Mershon Center for International Security Studies
January 30, 2018
In This Issue
Congratulations
Randy Schweller
Professor of Political Science
 
Schweller will be a discussant along with Herb Asher, professor emeritus of political science, for "A Conversation with Chelsea Handler," on Friday, February 2, at 7 p.m. at the Columbus Athenaeum, 32 N. 4th St. Tickets are free but limited and can be picked up at the Ohio Union Information Desk with a valid BuckID.  
In the Media
Paul Beck
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Richard Gunther
Professor Emeritus of Political Science
Erik Nisbet
Associate Professor of Communication
 
"The 2016 ground game from the voters' perspective"
Vox
January 22, 2018
Skyler Cranmer
Carter Phillips and Sue Henry Associate Professor of Political Science
 
"Is UN ineffective like Duterte says? 2017 US examine thinks in any other case"
Kaplan Herald
January 28, 2018
Mitch Lerner
Associate Professor of History
 
"Remember the Pueblo!"
The New York Times
January 23, 2018

"Remembering North Korea's Audacious Capture Of The USS Pueblo"
NPR
January 23, 2018

"Fifty Years Ago, North Korea Captured an American Ship and Nearly Started a Nuclear War"
Smithsonian Magazine
January 23, 2018

"The LBJ Tapes: USS Pueblo Incident"
C-SPAN
January 24, 2018
Randy Schweller
Professor of Political Science
 
"President Trump's Policies Mark 'Return To Realist Principles,' Scholar Says
Here & Now, WBUR
January 29, 2018
About Mershon Memo
Mershon Memo is a weekly e-mail newsletter distributed by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, part of the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University.
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Mershon Events
Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Amr al-Azm, Alam Payind, Richard Herrmann
6 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.
Co-sponsored by Middle East Studies Center

Amr Al-AzmSoviets occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989 to prevent the country from collapsing. Currently Russia is treating Syria as a client state in similar ways. Afghanistan remains a struggling democracy, often falling into "failed state" category. The Syrian state is almost nonexistent in terms of functional central institutions. This symposium will dig deeper into the two countries' situations, answering such questions as: What are the similarities and differences with regard to the relationship with Russia? What role do regional rivalries (Iran and Saudi Arabia) or intervention (Turkey) play? The panel features Amr al-Azm (left), associate professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University; Alam Payind, director of the Middle East Studies Center at Ohio State University; and Richard Herrmann, professor and chair, Department of Political Science. Read more and register
Monday, February 12, 2018

Lori Fisler Damrosch
3:30 p.m., 250 Drinko Hall, Moritz College of Law, 55 W. 12th Ave.

Lori Fisler Damrosch Lori Fisler Damrosch is Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia Law School. Her principal areas of interest are public international law and the U.S. law of foreign relations. Prior to joining the Law School, Damrosch served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State with responsibilities including European and Canadian affairs, international antitrust, aviation, and trade. In this event, Damrosch will present her research at the intersection of the international law and comparative constitutional law governing use of military force. Taking the multinational coalition against Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) as an illustration, she will discuss the national constitutional processes by which democratic states decide to participate in international military operations. Read more and register
Thursday, February 22, 2018

Maurizio Albahari
3:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Maurizio Albahari Maurizio Albahari is associate professor of anthropology and in the Keough School of Global Affairs and University of Notre Dame. He is a social-cultural anthropologist who explores the tension between human existence and structures of power. Albahari has published extensively on the humanitarian, socio-cultural, legal, and geopolitical components of the ongoing refugee "crisis," as well as on forms of civic engagement and migrant integration. His current research traces participatory citizenship and trans-Mediterranean mobilization in the everyday life of maritime spaces, as well as of changing cities in Italy and in the region.  Albahari is the author of  Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border  (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).  Read more and register
Mershon Research
Diplomacy of the First World War

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Siegel, Department of History

World War I was a defining event of the 20th century - a military and economic disaster from which Europe's Great Powers never recovered. The war left 8.5 million men dead, toppled three monarchies, ended four empires, and set the stage for European decolonization.

Jennifer Siegel
Jennifer Siegel
Professor of History
Scholars have studied the origins of World War I and its results from every possible angle, whether social, military, economic or intellectual. What they have not considered, however, is diplomacy during the war itself. This is what Jennifer Siegel sets out to explore in her next book.

The usual diplomatic demands of wartime - such as efforts to gain allies, challenges of cooperation with allies, and preventing neutral parties from becoming enemies - were even more acute because of the scale of World War I. Combatants were obsessed with balance of power.

Deadlock on the fighting fronts meant that any shift in alliances would be disastrous for the losing party. This led to desperate attempts to keep alliances intact, bring in new allies, and garner financial or military aid from neutral parties.

Intertwined with wartime diplomacy was a diplomatic peace movement that from the start of the war attempted to influence the peace. Combatant countries engaged in this effort in various ways, but rather than a separate endeavor, peace and war diplomacy influenced each other.

As a result of these movements, a number of conflicting agreements were reached between various countries that shaped the overall peace agreement of 1919, setting up the global framework for the entire interwar period until World War II.

A grant from the Mershon Center allowed Siegel to spend four weeks doing research at the British National Archives in Kew and six weeks at Les Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères Français, La Courneuve.
Other Events
Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Naoyuki Agawa
"Japan-U.S. Relations in the Changing World: North Korea, China, and America First"
5 p.m.,  020 Page Hall, 1810 College Road
Sponsored by Institute for Japanese Studies

Naoyuki Agawa Naoyuki Agawa teaches American constitutional law and history as distinguished visiting professor of law at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. His books include Understanding America Today through Its Constitution (2017); A History of Constitutional Amendments and Other Changes in America (2016); and  American History through the United States Constitution (2004, 2013, and Yomiuri-Yoshino Sakuzo Award in 2005). At this event, Agawa will survey challenges in relations between the United States and East Asia, and argue that close Japan-U.S. cooperation in the area of security, economy, trade and investment is the key to better cope with these serious challenges, and to benefit the two countries as well as the whole Indo-Pacific region. Read more
Friday, February 9, 2018

Michael E. Mann
"A Return to the Madhouse: Climate Change Denial in the Age of Trump"
3:30 p.m.,  0180 Hagerty Hall, 1775 College Road
Sponsored by Department of Geography

Michael Mann Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. He was a lead author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001 and organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003. He contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Mann has received a number of honors and awards not only for conducting science but also communicating effectively to public audiences about the reality and implications of Earth's currently warming situation. Mann is author of three books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, and most recently, The Madhouse Effect with editorial cartoonist Tom Toles.  Read more
Other News
Apply for Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship

The Center for Slavic and East European Studies and the East Asian Studies Center are seeking applications for fellowships for summer term 2018 and academic year 2018-19, and the Center for Latin American Studies and the Middle East Studies Center for Academic Year 2018-19, under the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship program. Fellowships are available for Ohio State graduate and professional school students pursuing a course of study that requires advanced foreign language and area studies training, and select undergraduate students (eligibility varies by center). Applications are due Thursday, February 1, 2018. For more information, visit the FLAS Fellowship website.
International scholarships available for graduate students

The Office of International Affairs is seeking applications for two scholarships that support graduate and professional students in international research or travel.

The Sonkin-Bergman-Wasserman Families' Scholarship for International Understanding and Peace provides one or more awards for deserving graduate and professional students active in research or study that contributes to the pursuit of international understanding and peace. Students focused on international problems from any department or field are encouraged to apply.

The Phyllis Krumm Scholarship is awarded to graduate students for research or study in a European country or China. The scholarship is awarded for independent travel only, and preference is given to U.S. citizens, pursuing a career in diplomatic or other governmental international service. Students must demonstrate an appropriate background for research or study in a European country or mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan.

The deadline to apply for both scholarships is February 23, 2018.
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