The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University invites you to attend its noontime series of talks featuring recently published books written by Pardee School faculty.
The Pardee School is a 21st century school of global studies committed to the education of problem solvers, agents of change, and leaders of tomorrow. The books featured as part of the series showcase the prolific and eclectic works written, edited and published by Pardee School faculty.
The Faculty Book Series will provide a forum for students and faculty to discuss a range of issues representative of the interdisciplinary mission of the Pardee School.
Join us on Mondays throughout the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 semesters from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Lunch will be available at each event starting at 11:30 a.m.
For more information on the Faculty Book Talk Series, click here.
Schedule
- September 19. 2016: Ruling Ideas: How Neoliberalism Goes Local, Cornel Ban
- By comparing the moderate neoliberalism that prevails in Spain with the more radical one that shapes policy thinking in Romania, Ruling Ideas explains why neoliberal hybrids take the forms that they do and how they survive crises. Cornel Ban contributes to the literature by showing that these different varieties of neoliberalism depend on what competing ideas are available locally, on the networks of actors who serve as the local advocates of neoliberalism, and on their vulnerability to external coercion.
- October 3, 2016: Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in India and China, Min Ye
- Min Ye offers a comparative and historical analysis of foreign direct investment (FDI) liberalization in China and India and explains how the return of these countries’ diasporas affects such liberalization. It examines diasporic investment from Western FDIs and finds that diasporas, rather than Western nations, have fueled globalization in the two Asian giants. In China, diasporas contributed the lion’s share of FDI inflows. In India, returned diasporas were bridges for, and initiators of, Western investment at home. Min Ye illustrates that diasporic entrepreneurs helped to build China into the world’s manufacturing powerhouse and that Indian diasporas facilitated their homeland’s success in software services development.
- October 31, 2016: Making Diplomacy Work: Intelligent Innovation for the Modern World, Amb. Paul Hare
- While most discussions of diplomatic reform stop short of proposing concrete ideas to make diplomacy work better, Amb. Paul Hare suggests doable initiatives that could make diplomacy more versatile, more attuned to modern realities, and more capable of confronting the shared problems that no state can solve on its own. It takes a fresh look at the practice of diplomacy, sets its achievements and failures in a contemporary context, and analyzes the major factors that have changed the way it is conducted. The book is built on the premise that diplomacy must adapt some of its ritualistic and stale procedures to become more effective in the modern world, given the growing number of international actors, the expansion of global non-governmental organizations, and the continuing communications and information revolution.
- November 14, 2016: European Union and Environmental Governance, Henrik Selin
- Written in a concise and accessible manner, this book introduces and examines the major European and global environmental issues, debates, and policies and provides a critical, evidence-based evaluation of the achievements and shortcomings to date in EU environmental and sustainability governance. Henrik Selin provides both an historical overview and a discussion of the major future legal, political and economic challenges to the realization of EU goals related to better environmental governance, the authors offer a comprehensive introduction to this key issue.
- December 5, 2016: ISIS: The State of Terror, Jessica Stern
- In ISIS: The State of Terror, Jessica Stern dissects the new model for violent extremism that the Islamic State, known as ISIS, has leveraged into an empire of death in Iraq and Syria, and an international network that is rapidly expanding. Stern and Berger offer a much-needed perspective on how world leaders should prioritize and respond to ISIS’s deliberate and insidious provocations in this compelling, essential account.
- January 23, 2017: A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rogues and Rebels, Betty Anderson
- In A History of the Modern Middle East, Betty Anderson offers a comprehensive assessment of the region, stretching from the fourteenth century and the founding of the Ottoman and Safavid empires through to the present-day protests and upheavals. Enriched by the perspectives of workers and professionals; urban merchants and provincial notables; slaves, students, women, and peasants, as well as political leaders, the book maps the complex social interrelationships and provides a pivotal understanding of the shifting shapes of governance and trajectories of social change in the Middle East.
- February 13, 2017: The China Triangle: Latin America’s China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus, Kevin Gallagher
- In The China Triangle, Kevin P. Gallagher traces the development of the China-Latin America trade over time and covers how it has affected the centuries-old (and highly unequal) US-Latin American relationship. He argues that despite these opportunities Latin American nations have little to show for riding the coattails of the ‘China Boom’ and now face significant challenges in the next decades as China’s economy slows down and shifts more toward consumption and services.
- March 27, 2017: Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism, Jeremy Menchik
- Indonesia’s Islamic organizations sustain the country’s thriving civil society, democracy, and reputation for tolerance amid diversity. Yet scholars poorly understand how these organizations envision the accommodation of religious difference. What does tolerance mean to the world’s largest Islamic organizations? What are the implications for democracy in Indonesia and the broader Muslim world? Jeremy Menchik argues that answering these questions requires decoupling tolerance from liberalism and investigating the historical and political conditions that engender democratic values. Drawing on archival documents, ethnographic observation, comparative political theory, and an original survey, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia demonstrates that Indonesia’s Muslim leaders favor a democracy in which individual rights and group-differentiated rights converge within a system of legal pluralism, a vision at odds with American-style secular government but common in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
- April 10, 2017: Mexico’s Cold War: Cuba, the United States and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution, Renata Keller
- Mexico’s Cold War examines the history of the Cold War in Mexico and Mexico in the Cold War. Renata Keller draws on declassified Mexican and US intelligence sources and Cuban diplomatic records to challenge earlier interpretations that depicted Mexico as a peaceful haven and a weak neighbor forced to submit to US pressure. Mexico did in fact suffer from the political and social turbulence that characterized the Cold War era in general, and by maintaining relations with Cuba it played a unique, and heretofore overlooked, role in the hemispheric Cold War.
