This event is cosponsored with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

 

Seminar Recording: https://youtu.be/yMVJu1gmRFk

 

Abstract: Joshua Busby, University of Texas-Austin, will present the main argument and empirical work from his draft book manuscript. Over the past decade, a rich literature on the connections between climate change and security emerged, much of it quantitative on the links between climate change and violent internal conflict. In this book manuscript, Busby seeks to widen the aperture of security concerns to include major humanitarian emergencies. Through the study of paired cases, he explores why countries that face similar physical exposure to climate hazards experience different outcomes. His argument combines state capacity, the degree of political inclusion, and the role of international assistance to explain differences between countries as well as within countries over time. Countries with low state capacity, high political exclusion, and where assistance is denied or delivered in a one-sided manner are expected to have the worst security outcomes in the wake of exposure to climate hazards. While assistance can sometimes compensate for weak state capacity, improvements in capacity and inclusion can diminish the risks of climate-related emergencies and conflict. In this talk, Busby will compare the experience of Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar to cyclones.

 

busbystanfordcovernote.pdf

busbychapter_1_-_introduction.pdf

chapter_5_-_syria_and_lebanon.pdf

 

Speaker's Biography:

Joshua Busby is an Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Climate and Security. He has been part of two U.S. Department of Defense-funded research projects on climate and security and his work on the topic has been published in Foreign Affairs, World Development, Climatic Change, Political Geography, International Security, Security Studies, among other publications.

 

This event is co-sponsored with The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

 

Seminar Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vHBvzWHcpw&feature=youtu.be

 

Abstract: The world’s largest organization is also one of its most mysterious. The Department of Defense (DOD) employs more men and women than Amazon, McDonald’s, FedEx, Target, and General Electric combined. Yet most Americans know little about it beyond its $700 billion budget and iconic five-sided headquarters. Now, the leader who knows the Pentagon best pulls back the curtain on an institution that many regard with a mix of awe and suspicion, revealing not just what it does but why, and why it matters. Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter will offer an insider’s account of how America’s military works—and how it should work. It is also a timely reassessment of U.S. foreign policy and national security strategies in a rapidly changing world, and a timeless reflection on the leadership qualities essential to not only run but also reform a dauntingly complex organization. 

 

Speaker's Biography:

For or over thirty-five years Ash Carter served in numerous jobs in the Department of Defense, mostly recently as the twenty-fifth Secretary of Defense under President Obama. He currently serves as the Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School and an innovation fellow at MIT. He also is a Rhodes scholar with a PhD in nuclear physics.

North Korea’s international trade has increased by more than three times since mid-1990's. Using various data sources and a frontier theory of international trade, North Korea's economic gains from trade can be quantified to show the gains are substantial. This implies that the opportunity cost of abandoning economic openness is high, thus, this is an important leverage to promote North Korea’s political openness and denuclearization. However, the current economic openness of North Korea has a fundamental limitation because of its heavy reliance on China. The China-dependence pattern of its trades has only recently emerged. It is worth noting that North Korea’s trades were much more diversified before 2008. The comparative advantage analysis shows that North Korea’s trades can be diversified as before; and cooperation among North Korea, South Korea, and the United States can play an important role for the diversification if it is shaped from global perspectives rather than by the bilateral relations.

Hyeok Jeong (PhD, University of Chicago) is a professor at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS), Seoul National University. His main research interests include economic growth and development, productivity and inequality dynamics in relation to financial deepening and labor market issues such as human capital and demographic transition. His recent research agenda also includes the influences of firm and product dynamics on international trade, higher education reform, Korea’s long-term development process, evolution of Korea’s demographic dividends, North Korean economy, and international development cooperation on issues such as knowledge sharing and development finance. Prior to joining the faculty of GSIS in 2015, he was a professor of economics at the University of Southern California and Vanderbilt University; National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Japan; and the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in Korea.

 

The pontianak, or female vampire, is one of the most significant supernatural creatures, or hantu, in Malay cinema. A series of pontianak films were among the most successful made in the studio system in Singapore between 1957 and the city-state’s independence in 1965. Although the pontianak appeals to discourses of Malay cultural identity in particular, the films achieved something rare: they were popular across different races in late-colonial Singapore. In the 21^st century, the pontianak genre has regained popularity in film and television by returning to the racialized politics of belonging in Malaysia and Singapore. The pontianak registers intersecting anxieties about femininity and modernity, race and nation, local and transnational cultural influences, and Islam in relation to indigenous beliefs. Prof. Galt’s talk will analyze the pontianak in recent Malaysian and Singaporean cinema and explore what the figure tells us about the role of film culture in shaping and contesting ideas of postcolonial Malay identity.

Rosalind Galt is Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London. She studies how geopolitics, cinematic style, history, and sexuality interact. She is the co-author with Karl Schoonover of Queer Cinema in the World (2016); the author of Pretty: Film and the Decorative Image (2010) and The New European Cinema: Redrawing the Map (2006); and co-editor of Global Art Cinema: New Theories and Histories (2010). Her advanced degrees are from Brown University (PhD) and the University of Glasgow (MA with Honours).