illustration from Al Awan
Asch director Clark McCauley’s essay on the Psychology of Terrorism, for the Social Science Research Council, has recently been translated into Arabic by Abdullah Housein.
Expectations for what will happen if U.S. troops leave Iraq on schedule in 2011 range from a functioning federal Iraq to a client state of Iran to an even larger civil war to genocide. These expectations are based on different understandings of Iraq’s path from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 to where we are now. Were opportunities missed to construct a democratic Iraq without disintegration along communal lines? Has the ’surge’ helped? How much has Iranian interference mattered?
Professor Kaufmann, who has written extensively on communal conflict and its management, will speak on these questions on Tuesday, February 24th, 4-5:30 pm.
Poster link
Asch Summer Fellow Alan Keenan, who lives in Colombo and works for the International Crisis Group, is quoted in a February 18 New York Times article by Thomas Fuller.
Displaced ethnic Tamils, Feb 7, 2009.
TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka — Just north of here, after a string of recent victories, the Sri Lankan military is closing in on separatist rebels in what it calls the climactic battles of the country’s long-running civil war. But in this heavily militarized port city, there are no signs of jubilation.
Ethnic Tamil civilians waited on Feb. 7 to go to a camp for displaced people. Intense fighting is still expected in the territory that remains held by the rebels, where an estimated 200,000 civilians are trapped.
The government similarly declared victory here in Eastern Province 18 months ago. Though there are clear hints of reconstruction, the fear and lack of development apparent in the area reveal just how far the government still has to go to win the peace, even if its forces ultimately prevail on the battlefield.
The rest of the article can be found HERE.
Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco will deliver a talk, “After the Gaza War: Human Rights, International Law, and U.S. Policy toward Israel and Palestine,” on February 19, 2009 at 4:15 in Upper Tarble (Clothier).
Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He serves as a senior policy analyst for the Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, and chair of the academic advisory committee for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Zunes is the principal editor of Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell Publishers, 1999), the author of the highly-acclaimed Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003) and co-author (with Jacob Mundy) of the forthcoming Western Sahara: Nationalism, Conflict, and International Accountability (Syracuse University Press.) more information
The author of this Jerusalem Post column is Gershon Baskin, Co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information. Excerpt:
Several weeks ago I wrote that the war in Gaza “may have really been a ‘war of no choice.’” Following the recent leaks from the talks about the “imminent” release of Gilad Schalit, I have decided to expose what I already knew before the war began.
Two weeks before Israel launched its attack on Gaza in response to a breakdown of the tahadiyeh (the cease-fire) with three weeks of barrages of Kassam rockets and mortar shells against its civilian population, I had met with a senior Hamas personality in a European capital. This person is connected and in contact with the Hamas leadership in Gaza and in Damascus. Over the past 950 days since the abduction of Schalit, he has transmitted messages for me back and forth to the Hamas leadership in Damascus, including a letter from Noam Schalit to Khaled Mashaal on September 8, 2006 that led to the release of the first sign of life from Gilad, which was received by the Egyptians on September 9, 2006.
We spent several hours talking about the conditions to renew the tahadiyeh. Since the abduction of Schalit on June 25, 2006, my involvement behind the scenes has been in holding unofficial talks with various Hamas leaders in Gaza, Damascus and elsewhere, all seeking to advance the negotiations to bring Gilad home. For two and half years I have been trying to bring about a direct secret back-channel bypassing third party mediators in order to speed up the process.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
University of Ulster
INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute)
The postholder will be primarily responsible for leading and developing INCORE’s research profile. S/he will also contribute to teaching and other academic duties. Applicants must have a track record of teaching and research related to INCORE’s core themes and have been included in 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. In addition, for appointment at senior lecturer level applicants must have substantial research leadership experience and an international research profile.
Closing date: 06 February 2009
Interview date: 23 February 2009
Base: Magee
£46,305 - £53,680 Senior Lecturer
£31,531 - £44,956 Lecturer
Ref: J08/363/W
For an Application Pack and details visit: http://jobs.ulster.ac.uk/display_job.phtml?id=2798
For more details on INCORE visit: www.incore.ulster.ac.uk
Jeremy Ginges, Asch Summer Fellow, with Scott Atran has contributed an op-ed piece in the New York Times (Sunday, January 25) on the importance of symbolic gestures in international relations. “There is a moral logic to seemingly intractable religious and cultural disputes. These conflicts cannot be reduced to secular calculations of interest but must be dealt with on their own terms, a logic very different from the marketplace or realpolitik.”
Asch Summer Fellow Diane Perlman’s open letter to President Obama regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict has been published in the Huffington Post. She is organizing a group, CONFLICT ANALYSIS PROFESSIONALS FOR ENDURING SECURITY, to develop interdisciplinary strategies and communicate with the media and policymakers. Her website is www.consciouspolitics.org.
Dr. Perlmans can be contacted at dianeperlman@gmail.com
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Psychology in Sri Lanka Moves Forward
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In 2003, the Asch Center sponsored a month-long conference for teachers of psychology in Sri Lanka, at the beautiful University of Peradeniya. Last November, the University was the setting
for a conference organized by Sri Lankan psychologists that brought together psychologists, students, university officials, members of the community (including several Buddhist clergy), and a broad range of
social scientists for a day of discussion centered on the theme Towards Understanding Psychology: A Multi-Perspective Exploration of Psychology in the Sri Lankan Context.
Group picture of psychologists at the founding of the interim Sri Lankan Psychology Association |
The following day, psychologists who had attended the conference met in a hilltop hotel to discuss the needs of the discipline in the country and agreed to form a psychology association, the first in the country. The new interim organization will work over the next months to
draft a constitution, draw up membership criteria, and develop a set of goals and aims.
Asch faculty affiliate Jeanne Marecek, who has lived and worked part-time in Sri Lanka for two decades, spoke on the importance of developing the science of psychology as an academic discipline, and as a foundation of social policy.
For more information on the conference see http://www.freewebs.com/conferencecoordinator/index.htm. Ψ
| Thanks to Gordon Bermant for sending us this link. |
Major General Muniruzzaman, former Chief of Staff in Bangladesh, speaks to David Frost on political and security issues in South Asia. The interview begins at 5:30 on the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXmfjYMpkB8
Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict
