Globalization: New Avatar Of An Ancient Process
Nayan Chanda
Contrary to common belief - expressed in phrases like “in this age of globalization” – globalization is not a new phenomenon. It is a historical process that has been going on since the dawn of human history. Only in recent years the speed and volume of global connection has made the process more visible making it a subject of widespread comment and debate.
Grand Strategy
Charles Hill, John Gaddis, Paul Kennedy
All leaders employ strategies to get from where they are to where they want to go. The theory and practice of grand strategy -- as reflected in works like those of Thucydides, Machiavelli, Clausewitz, and in the examples of leaders like Bismarck, Wilson, Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt -- have much to teach us as we think through the problems of the 21st century. This module will introduce the grand strategic tradition and will illustrate its enduring relevance.
Sessions I and II will feature short presentations on Thucydides and Clausewitz, probably the two most influential of classical grand strategists. The purpose is to gain an appreciation of the wide variety of interrelated factors involved in any comprehensive grand strategy.
Session III will examine two aspects of contemporary world affairs that are in tension with each other, namely: (a) the undoubted pre-eminence of the United States in military, economic and technological fields; and (b) certain broad global trends in regard to population, poverty, and unmet social needs. This tension is captured in the lecturer’s title “The Conundrum of American Power in Today’s Fragmented World.”
Identity
Tony Kronman
The concept of identity looms large as a topic in current political theory, as a way of understanding historical divisions, and as a philosophical foundation for some of the deepest tensions in our globalizing world. We will read Maalouf's In the Name of Identity and excerpts from Rawls's philosophical text, A Theory of Justice.
Traditional Responses to Globalization: The Case of the Return to Shari’a (Islamic Law)
Frank Griffel
Globalization has triggered strong opposition among some intellectuals in the developed and particular in the developing world. The Muslim world makes no exception, where one critic (among many) denounces Globalization as “a hegemonic discourse, a structure of control and domination in the hands of the industrialized and the developed nations of the West. Globalization demands control of resources and a pattern of information flow for the market economy.” (S.R. Mondal, in Islam and the Modern Age 34.1 [2003]: 74). In Muslim countries, like in other parts of the world, a return to sets of traditional values, to indigenous norms and techniques of conflict resolution is offered as an alternative to the drawbacks that come with Globalization. In the Muslim world this alternative is cast in the form of Shari’a, Islamic law. We will discuss what triggers such movements as the one that calls for a return to Shari’a, and how these movements are themselves affected by the processes of Globalization.
Religion and Politics
Miroslav Volf
We will discuss the place of religion in a pluralistic social space. Worldwide today, religions are thriving—they are growing numerically and their influence is strengthening. At the same time, liberal democracy is becoming an increasingly attractive form of government. It is often claimed that religious people, when speak in their own voice in the public square, undermine social peace; at the same time, religious folks feel that if they are not allowed to speak in their own voice liberal democracy ends up being profoundly illiberal toward them. Is there a way out of this impasse?
American Exceptionalism and Human Rights
Paul W. Kahn
The United States is alone among the advanced democratic nations in refusing to sign many of the international human rights covenants and in declining to give domestic legal effect to those that it does sign. This reluctance to see itself as a participant in an international legal order of human rights is known as “American exceptionalism.” It is deeply troubling to the rest of the world, but surprisingly unproblematic domestically. How to explain it is a matter of substantial controversy. After all, the United States introduced the idea of a bill of rights to the world and thinks of itself as deeply committed to the rule of law. Its foreign policy is frequently justified in terms of human rights. So why this deep aversion to international law? This session will take up the question of the significance of American exceptionalism and will consider a variety of theories offered to explain the phenomenon.
Citizenship and Equality
Judith Resnik
During the twentieth century, governments' obligations to its populations were redefined. In many polities and in international conventions, individuals came to be recognized as rightsholders, to be treated with dignity and respect and to have the power through court-based actions, of holding states to their own rules. The term "citizen" gained new saliency within a range of disciplines exploring relationships among peoples and with governments as well as actors in the world at large. Citizenship thus began to be modified -- and discussed in various terms ("economic citizenship," "social citizenship," "political citizenship") to capture different ways to materialize the concept as well as to show its failures. Further, citizenship came to be challenged, in a globalizing world in which territory has declining saliency, as an unduly exclusionary aspect, creating status for some but not others and imposing harms predicated on territorial borders.
This session will examine the concept of citizenship, its role within the nation-state, its relationship to voting and to other forms of political participation, and the ways in which democratic governance systems have intervened to respond to the challenges posed by inequalities based on identity. Using gender as a category of analysis, we will consider different techniques ("mainstreaming," "parity" "temporary measures," "set-asides," "quotas") in different spheres of activity to enable full participation in economic, political, and civic life.
International Dimensions of Democratization
Susan Hyde
Once believed to be entirely within the domain of sovereign states, the process of democratization has become increasingly influenced by international actors since the end of the cold war. This session explores the international dimensions of democratization, focusing on why developed democracies, international organizations, and NGOs attempt to promote democracy in other countries as well as how these efforts have changed the democratization process in countries that have not democratized. We will discuss the various forms of democracy promotion efforts and how they relate to the more general trend of democratization, including the use of political conditionality, the (over) focus on elections, and the difficulties faced in measuring whether democracy promotion efforts are having their intended effect.
Transnational Governance
Jonathan Koppell
Driven by the proliferation of new technologies including the Internet, human activities are increasingly spanning national borders. As a result new organizations are being crafted to regulate transnational commerce, crime, communications and all other aspects of our lives. What do these organizations look like? How do they function? What are the consequences of shifting governmental responsibilities to these institutions of transnational governance?
HIV, TB And Drug Resistance: The Perfect Storm
Gerald Friedland
Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV are the two leading causes of infectious disease mortality worldwide and are now joined by the insidious and ominous rise of TB drug resistance. TB and HIV have been inextricably bound since the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Their dangerous associations range from pathogenesis to epidemiology, clinical care, and larger issues of social and economic importance. Since both diseases predominately affect young adults and in areas of high prevalence, they have major potential to blunt and reverse advances in health and development in the past decades. This module will describe the current global TB and HIV and TB drug resistance epidemics, explore their health, social and economic consequences and identify areas where short term and long term interventions could have major beneficial impact.
Global Health: Disparity and Governance
Jennifer Ruger
Six years into the new millennium, the health of the world’s citizens is remarkably uneven. A child born today in Japan, for example, can expect to live to age 82 on average, while it is unlikely that a newborn infant in Zimbabwe will reach his or her 34th birthday. Over several decades, scientific progress has expanded our ability to improve human health, and many regions of the world have achieved significant health gains. Yet extreme deprivation in health is still widespread. This paradox of significant health improvement in the midst of deprivation is one of the greatest global challenges of the new millennium.
This session queries whether such inequalities are morally troubling, what theoretical frameworks are relevant in analyzing justice, and what duties and obligations apply to state and global actors to address them. It reviews empirical evidence on the determinants of global health inequalities and discusses the policy implications for global health governance focused on health improvement strategies for state and non-state actors world-wide, including for example, national governments, international and domestic markets, pharmaceutical companies, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Gates and Ford foundations.
Poverty and Economic Development
Cheryl Doss
In spite of the tremendous growth in the global economy, a large proportion of the world’s population continues to live in poverty. In this session, we will look at issues of poverty and economic development, with a focus on Africa. We will to try to understand why some communities and countries are unable to move out of poverty and what can be done about it. Increasingly, many development policies and projects are designed to reduce poverty, through access to credit, new agricultural technologies, or health and education programs. Economic analysis provides a lens to look at the potential impacts of these projects on poverty. It can provide a framework to understand why these programs sometimes work and why they sometimes do not.
Development Theory & Policy
Gustav Ranis
Analyzing the development process from an evolutionary perspective can provide us with valuable insights for contemporary policy options in different parts of the world. The objectives of development have broadened considerably over time, moving from the priority given to per capita income growth, to income distribution, poverty alleviation and the improvement of the level of human development. Policies in pursuit of this moving target of objectives have also undergone considerable modification not only in terms of actions within the developing countries but also with respect to those of the developed countries interacting with each other in an increasingly globalized environment.
International Trade
Irene Brambilla
We will discuss how the globalization of trade affects workers, consumers, and firms in both developing and developed economies. Effects of the increase in trade and outsourcing by U.S. firms on wages, employment, and inequality, both domestically and abroad; child labor and other labor standards in developing countries; effects of trade and foreign direct investment on productivity; how trade itself is affected by free trade and common currency areas; Internet transactions; and the political economy of trade policy.
Leadership Ethics and Boardroom Governance: The Practice vs the Pronouncements
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
Top leaders and institutions regularly address the ethics of their enterprises in public statements and published documents. Codes of conduct and missions statements, abound yet they only serve as a genuine guide to responsible actions if the top leaders model, enforce, and reinforce these objectives in everyday decision making. This session will discuss how symbolic and substantive actions of leadership are intertwined in reinforcing the character of an institution.
Green to Gold: Environmental Strategy
Daniel Esty
Businesses of all sorts have begun to focus on the importance of folding environmental thinking into strategy. From climate change to water shortages to energy conservation, pollution control and natural resource management issues now require careful management. Part of the challenge is to develop clear indicators and goals and establish a more data-driven approach to the business-environment interface. In this regard, governments, NGOs, and business leaders have a leading role to play in helping companies both manage environmental costs and risks but also find ways to tap emerging greenmarkets, connect with stakeholders, and build an environmental dimension into corporate brands. This session will clarify the issues and spell out the steps that every company needs to take as outlined in Dan Esty’s new book, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage.
Modern Capitalism & The Environment
Gus Speth
Can modern capitalism sustain the environment, and can the environment sustain modern capitalism? A central question facing societies today is whether the world economy can be tamed to operate within constraints that protect and restore natural assets. Almost universally, governments agree that the environmental impacts of today’s economic activity are unacceptably large and must be reduced; recently, major international assessments of climate change and declining ecosystem services add new weight to this conclusion. It has been noted that all we have to do to destroy the planet’s climate and its biota is to keep doing exactly what we are doing today, with no growth in the human population or the world economy. But human activities are growing – dramatically. It took all of history to build the $7 trillion world economy of 1950; today we add that amount of economic activity every decade. The world economy is poised to double and then double again in the lifetime of today’s college students. Modern capitalism is the powerful engine of this growth. A variety of prescriptions have been offered to take economy and environment off collision course. These prescriptions differ considerably in the degree of intervention or change proposed. Whether one urges modest adjustments to modern capitalism or deep change depends on the degree one believes today’s economic and political system is seriously or irreparably destructive and also on the analysis offered of the underlying systemic problems.
Urbanization and Urban Design
Douglas Rae, Alan Plattus
Session I will explore how the rapid build-up of world wealth, which began in early modern Europe and now spreads across much of the world, was mediated by rapid urbanization. This session looks at some key links between urban growth and wealth formation, and at how changing technologies may alter those links in the 21st century. Fellows will be asked to contribute insight from their own wide-ranging experience in major cities.
Session II will investigate current issues in urban design – in particular, the ways in which good urban design can contribute to both a sustainable environment and local identity, in an era where some global trends seem to be pushing architecture in the opposite direction.
Great Risk Shift
Jacob Hacker
This session will concern the "Great Risk Shift" -- the increasing transfer of economic risk and responsibility from government and corporations onto workers and their families. What is economic risk and insecurity? What are its psychological aspects and practical consequences? What are the distinctive characteristics of the American approach to providing security in cross-national perspective, and how this has framework evolved (i.e., eroded)? Finally, what are the effects of the Great Risk Shift on American politics, and what might be done about the trend in an era of global markets and post-industrial production?
Corruption, Democracy, and Development
Susan Rose-Ackerman
The discussion will focus on the underlying political and economic causes of corruption and will consider reform policies that attack the institutional causes over and above law enforcement strategies and civic education. For example, we will talk about ways to limit the corrupt opportunities under the control of officials and ways to improve the accountability of government.
Democratic Constitutionalism
Robert Post
Constitutionalism has spread around the globe. In the 19th century only the United States Supreme Court possessed the authority to set aside otherwise valid legislation as unconstitutional. Since World War II, however, the institution of judicial review has spread around the globe. What are we to make of this dispersion of the constitutionalism? Does it amount to judicial tyranny? Or does it imply the spread of the rule of law?
In this week’s seminar, we’ll examine in detail how judicial review functions in the United States. We shall examine the interplay between politics and law in the controversial question of abortion regulation. We shall also look at the origins of American new right in constitutional and political terms.
Biomedical Engineering
Mark Saltzman
The practice of medicine has changed dramatically in our lifetimes, and even greater changes are anticipated in the next 20 years. Drug delivery is one area of substantial progress. Drugs have long been used to improve health and extend lives, but a number of new modes of drug delivery, which were made possible primarily through the work of biomedical engineers, have entered clinical practice recently. In addition, biomedical engineers have contributed substantially to our understanding of the physiological barriers to efficient drug delivery such as transport in the microcirculation and drug movement through cells and tissues. Still, with all of this progress, many drugs—even drugs discovered using the most advanced molecular biology strategies—have unacceptable side effects. Side effects limit our ability to design drug treatments for cancer, neurodegenerative, and infectious diseases. This lecture will discuss an alternate strategy for drug delivery, which is based on physical targeting, or placement of the delivery system at the target site. The effectiveness of this approach will be illustrated with examples of new treatments for cancer and infectious disease, as well as new approaches for tissue engineering.
Technology & Global Change
Arnulf Grubler
The seminar will give a "big picture" overview of the role of technological change in long-run human development and its environmental impacts that are now so pervasive as to constitute "Global Change". Basic concepts of technology and main drivers of technological change will be reviewed and the main positive and negative impacts on Global Change summarized.
Theories of Leadership
Victor Vroom
Leadership is a term that is widely used but without a widely shared definition. This session will attempt to forge such a definition in terms of influence, accomplishment, and adaptation to change. Using this conception, three prevalent theories of leadership will be evaluated in terms of existing evidence. The most promising of these theories will then be applied to the issue of leadership style. A taxonomy of leader styles will be proposed dealing with the leader's role in the decision making process. The taxonomy will then be used in a normative model of leadership style and in descriptive research on such questions as cultural and gender influences on leadership.
Review and Wrap-up
Michael Cappello
This session will allow us to think together about the major themes that have emerged over the course of the semester. We will revisit some of the big issues that have been central to the World Fellows Seminar, including the role of globalization, Grand Strategy, identity, religion, justice, governance, public health, economic development, business, sustainable development, urban planning, and science and technology in today’s world. This session will also provide an opportunity to discuss any topic that has not been raised – but which presents issues that the group would like to discuss.
