Liebert World Affairs Lecture Series

Bringing the world to campus

Established in 2016 and hosted by the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, the Liebert World Affairs Lecture Series brings world-class scholars offering new and different perspectives on world politics to campus. Students, faculty, staff and the Southwest Florida community have long enjoyed engaging lectures that stimulate the mind.

Upcoming Lectures

Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy

Professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr (Harvard University)

Date | Saturday, Jan. 25 | Refreshments 4:30, talk 5 p.m.

Photo of Dr. Nye

Since we so often apply moral reasoning to foreign policy, how can we do it better? Crucially, presidents must factor in both the political context and the availability of resources when deciding how to implement an ethical policy--especially in a future international system that presents not only great power competition from China and Russia, but transnational threats as borders become porous to everything from drugs to infectious diseases to terrorism to cyber criminals and climate change.

Dr. Nye is a University Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and a Deputy Under Secretary of State, and won distinguished service awards from all three agencies. His books include "The Future of Power", "The Power Game: A Washington Novel", and (forthcoming) "Do Morals Matter?" He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, and the American Academy of Diplomacy. In a recent survey of international relations scholars, he was ranked as the most influential scholar on American foreign policy, and in 2011, Foreign Policy named him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2014, Japan awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun.

The talk is based on Professor Nye's book, "Do Morals Matter?"

How Do Populists Govern?

Jan-Werner Müller (Princeton University)

Date | Friday Feb. 21 | Refreshments 5:30, talk 6 p.m.

Photo of Dr. Mueller - Copyright KD Busch

Donald Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, Marine Le Pen, Hugo Chávez, Viktor Orban, Recep Tayyip Erdogan—populists seem to be on the rise across the globe. But what exactly is populism? Is there really a global wave or movement? And how do populists govern? Is populism a threat to democracy or does it represent the “true will” of the people?

Jan-Werner Müller is a professor at Princeton University. His books include "Constitutional Patriotism", "Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth Century Europe", and "What is Populism?", which has been translated into 25 languages. He writes for the London Review of Books, the New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. Jan-Werner Müller studied at the Free University, Berlin, University College, London, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and Princeton University. From 1996 until 2003 he was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; from 2003 until 2005 he was Fellow in Modern European Thought at the European Studies Centre, St. Antony’s College. Since 2005 he has been teaching in the Politics Department. Photo credit: KD Busch.

The talk is based on Professor Mueller's book, "What is Populism?"

• Müller Student Lecture | Friday Feb. 21 | 10:30 a.m. | Cohen Center, Rm 201

How can we think more systematically (and normatively) about the relationship between democracy and architecture as well as the built environment? Tracing the difficulties of representing and facilitating democracy, Professor Müller will discuss a number of examples of how particular spatial arrangements can help or hinder the implementation of ideals of self-rule.
This event is open to the public.

Helpful Resources

WGCU Interviews with Liebert Speakers

Did you know?

When you support FGCU, your gifts help to shape lives and create opportunities that impact generations to come.

LEARN MORE Give Now

About our department

The mission of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration is to contribute to effective policy-making and administration in the public sector, as well as to advance knowledge about government and politics at the local, state, national, and international levels.

GET DETAILS College Details

Liebert Family Legacy
Toggle More Info

Bernice Liebert Bongiorno died in March 2008 at age 92. Her first husband, noted neuropsychiatrist Erich Liebert, died in 1960. She left a bequest that established the Dr. Edward Liebert Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Dr. Erich Liebert World Affairs Program Endowment Fund.

The couples' daughter, Pamela Liebert, a Southwest Florida resident, says of her parents, "He was the love of her life and she wanted to make a gift that would honor him. She knew he loved teaching and thought this was a good way to accomplish that."Dr. Liebert held a professorship at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, ran a medical practice in Chicago and conducted a great deal of research in the area of psychiatric illness. He was also the clinical director of Elgin State Hospital and was a fellow in the American Academy of Neurology.The couple lived in Elgin, Illinois for many years, spending part of each winter on Fort Myers Beach as far back as the 1950s.

Bernice Liebert Bongiorno died in March 2008 at age 92. Her first husband, noted neuropsychiatrist Erich Liebert, died in 1960. She left a bequest that established the Dr. Edward Liebert Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Dr. Erich Liebert World Affairs Program Endowment Fund.
Lecture Archives
Toggle More Info
“Migrants and Refugees – A Middle East Perspective”

By Professor Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Dr. Erich Liebert World Affairs Lectures hosted by the Dept. of Political Science & Public Administration
Why do some people uproot themselves, while their neighbors stay put? How does the experience of migration affect the migrants, their societies and relations between sending and receiving states? Are there differences between refugees and migrants? How effective are the international laws, policies and organizations that have evolved to assist and protect refugees and migrants?

Professor Jacobsen's Bio

Karen Jacobsen is the Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Friedman School of Nutrition, and directs the Refugees and Forced Migration Program at the Feinstein International Center. Professor Jacobsen’s current research explores urban displacement and global migration systems. Jacobsen works closely with practitioners and international refugee organizations and consults frequently with UNHCR, IRC, ICRC, Unicef and the World Bank. In 2013-2014 she was on leave from Tufts, leading the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) in Geneva. From 2000-2005, she directed the Alchemy Project, which explored the use of microfinance as a way to support people in refugee camps and other displacement settings.

“The Two Americas: Can Americans See America the Way the Rest of the World Does?"

By Suzy Hansen, journalist and author

Why do some people uproot themselves, while their neighbors stay put? How does the experience of migration affect the migrants, their societies and relations between sending and receiving states? Are there differences between refugees and migrants? How effective are the international laws, policies and organizations that have evolved to assist and protect refugees and migrants?

The talk was based on Ms. Hanson's book, "Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World"

Ms. Hansen's Bio

Suzy Hansen is an American journalist and editor who has lived in Istanbul, Turkey for over ten years. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, where she writes mainly on Turkish politics, and has written about foreign affairs for many other publications. Her first book about America's role in the Middle East, Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World, was published in 2017 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the US, and in 2019 by Corsair in the UK. It was awarded the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award for Best Nonfiction Book on International Affairs, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.

“Is Democracy in Danger – and should you care?"

Professor Jack A. Goldstone 2018 World Affairs Lecture

Many have expressed concerns about President Trump’s impact on our democratic processes. At the same time, democracy scores around the world in 2017 reached their lowest level in the last 13 years. Are these trends related? Should Americans be concerned about the decline in democracy in other countries? Is democracy in the U.S. really under threat? Professor Goldstone will discuss why we need to care about democracy abroad to preserve it at home, and what lessons we can learn from other times in history when democracy was under threat.

Dr. Goldstone Bio

Jack A. Goldstone is the Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr. Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, and a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Previously, Dr. Goldstone was on the faculty of Northwestern University and the University of California, and has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UCLA, UC-San Diego and the California Institute of Technology, as well as director of research institutes at the Russian Academy of National Economy (Moscow) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at Stanford University, a distinguished lecturer at the American Academy in Berlin, and won Fellowships from the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is the author of Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, awarded the 1993 Distinguished Scholarly Research Award of the American Sociological Association; Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History; and nine other books as well as over one hundred and fifty research articles on topics in politics, social movements, democratization, and long-term social change. He has seven times won awards for “best article” in the fields of comparative-historical sociology, political sociology, and social theory, and received the Myron Weiner award for lifetime achievement from the International Studies Association. His current research focuses on conditions for building democracy and stability in developing nations, the impact of population change on the global economy and international security, and the cultural origins of modern economic growth. He has appeared on NPR, CNN, Al-Jazeera, Fox News, and written for Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Al-Hayat and the International Herald Tribune. He has also worked extensively on forecasting global conflict and terrorism, and with the US Agency for International Development and the World Bank on providing democracy assistance to fragile states. Goldstone is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served on the advisory board of the Council’s Center for Preventive Action.

Professor Jack A. Goldstone’s research focuses on conditions for building democracy and stability in developing nations, the impact of population change on the global economy and international security, and the cultural origins of modern economic growth. He has worked extensively with the US Agency for International Development and the World Bank on providing democracy assistance to fragile states. Goldstone is the author of Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World [1993; 2016], awarded the 1993 Distinguished Scholarly Research Award of the American Sociological Association; and, Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History [2008]. He is blog posts can be found at https://newpopulationbomb.com

"Systemic Corruption and Its Dangers – At Home and Abroad"

Presented by Sarah Hayes - Senior Associate - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Sarah Chayes is an international authority on corruption and its implications. Her work explores how it exacerbates international crises such as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation.

Along with Thieves of State, which won the 2016 L.A. Times Book Prize, Chayes is the author of the Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
This talk was based on Ms. Chayes' book, "Thieves of State"
- Sarah Chayes Bio
  Toggle More Info
  
  Sarah Chayes, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, is an international authority on corruption and its implications. Her work explores how it exacerbates international crises such as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation.
  
  In May 2016, Chayes participated alongside UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Secretary of State John Kerry and world leaders from more than 40 countries at the first ever international summit devoted to tackling corruption.
  
  Before joining Carnegie, she served as special assistant to the top U.S. military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. She participated in Cabinet-level decision-making on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arab Spring, traveling with Mullen frequently to these regions. He tapped Chayes for the job after her work as special advisor to two commanders of the international troops in Afghanistan (ISAF). She contributed her unique knowledge of the Afghan south to the ISAF command.
  
  It was a sense of historic opportunity that prompted Chayes to renounce her journalism career in early 2002, after covering the fall of the Taliban for National Public Radio, and to remain in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country. She chose to settle in the former Taliban heartland, Kandahar.
  
  In 2005, Chayes founded Arghand, a start-up manufacturing cooperative, where men and women working together produce fine skin-care products. The goal was to revive the region’s historic role in exporting fruit and its derivatives, to promote sustainable development, and expand alternatives to the opium economy. Running Arghand in downtown Kandahar proved to an extraordinary vantage point for observing the unfolding war.
  
  From 1996-2001, Chayes was NPR Paris correspondent. For her work during the Kosovo crisis, she shared the 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards.
  
  Along with Thieves of State, which won the 2016 L.A. Times Book Prize, Chayes is the author of The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban (Penguin, 2006).
"Why does U.S. Foreign Policy Keep Failing"

Presented by Stephan Walt - The Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)

What We Learned:
- Why have relations with Russia deteriorated so badly?
- Why have repeated US efforts—by both Republicans and Democrats—to mediate peace in the Middle East failed?
- Why did Republicans and Democrats embrace President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, despite clear warnings that the war was unnecessary and that the US had no “exit strategy?"
- Why has President Obama followed many of the same national security policies as his predecessor, even though he was elected in part to change them?
- How are we to understand the failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere, along with the deterioration of relations with Russia and China and the crises that have buffeted Europe?
Stephen M. Walt Bio

Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as Academic Dean from 2002 to 2006. He is a contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine, co-chair of the editorial board of International Security, and co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs book series. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in May 2005 and received the International Studies Association’s Distinguished Senior Scholar award in 2014. His books include The Origins of Alliances, which received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award, and Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy, which was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber International Affairs Book Award and the Arthur Ross Book Prize. His most recent book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (co-authored with John J. Mearsheimer) was a New York Times best-seller and has been translated into more than twenty foreign languages. His weekly FP column is at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/voices/walt