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
We’re adding a new link to our list: the new website of Swarthmore’s Peace and Conflict Studies program. The PCS coordinator is Asch affiliate Lee Smithey, who will be speaking at the Asch Seminar on April 6th, 2009. Here’s the description from their homepage.
At levels from the interpersonal to the global, the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Swarthmore College provides opportunities to study conflict and peacemaking in many forms.
The program’s multidisciplinary curriculum examines the causes, practices, and consequences of violence as well as peaceful or nonviolent methods of conflict management, resolution,and transformation. Students explore many factors shaping human conflict, including the psychological,social, cultural, political, economic, biological, religious, and historical.
The Peace and Conflict Studies Program draws courses from a range of social science and humanities departments at Swarthmore and the other campuses of the Tri-College consortium. Students in any major may add a minor in peace and conflict studies.
Kurt Schock (Associate Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University)
Monday, November 24, 2008, 4:30 p.m.
Scheuer Room
Kohlberg Hall
Swarthmore College
Prof. Kurt Schock <http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/%7Esocant/kurt.htm> is
author of /Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in
Nondemocracies/ (University of Minnesota Press). “He is currently
researching land reform and land rights movements in the global south.
He is examining how various methods of civil resistance, such as protest
marches and land occupations, are being used to promote a more equitable
distribution of land and resources. He is also interested in how
constructive programs such as rural cooperatives and small-scale
sustainable agriculture are being used to promote agrarian reform. More
broadly his research seeks to understand how methods of nonviolent
action and ‘people power’ movements are able to successfully challenge
state domination and economic exploitation.”
Light refreshments will be provided.
Campus maps and directions to Swarthmore College are available at
http://www.swarthmore.edu/visitordash/dash_visitors.php
A .pdf flyer is available at
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/peace/documents/Schock_F08_poster.pdf
Sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology with the Peace
and Conflict Studies, Asian Studies, and Latin American Studies programs.
