CGA Student Work Quoted in Time.com

The work of Regina Joseph, a second-year MSGA student, was cited today in Time.com. Quoting from Joseph’s independent study research work on nuclear Nth power dynamics in the Middle East post-Arab Spring, Thomas P.M Barnett leveraged Joseph’s thesis to arrive at a new perspective on the security issues facing Iran, Syria and their neighbours. Barnett, who also works as Chief Analyst at Wikistrat, has reviewed and cited Joseph’s work before, when she participated as an NYU CGA team member in Wikistrat’s Summer 2011 Grand Strategy competition and she has been brought on as a Senior Analyst at Wikistrat.

 

CGA’s Galeotti on Russian protests

The sudden and unexpected rise of people power in Russia has not only raised questions about the future of the Putin regime, it has also raised the question of whether the state will be able to handle these new forces through political means if possible, coercion if necessary. Having addressed these issues in his regular Moscow News column (‘Not 1917, but maybe 1905?‘), Professor Mark Galeotti was also invited to be interviewed for a podcast released by the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Power Vertical series while visiting Prague (‘Russia After the Perfect Storm‘), in which he discussed the authorities’ response to the protest movement, emerging splits within the elite, and the role of the security services in the new political environment.

 

CGA Student Wins Brussels Forum Young Writer Prize

John Schellhase, a second semester student in the MS in Global Affairs program at NYU, has won this year’s prestigious Brussels Forum Young Writer Prize. He shares the award with his co-author Thomas Gietzen, a master’s student in Economics at Universität St. Gallen, Switzerland. Sponsored by the US German Marshall Fund, the Brussels Forum Young Writers Prize requires a team of one North American and one European to co-author a single paper on the future of the transatlantic partnership. Their paper, Rebuilding Together: The Renewal of Transatlantic Leadership in the Global Economy, focuses on ways the US and EU can emerge from their separate crises by working to solve their larger, shared crisis together. The co-authors will share a 5,000 euro prize and will be flown to Belgium in March to attend this year’s Brussels Forum, a gathering of high-level officials, journalists, and scholars from around the world, after which their paper will be published.

 

CGA hosts discussion on international tribunals

On November 29, the CGA and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) co-hosted a panel discussion on the impact of international ad hoc tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the possible lessons that can be drawn by the International Criminal Court. CGA’s Prof. Jennifer Trahan moderated a panel that included Richard Goldstone, David Tolbert, Hassan Jallow, and Diane Orentlicher, all of whom bring expertise and experience having worked for international tribunals and written on related topics.

View Prof. Trahan’s introduction below or visit here to see the event in its entirety.

 

 

CGA’s Galeotti in controversy over Russian cybercrime

The disproportionate number of hackers coming from or working through Russia is a troublesome issue, not least as lazy punditry tends to overstate the problem and Russian patriots seek to downplay it. CGA Academic Chair Prof. Mark Galeotti‘s latest column in the Moscow News, ‘Why are Russians excellent cybercriminals?’ managed to both ruffle feathers and also raise the level of the discussion. His exploration of the reasons for the high levels of Russian hacking - the country accounts for over a third of global cybercrime revenue – noted the very high levels of math and computer skills to be found amongst the population, compared with a relative lack of opportunities. In addition, there remains the demand for the hackers’ services by organized crime and, many argue, the Russian state itself. It turned out to be one of the most popular and widely-discussed and tweeted articles the online newspaper has run, but also generated no little argument. The Russian online news service Vesti ran a counter-article which was also used as the basis for a TV news package: Prof. Galeotti appreciated being described as a “well-known blogger” although he would also have liked to have been interviewed to reply to the critique which, ironically, ended up painting Russia as even worse than he did. Meanwhile, Business Insider ran the story (calling it “an excellent read”), as did a wide range of blogs and computer security specialist media outlets.

 

CGA student’s take on the Haqqani Network published

“The Haqqani network, a cross-border terrorist group, has been a pivotal player in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region for decades and long been recognized as a grave threat to regional security. Islamabad continues to deny the extent of its relationship with these militants and hesitates to take direct action against them. Ahead of the 2014 US military drawdown from Afghanistan, Washington has stepped-up pressure on Islamabad and the security establishment. Without Islamabad’s cooperation, Washington would be left to devise its own — military or non-military — strategy against the Haqqanis, potentially risking an open confrontation between the US and Pakistani militaries.”

CGA student Simran Maker, a co-founder of the MSGA’s Transnational Security Committee, had a brief published by the global analysis and advisory firm Oxford Analytica. The brief, entitled ‘Neutralising Haqqanis is key to South Asia’s security’, examines Washington’s negotiations with the Haqqani Network – a dangerous militant group operating on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with alleged support from Pakistan’s security establishment.

 

‘Sultans of Smack’: Turkey, politics and heroin

As part of the continuing series Bad Company: conversations about the new global underworld, on November 10, the CGA welcomed Dr. Ryan Gingeras, assistant professor in the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. In conversation with the CGA’s Prof. Mark Galeotti, he discussed how Turkey has a long history as a source and above all gateway for Europe’s heroin. Just as oil has helped shape the modern Middle Eastern states, heroin has been a key factor in Turkey’s long transition from empire to nation-state. In an interesting discussion that spanned history, geopolitics and criminology, Dr. Gingeras considered how the drug business has been at the heart of the formation of what many inside and outside of academia have called the “deep state,” a conspiratorial collection of politicians, soldiers, intelligence officers and criminals shaping national politics.

 

The Occupy Wall Street movement explored at the CGA

The Society of International Business and Development (SIBD), a student organization at the NYU Center for Global Affairs, welcomed Occupy Wall Street coordinators Katie Davison, Kobi Skolnick, Amin Husain and Andrew Hukins to an open-forum panel event entitled Occupy Wall Street: Motives to the Movement on Thursday, Nov. 3. The panel discussion was moderated by the CGA’s Prof. Everett Myers. The evening opened with Prof. Myers providing an economic context of the past 30 years of growing inequalities in wealth distribution in the United States, followed by the panelists sharing their stories and hopes for the movement currently sweeping the nation. A packed house of 120 attendees asked a series of questions that kept the dialogue going long after the Q&A session into the reception. This open forum event tackled such issues as democracy building, sustainable development, the interconnectedness of the global community and the role of civil society.