Watson Institute for International Studies News

On Video: Sen. Chafee Bids Farewell

2009-07-03 00:00:00.0

Former US Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75 reflects on the high points of his 2-1/2 years as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Institute in a short video made before his departure on June 30.

Lutz Chairs Anthropology Department

2009-07-02 00:00:00.0

Institute Professor Catherine Lutz is now chairing Brown’s Anthropology Department, where she has a joint appointment.

Michael Kennedy Takes up Post as Institute Director

2009-07-01 00:00:00.0

Michael D. Kennedy today assumes the directorship of the Watson Institute. Following an international search, he was named the Howard R. Swearer Director and professor of sociology and international studies in May. Kennedy comes to Brown from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was most recently director of the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia and the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, as well as a professor of sociology and the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of European and Eurasian Studies. In his new role, Kennedy will provide intellectual leadership and strategic direction to the Watson Institute’s research and teaching on contemporary global issues.

Intrepid Alum Profiled

2009-07-01 00:00:00.0

Read a feature about David Rohde '90, a reporter who escaped last month from a Taliban prison.

On Open Source: Gusenbauer Sees Euro-Socialism Take Root in US

2009-07-01 00:00:00.0

Listen to a new Open Source podcast with Visiting Professor Alfred Gusenbauer. As host Christopher Lydon describes the interview: "Austria’s hearty 49-year-old former chancellor, who may be typical of the left-of-center professionals in European politics, likes everything he sees on his American sojourn, starting with the Obama stimulus package, the borrowed budget, and the push for big public investments in health, education and green technology."

Lutz Questions US Military Basing Strategy in Iraq

2009-07-01 00:00:00.0

As Iraqi citizens celebrated Sovereignty Day yesterday, with the hand-over of US military bases in cities and towns to national security forces, Professor Catherine Lutz told KPFK Los Angeles that she remained skeptical about the United States’ long-term basing plan.

Taking a New Tack on State Formation

2009-07-01 00:00:00.0

In exploring the processes of state formation in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay, Sebastián Mazzuca has arrived at a new model of state formation that differs significantly from the traditional European model. European state formation has traditionally been described as a geopolitical phenomenon, its culmination marked by the creation of a bureaucratic state and infrastructural power, Mazzuca said in a talk last semester at the Institute. In contrast, mercantile interests are of foremost importance in explaining state formation in Latin America.

Heller: Globalization Spurs Rapid Urban Change

2009-06-29 00:00:00.0

Globalization has fundamentally changed the role of cities, Patrick Heller said in a talk at this month’s Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI) on Development and Inequality in the Global South. Associate Professor of Sociology and Paul Dupee Faculty Fellow at the Institute, Heller explored the ways in which new flows of ideas, goods, and political allegiances have spurred rapid urban transformations.

New Book: 'Censoring an Iranian Love Story'

2009-06-22 00:00:00.0

How can art retain its force and emotional power in the face of government censorship? The first novel of Iranian author Shahriar Mandanipour to be translated into English, Censoring an Iranian Love Story (Knopf, 2009) depicts the creativity and determination of a novelist, also named Mandanipour, who writes “a simple love story” under the oppressive eye of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Mandanipour wrote the novel from 2006 through 2007 while he was Brown University’s International Writers Project Fellow in residence at the Watson Institute.

Hart: No Backing Down in Iran

2009-06-22 00:00:00.0

Neither side in the Iranian confrontation over recent presidential elections is going to back down, Institute Adjunct Professor Jo-Anne Hart said during a Saturday WPRO broadcast. Protestors “are not going to pack it in,” she said, and the government is not going to accept change. “It could get very bad there; we’ll have to hope for the best for Iranians,” she said on WPRO Saturday Morning News with Steve Klamkin.

Gusenbauer: Global Crisis Places EU at Crossroads

2009-06-19 00:00:00.0

Speaking last week to young scholars participating in the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI), former Austrian Chancellor and Visiting Professor Alfred Gusenbauer offered a European perspective on the current global financial crisis and what it means for the future of the European Union. The crisis has placed Europe’s 52-year-old experiment in supranational integration “at a crossroads,” Gusenbauer said.

Watsonblogging the Tehran Protests

2009-06-17 00:00:00.0

Watsonblogger Andrew Blackadar sees echoes from the past in images and videos of the current protests in Tehran.

Tracing the Global Diffusion of Legal Ideas

2009-06-17 00:00:00.0

How to explain the evolution of core ideas shared among global legal elites about the role of law in society, the relationship between law and politics, or the nature of the legal process? How to explain the historical progression within legal systems around the world from a fundamental emphasis on property rights, to an emphasis on the rights of social groups, to, finally, an emphasis on human rights? Addressing these and other questions last week, legal scholar Duncan Kennedy discussed his hypotheses on the global processes of legal change during one of four of this summer's Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARIs).

Xu Honors the Unknown Rebel

2009-06-12 00:00:00.0

Watson Institute Senior Fellow Xu Wenli this month commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests in Washington with dignitaries including Nancy Pelosi, leader of the US House of Representatives. Remembering the young man who faced down a tank during the protests, Xu called the Unknown Rebel “a hero who has fought violence with peace … the noblest messenger of peace in the 20th century.”

Pinheiro Calls Attention to Burma's Minorities

2009-06-12 00:00:00.0

Institute Adjunct Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro recently called for the release of Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and 2,100 other political prisoners in Myanmar/Burma, as well as an international commission of inquiry into the systematic subjugation of minorities in the country, in an op-ed in the New York Times.

Students Awarded Swearer Fellowships

2009-06-11 00:00:00.0

One development studies concentrator and one international relations concentrator has each been awarded a Swearer International Service Fellowship for 2009. DS concentrator Einat Kadar ’10 will be investigating the South African tobacco industry and IR concentrator Jenna Stark ’11 will be supporting the Middle East peace process.

Tannenwald Calls for Creation of Disarmament Agency

2009-06-10 00:00:00.0

The US government should create an agency devoted to nuclear disarmament, according to Associate Professor Nina Tannenwald. “Norms of nuclear restraint need to be embedded in the thinking of leaders and backed up by institutions of government,” she wrote in one of a series of commentaries the New York Times published on the subject last week on its Room for Debate blog.

Zakaria: Global Optimist

2009-06-10 00:00:00.0

Watch international commentator Fareed Zakaria as he delivers Brown University's 2009 baccalaureate address.

On Video: Writers Project Fellow Gives Reading

2009-06-10 00:00:00.0

Brown University's International Writers Project Fellow gave a reading of her work at one of this year's commencement forums. Watch it here.

Watson Leads BIARI Workshops for Young Scholars

2009-06-09 00:00:00.0

The Watson Institute is leading two of this summer’s inaugural Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI), which are now underway. A first-of-its-kind faculty development initiative for young scholars from the developing world, BIARI 2009 comprises four distinct two-week institutes on campus. At Watson, an institute on “Development and Inequality in the Global South” has drawn 60 participants, and another 55 are attending the “Law, Social Thought, and Global Governance Institute.”