We congratulate co-authors John Baldwin and Yanling Wang on winning the Best Paper Prize.

More info here.

Fen Osler Hampson, Professor and Director of The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA), and associate I. William Zartman, the Jacob Blaustein Professor Emeritus at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, have just published a fascinating look at how talk can inform public policy on a remarkable scale, and lack of talk can have just as powerful an impact.

The Global Power of Talk: Negotiating America’s Interests (Paradigm Publishers, 2012) explores the uses and limits of the power of negotiation and diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy at a critical juncture in U.S. history. Beginning with the failure of U.S. diplomacy to nip Saddam Hussein’s ambitions in the bud prior to the first Gulf War, it argues that a series of diplomatic blunders laid the foundations for the uninhibited use of “gun power” over “talk power” for the next two decades. It critically examines missed opportunities in America’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Looking ahead, it shows how the United States should negotiate with “unengageables” like Iran, North Korea, and terrorists wherever they occur.

John S. Odell, Professor and Director of the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, says: “Two esteemed experts on international political negotiation make a powerful new case for the value of this foreign policy tool. They illustrate the costs of bungled opportunities and advance concrete suggestions for the future. Diplomats and students should read these lessons from decades of world experience.”

On sabbatical from Carleton, Findlay, a full professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and Director of the Canadian Centre for Treaty Compliance,  is conducting research on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Harvard University, having been awarded a joint fellowship with the International Security Program and the Project on Managing the Atom.  Both fellowships are part of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, located at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“Being able to spend my sabbatical at Harvard, considered by many to be the best university in the world, is obviously a great opportunity,” says Findlay.

Findlay plans to take full advantage of this opportunity.  During in his time in Cambridge, he hopes to complete work on a two-year research project Strengthening and Reform of the IAEA, a joint report between CIGI and CCTC set for release later this year.

“The Belfer Center is the perfect place for me to be conducting research on the IAEA,” says Findlay.  “Not only does it have a wealth of longstanding in-house nuclear expertise in its Managing the Atom Project, but in addition is currently hosting veteran IAEA chief nuclear inspector Ollie Heinonen, who is proving to be a great resource.”

In addition to his work on the  IAEA report, Findlay plans to write a book about the IAEA that will examine the organization’s  role as a “nuclear watchdog” since the end of the Cold War, including the way it has handled the serious non-compliance cases of Iran and North Korea.

A leading expert on nuclear energy and security, Findlay is enjoying the opportunity to work closely with fellow colleagues in the field.  “… my work is complementary to that of Robert Brown of Temple University, also a fellow here, who is working on the application of international organizational theory to the IAEA.”

From all angles, Professor Findlay truly has been given a golden opportunity — in more ways than one.

If you’re a student engaged in area studies, the financial pressure may be even more daunting, if not insurmountable. Especially if you’re focusing on Russia.

Any Russian-related study program includes language training beyond what the University offers. It will likely also involve overseas travel for conferences and field research, something that can put a sizable dent anyone’s pocketbook, let alone a full-time student without the benefit of a salary.

Frank Stronach, Chairman of Magna International, Inc.  The Magna Fund, endowed at $90,000.00 annually for five years will support students and faculty engaged in Russian-related studies at Carleton University.

For this reason, academic units like the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (EURUS) rely heavily on outside funding to support the research activities of their students and faculty.

Until recently, EURUS received significant funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for several Russian-related projects. These were multi-million dollar projects which provided research jobs for students and funding to organize conferences and build collaborative relationships with external organizations.

But two years ago, CIDA withdrew their funds for Russian-related studies. Consequently, the Institute was facing a financial crisis which threatened the academic and financial welfare of its students and faculty. With no outside funding, the Institute could offer little more than a roster of Russian-related courses and access to academic supervision. While EURUS is known for delivering courses of the highest quality, students and faculty needed more just a graduate curriculum to really engage in Russian-related studies.

The time had come to move beyond relying solely on government support. With the assistance of the Russian Embassy, an appeal was sent out to companies who were commercially engaged with Russia. And, of the twelve companies initially contacted, the first to respond was Frank Stronach of Magna International, Inc., a manufacturer of automobile spare parts with a large factory just outside of St. Petersburg.

Stronach met with Political Science professor and former Institute Director Piotr Dutkiewicz to talk about possibilities, and the result was the establishment of the Magna Fund: $90,000.00 annually for five years – almost half a million dollars in total – to support students and faculty engaged in Russian-related studies at Carleton University.

While particularly relevant to students and faculty in EURUS, the fund is designed in such a way that any student or faculty member pursuing Russian-related studies or research may apply for funding, including those from Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology, History and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

The fund will take the form of bursaries to support senior undergraduate students and graduate students who need to travel to Russia for language training or to conduct field research, and grants to support faculty in these units who travel to Russia or elsewhere for to attend conferences or conduct research related to Russian-area studies.

Funds will also be provided to establish a course in business in Russia, or another course on topic related to Russian-related studies, delivered jointly by the Institute and the Department of Political Science, and to support travel for Russian scholars and senior officials to deliver seminars and public lectures in Canada.

It may still be a struggle for a student of Russian-related studies to pay all the bills. But, thanks to Frank Stronach and Magna International, it’s no longer impossible.

Canadians see India as a rising economic superpower, candidate for permanent Security Council membership, and lucrative trading partner. These positive images are gradually supplanting older and more negative views of the subcontinent as bastion of poverty, overpopulation and human misery.

Our research in Mumbai, India’s full-to-bursting financial capital, offers yet another perspective. The city’s vibrant community of human rights workers, we believe, can teach the world something important about the potentials of social activism amid the most challenging of circumstances.

Consider Shalini Shinde, Mumbai slum resident and social activist. By day, she works as salaried employee in a nongovernmental organization for youth and women whose goal is to boost gender awareness and women’s self-confidence, two desperately needed ingredients in a society still dominated by men.

By night, Shalinee is Mumbai coordinator of a network of community-based organizations that helps poor people get government certificates entitling them to subsidized food, electricity, and water. In her own neighbourhood, moreover, Shalinee helps slum dwellers displaced by Mumbai’s expanding and luxurious airport.

In Mumbai, our research project found some 60 registered human rights groups along with dozens of unregistered entities. These groups work on everything from trafficked women and sex workers to problems of HIV-AIDS, education, sex selective abortion, and displaced slum-dwellers.

The issues these activists face are daunting, but one of the greatest underlying problems is the city’s sheer size. Mumbai now packs over 20 million people into some 440 square kilometres of gleaming highrises and sprawling slums, and the number of new residents is growing all the time. The Greater Toronto Area, by comparison, has a mere 5.5 million residents living comfortably in a generous expanse of 7,000 square kilometres.

As a result of over-crowding, Mumbai’s traffic never stops, and even a short taxi ride takes hours. The trains are efficient but bursting with people, forcing commuters to hang out of open doors and climb train roofs. Everywhere, vast wealth lives alongside indescribable poverty. Although Mumbai’s magnificent luxury hotels are scenes of spectacular opulence, makeshift hovels line many of the city’s street. In fact, much of Mumbai’s population is homeless.

Faced with such challenges, the efforts of local human rights activists seem like drops in the sea. Yet they are making a real difference, no matter how small, and in some cases, may even help make local government more accountable.

Why should ordinary Canadians care about Mumbai’s travails?

They should care, we believe, because Canadian businesses and consumers -along with many others -contribute to Mumbai’s staggering growth through investment and trade. The good news is that globalization is creating vast opportunities for many Mumbai residents, but the bad news is that it is also a tremendous source of inequality, over-population, and dislocation. To counter globalization’s negative effects, Canada and others must support the local activists struggling to humanize Mumbai’s wild growth.

Foreign support for local social justice must be done wisely, however, lest it create an alienated cadre of externally supported activists. India’s social movements have a long history of homegrown struggle, and many activists here are justifiably wary of foreign funds. Small, clever contributions from abroad will have healthier long-term impacts than larger and more hastily spent sums.

Mumbai’s activists must also adjust their ways. In particular, they must try harder to collaborate with the city’s faith-based organizations that are so deeply embedded in local society. Although India has a long tradition of secularism, its population is heavily religious. In many cases, Hindu, Muslim and Christian organizations have stronger connections to ordinary people in this city than the secular human rights activists themselves.

Although unscrupulous politicians in Mumbai have repeatedly abused religion and prompted wide-scale communal rioting, human rights activists must not abandon the terrain of faith to these dark forces. Instead, they must explore new ways of
collaborating with progressive Hindu, Muslim and Christian leaders. Mumbai’s Catholic Church, for one, has already taken steps in this direction, creating a human rights unit within its Peace and Justice Commission. More of this kind of thing is now desperately needed.

Mumbai’s wildly successful business sector must also step up to the plate. Local corporations are sitting on piles of cash, much of it earned in the globalized financial, service, and telecommunications sector. Some corporations are reportedly willing to use their fortune for the public good, and interest in the possibilities for corporate social responsibility is growing.

This, too, is something foreign donors can help encourage. Rather than simply pumping foreign money into Mumbai’s activist sector, Canada’s aid agencies and non-governmental groups could support local efforts to develop and professionalize Mumbai’s philanthropic sector.

For better or for worse, Mumbai is one of the world’s leading examples of rapid, urban, and globalized economic growth.  As a result, it is an exciting, crowded, and often deeply frustrating place to visit. If local human rights workers, corporations, and foreign donors can find common ground, it may become a bit more livable. And if this kind of progress is possible here, it is possible anywhere.

Archana Pandya, a graduate of Carleton’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, is researching human rights groups in Mumbai for a project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, led by James Ron, associate professor at the Paterson School.

A reserve legal officer (Army Lieutenant-Colonel) with the Canadian Forces, Penny serves in the Directorate of International and Operational Law in the Office of the Judge Advocate General.

He was awarded the medal due to his involvement in the Convention on Cluster Munitions multinational treaty negotiations on behalf of the Canadian government.  His leadership has greatly contributed to Canada’s ability to conduct and command future combined military operations with non-states parties that are also key allies.

Established in 1984, the Meritorious Service Medal recognizes individuals whose specific deeds have demonstrated an outstanding level of service, and professionalism and have brought honour or benefit to Canada. Military candidates are recommended by the Chief of the Defence Staff.

Penny is a tenured member of the faculty of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.