Paul Beck
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Sociology and Communication
"Kasich's campaign outlines strategy for staying in the race"
"Establishment Democrats keep control of Franklin County party"
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John Mueller
Senior Research Scientist
"Dealing with travel concerns following Brussels attacks"
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Mershon Memo is a weekly e-mail newsletter distributed by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, a unit of the
Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University.
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Monday, April 4, 2016
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
Paul Staniland is assistant professor of political science at University of Chicago, where he co-directs the Program on International Security Policy. His current book project and related articles examine organizational cohesion and fragmentation in insurgent groups. In this talk, Staniland will offer a new theory of how states evaluate armed groups, arguing that ideological perception and instrumental incentives combine to assign groups to six different political roles. These roles, ranging from mortal enemies to business partners to undesirable, determine the strategies that governments pursue and the orders they seek to construct.
Comparative evidence from South and Southeast Asia illustrates how regimes perceive armed groups that emerge. Read more and register at
go.osu.edu/stanilandp
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Friday-Saturday, April 8-9, 2016
Organized by Allan Silverman, Ellen Peters, and Christopher Gelpi
120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
 The Mershon Center for International Security Studies in collaboration with the Decision Sciences Collaborative at The Ohio State University present the first annual conference on Risk and Security. The goal of the conference is to explore both qualitative and quantitative issues in risk and security, especially issues concerning decision making under uncertainty. Speakers include
James H. Baker, U.S. Department of Defense;
Vicki Bier, University of Wisconsin-Madison;
Lara Buchak, University of California-Berkeley;
Scott de Marchi, Duke University;
Robert Jervis, Columbia University;
Baruch Fischhoff, Carnegie Mellon University;
Rose McDermott, Brown University;
Paul Slovic (shown), University of Oregon and Decision Research;
Mark Stewart, University of Newcastle, Australia; and
Troy S. Thomas, National Security Council. Read more and register at
go.osu.edu/risksecurity
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Tuesday, April 12, 2016
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
Edward Mansfield is the Hum Rosen Professor of Political Science and director of the Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics at University of Pennsylvania. He is author of
Power, Trade, and War (Princeton, 1994),
Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War [with Jack Snyder] (MIT, 2005), and
Votes, Vetoes, and the Political Economy of Trade Agreements [with Helen V. Milner] (Princeton, 2012). In this talk, Mansfield will assess financial reform and the implementation of economic liberalization. He finds that reform tends to be conducted by poorer countries and participants in the International Monetary Fund Standby Arrangement and its Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility. Read more and register at
go.osu.edu/mansfielde
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Thursday, April 14, 2016
Noon, 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
Sponsored by the Institute for Korean Studies
Ji Young Choi is associate professor of politics and government at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he is
affiliated with the International Studies Program and East Asian Studies Program. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the Mershon Center of International Security Studies. Choi specializes in international relations history and theories, international political economy, and East Asian security and political economy. His recent research interests are in a historical and theoretical view on the rise of China and Korean security. In this talk, Choi will explore how changing formations in national identities have shaped foreign policy outcomes in South Korea. Read more and register at
go.osu.edu/choij
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Thursday, April 14, 2016
The Art of Protest: Principles and Practices of Nonviolence
4 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
 The Student Peace Conference is an annual event started by the Peace Studies Society in 2013. This year's conference, entitled The Art of Protest: Principles and Practices of Nonviolence, will consist of three workshops aimed at helping participants practice peace and nonviolence in their everyday lives and in direct action campaigns. This year's presenters include
Danielle Poe (left) from University of Dayton,
Patrick Coy from Kent State University, and
Craig Hovey from Ashland University. Additionally, one Ohio State student will be recognized with the Student Peace Award scholarship for contribution to peace and social justice. Read more and register at
go.osu.edu/studentpeace16
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Friday, April 15, 2016
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
Michael Barnett is University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Currently, he is an associate editor of
International Organization. He will be speaking about his most recent book,
The Star and the Stripes: A History of the Foreign Policies of American Jews (Princeton, 2016). Barnett argues that American Jews identify with, and believe their survival depends on, the American principles of liberalism, religious freedom, and pluralism. This identity and search for inclusion form a political theology of prophetic Judaism that emphasizes the historic mission of Jews to help create a world of peace and justice. Read more and register at
go.osu.edu/barnettm
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'Risk and Security' to examine decision-making in uncertainty
The Mershon Center for International Security Studies in collaboration with the Decision Sciences Collaborative at The Ohio State University present the first annual conference on Risk and Security.
The goal of the conference, taking place Thursday, April 8, through Friday, April 9, 2016, is to explore both qualitative and quantitative issues in risk and security, especially issues concerning decision making under uncertainty.
 Confirmed conference participants include:
- James H. Baker, Director, Office of Net Assessment, U.S. Department of Defense
- Vicki Bier, Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Lara Buchak, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of California-Berkeley
- Scott de Marchi, Professor of Political Science, Duke University
- Baruch Fischhoff, Howard Heinz University Professor, Social and Decision Sciences and Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
- Robert Jervis, Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics, Columbia University
- Rose McDermott, David and Mariana Fisher University Professor of International Relations, Brown University
- Paul Slovic, Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, and President, Decision Research
- Mark Stewart, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Newcastle, Australia
- Troy S. Thomas, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, National Security Council
The Risk and Security conference is organized by Allan Silverman, professor of philosophy; Ellen Peters, professor of psychology and director of Decision Science Collaborative; and Christopher Gelpi, Chair of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/risksecurity
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Noon, Saxbe Auditorium, Moritz College of Law, 55 W. 12th Ave.
 In his new book, Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, election law expert and Ohio State Professor of Law Ned Foley (left) presents a sweeping history of election controversies in the United States, tracing how their evolution generated legal precedents that ultimately transformed how we determine who wins and who loses. Foley, with Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of history, The Ohio State University, and Gary Gerstle, professor of American history, University of Cambridge, will discuss some of the country's closest, most bitterly disputed contests, including the Bush-Gore election, and why the American election system has been -- and remains -- ineffective in deciding the tightest races in a way that all sides will agree is fair. Read more and register |
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3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
 Robin S. Brooks is Davis Fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University for 2015-16. A Foreign Service officer with the State Department since 2004, Brooks has served as human dimension officer at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, refugee resettlement officer at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and chief of staff to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. She has also worked in the State Department Operations Center and at the U.S. embassies in Moscow and Sofia. She will discuss how, by prioritizing competition with Russia over bilateral relations with Eastern European countries, the United States damaged both its own national interests and those of its Eastern European partners. Read more and register at go.osu.edu/brooksr |
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11:30 a.m., WOSU @ COSI, 333 W. Broad St.
 It is estimated that more than 1 billion people have experienced some form of extreme violence, ethnic conflict, torture, rape, terrorism, or starvation, as well as being victims of natural disasters. The plight of refugees fleeing their homeland or a person living in a war-ravaged community, plus the millions of others who suffer from mental illness are often overlooked as significant components of our world's health priorities. Dr. Giuseppe James Raviola has studied and written on child and adolescent mental health concerns, and the mental health and well-being of health care workers. He works to integrate mental health services into the care provided at Partners In Health sites, supporting local team leaders in Haiti, Rwanda and elsewhere. Read more and register |
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Mary Habeck and Richard Herrmann
6 p.m., Moritz College of Law, 55 W. 12th Ave.
 The Alexander Hamilton Society at The Ohio State University is pleased to announce its second event of the spring semester. We will be hosting two esteemed scholars: Mary Habeck (left) of the American Enterprise Institute, and Richard Herrmann, chair of Ohio State's Political Science Department, for an illuminating discussion of Russia's foreign policy moves, e.g. in Ukraine and Syria, and how the U.S. should and is responding. It is likely to be hosted in the Saxbe Auditorium, and we will have free Coke products and Wings Over chicken wings as usual. Read more and register |
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4:30 p.m., 100 Independence Hall, 1923 Neil Ave Mall
 Amy Goodman is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation's role in Nigeria. Since 1996, Goodman has hosted Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Thomas Merton Award in 2004, a Right Livelihood Award in 2008, and an Izzy Award in 2009 for "special achievement in independent media." In 2012, Goodman received the Gandhi Peace Award for a "significant contribution to the promotion of an enduring international peace." Democracy Now! Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America, by Amy Goodman and David Goodman with Denis Moynihan will be available for sale at the event. Read more and register |
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Brustein publishes essay on global university
Higher education today faces rapidly shifting economic, political and national security reality and challenges. In order to respond to these changes,
William Brustein, vice provost for global strategies at Ohio State, believes that universities must develop ways to graduate globally competent students that possess a combination of critical thinking skills, technical expertise and global awareness.
"A global university is one in which international and multicultural experiences and perspectives are fully embedded into its teaching and learning, research and discovery, and engagement and outreach missions," he said, rather than the creation of international 'silos.'
In order to strengthen a university's core mission, Brustein's 10 pillars include:
- internationalizing strategic planning
- internationalizing the curriculum
- eliminating barriers to education abroad
- requiring foreign language proficiency
- internationalizing faculty searches
- incorporating international contributions into the faculty reward system
- upgrading senior international officers' reporting relationships and placing senior international officers on key university councils and committees
- embracing a holistic approach to the international student experience
- drawing upon the expertise and experiences of and engaging fully local immigrant or diaspora communities
- making global academic partnerships an institutional priority.
Since Brustein joined Ohio State in 2009, Ohio State has won several key international awards, including NAFSA's Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization in 2014. A previous version of his essay appeared in
The Handbook of Practice and Research in Study Abroad: Higher Education and the Quest for Global Citizenship, edited by Ross Lewin (2009).
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Brustein's essay, "