Recent Happenings

The Tower Center’s recent event The Somalia Crisis: Implications for the Horn…
  • The Tower Center’s recent event The Somalia Crisis: Implications for the Horn of Africa and the World (2/22/2010) featured a panel of experts discussing critical issues in the region. Professor Theodore “Ted” Vestal, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Oklahoma State University provided a copy of his remarks:

    ”In 2010, the Horn of Africa is in turmoil. Every nation in the region is accused of violating human rights and deficits of democracy are widespread–as documented in the annual reports of the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (among others). Hunger, disease, poverty, continuous internal strife, and international warfare have been the hallmarks of the Horn in recent times. All of the worst characteristics of the inhabitants of the Horn dominated interactions of governors and subjects: greed, avarice, distrust, ethnic and religious hatreds were rampant. With few exceptions the Horn is a worst-case scenario…. ”Click here for the full text

  • Healthcare Lecture Students in Dr. Kathleen Cooper’s Politics of Economic Policy class had a special treat on 2/18/2010. Douglas Holtz-Eakin visited the class and discussed healthcare policy. Holtz-Eakin served as Chief Economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors (2001-2002), director of the Congressional Budget Office (2003-2005), Director of Domestic and Economic Policy for the McCain presidential campaign, appointee to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, and is currently a health policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute and President of DHE Consulting, LLC. Read the SMU Daily Campus newspaper coverage of the visit.
  • Robert Jordan and Darab Ganji published “Revolution in Iran needs U.S. support” in the Dallas Morning News (2/12/2010). Both sit on the Tower Center Board of Directors. Jordan was U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2001 to 2003 and is now Diplomat-in-Residence and an adjunct professor at the Tower Center. Ganji is a political economist and guest lecturer at the Tower Center.
  • Jim Hollifield, Tower Center Director, gave the inaugural lecture at the new UNT Immigrant Research and Policy Center (2/10/2010).