International Relations in Theory and Practice
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SPRING 2008 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE The Watson Institute’s grounding as a for lives and careers in an increasingly leading policy research center is having globalized world. a marked impact on Brown students of international relations (IR) and Watson’s faculty and visiting scholars development studies (DS). split time between research and teaching; they led some three dozen Undergraduates in these academic Brown undergraduate courses in the concentrations go well beyond term 2007-08 academic year, in addition to papers and far outside the classroom. providing such graduate training as the The level of such activities as thesis Graduate Program in Development. As writing, independent study, research such, the DS and IR programs provide assistantships, overseas fellowships, a multifaceted learning experience, meetings with policymakers, work enabling students to draw on the with documentary filmmakers, and perspectives of Brown- and Watson- HONORING community service in developing based anthropologists, economists, A PUBLIC countries sets Brown students apart historians, political scientists, INTELLECTUAL from their peers and prepares them for sociologists, policymakers, and others. Former Brazilian President Fernando future endeavors. Henrique Cardoso’s seminal research on development is revisited on its 40th This mix has proved attractive. anniversary, as he also makes Foreign “Students have voted with their feet. Policy magazine’s “Top 100” list. We have a record-breaking graduating Pages 4 and 20. class this year,” said IR Program Director Peter Andreas. In fact, the IR concentration has the largest number of graduates of any academic concentration at Brown’s 2008 commencement, with an estimated 160. Another 30 will graduate in development studies. 2007 IR commencement ceremony Many of these students come from During the coming year, over a dozen abroad – for instance, 15 percent of courses will be taught in a new area, this year’s IR graduates. Going forward, global governance, by legal scholars a University-wide international strategy visiting Watson from countries aims to bring even more students, including India, Israel, and South Africa. WHAT IF JFK faculty, and ideas from around the Current IR tracks of study include HAD LIVED? world to Brown. global environment/global health, The documentary Virtual JFK is chosen global security, political economy of as finalist at the Hot Docs film festival. The Watson Institute is playing a key development, and politics, culture, and Page 3. role in realizing the University’s goals identity. of ensuring that students are prepared Continued on next page 2 WWW.WATSONINSTITUTE.ORG • Development Studies is one of the • The Watson Institute is supporting See pages 10-14 for only concentrations at Brown in which 11 undergraduate summer internships ’08 student honors, every student must write a senior this year, for projects including work internships, and more. thesis – with many students conducting with Iraqi refugees in Syria, HIV/AIDS field work overseas on such subjects victims in Thailand, and medical as student activism in Africa, tsunami researchers in South Africa. Continued from preceding page and civil conflict in Sri Lanka, and HIV/ AIDS in Mexico. • IR and DS students have also Specific examples from the IR and DS tapped into resources from Brown’s graduating classes underscore the Undergraduate Teaching and Research benefits of the hands-on, in-depth, and Assistantships, Research at Brown in-the-field activities complementing grants, and other sources, for work work in the classroom. As described largely done overseas. Some 50 by Alyson Richards ’08, the IR honors undergrads have been working with research program “has opened so Watson faculty over the course of the many doors for me.” year as research assistants, translators, editors, and in other capacities. • The internationally renowned Brown Claudia Elliott introduces thesis presentations Journal of World Affairs is produced • One IR and two DS concentrators twice a year by undergraduates, • Policymakers and practitioners were singled out this year for national with this year’s issues taking on in residence lead study groups awards for their community service in such matters as the United States’ – interactive sessions providing developing countries: Johnny Lin ’08, international debt, the future of US students a behind-the-scenes look at by Newsweek, for gathering students foreign policy, and space politics. international relations in the making. from China, Taiwan, and the US each Groups this academic year have been year to discuss regional conflict; Emma • Twenty IR students have chosen to led by past presidents of Brazil and Clippinger ’09, by JPMorgan Chase, for pursue the honors program, which Chile, a former US ambassador to the work in Rwanda; and Caitlin Cohen ’08, requires a graduate-level thesis and United Nations, a UN peacekeeping by USA Today, for work in Mali. a presentation to faculty and fellow official, and Poland’s former deputy students. Topics this year include “Best prime minister. • Many IR students leave Brown having Practices for Business Involvements learned more than two languages in Peacebuilding,” “Sesame Street • Award-winning documentary – 19 percent of this year’s seniors are and Foreign Aid in Egypt,” and directors help lead the “Global Media: equipped with much-in-demand Arabic “Environment as ‘High Politics.’” History, Theory, Production” course, and Chinese language skills. engaging with students who, in turn, produce media of their own. Over time, IR Program Assistant Director Claudia Elliott PhD’99 has GROWTH IN IR GRADUATES seen considerable growth and change 180 in the program, which has more 160 158 than doubled in size since the mid- (est.) 140 138 134 1990s. “Students increasingly seek to 128 129 120 123 120 122 114 understand, engage in, and better this 100 104 97 world,” Elliott said. “The International 80 77 78 Relations Program helps them 60 develop knowledge and skills to be- 40 come innovative thinkers and leaders 20 in our global society.” 0 BRIEFINGS SPRING 2008 3 Premiering Virtual JFK Johnson chose to take the nation to war. Would John F. Kennedy have Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had made the same decision, had he Lived was a finalist for both the Special lived and been reelected president in Jury Prize and Best International 1964? This is the question that Virtual Feature Film as it premiered in April at JFK addresses. the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto. Masutani uses historical footage to portray Kennedy’s foreign policy education as he resisted pressure for military escalation over Cuba, Laos, Berlin, and Vietnam. Footage (l-r) David Udris, Michael Udris, and James Der Derian filming Culture War of Johnson depicts his struggle as he committed the United States to a war sensitivity” training for soldiers going in Vietnam. to Afghanistan and Iraq and the role of social science in the ongoing war on Combining black-and-white archival terror. footage with insightful narration by Blight and a mood-setting soundtrack With two protracted conflicts in the by Joshua Kern ’03, the film employs Middle East, the military has engaged what Harvard historian Niall Ferguson anthropologists and other academics calls “virtual history,” testing the to create culturally sensitive soldiers plausibility of historical “what ifs” who would be as effective in making and the outcomes they might have peace as waging war. produced. “Enlisting the best and the brightest Virtual JFK was developed as part of to win over the hearts and minds of the Watson Institute’s Global Media enemies produced a new civil war, Introducing Virtual JFK at Hot Docs Project, which analyzes the importance within the military as well as the The accolades at Hot Docs, North of media in world affairs and produces universities,” says Der Derian, who is America’s largest documentary film media addressing international issues. also director of the Institute’s Global festival, spoke both to the quality and Security Project. significance of Virtual JFK, directed Culture War In Production by Visiting Fellow Koji Masutani ’05 To tell the story, the filmmakers and produced by Professor James A new documentary, now in final embedded with Marines in the Mojave Blight, Adjunct Professor janet Lang, production at the Institute, explores Desert as they engaged in cultural University of Toronto Professor David the US military’s controversial effort training exercises in mock Iraqi towns A. Welch, and Peter O. Almond, to transform the American way of and gained rare access to urban producer of the Cuban Missile Crisis war. A rough cut of Culture War warfare training at Quantico, Virginia. documentary Thirteen Days. was previewed last month at the Massachusetts Multicultural Film The resulting film, now in final Film industry insiders saw the Festival, as part of the Landscapes of production, is “a road-trip into the documentary as particularly relevant Violence Film Series in Amherst, MA. heart of the war machine, a critical during the current US presidential investigation of the architects of the campaign. It starts with the statement The documentary, made by Global ‘revolution in military affairs,’ and a that the Vietnam War was a war of Media Project Director James Der moving tribute to the foot soldiers and choice. In July 1965, President Lyndon Derian, David Udris, and Michael Udris, Marines who have been tasked to explores the US military’s “cultural clean up the mess left behind.” 4 WWW.WATSONINSTITUTE.ORG Rhodes Center Ramps Up of Harvard University, and Florencio Other research focuses more on Lopez-de-Silanes, of École de Hautes finance. One such question addressed: The William R. Rhodes Center for Études Commerciales du Nord, What is the impact on a developing International Economics held a major analyzes the rules and practices of country’s capital market when its larger conference in April – one of several financial disclosure by parliamentarians companies rely on overseas stock early milestones toward its goal of in 126 countries, to determine their exchanges to raise money? Levine advancing policy-oriented research effect.