Mershon Center for International Security Studies
September 26, 2018
In This Issue
Congratulations
Peter Shane
Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law
 
Peter Shane was called on to testify at Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings to the U.S. Supreme Court. Shane argued that Kavanaugh's confirmation would create the most executive power-indulgent Supreme Court since World War II. He was joined by John W. Dean, former counsel to President Richard Nixon; Rebecca Ingber, associate professor of law at Boston University School of Law; and Lisa Heinzerling, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. 
In the Media
Paul Beck
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Social and Behavioral Sciences
 
"Obama Laments 'Broken' Politics in Stumping for Ohio Democrats"
Bloomberg
September 13, 2018
Hollie Nyseth Brehm
Assistant Professor of Sociology
 
"Three classes that redefine learning"
Ohio State Features
September 10, 2018
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 27, 2018

Meir Elran
"The Israeli Power Paradox"
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Meir Elran Meir Elran is senior research fellow and head of the Homeland Security Program and co-head of the Society-Military Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. Brig. Gen. (ret.) Elran served in the Israel Defense Forces as a career officer for 24 years in senior command and staff positions, primarily in the Military Intelligence Directorate. His last post was deputy director of Military Intelligence (1987-1989). Elran's lecture will strive to explain why Israel, the strongest power in the Middle East, is facing difficulties in managing the continuous conflicts with much weaker adversaries such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/elranm
Thursday, October 4, 2018

John Mearsheimer
"The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities"
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

John Mearsheimer John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. Mearsheimer has written extensively about security issues and international politics more generally. He is the author of six books including Conventional Deterrence (1983), which won the Edgar S. Furniss Jr. Book Award; The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001, 2014), which won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize; The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (with Stephen M. Walt, 2007), which made the New York Times bestseller list; and Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics (2011). In this event, based on his new book, The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities, Mearsheimer will explain why liberal hegemony, the foreign policy pursued by the United States since the Cold War ended, was doomed to fail. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/mearsheimerj
Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Steven Lobell
"A Granular Theory of Balancing"
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Steven Lobell Steven Lobell is professor of political science at University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Lobell is the author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books including, most recently, Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016) and The Political Economy of Regional Peacemaking (University of Michigan Press, 2016). He is also the PI of Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative award on "Power Projection, Deterrence Strategies, and Escalation Dynamics in an Era of Challenging Near Peers, Rogue States, and Terrorist and Insurgent Organizations." In this event, Lobell will present a finely tuned theory of balancing, arguing that states do balance effectively. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/lobells
Thursday, October 25, 2018

Annette Becker
"Messengers of the Disaster: Raphael Lemkin, Jan Karski and Genocides"
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Annette Becker Annette Becker is a professor at University of Paris-Nanterre and honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She is deputy director of the International Research Center of the Historial de la Grande Guerre [Museum of the Great War]. She has published widely on World War I, its commemoration, return of the soldiers, humanitarian aspect and trauma, and now focuses on the cultural aspects of the wars and links between the two World Wars. She will discuss her latest book Messagers du désastre, Raphaël Lemkin, Jan Karski et les génocides (Fayard, 2018), a history of the concept of genocide: the perpetrators, the victims, and the "messengers" who try to warn, to see, to speak. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/beckera
Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Carol Graham
"Unequal Hopes, Lives, and Lifespans in the U.S.A.: Insights from the New Science of Well-Being"
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Carol Graham Carol Graham is the Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, College Park Professor at University of Maryland, and senior scientist at Gallup. Her most recent books include Happiness for All? Unequal Lives and Hopes in Pursuit of the American Dream (Princeton, 2017), The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being (Brookings, 2011), and Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires (Oxford, 2009). At this event, Graham will discuss how well-being metrics can be used to identify and monitor trends in life satisfaction and hope, and in desperation and misery. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/grahamc
Mershon News
Mershon Center co-sponsors conference in Moscow 
Russia conference logos
The Mershon Center for International Security Studies is a co-sponsor for " Diplomatic Dialogue: Public opinion and public diplomacy in international relations," a one-day conference to be held on October 11, 2018, at the Gorchakov Foundation in Moscow.

Erik Nisbet
Erik Nisbet
Organized by Mershon affiliates Erik Nisbet and Olga Kamenchuk, co-directors of the Mershon Center's  Eurasian Security and Governance Program, the conference will bring together mixed panels composed of top international and Russian experts speaking about the intersections of public diplomacy, public opinion, and foreign policy in each country and their relevance to U.S.-Russia foreign relations.

Among the questions to be considered are:
  • What role does the public opinion play in shaping foreign policy?
  • What are the risks of knowledge gaps in international relations?
  • What are the current and future perspectives for U.S.-Russia relations?
Olga Kamenchuk
Olga Kamenchuk
Leading researchers and experts from George Washington University, Ohio State's Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), Institute of World Economy and International Relations (Russian Academy of Sciences), Russian State University for the Humanities, St. Petersburg State University, USC Center for Public Diplomacy, Oklahoma State University School of Global Studies, and other institutions will discuss these issues at the conference.

Date: October 11, 2018; 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Gorchakov Fund, Moscow, 105064 Yakovoapostolsky pereulok, 10 str. 1
Working languages: Russian, English. Simultaneous translation is provided.
Register here
Other Events
Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Olena Nikolayenko 
"Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe "
3 p.m., 160 Enarson Classroom Building, 2009 Millikin Road
Sponsored by Center for Slavic and East European Studies

Olena NikolayenkoJoin the Center for Slavic and East European Studies for a lecture by political scientist Olena Nikolayenko (Fordham University) about her most recent book Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe. Her book looks at and compares non-violent youth movements that emerged in the early 2000s against authoritarian governments in Serbia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Ukraine. Nikolayenko argues that the movements' tactics and state countermoves explain, in no small degree, divergent social movement outcomes. Her argument is based on data gathered from interviews participants, public opinion polls, government publications, NGO reports, and newspaper articles.
Friday, September 28, 2018

Wang Zheng
"A Socialist Feminist Revolution in the Early People's Republic of China "
3 p.m., 168 Dulles Hall, 230 Annie and John Glenn Ave.
Sponsored by Center for Historical Research

Wang Zheng Wang Zheng presents the hidden history of the socialist state feminists who maneuvered behind the scenes in the Chinese Communist Party to promote women's liberation. Her research focuses on the tenacious struggles of these CCP women who joined the revolution in the early 1920s and 1930s and became part of the state power holders after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Investigating their visions, strategies, triumphs and failures, the lecture engenders the high politics of the CCP and raises fundamental questions about male dominance in movements that aim to pursue social justice. This event is sponsored in part by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center and the Institute for Chinese Studies.
Thursday, October 4, 2018

Lori Esposito Murray
"Elections, China, North Korea, and Cyber Threats "
11:30 a.m., Hyatt Regency, 350 N. High St.
Sponsored by Columbus Council on World Affairs

Lori Esposito MurrayAs the Trump Administration approaches its mid-term, join a dialogue about the most pressing threats to U.S. national security as well as possible scenarios for a changed world order. How are Russia and China undermining the rules based global order? Is the trade war with China a major turning point in US-China relations? How serious is the Russian threat to our mid-term elections-to our democracy and to democracies globally? Will North Korea give up its nuclear weapons? What do we know about their intentions? What is the impact of US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement? And, to what degree are cyber threats and other cyber issues playing out in U.S. national security-enhancing the appeal of terrorist organizations-undermining democracies? Beyond the U.S., what are the implications for the global community? To help us put these critical topics into context, we welcome Lori Esposito Murray, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Read more and register
Other News
'Origins' examines history of debt crisis in Greece

Origins has published a new piece: " The Alpha and Omega of the Greek Debt Crisis" by Christopher Kinley.

Before voters in the United Kingdom opted to leave the European Union in 2016, the country observers felt most likely to do so was Greece. Reeling from the global financial meltdown that began in 2007 and then from the economic austerity measures imposed on it by Europe, many inside and outside Greece thought the best way forward would be to break from the EU. That crisis, however, was only the latest in a series. As historian Christopher Kinley explains, Greece has been plagued by a long history of debt crises that have hampered its growth and prosperity.

About Origins: Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective is a monthly ad-free magazine that features top scholars on today's most pressing topics. Published by The Ohio State History Department, its authors include National Book Award winners and world-renowned scholars. You can also explore reviews of popular history books on the Origins website as well as the new monthly feature Milestones.
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