This news story first appeared on May 8, 2013. For more information click here.

By Rena Pederson, KERA News; May 8, 2013

Google.  Bank of America. The U.S. Treasury Department.

They’re just a few of the victims hit by cyber-attacks that stymied their computer operations.

Before he left office, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned the U.S. is facing a “cyber Pearl Harbor.”  He said  “An aggressor national or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals.  They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country.”

There is already plenty of evidence of the national security danger:

In a single intrusion, hackers stole 24,000 files containing Pentagon data. Before that, hackers stole plans for a $300 billion fighter jet. And penetrated the Air Force’s air traffic control system.

To make matters worse, we may not have the talent graduating from our public schools to out-hack the hackers who are stealing into our government offices and financial institutions. We need software coders who can build better firewalls to protect us and we need the equivalent of cyber Navy Seals who can penetrate threatening systems.

James Gosler, a cyber security specialist at the Sandia National Laboratory, estimates there are only 1,000 people in the United States with the ultra-sophisticated skills needed for cyber defense. He says we need 20,000 to 30,000.

While we have been inching along, other countries have been racing ahead to develop troops for information warfare.  Iranian hackers recently were able to capture one of the Pentagon’s RQ-170 drones.  They tricked the unmanned aircraft into thinking it was landing in Afghanistan.  Cyber attacks traced to China have become so frequent and alarming that President Obama mentioned it in his first congratulatory call to the new Chinese President Xi Jinping.

What are these countries doing that we aren’t?  In China, Iran, and Russia, young hackers are scouted like the star athletes that are recruited here for sports teams.  They are groomed to become cyber warriors.  You can see the results in global cyber competitions: In the World Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest, which is sponsored by IBM, the top medal awards for the last five years have gone to China and Russia. Only one American university was in the top ten this year – Harvard placed seventh. MIT was 18th.

It’s time for America to get in the game.  We have to start by training more teachers who can inspire students to study algebra.  A program created at The University of Texas in Austin recruits college students brainy enough to major in math and science to become classroom teachers. More than 6,000 students are now enrolled in UTeach programs at 34 campuses, including – the University of North Texas, U-T Arlington and U-T Dallas.

But more universities and more students across the country need to sign up.  The White House estimates the U.S. will need as many as 100,000 more math and science teachers in the next five years.

We need to support grassroots efforts such as “Commit” in the Dallas School District, or charter schools like Uplift and KIPP Academy, or the National Math and Science Initiative, headquartered in Dallas.  We need to spend more money on education, not less. And expand Advanced Placement programs in math and science so more of our students will be college ready.

We shouldn’t have to wait until our ATMs or the gas pumps or the lights aren’t working because another country hacked in. It’s time to build up our supply of human talent just like we build up our supply of planes and tanks when we need to.  The planes and tanks aren’t going to do much good if the Pentagon computers are shut down.

Rena Pederson is a Dallas journalist and former communications advisor at the U.S. State Department. Ms. Pederson also serves as a member of the board of directors of the Tower Center.

This news story first appeared on April 23, 2013. For more information click here.

By Rahfin Faruk, The Dallas Morning News; April 23, 2013

This news story first appeared on February 5, 2013. For more information click here.

By Kathleen Parker, Washington Post; February 5, 2013

When Burma’s Zin Mar Aung was placed in solitary confinement in 1998 for trying to organize students, Bill Clinton was president of the United States.

When she was released, Barack Obama was in the Oval Office.

Zin Mar Aung says she had never heard of George W. Bush or his wife, Laura, who used her own bully pulpit to push for liberation of Burma’s most famous political prisoner, democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, then under house arrest.

Aung San Suu Kyi is known to many now because of the largely unacknowledged work of the Bushes, as well as of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Since her release, Aung San Suu Kyi has risen to public office, accepted her Nobel Peace Prize and been the subject of a movie (“The Lady”).

Less well-known are four rising female leaders with whom I met, including Zin Mar Aung, who are visiting the United States this month for leadership training. The Burmese women’s delegation is sponsored by Goldman Sachs’ “10,000 Women” program, in partnership with the George W. Bush Institute, the McCain Institute and the Meridian International Center.

What does all this mean?

Start here: Imagine living under a military dictatorship where free speech is punishable by incarceration, torture or worse. Imagine sitting in an 8-by-8-foot cell alone for 11 years with nothing but a small water jug, a “sink” for waste and a 15-minute daily break for a cold bath in a communal tub. Throw in a lack of any amenities (shoes) or even necessities, such as sanitary napkins.

This was Zin Mar Aung’s life for 11 years. How did she hang on to her sanity, I asked. She says she accepted that her existence consisted of those 64 square feet; wishing otherwise would do her no good. Meditate on that for a few seconds, while keeping in mind that her crime was publicly reading and distributing a collection of revolutionary poems she and her fellow students had written. Zin Mar Aung says she focused on those poems to get her through more than 4,000 days.

Then one day, she was free.

What does one do next? How does one navigate freedom in a nation relatively new to democratic reform and find the voice to speak when one has been silenced? Second and third thoughts further crowd the spirit in a country where, despite admiration for The Lady (as everyone refers to Aung San Suu Kyi), women are not universally embraced in the political process.

It takes courage to put one foot in front of the other, much less to become an activist, as Zin Mar Aung and her colleagues have done. For her part, Zin Mar Aung picked up where she left off, earning a degree in botany and pursuing an international law degree. In the meantime, she established the Yangon School of Political Science and co-founded Rainfall, an organization focused on women’s empowerment.

The accomplishments of the four Burmese women also include helping political prisoners, providing education and training to underserved girls and young women vulnerable to trafficking, and advocating for victims of domestic violence. The name of one of the organizations they help suggests the urgency and breadth of their challenges: Stop Sexual Harassment on the Bus Now.

The other three women are: Hla Hla Yee, a mother, attorney and former political prisoner who counsels marginalized women and provides paralegal training in orphanages and elsewhere; Shunn Lei Swe Yee, who mobilizes young people to work for a more civil society; and Ma Nilar OO, who worked for the International Red Cross for 18 years, advocated for political prisoners and personally provided some of those aforementioned necessities to Zin Mar Aung and Hla Hla Yee when they were imprisoned. More recently, she has been training and finding jobs for at-risk girls and young women (ages 13 to 35). She recently lost two teenagers from her program when their parents sold them for $100 each. They were of high value, apparently, because they were virgins, the sundering of whom is crudely termed in Burma “to open a new envelope.”

Some of these struggles sound familiar, even in our relatively advanced democracy. What is different for these women is the absence of democratic traditions in their country and a lack of familiarity with the instruments of freedom. Everything — from how to build a feminist movement to how to create a political party — has to be invented from scratch. What is the message? What is public opinion? How does a person get elected?

Imagine that. And then meditate about — or pray for — the safety and success of these four brave women.

This news story first appeared on January 31, 2013. For more information click here.

By 2012 Tower Center Vaughn Intern, Rahfin Faruk, SMU Daily Campus; January 31, 2013

After the Nov. 24 factory fire that took 112 lives, Bangladesh’s ready-made garments industry appeared to be at a crossroads.

Moral outrage over poor working conditions poured in from all over the world. Consumer pressure mounted against retailers like Walmart and Sears, multinational corporations that had used the unsafe factory. Domestically, Bangladeshi citizens bickered at the collusion between the government and business owners, which had led to a poor regulatory landscape.

Two months after the deadly fire, a Jan. 26 fire has claimed seven lives. Dangerous workplace conditions in Bangladesh remain the norm. Building fires have killed more than 600 garments workers since 2005, according to research by the advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum.

To industry analysts, the solution to unsafe factories is simple: investment and regulatory compliance. But the real solution is dependent on multinational corporations, the entities that control compensation and sourcing contracts for factories. Bangladesh has more than 4,500 factories, many of which are small enterprises. Ready-made garments factories compete against each other, driving the prices of contracts down. Because profits from the sourcing contracts are low — nothing comparable to the storefront profits of companies like Nike and Ralph Lauren — factory owners are forced to cut down on costs.

Labor, the costliest input next to raw materials in the production process, is the victim of the current compensation process. Most of Bangladesh’s more than 4 million garments workers, who are largely unorganized, work at the minimum wage of $37 a month.

Real wages are often less than $37, as cash-strapped owners withhold the first month’s pay and fine workers for small infractions like reporting a minute late to work. Much like the abusive American factory of the early Industrial Revolution, workers are deducted rent and food costs from an already low salary.

The Bangladeshi government, the key player in setting wage levels, also remains handcuffed because of the current compensation system.

Bangladesh, once predicted to be a basket case for the rest of time by Henry Kissinger, was aid-dependent well into the 1980s.

With the aid of remittances and the rise of the garments industry, Bangladesh has experienced economic growth. It has seen dramatic improvements in development, especially in financial access, health and women’s empowerment.

But, part of Bangladesh’s revenue stream, remittances, are often unreliable. During the 2008 global construction crisis, hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi workers were stranded in the Middle East without work — and thereby unable to remit money back home.

During the same time, the Bangladeshi garments industry, which constitutes more than 80 percent of all Bangladeshi exports, continued to be in demand.

The industry, as a recent report by McKinsey & Co. concludes, could double in the next 10 years and eventually grow to replace China as the world’s leading garments producer. Bangladesh’s garments industry attracts corporations away from China because of its low wages.

Neither major party, the Awami League or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which have exchanged power for the last 2 decades, can tweak the current formula — low wages and poor working conditions — without risking social instability.

There is no guarantee that a higher minimum wage will keep sourcing contracts coming in. Retailers might leave Bangladesh just as they are currently leaving China.

Millions of unemployed protesting in the capital city of Dhaka, the center of garments activity, is a result that both parties want to avoid at all costs.

According to multiple labor organizations, it would cost less than 10¢ per garment to guarantee safer factories in Bangladesh. Corporations, the “controllers” of the compensation system, need to take the lead in finding an extra dime in their supply chains, or Bangladesh’s tragic news cycle will continue to repeat itself: the same poor working conditions, the same unnecessary loss of lives.

Faruk is a sophomore majoring in political science, economics and public policy.

This news story first appeared on February 1, 2013. For more information click here.

By Katelyn Gough, SMU Daily Campus; February 1, 2013

Former U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison called attention to the need for greater presence of women in politics Wednesday during the SMU Tower Center’s ‘Women in Politics’ symposium.

Sophomore Jenna Hannum said Hutchison’s keynote address covered far more than straight politics, though. This was not a speech delivered to those admiring Hutchison’s political positions.

“My desire to hear the senator speak stemmed less from her political associations and more from her perspective as a successful woman in a largely male-dominated profession,” Hannum said. “Regardless of whether we agree with her beliefs or not, we can certainly learn from her experiences.”

Hutchison discussed the importance of women taking a leap of “confidence and trusting that they can adapt to whatever situation presents itself,” Hannum said.

“I found [Hutchison’s] discussion of the tendency of women to hold back until they feel they are one-hundred percent prepared for every possible outcome [to be particularly significant].”

When asked her views on the recent Pentagon decision to lift the ban on women in combat positions, Hutchison carried on her call to women to rise to whatever challenge or occasion presents itself. She stated her belief that because combat experience is imperative to building and advancing a military career, such bans should not be in place, in most cases. As paraphrased by the SMU Live Blog following the event, “If the woman is able to meet the physical expectations and wants to take that risk, then she should be allowed.”

Hutchison addressed her audience rooted none the less in her assertion that the political atmosphere, and active women within it, must “keep a patriotic spirit, a zeal for freedom” so as to never “sink into mediocrity.”

Economic Insights: Conversations with the Dallas Fed  – Professor James Hollifield, Director of the Tower Center for Political Studies, gave a special talk on “The Euro Crisis: Challenges and Implications” at Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and discussed the following questions:

• Why did ‘Europeans’ come together to create a European Community/Union?
• Why were they compelled to create a single currency – the Euro?
• Why is the Euro in crisis today?
• What can be done to fix it?

Click here to watch the video.

This news story first appeared on November 21, 2012. For more information click here.

DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – Even though Israel is thousands of miles away, 200 people gathered at the Jewish Community Center in Dallas to show how close they are to the people of that country.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas organized the rally.

Rabbi Andrew Paley of Temple Shalom told the crowd, “Our being here today is a loud and powerful commitment to not only the land and people of Israel, but to the values of freedom, of hope, and of peace.”

He and those of Palestinian decent say they are hopeful a newly announced cease fire will stand.

The terrorist group Hamas recently escalated its rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.

In response, Israel struck back.

Khalid Hamideh, a former spokesman for the Islamic Association of North Texas, believes a lasting peace will come when Israel leaves the West Bank.

He says, “Obviously we have to solve the root problem in all this which is the occupation, the Israeli occupied lands. It just has to be solved.”

Israeli Consul General to the Southwestern U-S, Meir Shlomo flew from Houston to address the rally and disagrees.

“It’s not about territory. We’re out of the Gaza strip. There’s no Israeli soldier or civilian in Gaza strip altogether, what did we get in return? 852 rockets since the beginning of this year.”

So will the cease fire lead to a lasting peace?

SMU Tower Center Fellow Jeffrey Engel doubts it. “There’s a way to think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as on-going. Every truce is merely an intermission between the next conflict.”

Many at the Dallas rally believe as long as Hamas continues to try to destroy Israel, there will never be a lasting peace.

But people locally we spoke with on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict agree there needs to be a peaceful two state solution for Israel and Palestine.

This news story first appeared on November 30, 2012. For more information click here.

By Katelyn Gough, SMU Daily Campus; December 5, 2012

The phrase “fiscal cliff” has dominated much of the nation’s political news recently, and so have talks surrounding the defense budget in light of international conflict.

The John Goodwin Tower Center’s National Security Conference held on campus several weeks ago, zeroed in on the close relations between the two. Professor James Hollifield said that since the conference, talk surrounding the defense budget and its dependence on the issues regarding the fiscal cliff has continued and escalated.

“If we go off this so-called fiscal cliff, are there going to be deep cuts in the defense budget?”

Hollifield said it’s that question that is dominating many negotiations between “the president and the Republican Party.”

“The fear is that budgets are going to overwhelm stratedy,” Hollifield said.

Admiral Patrick Walsh, keynote speaker at the conference and a Tower Center fellow, said that the key factors in having the defense the country needs are forces, strategy and budget.

“All three have to work together,” Walsh said.

According to Walsh, changes in international relations over the past few decades currently drives much of what is required of the country’s defense. With the rise of nation-states and groups like al-Qaeda, he said the U.S. must take a proactive role in preparing defense.

“It is very important as we look at potential threats and risks in the future that we encapsulate the same framework,” Walsh said of keeping what works and developing new strategies for what doesn’t.

He explained that international tensions created by things like “the association with radical Islam” and other terrorist groups “is a problem that continues to linger,” and it requires far more devotion and commitment than many are willing to provide.

“It is not going to go away because we make changes to the budget or strategy,” he said. “It is a problem we are going to need to continue to pace ourselves for with a sustainable approach.”

He emphasized “the rise of the nation state,” which Walsh said stems from “an unresolved sense of national identity, integrity, and wholeness”. Cases of civil issues internationally now come with “the rise of armies and navies” thus creating an entirely new challenge to the U.S. defense plan.

“We do have to be prepared strategically for a surprise,” Walsh said.

Taking a proactive role comes back to the need for a resolved, effective defense budget and strategy Hollifield said.

He said solving the budget questions is something of immediate importance. Walsh asserted that “if we don’t have a plan to get across the fiscal cliff,” then the country is at risk of damaging “either the economy or the industrial base.” He said that would be nearly impossible to bounce back from.

“We have to do this now,” Walsh said. “We cannot afford to allow ourselves to get to the point that you cannot recover.”

This news story first appeared on November 30, 2012. For more information click here.

The John Goodwin Tower Center and George W. Bush Library announced their partnership with the Sixth Floor Museum to observe and commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The partnership will include a series of programs over the course of the year to remember the tragic event.

The assassination of President Kennedy during a motorcade on Dallas’ Dealey Plaza marked a significant and tragic event in the city’s history. Other programs will be held throughout the year dealing with the legacy of Kennedy’s presidency and its impact on American domestic and foreign policy.

SMU political science professor James Hollifield, director of the Tower Center and chair of the Sixth Floor Museum Board, was instrumental in designing the collaboration.

“SMU next year will be home to the newest Presidential library in the country, and thinking about Presidential history and politics suits the occasion especially when reflecting on the life of President Kennedy,” Hollifield said.

SMU has designated a special committee of distinguished faculty members and guests known as the Tower Center Working Group on Remembrance and Commemoration: The Life and Legacy of JFK. The committee is led by Dennis Simon, an SMU political science professor and Tower Center fellow.

“SMU is looking forward to bringing an academic and scholarly orientation to the observance of this somber anniversary,” Simon said. “The Tower Center has a history of productive partnerships with the National Archives and Records Administration and presidential libraries, as well as with the Sixth Floor Museum. We are excited about the opportunity to re-examine the life and legacy of JFK and to help commemorate this tragic event.”

The Bush library brings with it many prospects for SMU students, as this partnership shows. Through the course of the programs, SMU students will be able to surround themselves with powerful speakers from all around the country with great expertise on various subjects. SMU senior Alex Munoz, an economics major, is eager for the opportunities.

“I think it is a great opportunity for us students, not only will it bring great speakers to our campus but we will get to be part of the conversation on a topic which is so rarely discussed,” Munoz said.

Nicola Longford, executive director at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza described the partnerships as beneficial to the whole Dallas community, not just students and faculty.

“Our collaboration in observance of the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination in 2013 will benefit SMU students and the entire Dallas community by raising awareness of Dallas’ world-class archival and scholarly resources on American politics and presidential history,” Longford said.

“We look forward to expanding this partnership to include the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, as well as SMU’s Center for Presidential History.”

Programs begin on Presidents Day, Feb. 19, 2013 with “Politics of Memory” and end a year later on President’s Day, Feb. 17, 2014 with “Coping with Crises: How Presidents Manage National Crises.” Details on additional programs will be announced as planning is finalized.For more information visit smu.edu/tower.

This news story first appeared on November 21, 2012. For more information click here.

The series will begin with “The Politics of Memory” on President’s Day 2013 (Feb. 18, 2013) and end on President’s Day 2014 (Feb. 17, 2014) with “Coping With Crises: How Presidents Manage National Crises,” a program sponsored with the Sixth Floor Museum and the Bush Library and Museum.

Other programs examining the legacies of the Kennedy presidency and its impact on American domestic and foreign policy are planned for the months leading up to Nov. 22, 2013– the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination while traveling by motorcade through Dallas’ Dealey Plaza.

SMU is working through a special committee of distinguished SMU faculty members and guests known as the Tower Center Working Group on Remembrance and Commemoration:  The Life and Legacy of JFK.  The John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies is part of SMU’s Dedman College of the Humanities and Sciences.

The committee is led by Dennis Simon, SMU political science associate professor, a fellow in the Tower Center and director of the Tower Center program on American Politics. George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum Director Alan Lowe is a member of the committee, as is Jeffrey Engel, founding director of SMU’s new Center for Presidential History and associate professor in the Williams P. Clements Department of History.

The working group includes:

• William Bridge, SMU associate professor in the Dedman School of Law
      
• Lee Cullum, journalist and Tower Center fellow
      
• Kenneth Hamilton, SMU associate professor in the William P. Clements Department of History and director of ethnic studies in Dedman College
      
• James Hollifield, SMU professor of political science and Arnold Fellow of International Political Economy, director of the Tower Center and chair of the Sixth Floor Museum Board
      
• Rita Kirk, director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility at SMU and a professor in the Division of Communication Studies
      
• Thomas Knock, SMU associate professor of history and member of the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library
      
• Ruth Morgan, former SMU provost and professor emerita of political science
      
• Daniel Orlovsky, SMU professor of history and SMU’s George A. Bouhe Research Fellow in Russian Studies
      
• Tom Stone, SMU senior English lecturer who teaches courses that view the assassination through the works of writers, artists and scholars.

“SMU is looking forward to bringing an academic and scholarly orientation to the observance of this somber anniversary,” Simon said.  “The Tower Center has a history of productive partnerships with the National Archives and Records Administration and presidential libraries, as well as with the Sixth Floor Museum. We are excited about the opportunity to reexamine the life and legacy of JFK and to help commemorate this tragic event.”

The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which houses the Presidential Library and Museum, will be dedicated in late April 2013.

Details of the JFK-related series will be released as they become available.

Related Links:

• The Dallas Morning News: Rawlings names committee to plan commemoration of JFK tragedy in Dallas
• The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum
• Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
• The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum