NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 2008
Vol. 2 No. 1 

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* Note from the Director
* New Issue of World Policy Journal
* Events: Jan 15 - A Shattered Peace; Jan 29- Reverse Brain Drain for the Middle East; Jan 31 –Womenomics I
* Subscribe to World Policy Journal
* Contact Us

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Dear friends of the World Policy Institute,

Happy New Year from all of us at WPI. We're looking forward to expanding in 2008, following our recent re-establishment as an autonomous institution in new offices on Fifth Ave and 26th St. We've begun to add multimedia content to our website, beginning with a webcast of our December 20th, 2007, briefing on "Iran in Campaign 2008: Myth and Reality in U.S. Policymaking," with a distinguished panel of experts assembled to comment on the controversial National Intelligence Estimate and the foreign policy challenge that Iran poses to the next U.S. president. Follow the link on our homepage, www.worldpolicy.org, to view the video.

We're also excited because World Policy Journal turns 25 this year, with the Fall issue marking the official anniversary. As the Fall/Winter 2007 issue makes its way to newsstands, the editors have compiled a preview which follows this note. The issue includes a special section, "Surveying the Ruins in Iraq: A Spectrum of Post-Mortems," highlighting a range of reportage, historical reflections, and policy recommendations. After more than seven years as editor-in-chief of the Journal, Karl Meyer will be stepping down after the next issue to work on a new book and to promote his latest book, Kingmakers, which comes out in June. We're thrilled for his successes –and even more delighted that he's promised he won't be far away, so you'll still be able to read his elegant prose and insightful analysis in future issues.

If you enjoy WPI events and WPJ articles, please consider supporting us by subscribing to World Policy Journal at http://www.mitpressjournals.org/wopj. And please urge your friends and colleagues to subscribe to the Journal and to sign up for our events list –there are links for both at http://www.worldpolicy.org. We look forward to seeing many of you at WPI events soon.

We look forward to seeing many of you at WPI events soon.

All my best

Michele Wucker
Executive Director

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WORLD POLICY JOURNAL –LATEST ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

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World Policy Journal
Volume XXIV, No 2, Summer 2007
Surveying the Ruins in Iraq: A Spectrum of Post-Mortems

For selected free content and for the first page of other articles, visit http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/wopj/24/3

Media: for full preview access, email pauker@worldpolicy.org.

A War Without End
Leon V. Sigal
With the time for turning the course in Iraq long past, Washington should pull out now from an otherwise self-defeating and unending war.

Why Are We in Iraq?: A Realpolitik Perspective
Barry Gewen
An editor of the New York Times Book Review casts a cool eye back on the flurry of books and articles by realists and neoconservatives that led the Bush administration to war in Iraq. 

The Iraqi Refugee Disaster
Ben Sanders and Merrill Smith
A grave report on the enormity of the Iraqi refugee crisis, the paltry U.S. response, and the strains put on neighboring countries.

How to Close Guantanamo
Jennifer Daskal
A senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch and frequent visitor to Gitmo offers an attainable proposal for closing America’s notorious detention center.

Who Lost Iraq and Why It Matters: The Case for Offshore Balancing
Christopher Layne
A conservative argues that U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf are best served by a small contingent of troops maintaining regional security, when necessary, from offshore bases.

America’s Oil Market Power: The Unused Weapon Against Iran
Steve A. Yetiv and Lowell Feld
A practical oil conservation strategy would dramatically increase spare capacity and sharply diminish Iran’s influence and ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Deciphering Turkey’s Elections: The Making of a Revolution
Henri J. Barkey and Yasemin Çongar
An inside look at the surprising ascendancy of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and what a moderate Islamic regime portends for Ankara and Washington.

War, Peace, and American Politics: Talking with Zbigniew Brzezinski
&
From Stalin to Putin, an Insider’s View: Talking with Georgi Arbatov
Two Interviews by Jonathan Power
Two Cold War heavyweights pull no punches concerning the reigns of Bush and Putin.

“The Graham Greene Argument”: A Vietnam Parallel that Escaped George W. Bush
Kevin Buckley
The Saigon bureau chief for Newsweek during the Vietnam War recalls the folly of U.S. good intentions in Indochina and reexamines Greene’s prophetic novel, The Quiet American.

JFK and Oswald: The Inconvenient Truth
Priscilla J. McMillan
As conspiracy theories swirl once more with a bevy of “tell-all” books and articles on the assassination, the only author of repute to have known both JFK and Oswald sets the record straight.

Perry and Pearl: The Unintended Consequence
George Feifer
A military historian takes a post-9/11 look at Commodore Perry’s crude opening of Japan that begat shame, militarism, and eventually Pearl Harbor.

More on Defining Terror
Roberto Toscano
The Italian ambassador to Tehran responds to the comments of Chomsky, Carr, Bacevich, and other participants in our recent forum on the difficulty of defining “terror.”

Ghosts Along the Bosphorus
Karl E. Meyer
In his penultimate Coda, the editor of World Policy Journal walks the forgotten streets of Istanbul and Bursa, where some 87 percent of Turks say they now dislike the United States.

 

+++++++++++ EVENTS ++++++++++

UPCOMING EVENTS

A SHATTERED PEACE
January 15, 2008
Book discussion A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today. WPI and the Overseas Press Club present a discussion with Forbes.com executive editor David Andelman, led by New York Times assistant managing editor Chris Whitney. Veteran correspondent David Andelman offers a compelling new perspective on the origin of many of today’s most critical international issues. He turns the spotlight on the many errors committed by World War I peacemakers that ultimately led to crises from Iraq to Kosovo and wars from the Middle East to Vietnam. He focuses, too, on the small nations and minor players at Versailles, including figures such as Ho Chi Minh and Charles de Gaulle, who would later become boldfaced names. With a cautionary message for us today, he shows how world leaders dismissed repeated warnings from their experts and laid the groundwork for a host of catastrophic events.

WHEN: Tuesday January 15 Doors open at 6 PM (Cash bar), discussion begins at 6:45 PM.

WHERE: Club Quarters 40 West 45th Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) Manhattan

RSVP: This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required to secure your seat. Please RSVP via e-mail to sonya@opcofamerica.org or by phone to (212) 626-9220.

REVERSE BRAIN DRAIN FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
January 29, 2008
Outside the booming extractive sector, the links between the Arab economies of the Middle East and the global economy are weak: the region's share of world trade and investment has been falling, indicators of technology transfer are stagnant, and little formal innovative activity appears to be occurring within these economies. One strategy for spurring entrepreneurship and strengthening links to the global economy would be to reverse the region's brain drain, a development that contributed to the blossoming of the high-tech sector in economies such as Taiwan and India. Arabs in North America are both richer and better educated than the national averages and disproportionately employed in management or professional occupations. Data on Arab-Europeans are less informative, though generally paint a less positive picture. Nevertheless, the question remains: can public policies in both the sending and receiving countries encourage the strengthening of these productive linkages? Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics will present, with Devin T. Stewart of Global Policy Innovations and Michele Wucker of the World Policy Institute commenting and leading the discussion. Co-sponsored by Global Policy Innovations and the World Policy Institute

WHEN: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

WHERE: Global Policy Innovations Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 170 East 64th Street New York, NY 10065-7478 (212) 838-4120

This event is free and open to the public but RSVP is strongly recommended to secure a seat. To RSVP, email events@worldpolicy.org or call the World Policy Institute events line at 212 481 5005, Option 2

Womenomics Part I--Women and the Global Economy
January 31
Join Demos, The World Policy Institute, The National Council for Research on Women, Vital Voices and a panel of distinguished speakers (see below) for a discussion of global trends around why investing, empowering and advancing women is smart business and good for the economy, women and their families. The discussion will continue later in 2008 with "Womenomics Part II - "Women's Successful Strategies to Grow the US Economy." In 2006, The Economist coined the word "womenomics" when it declared, "Forget China, India and the Internet, economic growth is driven by women." In a three-part series it cited studies suggesting that the rapid entry of women into the workforce has added more to GDP than new jobs for men - and more in productivity than the technology sector. The World Economic Forum now explicitly publishes an annual gender empowerment index as a critical component in each country's economic competitiveness. The World Bank has launched a major initiative, "Gender Equality as Smart Economics." The featured panelists below will discuss the global implications of women in the workforce, and the impact of microfinance initiatives focusing on women as both breadwinners and entrepreneurs on families and economies worldwide. Moderated by Linda Tarr-Whelan of Demos Introduced by Michele Wucker of the World Policy Institute Panelists: Linda Basch of the National Council for Research on Women; Joyce Chang of JP Morgan; Rosemary Werrett of ProMujer WHEN: Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:15p.m. - 1:45 pm

WHERE: NYRAG, 79 Fifth Avenue, 4th Fl (between 15th & 16th Sts.) New York, NY [ directions]

RSVP: This event is free and open to the public but RSVP is required to secure your seat. To register email events@worldpolicy.org or call (212) 481-5005 Option 2.

RECENT EVENTS

DECEMBER 20 "Iran in Campaign 2008: Myth and Reality in U.S. Policymaking." The National Intelligence Estimate conclusion that Iran's nuclear weapons program ceased in 2003 has brought to the forefront of foreign policy challenges the question of how America should approach Iran. The importance of this issue was in evidence after the barbed exchange between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over Iran earlier this year. If it was not already clear that U.S. foreign policy toward Iran will be central to the 2008 campaign and a key strategic challenge to the next president, the NIE report has ensured that it is now. Two weeks before the Iowa caucus, the World Policy Institute presented an invitation-only briefing session with three experts on U.S. policy toward Iran in the context of the 2008 election. Marcus Mabry of The New York Times, former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith, and Neguin Yavari of The New School analyzed the positions of the current presidential candidates toward Iran, the substantive reality of U.S.-Iran relations, Iran's domestic situation, and new policy recommendations that challenge conventional wisdom among the candidates. Sam Natapoff, Director of WPI’s Global Economic Architecture Project, moderated. This panel contrasted the myths surrounding Iran –as embodied by the positions of the current presidential candidates-- with the reality of key facts and salient analysis on a key challenge to future U.S. foreign policy. View the video on the World Policy Institute's new YouTube site.

DECEMBER 10 World Policy Institute in conjunction with the Global Policy Innovations Program at Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Demos, and Financial Times presented Susan Aaronson speaking on her new book, Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policymaking. Aaronson and coauthor Jamie Zimmerman traveled to Brazil, the European Union, India, South Africa, and the United States to examine how policymakers try to achieve trade and human rights objectives. They also explore how member states reconcile these goals at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Devin Stewart and Shari Cohen moderated.

DECEMBER 10 To a standing-room-only audience, WPI Senior Fellow Silvana Paternostro read from and discussed her new book, My Colombian War, at The Half King in New York City.

DECEMBER 5 WPI Senior Fellow Nina Khrushcheva, author of Imagining Nabokov: Russia between Art and Politics, discussed her new book at The Harriman Institute at Columbia University.

++++++++++ WPI in the NEWS ++++++++++

Because of the holiday break, this is an abridged list. A full listing of articles and ideas, recent media appearances, and other recent news will appear in the next issue of the WPI newsletter.

NEWS ITEMS
WPI Senior Fellow Stephanie Elizondo Griest, an intrepid journalist who seamlessly weaves reportage and memoir, has won the 2007 Richard J. Margolis Award. The Richard J. Margolis Award is given annually to a promising nonfiction writer whose work combines warmth, humor, wisdom and concern with social justice. The award was established in honor of Richard J. Margolis, a journalist, essayist and poet who gave eloquent voice to the hardships of the rural poor, migrant farm workers, the elderly, Native Americans and others who are seldom heard. He was also the author of a number of books for children. The 2007 award is accompanied by a $5,000 honorarium and a one-month residency at Blue Mountain Center (Blue Mountain, New York), the award's sponsor. In 2008, Atria/Simon & Schuster will publish Griest's Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines, which chronicles her journey to her mother's native Mexico. There she investigates the murder of a prominent gay activist, sneaks into prison to meet with resistance fighters, rallies with rebels in Oaxaca, and interviews scores of migrant workers and the families they were forced to leave behind. Earlier adventures inspired Griest's 2004 memoir Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana (Villard/Random House) and the guidebook 100 Places Every Woman Should Go (Travelers' Tales, 2007). Griest is currently at work on a fourth work of non-fiction, The Book of Silence, which will examine the many manifestations of silence, from a religious "vow of silence" to censorship; from a reverent "moment of silence" to solitary confinement; from "silent treatment" to deafness. For more on the Margolis Award, visit www.margolis.com/award.

RADIO

WPI Senior Fellow Nina Khrushcheva was interviewed December 4, 2007, on Russia's parliamentary elections. CLICK FOR AUDIO

BOOKS

The French edition of Senior Fellow Mira Kamdar's new book will be published in January 2008 as Planet India: L’Ascension turbulente d’un géant démocratique (Actes Sud; translator Andre Levin). The U.S. paperback edition, following the February 2007 hardcover, will be published in February 2008 with a new subtitle as Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy and the Future of Our World. Pre-purchase a copy at Amazon here.

WPI Senior Fellow Eric Alterman’s new book, Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, will be published by Viking in March 2008.

In June 2008, W.W. Norton will publish Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East, by World Policy Journal editor KARL MEYER and co-author Shareen Blair Brysac. Kingmakers tells the story of how the modern Middle East came to be, told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. The narrative is character driven (from Lawrence of Arabia to Paul Wolfowitz and many more in between), whose aim is to restore to life the colorful figures who for good or ill gave us the Middle East in which Americans are enmeshed today. Pre-purchase a copy at Amazon here.

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++++++++++ CONTACT US ++++++++++

Please make note of WPI’s new address and phone number as of September 2007:

World Policy Institute
220 Fifth Ave., 9th Fl.
New York, NY 10010
Tel: 212.481.5005
Fax: 212.481.5009

wpi@worldpolicy.org
http://www.worldpolicy.org

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The World Policy Institute, a non-partisan source of informed policy leadership for more than four decades, develops and champions innovative policies that require a progressive and global point of view. In an increasingly interdependent world, WPI focuses on complex challenges that require cooperative policy solutions to achieve: an inclusive and sustainable global market economy, engaged global civic participation and effective governance, and collaborative approaches to national and global security. WPI’s Fellows program, regular public and private events, collaborative policy development, media activities, and flagship World Policy Journal provide a forum for solution-focused policy analysis and public debate. Its programs seek to introduce fresh ideas and new voices from around the world on critical shared global issues including migration, climate change, technology, economic development, human rights, and counter-terrorism.
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