DGA & NYU Host Borderlands Conference

Thursday, October 29, 2009, the Conference on Governing the Dynamics of European Borderlands commenced at New York University.  Simon Reich, Director of the Division of Global Affairs and commencement Keynote, provided the initial dose to help us all think ‘borderlands’ for the multi-day conference.  Reich touched upon every presentation topic to be addressed, with a Q & A that flowed more like a roundtable dialogue.  Concepts of European borderlands were introduced, reaffirmed, disputed and defined, cultivating the conference landscape.   What are borderlands?  Are they man-made boundaries?  Are they natural borders created by bodies of water?  Are they the products of perceptions of class and culture?

New and seasoned scholars from both sides of the Atlantic convened to present their research on topics related to the complex dynamics of sending, transit and receiving countries within and outside of the European Union. Students including Turkish National Police and professors of disciplines ranging from English to Economics participated in lively discussions on a smorgasbord of migration and integration issues raised.  Country cases were presented on Italy, Spain and Morocco.   Other presentations explored foreign direct investment versus labor migration, countervailing effects of securitizing borders, Turkey’s internal borders and the Kurdish question, to name a few.  Among the presenting scholars were Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Kusum Mundra and Carlos Seiglie of Rutgers University-Newark.

On Friday, October 30, the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark hosted a full day of panel sessions.  The following day, New York University hosted a Saturday morning panel followed by the conference closing.  The conference was organized in collaboration with the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) at New York University, University of Kassel, Europe University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the Division of Global Affairs (DGA) and Rutgers University-Newark.  DGA received in-kind support from the Center for Emergent Threats in the 21^st Century (ET21).

In the spring of 2010 there will be a concluding conference in Turkey in which borderlands scholars will offer their recommendations.

Please address your inquiries to:

Eleni Mavrogeorgis

Public Relations Officer

emavro@andromeda.rutgers.edu

Publication of Policy Report: Integration and Security

The Division of Global Affairs (DGA) and the Center for the Study of Emergent Threats in the 21^st Century (ET21) will publish a new policy report entitled Integration and Security: Muslim Minorities and Public Policy in Europe and the United States due out in August 2009.  The report tackles the complex, important and sensitive issue of the integration of Muslim minorities across the Atlantic, and the important balance between the preservation of civil liberties and enhanced security in the current policy climate.

Based on a three-year study conducted in collaboration with the CEVIPOF of the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po – Paris) by a set of scholars, this document reflects the discussions, findings and recommendations of a policy forum of the same title held in Paris in March of 2009. This event was generously funded by a grant from the National Program of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Key questions included whether the United States indeed has an integration policy, and what lessons American policymakers might learn from the European experience.

With those themes in mind, researchers and stakeholders drawn from all segments of the policy community came together in a frank exchange of views about how to interpret the events of the last several years, the lessons learned, and future policy options.

An extended discussion of the issues raised in this report (and many more) will be addressed in a forthcoming book co-edited by Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia and Simon Reich entitled Managing Ethnic Diversity After 9-11: Internal Security and Civil Liberties in Transatlantic Perspective to be published by Rutgers University Press in the winter of 2010.

ISBN hardcover 978-0-8135-4716-9

ISBN paperback 978-0-8135-4717-6

+ This Report was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York (Grant ID: 08080) and administered through the Corporation’s National Program.

Three Co-Directors Lead ET21 Programs

Three  program Co-Directors – Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Leslie Kennedy, and Kurt Schock, have been chosen to direct programs in their fields of expertise.

Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia is Director of the Program on (Im)migration and Integration. She was formerly co-director of the ISI Immigration Research Network. She specializes in the politics of immigration and anti-discrimination in the United States and Europe, racism and xenophobia, extreme-right wing movements, immigrant integration, and urban racism. In addition to writing three books (including one on the Far Right in France, and another on Everyday Racism) and five edited volumes, Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia recently co-edited a book with Simon Reich entitled Immigration, Integration and Security: America and Europe in Comparative Perspective (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008).

Leslie W. Kennedy is Director of the Program on Global Security. He served as Dean of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice from 1998 to 2007. He is also a member of the Core Faculty in the Division of Global Affairs. Dr. Kennedy has published extensively in the areas of fear of crime, victimology, and violence. He is the co-author with Vince Sacco of The Criminal Event, appearing in its 4th edition this year. In this book he advocates a holistic approach to the study of crime in social context. He has just completed (with Van Brunschot) a new book, The Risk in Crime (to be published in Fall, 2009 by Rowman and Littlefield) , that explores the use of risk in criminological theory and research.

Kurt Schock is Director of the Program on Nonviolent Resistance. He is currently researching land reform and land rights movements in the global south. He is examining how civil resistance is being used to prevent land alienation and promote a more equitable distribution of land and resources.  More broadly his research seeks to understand how methods of nonviolent action and ‘people power’ movements are able to successfully challenge state domination and economic exploitation.

Cybersecurity Policy Expert Joins ET21

Dr. Panayotis “Pano” Yannakogeorgos, an expert in the policies, militarization and geopolitics of cyberspace, has joined ET21 as Senior Program Coordinator and Director of the Project on Global Cybersecurtity Policy.  Beyond his research experience, Dr. Yannakogeorgos brings with him a practitioner’s perspective having been appointed by the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the position of Adviser on the U.N. Security Council (2006), and a Delegate-Expert of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Agenda (2008).

ET21 Awarded Rutgers Academic Excellence Fund

The Division of Global Affairs (DGA) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded funding through this year’s Rutgers Academic Excellence Fund  (AEF) to establish the Rutgers Center for the Study of Emergent Threats in the 21st Century (what we refer to as “ET21″).

ET21 will be led by three Co-Directors – Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Leslie Kennedy, and Kurt Schock.  Our new Senior Program Coordinator, Panayotis Yannakogeorgos (and a newly minted DGA Ph.D.), will facilitate the formulation and implementation of ET21′s projects and activities.

ET21 is a center of excellence designed to research a variety of emergent threats to civilians and offer policy prescriptions that generate suitable responses to these threats through three component programs focusing on:

• Global Security
• Nonviolent resistance to threats to civilians
• Patterns of (im)migration and issues of integration

The efforts of these three programs will bring together faculty drawn from Rutgers departments and schools including Anthropology/Sociology, the Business School, Criminal Justice, Economics, Law, Political Science, and Public Affairs and Administration.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Philip Furmanski; Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education, Michael J. Pazzani; and Newark Chancellor Steven Diner for generously supporting this new DGA initiative.

Please visit http://et21.rutgers.edu for project developments and happenings.