A World Of Becoming,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
A World Of Becoming, Stanimir Panayotov
International Dialogue
It is difficult to respond in a genre other than philosophical prose when writing about one. Philosophical prose is a very demanding and small club: it is almost like the poetry club of philosophy recognized in and by itself. Few are the specimens of the genre and plenty are those raising hands from within. This is largely because genre-determined writing such as this one is both about style and Zeitgeist. And to rise up to the standards of styling the spirit(s) of time is an ordeal of both the heart and the mind even trained thinkers fail to do. With …
Democracy, Islam, And Secularism In Turkey,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Democracy, Islam, And Secularism In Turkey, Renat Shaykhutdinov
International Dialogue
This book edited by Ahmet Kuru and Alfred Stepan provides an important contribution to the understanding of the nexus between democracy and democratization, religion and secularism in the context of Turkey, arguably the most stable Muslim-majority democracy in the greater Middle East. The volume features a select group of scholars and policy makers and is a product of two conferences held at Columbia University with the subsequent meetings and a thorough review and revision process. Among the contributors to the volume is Ergun Özbudun, the head of the academic commission for the new constitutional draft, whose chapters problematize the conflict …
Leviathans At The Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous And Corporate Actors In Papua New Guinea,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Leviathans At The Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous And Corporate Actors In Papua New Guinea, Jerry K. Jacka
International Dialogue
Social analysis in anthropology today “oscillates uneasily” between a concern with Foucauldian global regimes of governance on the one hand and Deleuzian assemblages of agentive actors on the other. In Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea, Alex Golub asks if there is “a better way to do justice to a contemporary scene characterized by both spontaneity and regime” (2). Golub’s book seeks to find this middle road through the analysis of the development of a world-class gold mine on the homelands of a group of indigenous people—the Ipili— living in the highlands …
Kindly Inquisitors, The New Attack On Free Thought,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Kindly Inquisitors, The New Attack On Free Thought, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz
International Dialogue
George F. Will’s forward to the 2013 edition of this book provides important focus to the problems arising when even one person is “offended” by free speech (xiii). From campus speech codes to legal and social theory aimed at balancing the First Amendment against other rights, Will flatly rejects the liberal movement toward “sensitivity,” “inclusiveness,” “multiculturalism” and other values that attempt to limit expression: What is needed is a book explaining why the usual, and intended, result of this practice is a finding that those objectives… are more worthy than the objective of maintaining a liberal regime of protected expression. …
What Is A Palestinian State Worth?,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
What Is A Palestinian State Worth?, Paul Kriese
International Dialogue
Sari Nusseibeh begins his study of the “Palestinian problem” with the comment “this is not an academic study” (18). Maybe that is why this particular study is so good. When asked to write this review my first response was not very positive. Most studies of this region lack clarity or are so ideological as to not be very useful. Many of these studies often also claim to be “academic.” Nusseibeh’s study is, unlike many reviews, a masterful academic study. His study succinctly and accurately portrays the tangled and tortured history of the region from a view that is both sympathetic …
The Words And The Land: Israeli Intellectuals And The Nationalist Myth,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
The Words And The Land: Israeli Intellectuals And The Nationalist Myth, Abdelwahab Hiba Hechiche
International Dialogue
Shlomo Sand opens this book with a significant sentence: “Every book is part autobiography” and, consequently, “autobiographical confession” (7). Although he was born in 1946, his early recollection has been marked by a certain residue of the consequences of the Shoa, because as a child he was an eyewitness of the living conditions of people “like his Polish parents moving from one “displaced persons camp to another” (8). But during that same period of his early childhood, his memory resonated with his father’s reminding him that “we had taken someone else’s home” (8).The reader begins to witness an existential ethical …
Essential Chan Buddhism: The Character And Spirit Of Chinese Zen,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Essential Chan Buddhism: The Character And Spirit Of Chinese Zen, Owen G. Mordaunt
International Dialogue
This book embraces the essence of talks Guo Jun gave at a fourteen-day retreat at Chan Forest in the hills of Jakarta in 2010 as well as subsequent conversations the editor and his wife had with him. It is highly readable and accessible to the reader. It has poetic, spontaneous and witty qualities, providing deep insight into Chan (also spelled Cha’n) Buddhism. Chan is the Chinese form of Zen and is not well-known in the West as Zen is, but it derives from the traditions of India. It has flourished and continued to develop through many masters and its teachings …
Letters To Power: Public Advocacy Without Public Intellectuals,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Letters To Power: Public Advocacy Without Public Intellectuals, Russell Jacoby
International Dialogue
“Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don’t matter in today’s great debates.” So opens a recent New York Times column headlined, “Professors, We Need You!” (February 2014) Nicholas Kristof’s thoughts on the disappearance of the professoriate elicited heated responses, both irate and enthusiastic. The flap illustrates that the place of intellectuals in American life continues to generate controversy. Samuel McCormick, as assistant professor of communications at Purdue University, joins this on-going dispute with Letters to Power, a wide-ranging and historically informed study of intellectual dissent. …
Table Of Contents,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces
International Dialogue
Table of Contents for Volume 4
The Sports Gene: Inside The Science Of Extraordinary Athletic Performance,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
The Sports Gene: Inside The Science Of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, Dave Ogden
International Dialogue
David Epstein is another author chasing the elusive answer to one of the basic and ageless issues of social and natural sciences: Nature versus nurture. His discoveries and conclusions in The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance are not necessarily new, but he provides ample and interesting evidence that leans more heavily on the side of nature. In doing so, he takes on stock believers in Karl Anders Ericsson’s theoretical set called “deliberate practice.” Ericsson and his colleagues have studied elite “performers” in a variety of fields, including typing, chess playing, musicianship, and athletic skills. Ericsson found …
Human Rights & Gender Violence: Translating International Law Into Local Justice,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Human Rights & Gender Violence: Translating International Law Into Local Justice, Pattaka Sa-Ngimnet
International Dialogue
This book explains how international human rights laws are created by consensus through representatives of local and national governments and then become translated into content acceptable to local communities. In an introductory chapter the author presents the overall arguments of the entire work. She also gives examples that support the arguments and lays out the pattern of human rights legislation by using the specific example of gender violence. Emphasizing language, she explains how it is understood in diverse ways. The rest of the book is concerned with more specific examples. Chapter two deals with creating human rights law (36–71). Chapter …
Avatar And Nature Spirituality,
2014
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Avatar And Nature Spirituality, Martin Schönfeld
International Dialogue
“To put it mildly, the world is a mess.” Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, 27 July 2014 James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) was the first film to combine stereoscopic imagining and motion-capture animation for a flawless 3-D presentation. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, and won three, for Cinematography, Art Direction, and Visual Effects. It was also the first box-office hit to gross more than $2 billion, and it remains the highest-grossing film to date. It made cinematic history. But it was more than an aesthetic triumph. Avatar is also a cultural …
Determining Extraterritoriality,
2014
William & Mary Law School
Determining Extraterritoriality, Franklin A. Gevurtz
William & Mary Law Review
This Article addresses an underexplored but critical aspect of the presumption against extraterritoriality. The presumption against extraterritoriality—which the United States Supreme Court has increasingly invoked in recent years—calls for courts to presume that Congress does not intend U.S. statutes to govern events outside the United States. The most difficult issue presented by the presumption arises when relevant events occur both inside and outside the United States, as in the classic example, if a shooter on one side of the border kills a victim on the other, or if, as in the leading case, false statements originating inside the United States …
China's Nine-Dashed Map: Maritime Source Of Geopolitical Tension,
2014
Purdue University
China's Nine-Dashed Map: Maritime Source Of Geopolitical Tension, Bert Chapman
Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research
The South China Sea (SCS) is becoming an increasingly contentious source of geopolitical tension due to its significance as an international trade route, possessor of potentially significant oil and natural gas resources, China’s increasing diplomatic and military assertiveness, and the U.S.’ recent and ongoing Pacific Pivot strategy. Countries as varied as China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and other adjacent countries have claims on this region’s islands and natural resources. China has been particularly assertive in asserting its SCS claims by creating a nine-dash line map claiming to give it de facto maritime control over this entire region without regard to …
Continuation In Us Foreign Policy: An Offensive Realist Perspective,
2014
University of South Florida
Continuation In Us Foreign Policy: An Offensive Realist Perspective, Bledar Prifti
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation is a study of US foreign policy that aims at maintaining its regional hegemonic status and preventing the emergence of another regional hegemon by implementing the offshore balancing strategy. US intervention during the 2003 Iraq War, strained US-Iran relationship, and the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in early 2014 compel a reevaluation of US foreign policy. Two major claims of this dissertation include: (1) US foreign policy is consistent with offensive realist theoretical claims; and (2) US foreign policy is characterized by continuity when it comes to issues related to America's strategic …
Yugoslav-Soviet Split,
2014
Purdue University
Yugoslav-Soviet Split, Bert Chapman
Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research
Describes the political and military split between the Communist countries of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in the years after World War II until Yugoslavia's disintegration in the early 1990s.
The Pivot: American Involvement In Asia,
2014
Bethel University
The Pivot: American Involvement In Asia, Marisa Tillman
Honors Student Works
Part I: On November 17th, 2011, President Obama addressed the Australian parliament and presented a plan to shift American attention towards the Asia-Pacific region (Beitelman 2012, 1086). This is a policy known as the Pivot, which represents one of the most important issues of our time: that of America’s relations with China. China is becoming a much more powerful and important player in global politics and global economy, in fact China is growing at a faster rate than any other country in history (Schake 2014). The Pivot looks to lock in a substantially increased investment in the Asia Pacific region …
Spartans In Vietnam: Michigan State University's Experience In South Vietnam,
2014
Central Michigan University
Spartans In Vietnam: Michigan State University's Experience In South Vietnam, Jake T. Alster
Grand Valley Journal of History
In this article, the relations between various colleges (with special attention to Michigan State University) and the United States Government are explored in relation to America’s effort in nation building in South Vietnam in the late 1950s. During America’s efforts in Vietnam more reliance was put upon collegiate institutions to help negotiate foreign policy. One of the major issues regarding South Vietnam was technical assistance, and how we should implement assistance into the third world. Michigan State University, under the presidency of John Hannah, became the most important university in the technical assistance program. John Ernst argues that this was …
Italy’S Refugee Burden And The Role Of The Eu In Asylum Cases,
2014
Gettysburg College
Italy’S Refugee Burden And The Role Of The Eu In Asylum Cases, Sara R. Bias
Student Publications
Italy's unique geographic location at the coast of the Mediteranean Sea gives much opportunity for the international community to criticize its dealings with asylum seekers crossing the body of water to enter Europe. The UNHCR reported that as of October 2014, 165,000 asylum seekers had taken dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea; of those 165,000 people, Italy received 140,000.
The Problem Of State Intervention In Post-Abolition Slavery: A Critique Of Consensus,
2014
University of Dayton
The Problem Of State Intervention In Post-Abolition Slavery: A Critique Of Consensus, Anthony Talbott, David Watkins
Political Science Faculty Publications
Slavery is now illegal by all states and under international law. Contrary to the hopes of abolitionists, this state of affairs has transformed rather than eradicated slavery as an institution. Furthermore, responses by states to post-abolition forms of slavery have often been less than ideal. This paper begins by comparing two state responses to slavery in the early 20th century: the federal peonage trials in Montgomery, Alabama from 1903-1905, and the federal response to an alleged epidemic of “white slavery” from 1909-1910, culminating in the passage of the White Slave-Traffic Act. Taken together, these responses engender pessimism about the state …
