EU simulation on Turkish accession to the European Union.

This talk will consider conversations and experiences with former militia fighters from Lebanon's war between 1975-1990, to argue that fighters do not lose any part of their humanity when they kill and participate in armed warfare. I suggest, rather, that the discourse of humanity and the resort to the notion of dehumanization is a rhetorical device with hegemonic influence in debates and conversations about war and peace. My aim is to provide a critical anthropological approach to peace studies and our understanding of war and its violence.

The debate around globalization is entering a new and more mature phase reflected in the fact that it is now generally accepted that we live in an era of globalization. However, the concept is used in a bewildering variety of ways. This talk will offer a distinction between generic, capitalist, and alternative globalizations.

Colloquium, Ruth Bottigheimer (Stony Brook), “What’s Eastern and What’s Western in the Arabian Nights?” with responses from Susan Andrade (English) and Giuseppina Mecchia (French and Italian).

This lecture critically examines the US approach to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It highlights the consistency between the Bush and Obama Administration’s handling of the peace process. The fight against Islamists, the rhetoric on democracy promotion and the call for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel represent the essential goals of Bush’s policy in the post-September 11th era. These same goals have also shaped the Obama Administration’s perspective on the Middle East.

Harvard Economist Dani Rodrik described how "Unconditional convergence is alive and well, but that we need to look for it within manufacturing industries rather than the economy as a whole. Industries that start at lower levels of labor productivity grow faster, regardless of the quality of policies or institutions in their home economies." For more, see Professor Rodrik's blog: http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2011/09/unconditional-conv....

Dr. Bahi will discuss how women were key players in the uprising that launched the Arab spring. She argues that women may have sustained the Arab spring, but it remains to be seen if the Arab spring will sustain women.

Part of the Global Issues Lecture Series.
Featuring speakers:
Naftali Kaminski, J-Street Pittsburgh
Kate Daher, Pittsburgh Palestinian Solidarity Committee