SIPA

Inside SIPA: February 2009

    Faculty:

    Joseph Stiglitz and José Antonio Ocampo have been appointed to the new Commission of Experts of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System. Professor Stiglitz will serve as the chair. The Commission will seek to identify broad principles for the reforms needed to ensure global economic progress. More

    Michael Doyle has accepted another term as chair of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). The U.N. Democracy Fund supports projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes. More

    Kemal Derviş will teach a two semester course on global economic governance, following the conclusion of his tenure as head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Dervis will co-teach with José Antonio Ocampo and will be a fellow of the Committee on Global Thought during the 2009 – 2010 academic year. Prior to his appointment with the UNDP, Derviş was a member of the Turkish Parliament (2002 – 2005), Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey (2001 – 2002) and Vice-President of the World Bank (1996 – 2001). More

    Austin Long has been appointed Assistant Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs, where he will teach security policy. Long most recently worked as an associate political scientist for the RAND Corporation, serving in Iraq as an analyst and advisor to Multinational Force Iraq’s Task Force 134 and I Marine Expeditionary Force. He also worked as a consultant to MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the technology and urban operations of counterinsurgency.

    John Mutter published an essay, “Preconditions of Disaster: Premonitions of Tragedy,” highlighting the social conditions that lead to disaster, drawing on global and local lessons from natural disasters and deadly conflicts. The essay was originally published in Social Research: An International Quarterly of the Social Sciences 75:3 (Fall 2008) 691-724.

    Download Professor Mutter’s essay.
    Visit Social Research here.

    Richard Goldberg published his insider’s look, The Battle for Wall Street: Behind the Lines in the Struggle that Pushed an Industry into Turmoil. Goldberg analyzes the struggle for power between the sellers and the buyers, and how information technology changed the playing field. More

    Paul Thurman published the following books: MBA Fundamentals of Statistics, (Kaplan, 2008), Pocket Guide to Data Analysis (Kaplan, 2008), and co-authored MBA Fundamentals of Business Strategy (Kaplan, 2009). He is also co-editor, with colleagues from Greece, of Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs, a research compendium, to be published in late 2009 by Gower (UK). More

    Karin Landgren Appointed to U.N. Nepal Post: The U.N. Secretary-General has appointed Karin Landgren to lead the U.N. Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). Landgren has been serving as deputy special representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal and deputy head of UNMIN since September 2008, and was previously UNICEF’s chief of child protection. More

    School:

    Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell Named Middle East Envoy: a member of SIPA’s Board of Advisors and a Senior Fellow with the School’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR), has been named by President Barack Obama as special envoy to the Middle East. Aldo Civico, director of the CICR, says "Because of his experience and wisdom, Senator Mitchell can play a decisive role in stimulating ripeness for the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and advance peace in the Middle East.”

    Learn more about George Mitchell in an article from Time.
    Read the announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice-President Joe Biden here.

    Brent Scowcroft to Deliver Graduation Address: Former National Security Advisor and SIPA Board of Advisors member General Brent Scowcroft will deliver SIPA’s 2009 graduation address on May 18. General Scowcroft served as National Security Advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia University. Learn more about General Brent Scowcroft here.

    Policy Making in the Post-Bush/Clinton Era: The Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) is calling for proposals for its 2009 Fall Research Conference, to be held November 5 – 7 in Washington, DC. The theme of the conference is "Evidence Based Policy Making in the Post-Bush/Clinton Era.” The deadline to submit proposals for panels, papers, roundtables and workshops is March 10. More

    Workshop Students Take First Place: UNICEF and six students from SIPA's workshop in development practice won first place in USAID’s “Development 2.0 Challenge.” The award recognizes an innovative system using mobile phones and text messages to monitor children's health in Malawi. The students participating in the workshop are Sean Blaschke, Kirsten Bokenkamp, Roxana Cosmaciuc, Mari Denby, Beza Hailu and Ray Short.

    View a slide show here.
    Read more about the project here.

    $3 Million for Brazilian Studies: A Brazilian entrepreneur has donated $3 million to SIPA to facilitate student exchange. The gift will be used to establish the Jorge Paulo Lemann Fund, and will provide fellowships and grants for Brazilian students to study at SIPA, and for SIPA students to study in Brazil. More

    Get LinkedIn: SIPA is now communicating with students, staff, alumni, and other interested parties via social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. When you sign up with a social networking site, be sure to join the SIPA group associated with that site (just search for SIPA). Once a month, SIPA distributes a short note containing school news, headlines, events, videos and alumni information. The SIPA Facebook group contains more than 1,500 members; SIPA’s LinkedIn community has nearly 1,000 members. Members can network, get news updates, and participate in a wide variety of discussions. Join LinkedIn or Facebook.

    Alumni:

    In his new book, Seeing the Elephant, Peter Marber (MIA '87), an adjunct professor at SIPA, describes how increasing economic integration and the rise of new actors is drastically altering the geopolitical landscape, and offers insights on how the U.S. can maintain a leading role in the 21st century and beyond. More

    An Alum’s Story of Survival: Sichan Siv (MIA ’81) survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia and became a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In between, he earned a Masters of International Affairs degree from SIPA. Siv tells his story of survival and flight to the United States in Golden Bones: An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America. More

    In the News:

    Jagdish Bhagwati on President Obama and protectionism, Financial Times.

    Jeffrey Sachs on the stimulus plan, The Washington Post.

    Joseph Stiglitz on nationalizing banks, The New York Times.

    Robbie Barnett on the Panchen Lama, Reuters.

    Steven Cohen on the end of the baby boomer era, Denver Post.

    Rashid Khalidi on the Gaza crisis, New York Post.

    Joseph Stiglitz on tax cuts vs. spending, CNBC.

    Jeffrey Sachs on privatization and the Russian death rate, The New York Times.

    Joseph Stiglitz on financial system regulation, The Wall Street Journal.

    Aldo Civico on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Gaza, iTunes.

    Jeffrey Sachs on a case for bigger government, Time.

    Pictured above:

    Mari Denby (MIA '09) from SIPA’s Workshop in Development Practice teaches public health workers in Malawi, Africa how to use text messaging to monitor children’s health.

 
To contribute news and information for Inside SIPA, contact Alex Burnett,
Communications Officer, at 212-851-1818 or ab3178@columbia.edu.