Events 2009-2011

York Center for International and Security Studies and Canadian Pugwash Group present:

A World without Nuclear Weapons

A lecture by Senator Douglas Roche, O.C.

A veteran Canadian statesman, Hon. Douglas Roche has served as Progressive Conservative MP (1972-84), Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament (1982-89), and Senator (1998-2004). He is founder or co-founder of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), Middle Powers Initiative (MPI), and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) – all of which have played very significant high-level roles in the global disarmament movement. He is the author of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to thirteen more, including Creative Dissent: A Politician's Struggle for Peace (Novalis, 2008). His latest book, How We Stopped Loving the Bomb, was published in March by Lorimer Press. This year, Senator Roche has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

2:30-4:00

Room 626 York Research Tower

WikiLeaks and the Politics of Exposure

27 April 2011

YCISS Contentious Conflicts and Canadian Society Series:

A Panel Discussion on Transformations in the Middle East

Monday, 28 March 2011
4:00 – 6:00 pm
Room 519 York Research Tower

Featuring:

Muhammed Faour - Recipes for Conflict in Lebanon

Robert Latham -Alternative Spatial Imaginaries of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict
Sundus Balata -Reflections on the Egyptian Revolution: Analyzing Causes and Mapping out Future Political Implications
Hicham Safieddine - U.S. Intervention and the Arab Revolts: The Hedging of a Hegemon

 

The Distinguished Critical Thinkers in World Politics Seminar Series

Securitization, Power, and Practice

Securitization theory is one of the most vibrant and widely-applied approaches in security studies today. Yet it stands accused of lacking both a focus on power and a compelling understanding of practice. By combining insights from both classical realism and social theory, it is possible to build upon the insights of securitization theory while and to develop it new and challenging directions.

Michael Williams
Professor, University of Ottawa

Tuesday, 29 March 2011
3:00 - 4:30 pm
Room 626 York Research Tower

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

Transforming the Canadian Forces: The Military after Kandahar

Martin Shadwick
Research Associate, York Centre for International and Security Studies

Wednesday, 23 March 2011
1:00 - 3: 00 pm
Room 764 York Research Tower

 

SDF-Net

Department of Political Science, McMaster University

Centre for International and Security Studies, York University

 The Future of the Canadian Forces Post-Afghanistan

11 February 2011

305 York Lanes

York University

Agenda

 

The purpose of this one-day symposium is to critically contemplate what the future might or should hold for the Canadian Forces (CF).  As a battle-hardened force in the midst of substantial personnel expansion and materiel procurement, the CF is no longer (and is no longer content with being) a minor feature of the socio-political landscape in Canada.  In other words, the future of ‘operational tempo’ and ‘force structure’ are not simply institutional concerns for the CF, but are rather challenges that affect how Canadians answer key questions: What is a military for? What or who is a threat? Who or what needs to be secured? What is Canada’s place in the world?

 

 

10:30-12:15      Session I:  How Did We Get Here?  Where Are We?

 

Discussion is this session will focus on a thorough accounting of the shifts that have occurred between the Canadian public and the Canadian Forces since the deployment of combat-ready forces to southern Afghanistan in 2006.

 

12:15-12:45      Lunch

 

12:45-2:15        Session II: How about ‘less bang for less bucks’?

 

Discussion in this session focuses on the political-economic ‘rationale’ for the Canadian government’s commitments to purchasing new military hardware in a time of overall budget restraint.

 

2:15-4:00          Session III: Armed for the Future

 

Discussion is this session will focus on key questions about what the primary role of the Canadian Forces should be in the twenty-first century. What ‘new frontiers’ might pose the most significant challenges? Which technologies, tools and strategies will be necessary, unnecessary or outmoded?

Popular Culture and World Politics (PCWP III)

 04-05 November 2010

 York University, Toronto, Canada

There is a growing movement in and around the study of international politics to think about the intersections of world politics and the production, circulation, content and consumption of various popular cultural forms.  This burgeoning scholarship has reached a point in which it is possible to move well beyond the important initial forays that emphasised the content of cultural forms-as-text, seeking metaphorical connections between the cultural and the political, to explore the interwoven possibilities and limits of the cultural and political.

The York Centre for International and Security Studies is pleased to invite you to Popular Culture and World Politics III, to be held in Toronto 4-5 November 2010.  Following two successful events, hosted by the University of Bristol in 2008 and the University of Newcastle in 2009, Popular Culture and World Politics III seeks to continue the growing conversation on the intersections of various forms of popular culture and the study of world politics, from a range of disciplines and practices in the social sciences, humanities and the arts.

The conference will involve performances, screenings, panels, or individual papers, on any aspect of world politics and popular culture.  In particular, the conference will try to address any of the following themes or issues:

• ‘Doing’ popular culture and world politics: methods, practices and approaches
• Popular security: exploring the intersections of popular culture and global security.
• Using popular culture to span the disciplines: with a range of disciplines looking at both popular culture and issues of world politics, how can the study of pop culture and world politic work to foster inter-disciplinary conversations?
• ‘Making’ popular culture and world politics: what is the politics that is emerging at the intersection of popular cultural production, the culture industries, and governance?
• Outside the West: exploring the intersections of non-Western popular culture(s) and non-Western-centric world politics.
• Is anybody watching?  The problem of audience in the study of popular culture
• Performing International Politics: rather than students of world politics reading popular culture how are the producers of cultural forms making their politics?  We are particularly interested in receiving proposals for the performance, presentation, screening or display of cultural works which seek to produce a (world) politics in their practice.

Thursday, 2 December 2010
7-10 pm
Marriot-Renaissance Hotel
One Blue Jays Way

Despite the Canadian Forces increasing reliance on Private Military Corporations (PMCs) for training, logistical support and site-security, particularly in Afghanistan, there has been little public debate about the consequences of commercializing military and security operations in Canada.  Please join our panel as they discuss the historical lineages, contemporary debates and future trajectories of PMCs.  The panel will feature a screening of the critically acclaimed film Shadow Company, winner of 4 LEO awards.

Featured Panellists include:

 

Nick Bicanic - co-founder of Purpose Films and director/producer of Shadow Company.  Nick is active in the development of a number of feature film projects, including an action drama based on the events of Shadow Company

Alan Bell - is the President of Globe Risk Holdings Inc. Alan’s distinguished career includes more than 22 years of specialized military experience related to global security issues in diverse areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Professor Michael Kempa - is a professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.  Michael’s research examines the ways in which policing programs reflect and support particular systems for economy and politics.

Professor Sunil Ram - works with private interests involving international strategic analysis, defence, and security matters. Sunil has also served in the Canadian Forces.

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

Afghanistan:  Statebuilding and Lessons Learned

Ben Rowswell  Former Representative of Canada in Kandahar (RoCK)

 

Over the past nine years, Canada has made an enormous contribution to the stabilization of Afghanistan.  The military commitments made by Canada and other ISAF nations have increased the capacity of Afghan security institutions.  The dominant challenge in Afghanistan today is to leave a government that is both credible and capable of addressing the needs of its population.

Former RoCK Ben Rowswell has been involved in Canada’s mission to Afghanistan since the Canadian Government’s decision in 2008 to concentrate more heavily on governance and development.  He will discuss the progress that Canada has made in Kandahar and how we can build on that foundation as Canada’s mission transitions in 2011 when the troops withdraw from Kandahar.

He will also discuss Canada’s Whole-of-Government approach to its Afghanistan engagement. This will include innovation in stabilization work, civilian-military coordination, and the impact achieved in Canada’s six priorities and three signature projects as well as the importance of close integration with the US in Kandahar.

Thursday, 7 October 2010
2:00-3:30 pm
Room 280A York Lanes

YCISS Contentious Conflicts and Canadian Society Series:

Haiti: The Mobilization of Aid, Public Discourses and Political Action within Canada

On Thursday 11 February 2010, YCISS hosted a roundtable discussion on the current situation in Haiti and its future.   A downloadable MP3/podcast recording of the above discussion is available Click here.    A recording of the discussion can also be accessed directly from this website Click here.

New Directions: The Future of Canadian (in)Security Studies:

Round-Table Discussion: The Future of Critical Security Studies in Canada

On Thursday 04 February 2010, YCISS brought distinguished scholars and practitioners working in the area of Critical Security Studies together for a round-table discussion on new approaches, critiques of existing approaches and future directions for the field, both theoretically and regarding the practical development of this area of research. A downloadable MP3/podcast recording of the above discussion is available Click here.    A recording of the discussion can also be accessed directly from this website Click here.

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series: Palestinian Insecurity: Integration and Emancipation Logics

Dr Joni Aasi (Bir Zeit University)

Thursday 27 May, 2 - 3.30pm
Room 519, Fifth Floor, York Research Tower (YRT)

In this seminar, Dr Aasi will discuss the new perspectives raised by the immigration of certain concepts dominant in the security studies of the post Cold War to Palestine. In other words, what is the epistemic position of Palestine in these studies? Dr Aasi will argue that the broader concept of security adopted by critical security studies in the post-Cold War draws our attention to economic and ecological dimensions of the Palestinian insecurity, but that as an issue of human insecurity, Palestinian insecurity is also essentially characterized by the “fear of violent death” in the traditional sense.

The seminar will further consider the points of convergence of several theoretical currents under the umbrella of critical security studies, including utopian realism. Utopian thinking associates the thinkable and the possible and reflects a desire of transformation simultaneously of the reality and of the self. The utopian (critical) approach is useful to provoke questions about the reality and its knowledge; about the “structural bias” of the discourse on security in general and on security sector reform in particular (external legitimacyinternal legitimacy); and about the risk of ‘reification’ (the risk that an emancipator discourse become a new structure of domination).

Dr Joni Aasi is a visiting scholar at the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS) from April – September 2010. Dr Aasi is an Assistant Professor at Bir Zeit University. Since September 2008, Dr Aasi has been the Dean of Scientific Research at the Palestinian Academy of Security Sciences, Jericho where he is involved in training Palestinian military and civilian officials on issues of security sector reform, as well as theories of security and international law. Dr Aasi is also the author of several texts and papers in these areas.

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series: OP SAIPH:   Canadian counter piracy and counter terrorism naval operations in East Africa and the Indian Ocean

Commander Steve Waddell (HMCS Fredericton)

Wednesday, 26 May 2010,  2-3:30pm

Room 626, Sixth Floor York Research Tower

 

Since 1991, Canada has deployed ships almost three dozen times to the neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea to carry out counter-terrorism and counter-piracy operations.  HMCS Fredericton has spent the last six months “on-station” with NATO’s multinational maritime force off the east coast of Africa under Operation SAIPH, where HMCS Fredericton’s captain (Commander Steven Waddell) and crew prevented and deterred piracy and terrorism to improve the region’s security and provide a safer maritime environment.

Commander (Cdr) Steven Waddell will discuss Canada’s leading role in maritime security as part of its continuing commitment to international security.  Cdr Waddell’s presentation will provide audiences with a rare opportunity to interact with the ship’s captain, hear his first-hand accounts and view operational images from this fascinating deployment.

Raised in Temagami, Northern Ontario, Cdr Waddell joined the Canadian Navy in 1990 as a Maritime Surface and Sub-Surface Officer.  Cdr Waddell has served in several theatres of operation, including the Arabian Gulf and South West Asia, as well as representing Canada at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in the United Kingdom, where he earned his Master’s Degree in Defence Studies through King’s College London.  Cdr Waddell assumed his current position in command of HMCS Fredericton in January 2009.

 

The Contemporary Dilemmas in Canadian Security Lecture Series:

Guns and Global Security: From Neighbourhoods to the United Nations

Thursday 22 April 2010  7-9pm
Marriott Hotel Eaton Centre
525 Bay Street
Toronto
(Free Admission)

The problem of 'civilian possession' of firearms has undermined global and national efforts at controlling small arms and light weapons. Canada is a producer and exporter of arms, as well as a recipient of both legal and less than legal transfers of weapons, mainly from the United States. For Canadians this has translated into greater numbers of guns on our city streets, and a more dangerous environment for our military forces when they are deployed abroad. The problem of ‘civilian possession' of firearms is to be addressed at multilateral arms control negotiations under the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms & Light Weapons (SLAW) and the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). This forum seeks to explore the relationship of civilian possession of arms and problems of control, both domestic and international for creating conditions of security and insecurity. The questions that we raise are the following:

- How to interpret the concept of ‘civilian possession’ under the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons?
- What are the problems with ‘civilian possession’ of small arms and light weapons that the Canadian Forces face?
- What are the problems and prospects of regulating small arms proliferation within Canada and the United States?
- How the problem of ‘civilian possession’ of weapons in Canada and the US needs to be addressed by state and non-state actors ?
- What effect will this have on arms trade as practiced by Canada and the United States?

Speakers: Wendy Cukier, Ryerson University
Ken Epps, Project Ploughshares
James Sheptycki, York University
Robert Didanieli, Toronto Police Service
Moderator: Barbara Falk, Canadian Forces College

This event was sponsored by the Guns, Crime and Social Order research project , an ongoing project that seeks to examine the relationship between weaponization and social cohesion.  The Guns, Crime and Social Order project was kindly sponsored by the Nathanson Centre for the Study of Transnational Human Rights; the Law Foundation of Ontario; the Office of the Vice President, Research and Innovation (VPRI),York University; the Department of Criminology, York University; and the Division of Social Science, York University.

 

SDF-Net: A Canadian (Critical) Security Studies?

16 April 2010
10am- 4pm
Gilmour Hall

McMaster University
Hamilton

The York Centre for International and Security Studies and the Political Science Department at McMaster University will be hosting A Canadian (Critical) Security Studies? The focus and purpose of this one day symposium is to discuss whether a distinctively Canadian approach to the study of Security and Defence issues has emerged and an examination of the terms of this approach.

Please Click here for the agenda.

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

Developing, Selling, and Implementing the New Technologies of the Global War on Terror: How and Why Canada’s Military-Security-Development Complex Supports the Empire of Capital.

Mike Skinner

Wednesday March 31st 2010
12.45-2.45pm
Room 749,
York Research Tower

Canadian military historian Allan English (2005) observes: “war has been more or less a functional institution in human society because it provided benefits for societies that were good at it, although the cost of the benefits could be high”. Who in Canadian society benefits from the Global War on Terror considering the high cost of lives and resources?

One significant group that does benefit are the “over 800 member companies” of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) “who are essential contributors to Canada’s national defence and security and generate over 10 billion dollars to the Canadian economy every year”. The owners of defence and security industries and the workers they employ clearly benefit, but their profits and the tax dollars they generate are not the only benefits accrued during this war.

Leaders of what Ellen Meiksins Wood (2005) describes as an Empire of Capital share two existential fears that underlie the abstract threat of “terror”: how to contain popular unrest and how to contain emerging imperial-state competitors. Many of the weapons and tactics developed and field-tested during the Global War on Terror focus on solving these two “problems”.

Michael Skinner explores how and why Canada’s Military-Security-Development Complex supports the emerging Empire of Capital, despite the high cost in lives and resources not only for Afghans and Canadians but for the countless people around the world affected by the Global War on Terror.

Michael Skinner is a Researcher at the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS), and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at York University. In 2007, he travelled throughout Afghanistan where he listened to Afghans from all walks of life who do not have a voice in the Western media.

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series/Post Communist Studies Programme

(Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Canada)

 Wednesday 17 March

11.30–1 pm

Room 524, Fifth Floor

York Research Tower

York University (Keele Campus)

War on ... What? Security as Pacification

Mark Neocleous

Thursday, 18 March 2010

2:30–4:30 pm

Room 519, Fifth Floor

York Research Tower

 

Mark Neocleous brings together two concepts with very different histories.  On the one hand, what is probably the major political fetish of our times: security.  On the other hand, a concept about which nowadays virtually nothing is ever said: pacification.  The paper will explore the ways in which these terms resonate through their early history, with the aim of unravelling the logic of pacification to contemporary security politics.  In doing so, Professor Neocleous will criss-cross through the terrains of war and peace, and law and police, making links between original accumulation and the current war on 'terror'.

 

Mark Neocleous is Professor of the Critique of Political Economy and Head of the Department of Politics and History at Brunel University, UK.  His most recent book is Critique of Security (2008).  His earlier books include The Monstrous and the Dead (2005); Imagining the State (2003); The Fabrication of Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power (2000); Fascism (1997); and Administering Civil Society: Towards a Theory of State Power (1996).  He is a member of the Editorial Collective of Radical Philosophy.

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series/ Post Communist Studies Programme

Russia, Europe, and the Politics of Energy Security: The New Agenda

Dr. Vyacheslav Inozemtsev

Thursday 04 March 2010

1–3:30 pm

Room 519, Fifth Floor

Dr. Vyacheslav Inozemtsev, is an influential Russian academic who is a consultant to President Dmitry Medvedev.  Dr. Inozemtsev is Director of the Center for Globalization Studies in Moscow, has a PhD in Economics, and works on a range of issues relevant to the modernization program adopted by the Russian government as the key national strategy for this decade.

Dr. Inozemtsev is visiting Washington and Ottawa in late February 2010.  As part of this visit, he is kindly able to provide a lecture at York examining the modernization of Russia and its implications for international security.  This is a rare and valuable opportunity for an inside look into the development of major new Russian policy approaches.

Click here for poster

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

Accessing (In)security: Access to Information Mechanisms And The National Security State

Mike Larsen

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

1–2:30 pm

Room 749 York Research Tower

 

This seminar will discuss the close relationship between the politics of insecurity, the collaborative and integrated nature of the Canadian insecurity field, and practices of secrecy and information control and propose that information is increasingly ‘governed through’ security and vice-versa.   The discussion will move on to explore how this governance takes place by looking at the management and processing of federal Access to Information Act (ATI) requests by a number of component agencies of the national security state.  It is argued that the deepening divide between the scope and strength of access to information law and the organization and practices of security agencies is making it increasingly difficult to get at “hidden and dirty data” (Marx, 1984).

The seminar will also draw on a multi-year study of the Canadian security certificate regime that uses (and seeks to develop) an ATI-as-method approach to action research.  Mike Larsen will look at practical examples of how documents can be obtained through dozens of ATI requests and will provide observations about ATI negotiations.   The seminar will conclude with a short discussion of successful ATI research and a review of how to increase the use of ATI mechanisms in critical security studies.

Mike Larsen is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at York University, and a Researcher at the York Centre for International and Security Studies.  He is Co-managing Editor of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons (www.jpp.org).  His work deals with the politics of secrecy and suspicion, with a focus on Canada’s security certificate regime and its mechanisms and institutions of detention and (information) control.  His most recent article (with Justin Piché) is “Exceptional State, Pragmatic Bureaucracy, and Indefinite Detention: The Case of the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre”, published in Volume 24(2) of the Canadian Journal of Law and Society.

YCISS Contentious Conflicts and Canadian Society Series:

Haiti: The Mobilization of Aid, Public Discourses and Political Action within Canada

Thursday 11 February 2010
2pm- 3.45pm
Room 519, 5th Floor
York Research Tower (YRT)
York University

The earthquake in Haiti and the subsequent human suffering calls for a critical analysis of the hegemonic representations of Haiti’s history, poverty and political disempowerment. It is in this context that we need to examine how mobilization of aid is occurring through the media, diasporas, NGOs, the military - particularly the Canadian Forces - and other government institutions, and to what effect.

Of crucial importance is the question concerning the politically and ideologically motivated agendas of the international community, one that appears now to be coming to the aid of the Haitians.

This forum invited the following speakers to engage in a roundtable discussion on the current situation in Haiti and its future, for the purposes of generating much needed debate at all levels:

Dr Manuel Rozental, University of Toronto
Dr Melanie Newton, University of Toronto
Dr Nalini Persram (Chair), York University

A downloadable MP3/podcast recording of the above discussion is available Click here.    A recording of the discussion can also be accessed directly from this website Click here

New Directions: The Future of Canadian (in)Security Studies:

Round-Table Discussion: The Future of Critical Security Studies in Canada

Thursday 04 February 2010
1.30-3pm
Room 519
York Research Tower
York University, Keele Campus
(Free Admission)

Canadian security/(in)security and defense in theory and practice has been challenged, re-defined and re-imagined in the changing political and theoretical global environment in the last decade. These shifts require a dialogue on recent turns in the field and innovative and multidisciplinary approaches that call into question traditional understandings of security.

These challenges have been taken up by growing numbers of scholars within Canada indicating that we may have reached the point at which a distinctive Canadian voice in security studies may be emerging.

This roundtable discussion brings together distinguished scholars and practitioners working in the area of Critical Security Studies to discuss new approaches, critiques of existing approaches and future directions for the field, both theoretically and regarding the practical development of this area of research.

The panel features:

David Mutimer, Deputy Director, York Centre for International and Security Studies
Barbara Falk, Department of Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College
Mark Salter, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa
Mark Neufeld, Deputy Director, Centre for the Study of Global Power and Politics, Trent University
Miguel Larrinaga, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa
Peter Nyers, Associate Professor, McMaster University
Elizabeth Dauphinee, Department of Political Science, York University

New Directions: The Future of Canadian (in)Security Studies

YCISS 17th Annual Conference

Thursday 04 February and Friday 05 February 2010

YRT Conference Centre (Room 519)

York Research Tower

York University

Canadian security and defense in theory and practice has undergone significant changes since Canada’s increased participation in Afghanistan in 2006 and with the election of the Harper Conservatives. Against this backdrop, the concept and study of security/insecurity has been challenged, re-defined and re-imagined in a changing political and theoretical global environment. These shifts require a dialogue on recent turns in the field and innovative and multidisciplinary approaches that call into question traditional understandings. These challenges have been taken up by growing numbers of scholars within as well as outside of Canada. We may have reached the point at
which a distinctive Canadian voice in security study may be emerging.

This conference seeks to bring scholars together to engage questions of security, both Canadian and global, from a variety of perspectives and
approaches that emphasize both new developments as well as critiques of existing approaches. Recognizing that Canadian security studies can only be thought about in a global context, the conference presents papers that look empirically at Canada as well as those that theorize security studies within a global theoretical context.

Engagements with security from outside the traditional fields are offering unique perspectives on the problematique of security and challenging our understandings in important ways. From interrogating traditional theorizing and security practices to recognizing how recent shifts in areas such as new and interactive media and technology are impacting security, this conference will critically engage with the past in order to contribute to new and creative ways of thinking about the future. Additionally, we want to challenge the  misconception that security is the purview of select disciplinary fields and thus we hope to open what has tended to be an intellectually (and physically!)securitized space of security studies to alternative engagements through film, pictorial, digital, and multimedia art, spoken word, and movement.

The program for the conference is available in PDF format   Click here

 

YCISS thanks the following York University sponsors for their kind support for this conference:

The Office of the Vice President, Research and Innovation;

The Office of the Vice-President Academic and Provost;
The Faculty of Graduate Studies;
The Nathanson Centre for Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security;

The Department of Social Science;

The York University Conference Fund;

The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The New Directions Conference has also been kindly sponsored by the Security and Defence Forum of the Department of National Defence.

 

The YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

From the Front Line: Canadian Forces in Afghanistan

Brigadier General Jonathan Vance  (former Commander Joint Task Force Afghanistan)

Monday 25th January 2010

11.30-1pm

Lecture Room 305

York Lanes

Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance recently returned from Afghanistan where he served as Commander of Canadian and NATO Forces in Kandahar Province from February to November 2009.  Brigadier-General Vance will discuss combat operations and his first-hand insights into the counter-insurgency struggle taking place in this conflict-stricken region.

The presentation will be followed by a session where Brigadier-General Vance will answer questions from the audience.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear and engage with the former commander of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan and one of Canada’s most senior military officers.

The YCISS Contemporary Dilemmas in Canadian Security Lecture Series:

The Culture, Technology, and Ethics of Virtuous War

Dr. James Der Derian

Thursday 21st January 2010

7-9pm

Theatre Room

Marriott Hotel Eaton Centre

525 Bay Street

Toronto

(Free Admission)

 

Questions of war and peace are now framed by technological, cultural, and ethical imperatives.  From the Gulf War to the Iraq War, the United States perfected new technologies, under the auspices of a ‘revolution in military affairs’, to fight virtuous wars.  Technology in the service of virtue gave rise to a new configuration of virtual power, the military-industrial-media-entertainment network.  After winning the short battle of ’shock and awe’ in Iraq but losing the long war to bring democracy and peace to the Middle East, the U.S. military began a controversial program to ‘operationalize’ culture as an instrument of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism; anthropologists, political scientists and anthropologists are enlisted in the effort.  As war goes virtual and cultural in the name of justice, unintended and tragic consequences result.

Dr. James Der Derian is Research Professor of International Studies at Brown University, where he directs the Innovating Global Security and Media Project at the Watson Institute for International Studies.  His recent publications include, Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network, New York (Routledge, 2009); Critical Practices in International Theory (Routledge, 2009), and AntiDiplomacy: Spies, Terror, Speed, & War (Blackwell, 1992).  He is also the producer of three documentary films, VirtualY2K (2000), After 9/11 (2003) and Human Terrain (2009).

Arms Control for the 21st Century: An International Workshop
22-23 January 2010
York Research Tower
York University

This major workshop brings together over twenty scholars and practitioners from Canada, the US, the UK and Europe to ask how practitioners and researchers can work on re-conceptualizing arms control frameworks and processes, previously one of the pillars of global security in the Cold War, to meet the challenges of contemporary international security.

Papers will be presented across a diverse range of arms control issues, including areas such as missile and space defence, the development of biological and nanotechnology, and the revolution in military affairs. The participants will also consider President Obama’s call for ‘a world without nuclear weapons’ and examine progress by his administration on multilateral arms control measures.

On Friday 22nd January, Ted Whiteside, a Canadian working at NATO and the Secretary of the North Atlantic Council, will present a public key note address on the subject of Arms Control, International Security and the Atlantic Alliance in the 21st Century at York University.

This presentation will explore both wider arms Control issues and NATO’s response to the challenges of weapons proliferation.

The workshop will conclude with a roundtable discussion that will outline the next steps in the development of an International Network on Arms Control (INAC) to unite the work of practitioners and academic researchers in this priority area of public policy.

For more details on this workshop, please email yciss@yorku.ca.

This workshop has been kindly sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Public Diplomacy programme; the Security and Defence Forum of the Department of National Defence; and a York University Internationalization Grant.

 

Arms Control, International Security and the Atlantic Alliance in the 21st Century 

Mr Ted Whiteside,

Secretary of the North Atlantic Council, and Director of the NATO Ministerial and Summit Task Force in Brussels

Friday 22 January 2010

5.30-6.30pm

Lecture Room 106

Accolade West Building

York University (Keele Campus )

The theory and practice of Arms Control was one of the central pillars of the global security apparatus in the second half of the Twentieth Century.  Since the end of the Cold War, policymakers at the international and national level involved with Arms Control issues have faced the challenges of adapting to a multi-polar international stage and the emergence of new patterns of proliferation and weapons development both at the strategic level, in terms of nuclear weapons, and the tactical level of small arms.  This discussion will examine the response from policy-makers, both civilian and military, to the new realities of Arms Control and examine these issues in the context of the broader international security environment facing the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

There will be an opportunity for the audience to exchange views and ask questions of the speaker, both in terms of Arms Control issues and NATO’s response to the challenges of weapons proliferation and other NATO issues.

Ted Whiteside, a graduate of York University and the Université de Montréal, is currently Secretary of the North Atlantic Council, and Director of the NATO Ministerial and Summit Task Force in Brussels. Before taking up his current duties as Secretary of the Council, he was Director of the NATO WMD Centre.

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

Developing a Peace System from within a War System: Citizen Diplomacy in Conflict-Ridden Societies

Farid Omar

Wednesday 13th January 2010
1-2.30pm
Room 749 (YCISS)
7th Floor
York Research Tower

The field of citizen diplomacy, also known as Track-II talks, can potentially play an important role in conflict resolution mechanisms around the world. In the Middle East and elsewhere, Track-II Talks have helped build bridges among communities and nations torn by war and factionalism. Due to failure or shortcomings of key Track-I (official diplomacy) talks, peace activists, conflict resolution experts, peace-builders and communities in general may increasingly rely on Track-II Talks in attempts to resolve protracted conflicts around the world.
With peace processes stalled or heading for imminent failures in a multitude of conflicts around the world, citizen diplomacy, more than ever before, holds the key to unlocking a new formula for fostering peace through the direct involvement of citizen diplomats and peace delegates in fragile and failing peace processes. This calls for increased and effective representation of delegates representing private citizens, trade unions, voluntary and professional associations, women’s movements, faith groups and other non-state entities, in the realm of conflict resolution and conflict prevention and all other matters pertaining to improving national, regional and global security on the path to building sustainable peace in war-torn countries.

Farid Omar is a Peace Researcher and Conflict Analyst and a Research Fellow in residence at YCISS, York University.

 

The Contentious Conflicts and Canadian Society Series:

The Sri Lankan Civil War and the Politics of Conflict in Canada

Wednesday 2nd December 2009

4.30-6.30pm

YRT Conference Centre

Room 519, 5th Floor

York Research Tower (YRT)

York University

 

The Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have waged a civil war against each other for several decades. The experiences and effects of the violence of this conflict have been registered in the lives of Tamil and Sinhalese diaspora living in Canada.

As part of the YCISS Contentious Conflicts and Canadian Society Series this panel discussion will explore how diasporas affected by the Sri Lankan civil war mobilize to shape public opinion and influence official views and policy.

Key questions to be addressed may include:

1) How is the civil war in Sri Lanka represented by the diaspora living in Canada?

2) What are the political options for members of a diaspora in terms of both direct and indirect action and can they exert a positive influence on Canadian foreign and domestic policies?

3) What should be the policy response in Ottawa to calls for intervention or action from diasporas in Canada?

4) How can the diasporas contribute to developing an effective and peaceful response to the problems within the community in both Sri Lanka and Canada?

5) What should be the role of universities in providing a space for the debate of contentious conflicts within Canadian society?

The panel consists of representatives from the communities affected by the violence, subject matter experts and members of organisations with knowledge of the conflict and its impact on Canadian society.

The panel includes the following:

Dr R. Cheran, University of Windsor

Ken Kandeepan, Canadian Tamil Congress

Stewart Bell, National Post

John Argue, Amnesty International

Please note that due to space restrictions, participation for this event is by pre-registration.

Please register here

The Distinguished Critical Thinker in World Politics Series

Your Blues Ain’t My Blues: The Constitution of International Security and Insecurity at the Edge of an African Landscape

Professor Siba Grovogui

Thursday 05 November 2009, 2:30-4:30pm

Conference Centre

Room 519, 5th Floor

York Research Tower (YRT)

York University

In this presentation, Professor Grovogui will examine the new Tuareg rebellions in Mali and Niger in the context of the US Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism initiative.  Professor Grovogui will also address two seldom explored conditions of civil strife and insecurity in postcolonial Africa.  The first is of a political order.  It is the adoption by African states of globalized notions of order and security that undermine regional and national systems that had previously sustained life and secured the well-being of populations.  The second condition of insecurity, resulting from the first, is constitutional.  It is the failure of postcolonial states to align the constitutional order on the exigencies of social life, specifically the securitization of domestic systems of production, distribution, solidarity, justice.

Professor Grovogui is Professor of International Relations and Political Theory at the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, where he has been a faculty member since 1995.  A specialist in international relations theory and political theory, Professor Grovogui has written frequently about African sovereignty, including Sovereigns, Quasi-Sovereigns, and Africans: Race and Self-Determination in International Law (1996) and "Regimes of Sovereignty: Rethinking International Morality and the African Condition".   Professor Grovogui previously taught at Eastern Michigan University and holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a law degree from the Institut Polytechnique, Gamal Abdel Nasser in Guinea.

 

 

The York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS) Afternoon Seminar Series:
The Political Economy of Security: States, Crisis and War

Dr Bryan Mabee

Wednesday 7 October 2009

12:30-2pm

Room 280N, York Lanes

In this seminar Dr Bryan Mabee will chart the development of a ‘national security state’ in the United States after World War II and examine how this state was premised on the resolution of several post-war crises in the political economy of security, including the political economy of  postwar production, the relationship between labour and business, and the changing character of war.  Drawing on contemporary approaches to state theory and historical sociology, Dr Mabee will explore the development of divergent approaches to national security through a political economy approach that emphasizes both the importance of ideas and the impact of overall crises on historical patterns of state building.  The seminar will also focus on the relationship between state crisis, crisis narratives, state building and the role of war in political development.

Dr Bryan Mabee is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, UK.  Dr Mabee specializes in and has published on globalization, security, US foreign policy and the historical sociology of international relations.  His most recent publications are the monograph The Globalization of Security (Palgrave, 2009), and “Pirates, Privateers and the Political Economy of Private Violence” in Global Change, Peace and Security.  He is currently a visiting scholar at YCISS.

The YCISS Post-Communist Studies Seminar Series and The York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS) Afternoon Seminar Series:

Islam and Ideas of Nation in Central Eurasia

Dr. John Schoeberlein

Thursday October 8 2009  2:30 – 4:00 pm

International Conference Room
5th Floor York Research Tower

Dr John Schoeberlein is the Director, Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.

 

The YCISS Post-Communist Studies Seminar Series and The York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS) Afternoon Seminar Series:

20 Years since the wall came tumbling down: Observations of Post-Communist Europe

A Conversation with Ambassador John Morrison

(Canada’s Ambassador to Republic of Serbia, Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro)

Tuesday 6th October 2009

12 -2pm

International Conference Centre

5th floor, York Research Tower

John Morrison (BA, McGill University; MA,Cambridge University) is one of Canada’s most experienced diplomats.  He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1985 and served abroad as third secretary at the High Commission for Canada in Kuala Lumpur; second secretary (political affairs) in Beijing; program manager (political, economic and public affairs), at the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei; counsellor (economic) in Tokyo; and minister counsellor and deputy head of mission in Moscow.  In Ottawa, he has occupied a number of positions, notably director of the Eastern Europe and Balkans Division, and of the China and Mongolia Division.  From 1999 to 2000, he was a foreign policy advisor in the Privy Council Office’s Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat.

In 2008, he was named Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia, with concurrent accreditation to the Republic of Montenegro and to the Republic of Macedonia.

 

The York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS) Afternoon Seminar Series:

Canada on the World Stage: Force for Good or Bad Actor?

Yves Engler

Friday 25th September  2009

12-1.30pm

Room 305 York Lanes

                    

Yves Engler is a Montreal based writer.   His works have included Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical and Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority.  As part of a book tour to promote his recent work The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, Yves will present a seminar and audiovisual presentation at York University examining Canada’s foreign policy.  This presentation will challenge the purported myth of an altruistic Canadian foreign policy by exposing how this country has been part of the command and control apparatus of the world economic system from its beginning. At first, Canada served as an arm of the British Empire, but, given the country's location and economic and racial makeup, quickly became intertwined with the USA.

Comments about The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy have included:

“[Engler shows] how ‘peaceful, benevolent, altruistic Canada’ has, on numerous occasions, served as an integral part of Western Imperialism...helping to keep the Third World down.”

—William Blum

 

“Yves Engler’s penetrating inquiry yields a rich trove of valuable evidence about Canada’s role in the world.”

—Noam Chomsky

 

Public Forum: Contemporary Dilemmas in Canadian Security

A Panel Discussion on Public Perceptions of the Canadian Forces

Panelists:

Jeff Sallot:  Formerly of the Globe and Mail and now an instructor in the School of Journalism at Carleton University.

Greg Nelson: Co-creator and head writer of CBC radio series ‘Afghanada’ .  He is also a writer and producer for the CBC television series The Border.

Steve Lukits: Head of the English Department at the Royal Military College of Canada

Wendy Cukier: Associate Dean of the Ted Rogers School of Management

LCdr John Williston: Senior Advisor, Strategic Planning, to the Assistant Deputy Minister Public Affairs

Christopher Dornan: Associate Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs, Carleton University.

Martin Shadwick: Course director in the Department of Political Science, York University (chair of the panel)

Wednesday  8 July 2009  6.00- 8.00pm    FREE ADMISSION

Toronto Downtown Marriot Hotel, Eaton Centre

How have the public perceptions of the military in general and the Canadian Forces (CF) in particular changed since 9/11 and what role does the media and popular culture play in the production of changing perceptions? This important and timely panel will investigate the relationship between the media and the military.

8 July event

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

Is Anyone Watching? War, Cinema and Bearing Witness

Simon Philpott

Thursday, 11 June 2009
1.00-2:30pm

Room 372, York Lanes

There is a long history of demonising Muslims, Arabs, and Islam in a variety of western cultural and media forms including imaginative fiction, news media and in Hollywood film. Arabs and Muslims have routinely been presented as unprincipled, inherently violent and beyond psychological interpretation. Since ‘Islamic extremism’ became a focal point of Americans fears and anxieties in the early 1980s, these cartoonish characters have been routinely slaughtered in Hollywood films. More recently, a number of terror themed war films have presented critical accounts of American actions and policies and have also attempted to provide character development of Muslims and Arabs in ways not seen of the Vietnamese in the films that emerged after that war was concluded. This presentation explores the question of whether films critical of the war on terror bear witness to conflicts the mainstream media has avoided interrogating. Simon argues that the directors of war on terror films may consciously be taking on the role of chroniclers of war and be making films sharply influenced in content and style by a digital media environment producing and circulating vast numbers of images that dull the critical faculties of consumers.

Simon Philpott is Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Newcastle University.

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

The Critical Role of Pre-Negotiation in Ethno-National Conflicts: An Analysis of the Annapolis Process (2007) and the Cyprus Negotiations (2004)

Amira Schiff

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

2:30-4:30pm

Room 305 York Lanes

This seminar will focus on the process of pre-negotiation during the 2004 peace negotiations on the future of Cyprus and the Israel/Palestine negotiations in November 2007 under the Annapolis Process.    Amira will investigate the relationship between the pre-negotiation process and review the crucial question of whether an effective execution of this stage is critical for successful negotiations.

Conflict Resolution (CR) theory on pre-negotiation stage regards it as the processes intended to constitute the beginning of a problem–solving process, in which the parties jointly confront the problem, based on recognition of the other and empathy to its needs.    However, Amira will argue that the pre-negotiation that took place in the Cyprus case and to some extent in the Annapolis process should not be considered as more than an adaptive conflict management tactic.

The seminar will focus on the key factors through which parties' willingness to achieve a solution through agreement may be assessed and how this can help to move towards a situation where parties develop a “win-win” solution.

Amira will present a detailed analysis of how the issue of pre-negotiation can provide a useful contribution to understanding the factors that enhance or undermine de-escalation initiatives.  Ultimately, these factors may prove to be applicable not only in the case of the Cypriot and Annapolis Processes but also in other intractable conflicts across the globe.

Amira Schiff, PhD. is a research associate at the YCISS, York University, Toronto.  She is also a faculty member in the Political Science Department and the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation in Bar- Ilan University. Her research interests include pre-negotiation processes and unofficial diplomacy. Her current research topic is on the "readiness theory" and the resolution of intractable conflicts.  Her article “Pre-negotiation and its Limits in Ethno-National Conflicts: A Systematic Analysis of Process and Outcomes in the Cyprus Negotiations” was published  in International Negotiation 13, 2008.

 

The Academic Boycotts and Contemporary Conflict Series:

A Debate on the Academic Boycott of Israel

Moot Court, Osgoode Hall

York University

Monday, 11 May 2009

4:30-6:30pm

 

Boycotts have emerged in recent decades as a means of developing grassroots opposition to certain politics and practices.  Often these boycotts are directed at firms or industries in the name of environmental or humanitarian goals.  In the past few months, framed as an attempt to build on the successes of a similarly structured campaign against historic South African apartheid, calls for the boycotting of Israeli academic institutions have been raised in Canadian universities as a response to the military action in Gaza.  

Boycotts raise fundamental issues for universities and other academic institutions: how do boycotts affect a university's commitment to free speech and inquiry?  To what degree should public universities be considered as state institutions, and are they appropriate targets for boycotts which oppose state policy?  Are boycotts a sustainable and peaceful way for intellectuals to intervene in conflicts or are they counter-productive?

Following recent seminars on the boycott theme by Omar Barghouti and Edward Beck, YCISS again invites the community to come together for a respectful yet rigorous debate about the questions that the boycott issue raises for Canadian universities.

This panel-style debate will explore themes of academic freedom and repression in relation to calls for an academic boycott of Israel, with an emphasis on the role and responsibilities of Canadian universities.

 

The guest speakers include:

Dr. Abigail Bakan        Professor of Political Studies and Women's Studies, Faculty of Arts and Science, Queen's University

Dr Howard Adelman   Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, York University

Dr. Clive Seligman       Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Western Ontario

Dr. Alan Sears              Associate Professor Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Ryerson University

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series

Bare Life and the Body: Disrupting Sovereign  Power and Its (re) Productions Through a Reading of Afghan Detainees

Jessica Foran

Thursday, 23 April 2009
12:30-2:30pm
Room 280 York Lanes

In this presentation Jessica Foran considers how practices of detention, through their appropriation of and operation upon the body, shape and become shaped by shifts and redefinitions of Canadian sovereign power in the current moment. Focusing on Canada’s response to allegations of detainee mistreatment in Afghanistan, it will trace how mobilization of the ‘Support Our Troops’ discourses was used to mediate inquiry into the status of detainees.

The seminar examines how engaging both detainee and soldier bodies has become used by the Canadian state to “productively” (re)constitute sovereign power.  It will then explore how dominant theorizations of sovereignty problematically assume definitive inclusions and exclusions and rely on the body as an abstracted site of analysis.   Jessica will also examine how the repositioning of the materiality of the body is connected to ongoing practices of colonial and imperial violence.

Jessica Foran is a YCISS graduate researcher and an MA student in the Department of Political Science at York University

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series:

NATO - Celebrating 60 Years of Accomplishments

Ted Whiteside

Monday, 20 April 2009
11am-12:30pm

Room 280 York Lanes

As we look into the future, it is clear that issues of peace, security, and development will be more interconnected than ever. Given this situation,

what is the NATO Alliance doing to manage the multiple challenges of Afghanistan and other security problems? This presentation will explore NATO's current work in Afghanistan, its relations with Russia and other international Partners, as well as Alliance perspectives on the future.  The seminar will provide a opportunity to exchange views and ask questions on these issues, both in terms of global security implications and Canada's transatlantic role.

The speaker, a graduate of York University and the Université de Montréal, is currently Secretary of the North Atlantic Council, and Director of the NATO Ministerial and Summit Task Force in Brussels

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series:

‘But, I Don’t Wanna Play Nice’: An Anti-Social Queer Encounter With Private Military Corporations

Christopher Hendershot
Thursday, 9 April 2009
12:30-2 pm Room 280 York Lanes

This presentation will proceed through an anti-social queer analysis of how sex and death are performed by and through private military corporations (PMCs). Of particular concern will be where and how (hegemonic) hetero-national discourses permeate the interactions of PMCs with sex and death, thereby containing and transforming sex and death into stable and non-threatening performances.

By focusing on the brutal and perverse interactions of PMCs with sex and death this presentation seeks to “turn away from the comfort zone of polite exchange in order to embrace a truly political negativity” (Halberstam 2008). In this way, this presentation will not play nicely with PMCs (or sex and death for that matter) in order to turn PMCs against the institutions and ideologies that most regularly trade in hetero-national discourses – e.g. state militaries.

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series:

The Evolution of the UN's Constitutional Assistance: A Historical and Post-Colonial Perspective

Vijayashri Sripati

Thursday, 26 March 2009
1:30-3pm, Room 372 York Lanes

This presentation analyses the evolution of the United Nation’s constitutional assistance role from a historical and post-colonial perspective. It argues that the UN’s constitutional support has evolved into a “policy institution,” or established practice. Constitution-making involves a profound reorientation of a state’s political and socio-economic order. Seen in this light, the UN’s constitutional assistance, far from being mere technical assistance is hugely significant. Therefore, the very idea of the internationalization of constitution-making, - essentially a domestic process - needs to be questioned.

Through examples drawn from recent case-studies, it shows how the UN’s support of constitution-making, has influenced its structuring of the post-Cold War constitution-making processes and even the constitutional outcome. The presentation argues that it is only by asking why the UN has been empowered to provide constitutional assistance can the broader historical and ideological aspects fundamentally significant to understanding its role be uncovered.

 

York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS):

Sixteenth Annual Conference
Security Beyond the Discipline: Emerging Dialogues on Global Politics

York University, Toronto

19-20 March 2009

Conference program
Changing security and defence environments have recently challenged the capacities for traditional security studies and practices to assess and respond to contemporary issues such as: environmental insecurity; terrorism; failed and/or failing states; transnational crime; the intersections of personal safety and security; the privatisation of security and defence; and the emergence of other non-state actors (NGOs, IOs, TNCs). These emerging issue-areas cannot be easily separated, and their interdependence demands deeper cross-disciplinary discussion. For instance, Canadian Arctic security and defence necessarily involves considerations of the environment, indigenous communities, political economy, infrastructure, as well as the traditional concerns of security studies such as sovereignty, geopolitics, and the allocation of state resources. In response to these challenges, vibrant discussions about security and defence issues have proliferated across the social sciences and humanities, but unfortunately it is rare that those involved in these discussions speak to one another. Examples such as the spatial turn in the social sciences broadly, and the aesthetic turn in International Relations have contributed to the theory and practice of security and defence, yet often remain confined to intra-disciplinary dialogue. A consequence is the production of ever more divisive academic and non-academic camps rather than a move towards conceptualising broader frames through which security can be explained, understood, and practiced.

”Security Beyond the discipline” will take cross-disciplinarity as a starting point from which to consider the recent theoretical and methodological contributions made to the study of security and defence. More than simply a stock taking, however, a primary goal is to create linkages between emerging approaches to the study of security and defence. Achieving this goal will involve a renewed engagement with the spaces of security (shifting regional foci, the internet/cyberspace, diasporas, the neighbourhood, the postcolony), the subjects of security (networks, ecosystems, states, citizens, refugees, transnational subjects), the objects of security (safety, prosperity, hegemony), the frames of security (beyond/beneath the war on terror, reconceptualizing the “west,” etc.), and changes in the practices of defence (cybersecurity, revolutions in military affairs, surveillance).

 

YCISS Afternoon Seminar Series:
Ethnography of a “Policy-in-the-Making”: Responsibility to Protect Under Anthropological Scrutiny
Ariane Bélanger-Vincent

Tuesday, 10 March 2009
11:00am-12:30pm, Room 305 York Lanes

Ariane Bélanger-Vincent is a PhD candidate in anthropology at Laval University (Quebec City) and is a YCISS visitor for 2008-2009.

The idea of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was originally suggested by an international commission launched by the Canadian government in 2000. It was formulated in order to bridge the gap between sovereignty and the international protection of populations threatened by the actions or passivity of their own government. R2P has now become a familiar humanitarian intervention policy within the United Nations. My presentation will focus on the main aspects of a research project in progress about R2P. More specifically, the project seeks to show how anthropological tools such as ethnography can shed light on international relations. Furthermore, I will show how the ethnography of a “policy-in-the-making”, that is the social processes of formulation and institutionalization of R2P, can provide a better understanding of the ways international politics is performed.

 

Academic Boycotts and Contemporary Conflict Seminar Series:

Boycotts have emerged in recent decades as a favoured means of grassroots opposition to certain politics and practices. Often these boycotts are directed at firms or industries in the name of environmental or humanitarian goals. In the past few months, framed as an attempt to build on the successes of a similarly structured campaign against historic South African apartheid, calls for boycotts have been raised in response to Israeli action in Gaza. These calls have included a request for the boycotting of Israeli academic institutions. Boycotts raise fundamental issues for universities and other academic institutions: how do boycotts affect the university's commitments to free speech and inquiry, which are central to our functions? To what degree are public universities state institutions, and so appropriate targets for boycotts which oppose state policy? Are boycotts sustainable and peaceful ways for intellectuals to intervene in conflicts, or are they counter-productive?

With this series, YCISS invites the community to explore these and other issues by presenting a range of perspectives for consideration and discussion. The spirit with which we offer this seminar series was articulately expressed by the president of Georgetown University http://president.georgetown.edu/sections/speeches/35089.html.

Academic Boycotts as the Creation of Counterproductive Efforts for Peace and Antithetical Constructs to Academic Freedom
Edward S. Beck

Tuesday, 10 March 2009
3:30-5:30pm, Room 305 York Lanes
Dr. Edward S. Beck, Co-Founder and now President Emeritus of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), is currently Professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Walden University. He has served on the faculties and administrative staff of Penn State University, New York University, and Rutgers universities among several others. He enjoys affiliate appointments at Haifa University and Bar-Ilan Universities. He received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and Bachelors and Masters Degrees from New York University. He has served as the President of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, on the Board of the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, and as founding editor of the Practice Section of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters and specialized in professional standards and ethics. Currently he is working on a multiculturally oriented book whose working title is: Counseling Jews as a Diverse, But Distinct Multicultural Minority.

He has been a past Community Relations Council Chair for his local Harrisburg Jewish Federation and has been active in AIPAC, ADL and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Ed has watched SPME grow from a Yahoo groups listserv of just a few like-minded individuals in 2002 to an organization that has had the participation of 44,000 college professors, including nearly 40 Nobel Laureates and 60 University Presidents, taking important stands on issues of academic freedom and raising the level of the narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict from polemics to scholarship across the disciplines.

Boycotts as Civil Resistance: The Moral Responsibility of Intellectuals
Omar Barghouti

Monday, 2 March 2009
1-3pm, Room 305 York Lanes
Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, commentator and human rights activist living in the occupied West Bank. He is a founding member of the Palestinian civil society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign as well as a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). He contributed to the philosophical volume, "Controversies and Subjectivity" (John Benjamins, 2005) and to "The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid" (Verso Books, 2001). He advocates an ethical vision for a unitary, secular democratic state in historic Palestine.

A growing debate around the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement has reached North American shores, with prominent unions, civil society organizations and public figures joining the movement to sanction the Israeli state and related institutions for systemic violations of fundamental Palestinian human rights. Since the recent assault on the Gaza Strip, this movement has made important advancements, including endorsements from the President of the UN General Assembly, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, intellectuals like Slavoj Zizek, Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak, John Berger, and Etienne Balibar (among others), as well as the Congress of South African Trade Unions, a number of student unions and social movements worldwide.

The BDS movement poses an important challenge to intellectuals. In contexts of colonial oppression, intellectuals who advocate and work for justice cannot be just intellectuals. They cannot but be immersed in some form or another of activism and to organically engage in collective emancipatory processes. In short, they are challenged to be *just* intellectuals. The questions remain: Is there a role for intellectuals and ordinary citizens to play in solidarity with the oppressed or is peace in the region dependent on allowing the diplomats and negotiators of The Middle East Quartet to negotiate a peace between chosen actors in the region? Is this a sustainable movement that can build on the successes of the similarly inspired movement against South African apartheid or is it engaging in counter-productive actions that threaten to undermine delicate peace efforts in the region as its critics claim? Furthermore, how are those who reside in Canada, seemingly removed from this conflict, most constructively able contribute to the establishment of a lasting peace in the region?