In This Issue

Gen. Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History

September 5, 2014

Senior Research Scientist

September 3, 2014

September 4, 2014

Mershon Memo is a weekly e-mail newsletter distributed by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, a unit of the Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University.

   

This event is an exploration of non-violent approaches to resolving international conflict. Panelists and guests will discuss the sources of military conflict and explore non-violent strategies designed to promote peace. The event will examine the impact of democracy, human rights, and trade on international peace-building; explore the impact of U.N. peacekeeping; and talk about grassroots peace and anti-intervention movements. Moderated by Fred Andrle, Humanities Institute associate and former host of WOSU's Open Line. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/wagingpeace

After the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011, post-war Iraq faced many challenges and threats that led to the deterioration of the Iraqi state. Key causes and consequences of this deterioration include the rise of the Islamic State, ineffectual leadership of the Al-Maliki government, and growing internal tensions between Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurdish denizens. This event will feature a discussion between Peter Mansoor, Mason Chair in Military History, and Emma Sky
(left) of Yale University on the situation in Iraq, key challenges, and options for U.S. policy going forward. Co-sponsored by the Ohio State chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society.  Read more and register at go.osu.edu/crisisiraq

Eldar Shafir is the William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and co-founder and scientific director at ideas42, a social science R&D lab. He studies decision-making, cognitive science, and behavioral economics. His recent research has focused on decision-making in contexts of poverty and on the application of behavioral research to policy. In this talk, Shafir will review recent research into the psychology that emerges in contexts of scarcity, and the decisions -- occasionally commendable, often problematic -- that ensue. Some implications for thinking about scarcity (especially poverty) and for policy will be considered. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/shafire

Thomas Christensen is the William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace and War and Director of the China and the World Program at Princeton University. From 2006 to 2008 he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs with responsibility for relations with China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. His research and teaching focus on China's foreign relations, the international relations of East Asia, and international security. Christensen will be speaking about the challenges associated with the rise of China. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/christensent

Gregor Kranjc teaches modern European history at Brock University. The geographic focus of his research lies in East-Central Europe and the Balkans, with thematic interests in war and society, the intersection between historical trauma and memory, and the history of the region's ethnic and religious minorities. Kranjc is the author of To Walk with the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation, 1941-1945, (Toronto, 2013), which examined the contentious topic of Slovene collaboration with their German, Italian and Hungarian occupiers during World War II. His current projects include "Collaboration, Resistance and Liberation in the Balkans," to appear in The Cambridge History of World War II (2015). Read more and register at go.osu.edu/kranjcg

Archil Gegeshidze is the ambassador of Georgia to the United States, appointed in March 2013. Prior to that, he was a senior fellow at The Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. Gegeshidze's professional expertise lays in regional security and cooperation in the South Caucasus and Euro-Atlantic integration. He is the author of numerous publications on Georgia's foreign and security policy and transformation of regional conflicts. Previously, Gegeshidze spent an academic year at Stanford University as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. He worked for the Georgian government from 1992 to 2000, serving as assistant to the head of state on national security and chief foreign policy advisor to the president. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/gegeshidze

Members of the U.S. Senate left Washington for the August recess, leaving behind 58 nominees for U.S. ambassadorships unconfirmed. The hold up, unsurprisingly, is partisan tensions between members of the Committee on Foreign Relations. One area of particular concern is Africa, which has a 20 percent vacancy rate at U.S. embassies while dealing with major U.S. interests - the Ebola outbreak, Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, and economic development opportunities. Ambassador Robert Pearson served as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2000 to 2003 and was previously posted in Paris, Brussels, Beijing, Taipei, and Auckland, New Zealand. As director general of the U.S. Foreign Service from 2003 to 2006, Pearson introduced critical changes in America's diplomacy, twice earning national awards for innovation and management improvement and preparing the United States for the challenges of the 21st century. Read more and register

 

The 2014 Study Abroad Expo will be held on Friday, September 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Buckeye Reading Room of Thompson Library, 1858 Neil Avenue Mall. The Expo gives students the opportunity to talk one-on-one with study abroad experts and learn more about the myriad of ways to study abroad at Ohio State. Students will be able to explore programs for all majors and learn more about how to fund their prospective study abroad experience. Visit the Office of International Affairs website to learn more.