Pia Orrenius, Senior Economist at the Dallas Fed and Tower Center Fellow, has published a wonderful new book Beside the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Reform in a New Era of Globalization with co-author Madeline Zavodny.
You can catch her interview on CNN from July 31st (below) or read the transcript.
Pia's website has links to a number of her other publications that deal with the economics of immigration.
Tower Center Director, Jim Hollifield was interviewed last month by the BBC's World News Service about Britain's first coalition government in 65 years.
Click Here to listen.
Tower Center Faculty Fellow, Hiroki Takeuchi, was interviewed on the KERA Think Radio Show on Wednesday, July 21. Dr. Takeuchi discussed the current state of politics and economics in Japan and its implications for international relations.
Here's the link: KERA Think Podcast
Read Tower Center Director Jim Hollifield's comments in the June 25, 2010 New York Times article on global migration:
Global Migration - A World Ever More On The MoveGORDON BROWN'S rant about a "bigoted" voter sped his exit from the British prime minister's post. What punctured his cool? Her complaint about immigrants. When an earthquake shattered Haiti, Dominicans sent soldiers and Americans sent ships -- to discourage potential immigrants. The congressman who shouted "You lie!" at President Obama was upset about immigrants. "Birthers" think Mr. Obama is an immigrant.
There was also the Hamas rocket that landed in Israel this spring, killing a farmworker. Not so unusual, except that the worker was Thai.
Perhaps no force in modern life is as omnipresent yet overlooked as global migration, that vehicle of creative destruction that is reordering ever more of the world. Overlooked? A skeptic may well question the statement, given how often the topic makes news and how divisive the news can be. After all, Arizona's campaign against illegal immigrants, codified in an April law, set off high-decibel debates from Melbourne to Madrid. But migration also shapes the landscape beneath the seemingly unrelated events of the headlines. It is a story-behind-the-story, a complicating tide, in issues as diverse as school bond fights and efforts to isolate Iran. (Seeking allies in Latin America this month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had to emphasize the dangers of a nuclear-armed Tehran while fending off complaints about the Arizona law.)
Even people who study migration for a living struggle to fully grasp its effects. "Politically, socially, economically, culturally -- migration bubbles up everywhere," James F. Hollifield, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, said. "We often don't recognize it."... Read the rest of the article here.
Professor Hiroki Takeuchi was quoted in USA Today about the resignation of Hatoyama.
The eight-month process of trying, but failing, to move the U.S. base, against strong Washington opposition, "gave the public the impression that Hatoyama couldn't make a decision by himself," said Hiroki Takeuchi, a Japanese politics expert at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
His Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) "promised many things, and tried to do everything, and gave the false expectations that they could do everything," Takeuchi said.
Ahead of elections for Japan's upper house next month, many DPJ politicians pressured him to resign, Takeuchi added. "They said with Hatoyama as prime minister they couldn't get elected."
On the Okinawa base, Hatoyama "complicated this issue and had a negative impact on U.S.-Japan relations," Takeuchi said. Overall, "the Japanese public supports the U.S. presence and agrees with the idea that, due to the U.S. military presence, Japan's national security is maintained," but Okinawans remain opposed to any U.S. military presence on their island, he said.
Read the full article
Japan's PM resigns after failure to move U.S. base - USATODAY.com
As part of the Tower Center's programmatic emphasis on national security and political economy, Jim Hollifield, Seyom Brown, Kathy Cooper, and Lynne Novack participated the "First Worldwide Cybersecurity Conference" on May 4-5, convened by the East-West Institute. The conference of some 300 delegates from governments and private industry from around the world was called to launch a comprehensive international awareness campaign by governments, businesses and the public about growing threats to economic stability and international peace and security presented by the vulnerabilities in and threats to digital information systems and networks. The Tower Center delegates contributed ideas on implications for national security policy and energy supply systems, for "rules of engagement" in international cyber-conflicts, and for international cooperation in devising means of attending to the global public good of cybersecurity.
These issues will be centrally a part of the Tower Center's November 2010 Conference on National Security and Defense, which will be devoted to the implications for national security of technological innovations in digital communications, robotics, nanotechnology, non-lethal weapons, and space.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, Tower Center Associate, was a guest on the Diane Rehm Show today. The program focused on the Obama administration's new strategy to fight illegal drug use.
Dr. Felbab-Brown is a Foreign Policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, adjunct professor at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Tower Center Associate, and frequent guest speaker in Dallas. Her work focuses on the national security implications of illicit economies and strategies for managing them. Her recent book is Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs.
Read Vanda Felbab-Brown's recent research and commentary:
Vanda Felbab-Brown discusses the transactional relationship between the US and Afghanistan. She argues that structure of this relationship is ultimately unproductive.
The Design and Resourcing of Supply-Side Counternarcotics Policies
In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Vanda Felbab-Brown assesses the Obama administration's counternarcotics strategy, focusing on the role and design of supply-side programs within the strategy. Felbab-Brown's statement highlights country-specific challenges and opportunities in Afghanistan, Colombia and Mexico.
In an interview with China Radio International, Vanda Felbab-Brown offers her insights on the current status of Mexico's powerful drug trafficking organizations and the scope of narcotics traffic in the region.
In a Daily Beast OpEd, Vanda Felbab-Brown discusses the new policy of Mexico's government toward the drug trafficking organizations, Beyond Merida, and the challenges and opportunities of this new approach.
The Political Economy of Illegal Domains in India and China
Vanda Felbab-Brown's article explores: How illicit economies arise and how are organized? What are the regulatory requirements for their functioning? And what threats do illicit economies pose to countries? The articles examines these dynamics primarily with respect to India and China both contemporarily and historically, but also draws on other countries for comparisons, such as Hong Kong Triads, piracy in South China Sea, insurgencies in India's Northeast and drug smuggling and illegal trade in wildlife there, poppy cultivation in India, and Chiang Kai-Shek's, Mao's, and the Green Gang's counternarcotics policies and participation in the drug trade.
The following reports were written by Bheko Dube, a student in International Studies, Political Science, and Anthropology. The Tower Center funded his conference trip to "The United States Meets Europe: A Forum for Young Leaders (USAME)" in New York and Washington, DC.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The conference began with a mini tutorial and a speech by Klaus Linsenmeier of Heinrich Boll Stiftung followed by a Q&A session. Mr Linsenmeier spoke about the need for transatlantic cooperation in the development of green technologies. Mr Linsenmeier and his European counterparts have advocated for a new strategy, ''The Green New Deal'' to combat the myriad of contemporary global problems that have slowly nipped away at our world as we know it. What's the issue - It is a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production. These three overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression. To help prevent this from happening and to lay the foundations of future economic systems a new solution has been coined -- it is called The Green New Deal. History- The original New Deal was a series of economic programs passed by congress during FDR's first presidency. These programs were implemented as a response to The Great Depression. The Green New Deal much like the original New Deal, each solution is viewed by some as fit for current issues. What I gathered from the presentations is that green technology can be used to simultaneously fix the environment and the economy. That is a very commendable suggestion by Mr Linsenmeier and his counterparts but it is overly simplistic and idealistic; case in point South Africa received a loan for USD$4B from the World Bank to build a new coal station -- coal is hardly green. Assuming that green technology is just as good if not better than coal why wouldn't the World Bank channel those resources into green technology? If green technology cannot be used on a micro level in a relatively small country like South Africa an argument can be made that green technology is not viable enough to sustain a thousandth of the world???s population and therefore the green revolution is still a pipe dream.
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The morning session featured a lecture on Transatlantic relations during the cold war by former ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer. His main thrust was emphasizing how Russia and the United States became paranoid and fearful of each other based on unfounded assumptions. The ambassador also went on to articulate how the Central and Eastern Europe had changed since the end of the cold war. The question that remains to be answered is whether another cold war could emerge as the US, Russia and China are displaying the same paranoid tendencies that gave rise to the original cold war.
The afternoon session featured an interactive seminar at the Congressional Research Service with speakers Kennon Nakamura and Matthew Weed. They discussed the evolution of US public and foreign policy since the end of the cold war and up to current policies. It was a very informative session as both speakers were able to give insight as to how why the US takes certain foreign policy stances. Of particular interest was the current state of affairs regarding the treatment of rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran. What kind of threat do they pose to the US and their allies?
At the end of the seminar Mr Weed was kind enough to explain how we can work as Interns with various governmental and non governmental public policy institutions.
On Sunday, the McCuistion Program on KERA aired a retrospective episode on Federal Government Debt, Credit Issues and Foreign Policy featuring the late Senator John Tower (from its first television program 20 years ago). An interview with Jim Hollifield is also featured.
Program overview:
Over the last 20 years the McCuistion Program has looked at various public policy issues that impact the United States. This 20 year retrospective focuses on three key areas that are presently at the core of American society. Looking back in history and going forward in time, key experts take us to the present credit crisis, and government boondoggle.
Berlin Wall
Dennis McCuistion begins with August 13, 1961 and the rise of the Berlin Wall. It was in the aftermath of the Berlin Wall coming down in November of 1989 that we taped our first television program featuring the late Senator John Tower. The Senator compares negotiating with the Soviets during the Cold War to playing chess, which he didn't and poker- which he did. Ambassador Hank Cooper adds the behind the scenes story with President Reagan and the SDI program... President Reagan wouldn't capitulate and Cooper says, ''Gorbachev went off and wrote Perestroika.''
Dr. James F. Hollifield, Director of the Tower Center of Political Studies at Southern Methodist University, gives us a very thorough history of Soviet collapse under its own weight of communism, and takes us to the Putin age of ''managed democracy''. We hear from Herb E. Meyer, author of a best selling and controversial video, the Siege of Western Civilization, who talks about Putin as a thug and predicts the coming Russian population diminishing to smaller than the population of Yemen.
China & the Federal Debt
Leaving the topic of Russia, Angelina Kwan, from Asia Pacific Cantor -Fitzgerald, takes us to China, ''China is a country of the future and views the US as a past and present trading partner.'' Still our debt affects their position. The exact position of United States debt is dramatically chronicled by Dennis with a chart- held by audience members, extending across the studio. The chart shows that in less than 30 years our debt has gone from $1 trillion to $12 trillion and has quadrupled in less than 12 years from $4 trillion to present day.
In 1991 Dr. James Buchanan, Nobel Prize winner, joined us with a look at the impact of budget deficits. Congressman Ron Paul, R. Texas, expressed his concern about ''honest money''. And in 1995, Kay Bailey Hutchison joined us as well, addressing the issue from her perspective.
We meet David M. Walker, Former Comptroller General, who expresses his concerns with Social Security and Medicare promises that over the next 75 years will not keep up with payroll taxes and premiums. ''$40 trillion is what is needed and we have $0!'' Steve Moore, Senior Economics writer for the Wall Street Journal tells us, ''70 to 77 million baby boomers will be retiring in the next 15 to 20 years'', a recipe for disaster if we continue on our present course. And Peter G. Peterson, Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations, and founder of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, talks about how this group can organize given the AARP and other venues, and the significance of this, as 1/3 of this retiring group have no savings, and depend almost entirely on social security and Medicare for their health benefits.
Credit Crisis
Banking comes in for its fair share with the late Charlie Pistor and other bankers taking a fun hit from Dennis on the credit crisis in the 80's and now. Brian Beaulieu of the Economic Institute for Trend Research brings the economic situation to present day, calling California, ''the poster child for lunacy.'' With 65% of the mortgages held there, interest only variable rate mortgages, and homeowners with no equity.
Fred Foldvary, Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University in California, who had predicted the current real estate ''depression'', leaves us with a future prediction- another credit crisis and recession coming up.
Yet, while some of the comments and conclusions made by a stellar cast of experts, this episode thoroughly examines the past, brings us solidly to the present and helps us more clearly understand the future. Thanks as always for joining us as we talk about things that matter with people who care.
Join us for the upcoming Owens Conference "Challenges and Opportunities in Mexico". The conference brochure can be found here.
You can now RSVP online using our new system http://blog.smu.edu/towercenter/register.html or you can RSVP directly to tower@smu.edu or by calling Spencer at 214-768-3954 or me at 214-768-1900.
We look forward to seeing you there.
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