Mershon Center for International Security Studies
September 12 , 2017
In This Issue
In the Media
Peter Shane
Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law
 
"Immigration Debate Heats Up Again with DACA Decision"
WOSU-FM All Sides
September 6, 2017
About Mershon Memo
Mershon Memo is a weekly e-mail newsletter distributed by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, part of the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University.
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Mershon Events
Thursday, September 14, 2017

Edgar S. Furniss Book Award Winner
Jesse Driscoll
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Jesse Driscoll Jesse Driscoll is associate professor of political science and chair of the Global Leadership Institute at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at University of California-San Diego. He is an area specialist in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Russian-speaking world. Driscoll is author of Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States (Cambridge, 2015), winner of the Edgar S. Furniss Book Award, given annually by the Mershon Center to an author whose first book makes an exceptional contribution to the study of national and international security. The book maps the processes by which well-functioning domestic hierarchies emerged after relatively short periods of anarchic violence in Georgia and Tajikistan. In this talk, Driscoll will argue that conflict in Ukraine can be best understood as a civil war. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/driscollj
Monday, September 18, 2017

Amr al-Azm, Alam Payind, Richard Herrmann
6 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
Co-sponsored by Middle East Studies Center

Amr Al-AzmSoviets occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989 to prevent the country from collapsing. Currently Russia is treating Syria as a client state in similar ways. Afghanistan remains a struggling democracy, often falling into "failed state" category. The Syrian state is almost nonexistent in terms of functional central institutions. This symposium will dig deeper into the two countries' situations, answering such questions as: What are the similarities and differences with regard to the relationship with Russia? What role do regional rivalries (Iran and Saudi Arabia) or intervention (Turkey) play? The panel features Amr al-Azm (left), associate professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University; Alam Payind, director of the Middle East Studies Center at Ohio State University; and Richard Herrmann, professor and chair, Department of Political Science. Read more and register at  go.osu.edu/clientstates
Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Paul D. Miller
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Paul D. Miller Paul D. Miller is associate director of the Clements Center for National Security at University of Texas-Austin. As a practitioner, Miller served as director for Afghanistan and Pakistan on the National Security Council staff; worked as an intelligence analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency; and served as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, including a deployment to Afghanistan. His most recent book, American Power and Liberal Order: A Conservative Internationalist Grand Strategy, was published by Georgetown University Press in 2016. In this lecture, Miller argues that U.S. security depends on active sustained support of the international order. Read more and register at  go.osu.edu/millerp
Friday-Saturday, September 29-30, 2017

Culture of Military Organizations
120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Peter MansoorThis project aims to explore the impact of the culture on the development of effective military organizations and therefore its impact on security from 1861 to the present. The effectiveness of military organizations is dependent on a number of components, among them organization, doctrine, training, weapons technology, leadership, morale, discipline and cohesion, endurance, and the ability to adapt to volatile and uncertain combat environments. Underlying these factors is organizational culture, a vital wellspring of the effectiveness of armies, navies, and air forces throughout history. Yet organizational culture has been largely understudied as a component of military effectiveness. This project aims to fill that void. Organized by Peter Mansoor, Gen. Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/militaryorgs
Mershon News
UN does prevent war, research by Mershon affiliate finds

Skyler Cranmer Skyler Cranmer, Carter Phillips and Sue Henry Associate Professor of Political Science, is co-author of a new study finding that the United Nations acts more than just a bystander on world events; it provides a forum where diplomacy reduces the chance of war.

Cranmer and co-author Scott Pauls, chair of mathematics at Dartmouth College, analyzed 5,143 U.N. General Assembly voting records from 1946 through 2011 and found that the process of nations working together over time builds trust and facilitates fast, transparent communication that raises the chance of resolving crises peacefully. "The evidence demonstrates that the U.N. is more effective at achieving its mandate of avoiding wars than many experts think," said Cranmer.

Cranmer's research has been covered extensively in such outlets as  Newsweek, Science Newsline, The Jersusalem Post, Phys.org, domain-b.com and Herald Globe. Read more
Mershon affiliate authors study on state's high-tech investments

J. Craig Jenkins J. Craig Jenkins, professor emeritus, sociology, is co-author of a new study showing that states find rewards from high-tech investments, given time and patience. 

Jenkins and Kevin Leicht, University of Illinois, conducted a national study of such investments in the 1980s and 1990s and found that investments pay off, even in states where prospects for high-tech seems less than ideal. 

Their study is reported in the journal Social Science Research.
Other Events
Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Ben Wizner
"New Technology, the Fourth Amendment, and the Future of Privacy"
12:15 p.m., Barrister Club, 25 W. 11th Ave.
Sponsored by Moritz College of Law

Ben Wizner Join Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, for his talk, "New Technology, the Fourth Amendment, and the Future of Privacy." This program is part of the "Data Points: Ideas on Data, Law and Society" lecture series, presented by the Program on Data and Governance of The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law. Ben has spent nearly 15 years working at the intersection of civil liberties and national security, litigating numerous cases involving airport security policies, government watch lists, surveillance practices, targeted killing, and torture. Since 2013, he has been the principal legal advisor to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the South Campus Gateway garage. Boxed lunches will be served to those who register in advance. Read more and register
Friday, September 15, 2017

Jack Goldstone
"Why Revolutions Persist - The Struggle for Freedom and Fragile Regimes"
3 p.m., 165 Thompson Library, 1858 Neil Ave.
Sponsored by Center for Historical Research

Jack Goldstone Jack A. Goldstone (Ph.D., Harvard) is the Virginia E. and John T. Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, awarded the 1993 Distinguished Scholarly Research Award of the American Sociological Association; Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History; and nine other books as well as over 100 research articles on topics in politics, social movements, democratization, and long-term social change. He has appeared on NPR, CNN, Al-Jazeera, Fox News, and written for Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Al-Hayat and the International Herald Tribune. Read more
Monday, September 18, 2017

Founders Day 2017
"Till the Boys Come Home: World War I's impact on students, medicine and research at OSU"

4 p.m., 165 Thompson Library, 1858 Neil Ave.
Sponsored by Ohio Staters, Inc. and University Libraries

An Ohio State Founders Day panel discussion to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I

Panelists
Bruno CabanesBruno Cabanes, Professor of History and Mershon affiliate
George Paulson, Professor Emeritus of Neurology
Tamar Chute, Professor and University Archivist

Panelists will discuss the different facets of the War's violence on the battlefields and against ordinary citizens; the simultaneous scourge - the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 - that led to millions of deaths world-wide; and the monumental effect of both crises on OSU's campus. Light refreshments will be served. Read more
Other News
Cramer to discuss right-wing populism and rise of Trump

Katherine Cramer Ohio State's Democracy Studies is hosting Katherine Cramer, author of The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker, on Wednesday, September 27, 12-1:30 p.m., at Thompson Library, Room 165 (Multipurpose Room). Cramer is professor of political science and director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She will be talking about the nature of current right-wing populism in the United States, drawing on her extensive examination of rural voters in Wisconsin. She will explain the intensive and pervasive resentment toward cities and urban residents she has heard in conversations with 39 groups of people across 27 communities, and explain how this perspective provided fertile ground for the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The talk is free and open to all.
Friends of the Department of History announce WWII tour

The World War II Tour 2018 will run June 23 to July 1, traveling to London, Normandy and Amsterdam, following in the footsteps of the men and women who fought for democracy and were called "The Greatest Generation." The tour will be led by Ohio State's experts in diplomatic and military history - Mershon affiliates Peter Mansoor, Gen. Raymond E. Mason Chair in Military History, and Peter Hahn, chair of the Department of History, along with David Steigerwald. For full details, itinerary and registration information, visit the Alumni Tours page.
2017 International Photography Competition open

All students, faculty, staff, visiting scholars and alumni at The Ohio State University are invited to submit their photos to the 2017 International Photography Competition. Entries will be accepted through October 9. This is a wonderful opportunity to share your original photographs from around the world. In addition to honoring the Best in Show, first, second and third place winners will be selected in the following categories: People, Places and Politics. There will also be People's Choice awards for the photos that receive the highest votes via the Facebook voting phase. Read more: oia.osu.edu/photo-contest
Funding for faculty, staff and student engagement

The Connect and Collaborate Grants Program incentivizes faculty, staff, students and their public/private sector community partners to submit letters of intent for programs that have the potential to catalyze engaged, collaborative teaching and research activities benefiting the community and university. Grants up to $70,000 are available. Letters of intent are due Friday, September 29. An information session will be held on today, Tuesday, September 12, at 11 a.m. in the Research Commons and may be viewed online. Read more
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