International development

Professor Shujiro URATA examines Japan’s current economic situation and identifies the problems, then he discusses the importance of adopting an activist international economic policy with a focus on its relationship with the United States, in order to overcome the problems and achieve sustained economic growth.  

Paul Krugman is an economist and prolific writer who divides his energies among many pursuits: he is professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, a centenary professor at the London School of Economics, and, perhaps, his best-known job, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. Krugman was recently honored for his work on global trade patterns by winning the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Jeffrey Sachs is one of the world's most influential development economists. He is the author of 'Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet' (2008) and 'The End of Poverty,' his seminal 2005 prescription for ending extreme poverty in the world by 2025.

Robert B. Zoellick became the 11th president of The World Bank Group on July 1, 2007.

Free and open to the public. Screening of Death by China will begin after the debate in the same room. About the event In this inaugural Ford Policy Union debate, Peter Navarro, the director and producer of the movie Death by China, will argue China's unfair trade and membership in the World Trade Organization are the primary causes of job losses and weak growth in the United States.

A presentation by Wei Ha, Research Professor of Education, Peking University

Free and open tot he public. About the Film Telling the story of his family's escape from the Khmer Rouge, End/Beginning: Cambodia was commissioned by Channel News Asia (based out of Singapore and broadcasting all over Asia) after the 6-minute TED Talk in 2009 by Sophal Ear, Assistant Professor, Naval Postgraduate School. It has been broadcast a dozen times in 2011 and 2012 on CNA throughout Asia. In 2012, the film won a Gold World Medal in History & Society at the 55th New York Festival International Television and Films Awards.

Free and open to the public. About the talk The more a country depends on aid, the more distorted are its incentives to manage its own development in sustainably beneficial ways. Cambodia, a post-conflict state that cannot refuse aid, is rife with trial-and-error donor experiments and their unintended results, including bad governance—a major impediment to rational economic growth.

Please join us for a conversation with President and CEO of CARE USA Helene D. Gayle and Ford School faculty Marina Whitman and Sharon Maccini on current trends in international development aid, microfinance, and global health initiatives.

The Economic Development Seminar is co-sponsored by the International Policy Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Ross School's Business Economics, and the Economics Department (sponsored in part by a generous gift from Jay and Beth Rakow) of the University of Michigan.

Join us for a student workshop lunch and conversation with Professor Jennifer Haverkamp discussing about International Climate Change Diplomacy. If you are interested, please sign up here.

In recent years, “period poverty” has come to be seen as an important development issue, with sanitary pads becoming the main solution. Rather than the result of systematic and unbiased evidence gathering, however, Parthasarathy argues that this problem and solution are the result of the new credibility regimes that underlie development governance today.

In July 2014 Washington Post journalist and former Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, was arrested by Iranian police on charges of espionage. What followed was a harrowing 544 day stint in an Iranian prison, and an extraordinary campaign led by his family, the Washington Post, and prominent journalism organizations for his release. Join Rezaian for a discussion on his book “Prisoner,” which details his 18-month imprisonment in a maximum security facility, his journey through the Iranian legal system and how his release became part of the Iran nuclear deal.

The Ford School’s Weiser Diplomacy Center (WDC) and Lou Fintor, the U.S. Department of State's Diplomat in Residence invite you to a timely diplomacy simulation exercise “Countering Violent Extremism: Balancing Civil Liberties and Security.” This simulation was developed by Department of State's U.S. Diplomacy Center and involves a hypothetical scenario based on a real global challenge: how to address violent extremism while at the same time respecting and protecting civil rights and liberties. As this exercise has not been previously used, Ford School students will be the first cohort in the nation to test this simulation. U.S. State Department's Diplomat in Residence Lou Fintor will lead the simulation here at the Ford School and supplement the exercise with examples drawn from his assignments in South Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Only signed up students can participate.

Traditional Leadership, Social Networks, and Collective Action in Northern Ghana