International policy and diplomacy

A presentation and Q&A on the Iran deal featuring two White House officials, including one of the Administration's negotiators.From the speakers: This presentation will lay out the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated between six major world powers and Iran after nearly two years of highly technical and painstaking sessions. Presenters include Paul Irwin, one of the negotiators, who will detail what the deal does and how it addresses international concerns about Iran's nuclear program, and Matt Nosanchuk, Associate Director for Public Engagement and Liaison to the American Jewish Community and on International Issues, and a native Detroiter.

Sultan Al Qassemi is a 33-year-old scholar, columnist, and influential Twitter commentator. TIME Magazine says he's "shaping the conversation" on events unfolding in the Middle East. NPR says he "wrote the first draft of Middle East history in short sentences tapped out on his computer and his cell phone."

Yususf Neggers will discuss about How Small Search Frictions Impact Bureaucratic Efficiency.

Donors have long engaged the private sector by tying foreign aid, forcing recipients to buy from donor countries. But recently, donors have partnered with private money on a larger scale, making tied aid an important area of interest.

Lecture by General Michael Hayden, retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the CIA and NSA.

U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel is a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is Chairman of the Atlantic Council and a Member of the Secretary of Defense's Defense Policy Board.

Consideration of the the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement has been postponed until after the election, when it may come up for a vote in Congress. Ford School Professor Alan Deardorff will moderate this two-person panel on the pros and cons of the TPP.

The U.S. was founded as a maritime nation and was a world leader for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. We have lost much of that leadership. We have the largest Exclusive Economic Zone of all nations, and in 2010 got our first ever National Ocean Policy, but we are still stuck in the muck. We have failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; application of Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning is sputtering; ecosystem-based management remains elusive; and the ocean is rarely mentioned as a source of jobs and new economic activity in the current debate.

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.

The IPC is honored to convene this panel of intellectuals, human rights professionals and policy experts. Panelists have in depth experience with the conflicts, negotiations and political settlements in Colombia, South Africa, Guatemala and Nigeria.

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.

The International Policy Center hosts Scott Atran (University of Oxford/ CNRS, Paris/ University of Michigan) presents his field research from Europe, North Africa, and the frontlines in the battle with ISIS to make the case that the Devoted Actors' commitment to making costly sacrifices enables low-power groups to endure and often prevail against materially much stronger foes.

The Ford School welcomes human rights scholar Alejandro Castillejo-Cuéllar, associate professor and chair of Anthropology Department at the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Join Christina Goldbaum, Bronwyn Bruton and John Ciorciari for an examination of the U.S. military’s presence and role in Africa and the implications for civilian lives and global security.

Juan R.I. Cole, Professor of Middle East and South Asian History, University of Michigan. Professor Cole has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Since the 2002 launch of his weblog, 'Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion,' Cole has become a prominent media commentator and has published political writings in The Guardian, the San Jose Mercury News, Salon.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Nation.

Ja Ian Chong will host a talk at the Ford School on how China uses economic punishment to elicit desired behavior from other states.

Francisco Thoumi - Institutions, Governability and Illegal Drugs in Colombia and Afghanistan: Why Traditional Policies Are Not Enough

Former President of MIT Charles M. Vest will deliver the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation lecture October 12, at 3:30 p.m. in the Michigan Ballroom. The lecture is titled 'Improving the U.S. Intelligence Community – Lessons from Iraq, Libya, and Elsewhere.' The talk is part of Dr. Vest's visit to the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, where he is the Towsley Policymaker in Residence. The Towsley Policymaker in Residence program at the Ford School brings a policymaker to campus for an extended period of time to teach, write, and talk with faculty and students.

Sir Tony Atkinson Warden, Nuffield College, Oxford. Sir Tony Atkinson is internationally known for his work on inequality and income distribution He has been the Warden of Nuffield College, University of Oxford since 1994, and has been involved as an advisor to the European Union on social policy issues. This lecture was the keynote address for the conference, 'Changing Social Policies for Low-Income Families and Less-Skilled Workers in the EU and the U.S.,' jointly sponsored by the

A Ford Security Seminar.

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.

Ford School Students are invited to join an FSO Test Prep Session with Justin Erickson. 

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.

Traditionally, central banks have served three policy functions – monetary policy, payments systems oversight, and financial institution supervision. This conference will convene international experts and practitioners to examine how these core functions contribute to financial inclusion, poverty alleviation, and a more inclusive economy – and what could be improved.The conference contributes to a research initiative undertaken by the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law & Policy, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to consider how the role of a central bank could evolve in the future and enable central banks to make greater contributions toward financial inclusion. Ultimately, the research intends to identify technologies, processes, or tools that could benefit a central bank in supporting public policy objectives related to inclusion, and consider whether other sectors, including philanthropy, might have a role to play in supporting the development of those tools. Registration to the event is free. Speakers and attendees will include individuals from  standards-setting bodies, central banks and other financial regulators, and policymakers, as well as futurists and technologists, and other financial ecosystem stakeholders.For more information visit http://financelawpolicy.umich.edu. 

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.