Department of International Relations

Racism in Italy then and Now
An AUR International Relations-Italian Studies conference
on the 70th Anniversary of the Racial Laws
Friday, November 14, 2008 – Auriana Auditorium

On the 70th Anniversary of the Racial Laws the Departments of International Relations and Italian Studies at The American University of Rome are organizing a one day conference.

The morning sessions will address the issues behind Fascist racism and its consequences both in Italy and the colonies. The afternoon sessions will examine contemporary issues of racism in Italy today. Both sessions will analyze and describe the extent and definition of the racism, its justifications, its effects on the law and law enforcement and its social consequences.

Proposals (c. 300 wds) are invited from both established and unpublished scholars in the relevant disciplines and should be sent to the Department Chairs:

Prof. James Walston: j.walston@aur.edu
Prof. Cristina Lombardi: cldiop@yahoo.com

IR alumnus Derrick Fiedler lectures
at AUR on the laws of war

On Monday, April 21, Derrick Fiedler held a lecture for IR students during Prof. Darya Pushkina’s International Law class. The Lecture, titled “Jus in Bello: Law, Morality, War and IndividualSoldiers", tackled the rules of war and the moral and ethical aspects of their application on individual soldiers.

Derrick, who graduated last December and whose thesis was recommended for distinction, has recently been admitted to a highly respected MA multidisciplinary program in Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, where he will begin attendance in September 2008.

IR students take part in RAI International program on Italian voters abroad

AUR students took part again in RAI International's news series "Italia World", hosted by RAI International director Piero Badaloni, on April 17.
This time the debate was on the role and importance of Italian voters abroad and the eight Parliamentarians most voted outside of Italy were presented.
Italians abroad elect six senators and twelve deputies and in the last Parliament their vote was crucial for the Government.
Parliamentarians from Australia, North and South America took part in the debate via satellite link.
AUR's Prof. James Walston made up the studio participants.

AUR at Harvard National MUN for its Second Time
By Alessandro Batazzi

The American University of Rome participated for a second time at the Harvard National Model United Nations conference in Boston on February 14-17. This year AUR students represented Sweden; last year they had represented Libya.
Sweden was an interesting country to represent because, while it is a member of the European Union, it has not joined the EURO zone because it seeks to maintain its famous welfare system that permits its high standard of living and greater life expectancy. On the international side while Sweden has traditionally considered itself a neutral nation, it had become the largest per capital aid donor in the world and a strong advocate of mediating international crises.
The HNMUN is an annual simulation that brings together over 3000 college students from more than thirty countries around the world, representing 170 different colleges and universities, to discuss actual topics presented at the United Nations. HNMUN is dedicated to experiential education through debate, diplomacy, and compromise. Through their preparation and participation, students are able to develop expertise in research, writing, public speaking, and the art of negotiation as they argue the interests of their countries on international issues.
This year’s delegation included students, representing three AUR departments—International Relations, Business and Communications as well as six nationalities— Italy, United States, Brazil, Palestine, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago. The AUR team consisted of: Alessandro Batazzi, Irene Greaves, Giles Smith, Jay Irwin, Lyndsay Krebs, Cait Bagby, Sofia Insaurriaga Dos Santos, Roshinder Singh, Cortney Healy, Dana Aama, Anna Mangiardi Oxbrow, Whitney Washington, Sallie Pisch, Almudena Hamerlick Huerta, Diego Sarchiapone, and Keith Roberts.
AUR’s Swedish delegation participated in ten separate committees. Each committee of one or two students worked at finding solutions to such contemporary problems as Iraqi refugees, child soldiers, international regulation of hedge funds, and piracy on the high seas. Students needed to understand the Swedish position on each of the issues before the meetings began, argue the Swedish point of view in 45-60 second interventions in front of the other delegations, and negotiate a resolution by the end of the conference which could be supported by the majority of the delegations on the committee. Prior to the conference AUR had offered a special course in “off the cuff” argumentation that helped AUR make more effective interventions.
AUR Professors Bjorn Thomassen and Ambassador Parker Borg served as advisors to the delegation. When students voiced frustration about the proceedings at meetings or the apparent double-dealing on the part of some delegations, Ambassador Borg explained that this was a common part of the real world of diplomacy.

International Relations Lectures series –
The Iranian elections

March 2008 - Dr. Mahmood Sariolghalam, Associate Professor of International Relations at the School of Economics and Political Science, Shahid Beheshti University, talked about the approaching legislative elections in Iran on March 12.

Prof. Sariolghalam is a distinguished scholar who has studied and taught in North America before returning to Iran. He has written extensively on international relations theory but has also worked directly on US-Iranian relations and taken part in a number high level meeting including the Davos Forum. So he was just the right person to talk about the many issues which face Iran both internally and in its relations with the international community.

Just two days before the parliamentary elections Prof. Sariolghalam spoke about the very diverse forms political activity in Iran and need for solutions to the country’s economic problems above all.

Second day of International Conference on the
Brussels Treaty hosted at AUR

March 2008 - A conference called The Brussels Treaty and Its Legacy: A Reassessment of European Security and Defense Issues on its 60th Anniversary (1948-2008) was held in Rome from March 6 to March 8.
On Friday March 7 the conference, organized by the Department of Historical Geographical and Anthropological Studies of Roma Tre University and by AUR’s Department of International Relations, was hosted at the Auriana Auditorium, from 9.30 am to 8.00 pm.
Speakers came from all over Europe and from North America; they included scholars from the University of Cambridge, the University of Mannheim, Queen’s University in Belfast, the University of the West of England in Bristol, De Montfort University in Leicester, the University of Utrecht, the University of Leipzig, the University of Mannheim, the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies in Oslo, the G.S. Rakovsky Defence & Staff College in Sofia, the EHESS in Paris, the University of Reading, the University of Groningen, the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, the University of Padua and Roma Tre University. AUR was represented by Prof. James Walston, chair of the International Department, Ambassador Parker Borg, Prof. Darya Pushkina and Prof. Luca Ratti.

The conference was the brainchild of Luca Ratti who did all of the organisation and deftly and diplomatically negotiated the pitfalls of moving between American and Italian institutions.
It was not the first time that AUR has co-hosted events but it was the first time that a combined event was conducted on two separate campuses.

Academically, it was an opportunity to put together scholars from different disciplines and different experiences. There were historians, political scientists and international relations people; in experience, they went from mature scholars (who had lived through most of the period being looked at) to doctoral students presenting their research for the first time. Next time, I hope that there will be AUR students giving papers as well. The Brussels Pact was signed in 1948 and was in many ways a precursor of the NATO treaty signed the following year; the conference took a chronological view so that the first two sessions at AUR had papers analysing the first 40 years from 1948 to the end of the Cold War. In the afternoon there were lively discussions on the post-1989 led by Amb. Borg who had had personal experience of many of the negotiations and events that were being discussed. If there had ever been any need, the debate proved the value of having a “diplomat in residence” to balance the purely academic input.

Rome International Affairs Forum. The IR Department has started to work with a new institute which co-sponsored the March conference on the Brussels Pact along with Roma 3. Riaf (www.riafo.it) will be posting the conference papers and we're looking forward to working together on other projects.

Israel’s Ambassador to the Holy See
Oded Ben Hur at the IR Club

The IR Club is not averse to controversy as long as it is civil and leads to some illumination of an issue. On 5 March, the IR Club screened "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land", a documentary which argued very strongly that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was being shown in a very one-sided way by US media. There was a heated debate afterwards so in order to give another view both of the conflict itself and the way in which the different media report it, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Oded Ben Hur, was invited to present the official Israeli point of view and his own. This was a closed session with the IR club and Amb. Ben Hur gave a frank and robust presentation which with the film gave a picture of the breadth of opinion and ways of analyzing the issues.

AUR hosts second day of International
Conference on the Brussels Treaty

A conference called The Brussels Treaty and Its Legacy: A Reassessment of European Security and Defense Issues on its 60th Anniversary (1948-2008) will be held in Rome from March 6 till 8. On Friday March 7 the conference, organized by Roma Tre University, Dept. of Historical Geographical and Anthropological Studies and by AUR’s department of International Relations, will be hosted at AUR’s Auriana Auditorium, Via Pietro Roselli 15, from 9.30 am to 8.00 pm.

The Department of International Relations Spring Lecture Series began on Wednesday February 6 with Ezio Ferrante

Wednesday Feb. 6
“The Scramble for the Artic”
Rear Admiral Ezio Ferrante of the CeMiSS (Centro Militare di Studi Strategici) discussed the issue of the effects of global warming and the resulting melting of the North polar ice cap on global politics. Russia has raised a flag on the ocean floor below the North Pole and the normally pacific Canadians are upset because the US and the EU insist that some of their internal waters are “international”. With the melting of the polar ice cap, the Arctic has taken on a new and vastly more important economic and geopolitical significance.

Field Trip to Montenegro Feb. 29-March 2

Students had an opportunity to visit the UN’s newest member and meet government officials, media, and civil society.

The IR Department's field trip cycle came back to its starting point when it went back to Montenegro five years after AUR's first international trip there in 2003.

Seventeen students (mostly IR majors but also study abroad students and majors from Communications) plus fulltime faculty member Dr. Darya Pushkina and IR Department Chair James Walston went there to see how the UN's youngest member is building itself. The team was looked after by the City of Podgorica; mayor, Dr. Miomir Mugosa gave his support as well as a very full view of both city and national politics. Both his sons are AUR graduates; Marko (2007) works in Podgorica but was away that weekend, Miljan (2004) is a diplomat in Montenegro's embassy in Washington.
AUR graduate, Ana Dautovic (1998), also from Podgorica, arranged for a presentation from her UNDP director on the Saturday afternoon; her sister Zeljka also an AUR graduate (1999) has moved to Serbia.

The AUR group had a hectic day and half going to the university and being given an analysis of Montenegro's politics by the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Prof. Srdja Darmanovic; an overview of the US position from Roderick Moore, US Ambassador and Joseph Taggart, Director USAID, and a presentation by Dr. Petar Ivanovic, Director of the Montenegro Investment Promotion Agency. Dinner with Mayor Mugosa concluded the hectic day.
The following morning the group met with Predag Sekulic, Political Director of the Democratic Socialist Party, which has been in government for the last 18 years, and then to one of the opposition parties, the editorial staff of the Serbian community's main newspaper, Dan, Sanja Popovic, Deputy editor Nikola Markovic for a very different take on the country.
Unfortunately, the leader of the main liberal opposition, Nebojsa Medojevic who was due to meet them, lost his voice campaigning for the presidential elections due in April and had o cancel the meeting.

But they did go to the UNDP and the State run television station as well as taking in lunch on Montenegro's huge lake - a restaurant with a live hippo in the garden, not an animal immediately associated with the western Balkans.

Sunday was just a little more relaxed; a trip to Kotor the walled city port at the head of a deep fjord which combines Montenegro's Venetian, Dalmatian, Austrian and Slav heritage. Aur’s team was guided round that town and museum by a local archæologist who had gone to school during the Italian occupation who eloquently brought together the two sides of the Adriatic. Then to Montenegro's diminutive former capital, Cetinje where King Nicola wove his diplomatic web across Europe by careful marriages for his children and well-chosen visits, giving Montenegro an international profile that its size would not have warranted.

The team was there for just over 50 hours. It was hectic but rich and fruitful.

AUR chickens come home to roost… in Ghana

October 2, 2007: A school for deaf children in Ghana has a new poultry unit funded by AUR’s Ghana program.

In the Spring Semester, Prof. Alessandro Signorini gave his Marketing for Non-profit Organizations class the challenge of raising 2,500 euros to expand the Cape Coast School for the Deaf’s school farm. The students rose to it and organized three different fundraising events, reached the target and surpassed it so that by the end of August there were live pullets chirupping around the feet of Mershack Bentil, Cape Deaf’s dynamic agricultural director.

The Department of International Relations’ Ghana Program’s January session has been visiting Cape Deaf since 2004 doing small jobs with the students but the chicken unit is the first major contribution to the school. With luck next January’s group will be able to taste some of the results of the fundraising. AUR’s first visit coincided with opening of a unit for grasscutters, a West African rodent which is a delicacy in Ghana; “now we too have contributed to the school’s development; the community work in the January sessions is as important as the academic side so it is very gratifying to see these concrete results” says Prof. James Walston who began AUR’s Ghana program.

Cape Deaf is a regular school for deaf children of all ages; as well as taking all the standard subjects in the Ghanaian curriculum for hearing children, Mershack has developed the “school garden” into something rather special. Many schools have gardens but work in them is usually done as punishment (and therefore with no enthusiasm whatsoever). At Cape Deaf work in the garden is a privilege which has to be earned; the garden and livestock units provide food and an income for the school as surplus produce is sold outside the school; it provides pocket money for the children who work there and more importantly, it gives them skills they use when they go back to their villages. This is one way that it lives up to its motto “Disability not inability”.

Fall 2007 Events