Suchergebnisse

"The overwhelming support, protests and political education of the overseas Burmese community for the Spring Revolution has been critical to our victories."

I am again teaching Global Politics Through Film, but this time it is targeted to a 300-level undergraduate audience (POLS 360). It meets Tuesday-Thursday at 4 pm until 5:15. I've taught it previously as a 500-level course open to advanced undergrads and master's students, as a version of the senior capstone seminar for the department, and as an Honors seminar.The first session was Tuesday and the class is mostly constituted by sophomores and juniors in Political Science, though it also includes at least one student from the Film Studies minor.  A couple of the students clearly have a good deal of experience thinking about film, which should be helpful to the rest of us. There are currently only 11 students so I would like to attract a few more this week before enrollments close on Friday. In mid-December, enrollment was closer to 15, so I fear that the omicron variant has pushed students online. If anyone is on the fence about spring courses, the classroom is very large and there is plenty of room for social distancing.On Tuesday, we basically covered the syllabus, which can be found here. Mostly, we're studying films and covering topics that previous versions of the course have trod -- though the course content has improved significantly over the years. In 2006, in retrospect, I really didn't know much about what I was doing. I have adopted three new films: Green Zone, to discuss the selling of the Iraq war, Wonder Woman, to study gender themes in IR, and Eye in the Sky, to address the ongoing "drone war" in American Foreign Policy. 
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From the sign code in Arab, Alabama, which regulates privately owned signs on private property: While trying to maintain content-neutrality, signs that contain vulgar, threatening, hate speech, lewd or indecent content are not permitted. I believe that should read "while not actually trying to maintain content-neutrality." Indeed, a prohibition on "vulgar" signs is unconstitutionally content-based…

CEGA's Director of Operations Lauren Russell and Executive Director Carson Christiano share the center's ambitions for 2023.Spring is upon us and we're cleaning CEGA's proverbial house. This means reflecting on our priorities and commitments, and tidying our goals for the year — each of which we hope will bring us closer to a world where people are better off because decision-makers use insights and tools backed by rigorous, inclusive, and transparent evidence.A woman in India assembles a jharu, a broom made of grass, used for cleaning | Hewlett FoundationBelow we outline five strategic ambitions for CEGA that we believe will generate new insights and tools leaders can use to improve policies, programs, and lives.Incubating new research portfolios on forced displacement, conflict and security, and gender and agency.These are topics of central importance to decision-makers and researchers, for which data and evidence remain lacking. We have made headway on each: a new suite of CEGA studies is focused on generating more and better data (including panel data) on the refugee and host community experience, as well as the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve outcomes for both. Meanwhile, we are building a portfolio on conflict and security, leveraging an ongoing project on post-conflict security structures in Latin America. Finally, we're scoping a new, cross-cutting research portfolio on gender and agency, designed to answer important questions about social norms, wellbeing, and measurement, and to inform improvements to social programs that affect underserved groups.Promoting the use of novel data and data-intensive analytical approaches by the development research community.New types of data — including call detail records, sound and text data, and satellite data — and new methods to analyze them (like machine learning and AI) can generate more accurate, nuanced, and useful insights on global poverty and development than traditional surveys. Through our Data Science for Development (DS4D) portfolio, CEGA is seeding frontier research leveraging these data and approaches — like employment matching, new poverty estimates, and using historical satellite imagery to predict growth — and building the capacity of early-career researchers and partners, including in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), to use similar tools. In parallel, our Digital Credit Observatory (DCO) recently launched a new focus on data privacy, which is generating evidence on the effectiveness of privacy enhancing technologies.Centering the voices of women, LMIC scholars, and other underrepresented groups in our work.CEGA continues to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in all that we do, for example, by empowering African scholars to generate policy-relevant research through fellowships, networking and dissemination opportunities, and access to dedicated research funding and mentorship. This year, our Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR) is taking a structural view to investigate the need for — and effectiveness of — various inclusion strategies, in close partnership with the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA). Finally, CEGA works tirelessly to make social science research more transparent, benefitting underrepresented scholars by increasing access to knowledge (more below). We are eager to expand these activities, and to serve as a partner and resource to other organizations seeking to make development research more open and inclusive.Advancing open and transparent research.In 2023, CEGA is redoubling efforts to promote ethical, transparent, and reproducible research practices that can improve scientific integrity and inspire better public policy, while making the entire research process more inclusive. We are particularly excited to grow our Cost Transparency Initiative (CTI), which will drive new efficiencies in global development by helping to standardize the way the cost (and cost-effectiveness) of development interventions is measured. Importantly, we are further investing in our work on Open Policy Analysis (OPA), a crucial element of democratic and effective policymaking, which is advancing through an ongoing collaboration with the Ministry of Finance in Chile.Investing in partnerships to strengthen policy impact.The pathways by which evidence improves people's lives are rarely linear (or even clear). CEGA's impact stories highlight some of the many circuitous ways in which evidence-based tools and insights have guided improvements in programming, policy, and practice. Our approach to policy engagement has long involved investing in LMIC researchers, facilitating the co-creation of research through strategic matchmaking activities, and prioritizing demand-driven research in our competitive grantmaking. This year, CEGA seeks to partner with organizations in LMICs that can inform our research agendas and deliver key insights to decision-makers at opportune moments. Meanwhile, we are continuing to investigate our own impact to understand how CEGA investments have contributed to policy change so that we can incorporate lessons into our evolving policy engagement strategy.Marie-Kondo-ing our annual goals renews our motivation to continue advancing rigorous, transparent research that informs critical decisions impacting people experiencing poverty. We are deeply grateful for our diverse and committed network of affiliated faculty, LMIC scholars, partners, supporters, and staff. We invite you to engage with the CEGA community by reading about our research, attending our events, following us on social media, and sharing our data and resources as we work to meaningfully improve people's lives.Spring Cleaning: Refreshing CEGA's Annual Priorities was originally published in CEGA on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For the first time since 1996, I'll be teaching a section of the department's Introduction to International Relations (POLS 330). Since then, the unit made this a required class for certain tracks in the major. I've taught the graduate version of the class for decades, so it was really a matter of deciding what to teach to undergraduates -- and what to assign for readings/exams/papers.I'm adding a link to my new (still draft) syllabus in case any students want to check it out. Class begins next Tuesday, January 11. There are no required textbooks -- all the readings will be available via Blackboard. Comments about topics or readings from fellow academics are welcome. I decided not to cover constructivism overtly though some ideas will sneak in various topics. Right now, only 14 students are enrolled, but the classroom could easily accommodate double that number without major concerns about physical distancing. I think students benefit in small sections, but it will remain relatively small even if it ends up with 25 students.Online sections of department classes are mostly full, so I suspect the pandemic is having an effect on in-person enrollments. While a couple of students in my classes last semester reported positive tests, there were no outbreaks and I hope everyone generally felt safe. With masking required and distancing made possible by a large classroom -- plus a 90%+ rate of campus vaccination, I did not feel especially threatened. Update: Because of omicron, I'm not going to count attendance as part of the course grade. 
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The latest data covering global arms sales shows that sale of arms in 2010 decreased to around $40.4 billion, 76% of which went to developing countries. This was a substantial 38% decrease in arms sales compared to 2009, and the lowest since 2003.

The global financial crisis has affected many countries, and developing countries have started to see a decrease in purchases in the last couple of years. Although most arms are sold to developing countries, 10 countries account for some 60% of all sales in the period 2003 to 2010, which the data covers. Saudi Arabia tops that list followed by India and the United Arab Emirates. (As well as concerns about some of the regimes in the top buyers, some of this spending is also said to be due to modernizing efforts.)

Updated graphs and charts on arms sales data are provided here.

The arms trade is big business. The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy, account for approximately 84% of the arms sold between 2003 and 2010.

Some of the arms sold go to regimes where human rights violations will occur. Corruption often accompanies arms sales due to the large sums of money involved.

Read full article: The Arms Trade Is Big Business

The Real Inventor of the Focus Group and a Pioneer for Qualitative Research in Communication Studies

A church in Bethlehem has decided to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ differently this year, symbolizing the suffering of children in Gaza amid Israel's ongoing indiscriminate war.

As people take to the streets and governments recall their ambassadors to Israel, Palestine solidarity in South America is not only a fight against Israeli apartheid but also US hegemony in the region.

The latest data covering global arms sales shows that sale of arms in 2011 increased to around $85 billion, 84% of which went to developing countries. This was almost double the arms sales compared to 2010 which was the lowest since 2004.
One major factor for the increase was the US sales of arms to Saudi Arabia. Most other major arms sellers otherwise saw a decrease in sales and the trend in recent years had been declining sales.
The global financial crisis has affected many countries, and many developing countries started to see a decrease in purchases in the last few years. However, just 10 developing countries account for some 85% of all sales to developing countries in the period 2004 to 2011, which the data covers. Saudi Arabia tops that list followed by India and the United Arab Emirates. (As well as concerns about some of the regimes in the top buyers, some of this spending is also said to be due to modernizing efforts.)
Updated graphs and charts on arms sales data are provided here.
The arms trade is big business. The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy, account for approximately 85% of all arms sold between 2004 and 2011.
Some of the arms sold go to regimes where human rights violations will occur. Corruption often accompanies arms sales due to the large sums of money involved.
Read full article: The Arms Trade Is Big Business

In his latest book, historian Avi Shlaim describes the three worlds that helped to shape him-Iraq, Israel, and Britain.

How can progressive industrial strategies deliver cross-border synergies? How can social justice be hard-wired into their design? How can industrial policy be designed to align with countries' broader economic strategies?
Der Beitrag Progressive Economics Network Meetings During IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. erschien zuerst auf Das Progressive Zentrum.

In this debate, Sada features two authors to discuss the roles that Arab Gulf states have played in shaping the conflict between Israel and Hamas, both in the diplomatic arena and at the level of public discourse.

8/7/2010: Justice Elena Kagan takes oath.

11/2/2010: Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association argued.