Monthly Archive for April, 2011

Announcing Plenary Speaker Sonia Fleury for the 2011 Global Studies Conference

Published on April 30, 2011 in Conference and Newsletter. 0 Comments

We are pleased to announce that Professor Sonia Fleury will be joining us for the 2011 Global Studies Conference in Rio from 18-20 July.

Professor Fleury works at the Brazilian School of Public Administration and Business, Getulio Vargas Foundation, since 1983, as a senior researcher in charge of the Study Program on Innovation in the Public Sphere, having developed studies related to Democracy, Citizenship and Social Exclusion; Social policies, decentralization and participation; State reform and governance; Brazilian Political System; Public Policy and Theories on Democracy.

Professor Fleury has a Doctorate degree in Political Science, a master degree in Sociology and a Bachelor degree in Psychology, and has published over 120 articles in scientific magazines in different countries, and wrote or participated as author in more than 20 books in Brazil, several countries in Latin America, Europe, Canada and USA.

She has also given classes in different Universities in Argentina, Spain, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Paraguay. In USA she has been a Faculty Fellow at the Kellogg Institute in Notre Dame University and a Senior Social Development Specialist Lecturer at the INDES, Inter-American Development Bank.

For more information regarding our plenary speakers, please visit our website.

Dollars, BRICS and the China trap

Published on April 29, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

By Sudipto Mundle, The Times of India

Earlier this month the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) agreed at their summit meeting in Sanya, China, to establish mutual lines of credit in local currencies. On the face of it, this is an innocuous effort by the world’s fastest growing countries to strengthen their mutual relationship. However, in the context of the emerging global power relations, this is yet another important step in the Chinese initiative to end the reign of the dollar as the world’s single reserve currency.

To Read More..

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan

The 1% solution

Published on April 25, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From The Economist

MY COLLEAGUE and I have something in common: we both think concentrations of power in alliances between gargantuan business instititutions and gargantuan government institutions are generally terrible. My colleague and I don’t have much in common in how we analyse the formation of those concentrations of power, or what we think should be done about them. Another thing my colleague and I have in common is that we each think the other guy’s approach to this problem is hopelessly naive. And another thing we don’t have in common is that I largely agreed with Joseph Stiglitz’s article in Vanity Fair, which my colleague describes as an example of self-refutingly absurd liberal ideology. To sum up the basic thrust of what I agree with in Mr Stiglitz’s piece: I think the rich are getting much, much richer, while regular people (in the developed world, which is what we’re talking about here) are at best treading water. I think that wealth brings power, and the fact that the rich are getting much, much richer relative to everyone else means that the rich also exert increasing influence over the economy, government and society.

To Read More…

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono

Afghanistan ‘death squad’ killings fail to get media, political attention

Published on April 21, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

By: Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Time

Reports of a U.S. “death squad” in Afghanistan, complete with the publication of gory photographs, have failed to attract the intense political or media attention afforded a previous war scandal — the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

In 2004, CBS News broadcast an array of photographs showing American jail guards abusing Iraqi detainees. The most famous: a forced pyramid of naked, humiliated prisoners. The depictions touched off an avalanche of media coverage. In Congress, liberals called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Democrats launched inquiries and held a string of well-covered hearings.

To Read More….