Liebert World Affairs Lecture Series

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.

“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

“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"

"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