographically invasive megacorporation... Google is watching you when.google.met.wikileaks.org As Google enlarges its industrial surveillance cone to cover the majority of the world’s / WikiLeaks population... Google was accepting NSA money to the tune of... WHEN GOOGLE MET WIKILEAKS GOOGLE WHEN When Google Met WikiLeaks Google spends more on Washington lobbying than leading military contractors when.google.met.wikileaks.org WikiLeaks Search I’m Feeling Evil Google entered the lobbying rankings above military aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, with a total of $18.2 million spent in 2012. Boeing and Northrop Grumman also came below the tech… Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Google’s Eric Schmidt... wikileaks.org/Transcript-Meeting-Assange-Schmidt.html Assange: We wouldn’t mind a leak from Google, which would be, I think, probably all the Patriot Act requests... Schmidt: Which would be [whispers] illegal... Assange: Tell your general counsel to argue... Eric Schmidt and the State Department-Google nexus when.google.met.wikileaks.org It was at this point that I realized that Eric Schmidt might not have been an emissary of Google alone... the delegation was one part Google, three parts US foreign-policy establishment... We called the State Department front desk and told them that Julian Assange wanted to have a conversation with Hillary Clinton...
    [Show full text]
  • Part Three Greatest Hits: Outstanding Contributions to the Towson University Journal of International Affairs
    TOWSON UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS VOL. L, NO. 1 PART THREE GREATEST HITS: OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE TOWSON UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 49 FALL 2016 MAKE NO DRONES ABOUT IT Make No Drones About It: Evaluating the U.S. Drone Program Based On Domestic Policy Standards Jacob Loewner Abstract: United States policymakers have set strict standards on the parameters of drone use. They have thereby lain out before the public an idealized narrative of the effectiveness of drones, as well as the restraint with which they are used. Beyond this lofty rhetoric, however, the U.S. government has been incredibly reluctant to furnish information on its drone program. To complicate matters further, the rhetoric on the drone program put out by the administration is rarely corroborated by facts on the ground due to frequent civilian deaths, signature strikes, and the targeting of Americans. This piece analyzes the realities of the drone program against the backdrop of the idealized rhetoric laid out by the Obama Administration and finds that the rhetoric is not supported by the facts on the ground. As such, the piece argues for increased transparency and more effective human intelligence to be applied to the drone program. Introduction In January 2015, the United States conducted a drone strike that led to three deaths which had enormous and widespread consequences. A drone strike targeting an Al Qaeda compound on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan led to the death of Ahmed Farouq, an Al Qaeda leader and American
    [Show full text]
  • DE CARTER Y SUÁREZ a TRUMP Y RAJOY • Mariano Rajoy Visita El 26
    Septiembre 2017 DE CARTER Y SUÁREZ A TRUMP Y RAJOY • Mariano Rajoy visita el 26 de septiembre la • EEUU es el primer inversor en España, pues re- Casa Blanca. Se reunirá con el Presidente de los gistra un 14,3% del total de las inversiones realiza- Estados Unidos, Donald Trump. Es su segunda vi- das en nuestro país. A la vez, el país americano es sita al Despacho Oval como Presidente: en enero el segundo destino de la inversión española: el de 2014 fue recibido por Barack Obama. 14% de esta se realiza en Estados Unidos. • La reunión entre los dos líderes se realiza en • En euros, las exportaciones se situaron en 2016 pleno Mes de la Herencia Hispana; conmemora- en 11.327,6 millones y las importaciones ascen- ción con origen en 1968 y que se celebra con ca- dieron a 13.015 millones. En el primer semestre rácter mensual entre el 15 de septiembre y 15 de de 2017, las exportaciones suponen 6.242 millo- octubre desde 1988. Durante este tiempo se re- nes y las importaciones 6.903 millones (+8,6% y cuerda la contribución hispana a la historia y la +5% sobre el mismo período de 2016). cultura estadounidenses. España, aliado estratégico de Estados Unidos • En sus ocho meses en el cargo, el Presidente Trump ha centrado sus prioridades en reducir la • España es uno de los principales socios euro- regulación, en la inmigración y en la seguridad peos, especialmente tras el Brexit. Al apartado nacional. Para ello, ha hecho uso de sus prerroga- económico hay que sumar el militar: la base aero- tivas mediante el empleo de órdenes ejecutivas naval de Rota (Cádiz) y la aérea de Morón (Sevilla).
    [Show full text]
  • The Frailty of Authority. Borders, Non-State Actors and Power
    The Frailty of Authority Borders, Non-State Actors and Power Vacuums in a Changing Middle East Lorenzo Kamel THE FRAILTY OF AUTHORITY BORDERS, NON-STATE ACTORS AND POWER VACUUMS IN A CHANGING MIDDLE EAST edited by Lorenzo Kamel in collaboration with Edizioni Nuova Cultura First published 2017 by Edizioni Nuova Cultura For Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) Via Angelo Brunetti 9 - I-00186 Rome www.iai.it Copyright © 2017 Edizioni Nuova Cultura - Rome ISBN: 9788868128289 Cover: by Luca Mozzicarelli Graphic Composition: by Luca Mozzicarelli The unauthorized reproduction of this book, even partial, carried out by any means, including photocopying, even for internal or didactic use, is prohibited by copyright. Table of contents List of contributors ........................................................................................................................................ 7 List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Preface, by Nicolò Russo Perez ............................................................................................................... 11 Introduction, by Lorenzo Kamel ............................................................................................................ 15 1. Early Warning Signs in the Arab World That We Ignored – And Still Ignore by Rami G. Khouri ..................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Pakistan Courting the Abyss by Tilak Devasher
    PAKISTAN Courting the Abyss TILAK DEVASHER To the memory of my mother Late Smt Kantaa Devasher, my father Late Air Vice Marshal C.G. Devasher PVSM, AVSM, and my brother Late Shri Vijay (‘Duke’) Devasher, IAS ‘Press on… Regardless’ Contents Preface Introduction I The Foundations 1 The Pakistan Movement 2 The Legacy II The Building Blocks 3 A Question of Identity and Ideology 4 The Provincial Dilemma III The Framework 5 The Army Has a Nation 6 Civil–Military Relations IV The Superstructure 7 Islamization and Growth of Sectarianism 8 Madrasas 9 Terrorism V The WEEP Analysis 10 Water: Running Dry 11 Education: An Emergency 12 Economy: Structural Weaknesses 13 Population: Reaping the Dividend VI Windows to the World 14 India: The Quest for Parity 15 Afghanistan: The Quest for Domination 16 China: The Quest for Succour 17 The United States: The Quest for Dependence VII Looking Inwards 18 Looking Inwards Conclusion Notes Index About the Book About the Author Copyright Preface Y fascination with Pakistan is not because I belong to a Partition family (though my wife’s family Mdoes); it is not even because of being a Punjabi. My interest in Pakistan was first aroused when, as a child, I used to hear stories from my late father, an air force officer, about two Pakistan air force officers. In undivided India they had been his flight commanders in the Royal Indian Air Force. They and my father had fought in World War II together, flying Hurricanes and Spitfires over Burma and also after the war. Both these officers later went on to head the Pakistan Air Force.
    [Show full text]
  • Cuba's Liberation Vowed by Invaders
    Weather , 3 mm imftfttmt n. May, fety fat the tow Ms^. CJeaV BED BAM 21,175 (••Iffe few 2J. Fair (omorrew and foaday. High tomorrow la the law Mi. Sec Wealber, Pafe 2. Dial SH I-0010 VOL.' 85. NO 133 rria«7. amst CUM 1*14 «t « 4 Bt n RED BANK, N. J., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1962 7c PER COPY AUllil VUll O1UCM. Cubans toPresent Kennedy With Battle Flag By FRANCIS LEWINE "We will pay our debt by say that he hoped some day brigade, but "to express our rades were locked in Cuban PALM BEACH (AP) -Cuban freeing 'our country," said to visit a free Cuba." appreciation for his personal ef- ceils "naked, sleeping on floon, fighters who survived the Bay Manuel Artime, the political ' His eyes sparkling, the dark- fort which led to ... the sal- being the object of insults on of Pigs Invasion will give Presi-' leader of the invasion brigade. haired, youthful Artime spoke vation and freedom of the the part of Jptoial guards that dent Kennedy their combat Asked whether Kennedy had with emotion in Spanish — bis brigade. the Communists imposed on flag — "the greatest treasure given them any encouragement words translated by a U.S. Artime, who was among the us." . •• :•••.•: .-..'.• we possess" — when he re- toward this eventual goal of State Department interpreter. 1,113 prisoners liberated from "At that time, Artime re- views their brigade Saturday freeing Cuba, Artime said, "We He said the Cuban delegation Castro prisons on Christmas called, "a voice was heard, a in Miami's Orange Bowl.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spectacle of the False-Flag
    The Spectacle of the False-Flag THE SPECTACLE OF THE FALSE-FLAG: PARAPOLITICS FROM JFK TO WATERGATE Eric Wilson THE SPECTACLE OF THE FALSE-FLAG: PARAPOLITICS from JFK to WATERGATE Eric Wilson, Monash University 2015 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This work is Open Access, which means that you are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work as long as you clearly attribute the work to the author, that you do not use this work for commercial gain in any form whatsoever, and that you in no way, alter, transform, or build upon the work outside of its normal use in academic scholarship without express permission of the author and the publisher of this volume. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. First published in 2015 by Thought | Crimes an imprint of punctumbooks.com ISBN-13: 978-0988234055 ISBN-10: 098823405X and the full book is available for download via our Open Monograph Press website (a Public Knowledge Project) at: www.thoughtcrimespress.org a project of the Critical Criminology Working Group, publishers of the Open Access Journal: Radical Criminology: journal.radicalcriminology.org Contact: Jeff Shantz (Editor), Dept. of Criminology, KPU 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, BC V3W 2M8 [ + design & open format publishing: pj lilley ] I dedicate this book to my Mother, who watched over me as I slept through the spectacle in Dallas on November 22, 1963 and who was there to celebrate my birthday with me during the spectacle at the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972 Contents Editor©s Preface ................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • INTERNATIONAL ADVANCED LEVEL History
    INTERNATIONAL ADVANCED LEVEL History Getting Started Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary in History (XHI01) Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Level in History (YHI01) For first teaching in September 2015 First examination June 2016 Issue 3 INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL ADVANCED LEVEL ADVANCED LEVEL History History Getting Started GETTING STARTED Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary in History (XHI01) Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary in History (XHI01) Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Level in History (YHI01) Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Level in History (YHI01) For first teaching in September 2015 For first teaching in September 2015 First examination June 2016 First examination June 2016 Issue 3 Pearson Education Limited is one of the UK’s largest awarding organisations, offering academic and vocational qualifications and testing to schools, colleges, employers and other places of learning, both in the UK and internationally. Qualifications offered include GCSE, AS and A Level, NVQ and our BTEC suite of vocational qualifications, ranging from Entry Level to BTEC Higher National Diplomas. Pearson Education Limited administers Edexcel GCE examinations. Through initiatives such as onscreen marking and administration, Pearson is leading the way in using technology to modernise educational assessment, and to support teachers and learners. This guide is Issue 3. We will inform centres of any changes to this issue. The latest issue can be found on the Edexcel website: www.edexcel.com/ial
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 2017 — Vol. 2, No. 2
    St. Bonaventure University Spring 2017 — Volume 2, No. 2 مركز الدراسات العربية واإلسالمية From the Director’s Desk Iran — countries whose entire citizenries are now banned from the US by the recent executive order. A few weeks before this issue of Nūr went to press, An exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New President Trump signed an executive order that bans York is also reviewed below. Jerusalem, 1000-1400: all individuals from seven countries in the Middle East, Every People Under Heaven documented the various predominantly Muslim, from entering the United States. cultural and religious traditions — Jewish, Christian and As the Founding Director of the Center for Arab and Muslim - that enriched and enlivened the medieval city of Islamic Studies, Franciscan friar, and proud American, I Jerusalem. Through the artifacts on display, viewers were deeply regret the President’s decision. I hope this issue of brought into the world of Francis of Assisi and the Sultan Nūr demonstrates a few reasons why. al-Malik al-Kamil whose encounter in 1219 is the subject of This issue opens with the address that President Dwight a new film that was shown at St. Bonaventure University D. Eisenhower gave at the opening of the Islamic Center on February 1. As detailed below, The Sultan and the Saint of Washington, DC in 1957. After sixty years, it remains drew upon the expertise of several members of the St. a timely and eloquent reminder of American inclusion Bonaventure community. and diversity in stark contrast to the current climate of Finally, there is a report on the first meeting of the exclusion and xenophobia.
    [Show full text]