IPSA

As I mentioned, I will be giving two presentations this weekend. If would prefer students looking for extra credit to attend the session on violence. Conference will be in the Student Center East on Hasted, I think both presentations are in the White Oaks A room.

SESSION II: 10:45-12:00 noon
PANEL I Session Title: Violence in the System
Organizer/Moderator: Brandon Valeriano
Location: White Oaks A
Topics & Presenters • Russia and the United States, 1991-2005: Regime Change and the Transformations of an Interstate Rivalry Vitaliy Voznyak and Brandon Valeriano, UIC •

Using a Fuzzy Future Model to Analyze Violence In Iraq Ribhi I. Salhi, Roosevelt University •

Been There, Done That: The Navajo War and Experiments in Navajo Nation-Building Chris Newman, Elgin Community College •

Terrorism at the Doorstep? A Comparative Look at Issue Salience for Local versus National Level Candidates Catherine Griffiths, UIC
Discussant: Brandon Valeriano, UIC

SESSION IV 3:45 – 5:00 p.m.
PANEL I Session Title: Urban Politics II: Race, Elections, and Inequality
Organizer/Moderator: Susan Gaffney, Governors State University
Location: White Oaks A
Topics & Presenters • The Influence of Public and Private Sector Development on Inequality in the Urban Spatial Structure Anthony Paul Andrews, Governors State University •

Conflict, Cooperation, or a Colorblind Environment? What Local Lawmakers Say About the Experience of Blacks Serving on City Councils Gregory Neddenriep, Northeastern University •

Competition for Office: Mayoral Elections Andrew McNitt, Eastern Illinois University and Chris Newman, Elgin Community College •

Latino Cultural Assimilation, Divided Loyalties, and World Cup Television Ratings Brandon Valeriano, UIC

Territory and the Arctic

As some of you know, I was just in Canada. Read this while I was there, which goes over the coming territorial dispute over the rights to the Arctic.

Treading on Thin Ice

"In recent months, a Cold War-style game of imperial conquest has developed beneath the ice of the Arctic Ocean and the Northwest Passage, a submarine-driven dispute involving the United States, Norway, Denmark and especially Canada and Russia. Mr. Harper used this week's Throne Speech to signal the federal government was stepping up its presence in the Far North, pledging a bold and expensive military campaign to assert sovereignty over territory claimed by Canada, and areas of the Arctic that are still in dispute."

WWIII

I couldn't agree with the following more:

Avoiding WWIII
"Despite the very real causes for U.S. complaint, the escalation of American threats against Iran is unwise. It is grossly premature. It is dangerous, as it greatly increases the likelihood of accidental escalation into a preventable war. It is alarmingly ill-timed, as an isolated United States wages simultaneous ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and both conflicts are going badly. And it is diplomatically counterproductive. Congress and U.S. opinion leaders should slam on the brakes -- if they can."

Preemption Gone Bad

Semi-old NY Times article

Pre-emptive Caution: The Case of Syria

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: October 15, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 — It was President Bush who, a year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, rewrote America’s national security strategy to warn any nation that might be thinking of trying to develop atomic weapons that it could find itself the target of a pre-emptive military strike.

But that was the fall of 2002, when the world looked very different from how it does in the fall of 2007. Now, the case of Syria, which Israeli and American analysts suspect was trying to build a nuclear reactor, has become a prime example of what can happen when Mr. Bush’s first-term instincts run headlong into second-term realities.

Five years later, dealing with nations that may have nuclear weapons ambitions — but are also staying within the letter of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — looks a lot more complicated than it once did.

This time it was the Israelis who invoked Mr. Bush’s doctrine, determining that what they believed was a nascent Syrian effort to build a nuclear reactor could not be tolerated.

In a curious role reversal, some of Mr. Bush’s own top advisers were urging restraint before Israel bombed the site on Sept. 6, raising questions about whether the threat was too murky and too distant to warrant military action. Those are precisely the kinds of questions Mr. Bush’s critics say should have been raised about Iraq.

Minority Fellow

Interested minority undergrads should apply, and come see me.

Minority Fellows Program APPLICATION DEADLINE APPROACHING: October 26
The APSA Minority Fellows Program, which was established in 1969 as an effort to increase the number of minority scholars in the discipline, has designated more than 300 fellows and contributed to the successful completion of doctoral political science programs for dozens of ndividuals. Fellows with stipends receive a $4,000 fellowship that is disbursed in two $2,000 payments--one at the end of their first graduate year and one at the end of their second--provided that they remain in good academic standing. Additional applicants who do not receive funds from the Association may also be recognized and recommended for admission and financial support to graduate political science programs. Awards are based on students' undergraduate course work, GPA, extracurricular activities, GRE scores, and recommendations from faculty.

The Minority Fellows program is designed primarily for minority students applying to enter a doctoral program in POLITICAL SCIENCE for the FIRST TIME. Additional eligibility criteria include:

• Applicants must be members of one of the following racial/ethnic minority groups: African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Latinos/as, and Native Americans (federal and state recognized tribes);
• Applicants must demonstrate an interest in teaching and potential for research in political science;
• Applicant must be a US Citizen at time of award; and
• Applicants must demonstrate financial need.
  

For more information, see www.apsanet.org/section_427.cfm. For more information, contact: Kim Mealy at kmealy@apsanet.org.

Is this an Alliance?

Lets see if everyone was paying attention in class, is this an alliance?

Gore and Peace

As some of you know, I am really upset that Gore got the Nobel Peace Prize. Mainly because work on global warming has nothing to do with peace. The link is tenuous at best. This economist article makes some good points.

"IF THE Nobel Peace Prize were awarded for making the world a more peaceful place, then this year’s winners—Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—would be a bizarre choice. But two out of the previous three peace prizes went to people and organisations who had nothing to do with peace.
Evidently the committee has decided to redefine the award as the Nobel Prize for Making the World a Better Place in Some Unspecified Way."

The New York Times notes, "there will be skeptics who ask what the Peace Prize has to do with global warming. The committee answered that unhesitatingly with its warning that climate change, if unchecked, could unleash massive migrations, violent competitions for resources and, ultimately, threaten the “security of mankind.”

I don't really appreciate being label a skeptic. I am an empiricist and there is little to no evidence of what the Nobel prize committee claims will occur. Resource wars have been rare to non-existent throughout international history. Migrations have not lead to widespread conflict, even refugee movements (although they are obviously harmful to the well being of peoples). I fail to see how the security of mankind is threatened through an increase in violence by global warming. Global warming is clearly an important problem, but it is a peace/war problem?