Cornell International Affairs Society Monthly Digest
May
2016
Volume 1 Number 3
A publication by the Cornell International Affairs Society
2 Table of Contents • From the Editors
3
Zhun Che, Matthew McGee, Suhas Bobba
• Sustainable Development Goals: Without Politics and an Articulate Economy-Environment Relationship 4 Michelle de Leon, response by Cris Lee
• Model United Nations Travel Team Spotlight
8
Joshua Mensah
• Failed Drilling Referendum Stirs Polemic in Italy, Represents Graver Issues 9 Benjamin Abeles, response by Joshua Mensah
• Internship Spotlight
13
Walter Rose
st
• Modern Security (and Diplomacy) Woes: 21 Century Attacks on Diplomatic Missions 15 Austin McLaughlin, response by Alison Schonberg
• Last Month in CIAS
18
• (Soon to be) Alumni Spotlight
19
Marc Masson
Kristen Reichenbach
3 From the Editors Dear reader, It has truly been a crazy semester for the international community, Cornell community and our CIAS family. Since the re-launch of the CIAS digest, we’ve had many riveting discussions on topics ranging from the Italian Referendum, to combating Boko Haram, to the impeachment of the Brazilian President. We hope that not only has the CIAS digest served as a good distraction to all the hours of work we know you have, but you have found the international topics and discussions entertaining as well as educational. On the CIAS front, the CIAS family had such a great semester of traveling to Model United Nations conferences, going to general body meetings and even hosting our own high school Model United Nations Conference, attended by over 800 high school students from around the world. The writers of this semester’s installments of the CIAS Digest have worked extremely hard researching, synthesizing arguments and writing! We are proud so proud of each and everyone of you!. We hope that you all had so much fun writing. We wish everyone, readers, writers and CIAS members alike, a great summer and see you in the fall! Best Regards, Suhas Bobba ‘18 Zhun Che ‘18 Matthew McGee ‘17
4 Sustainable Development Goals: Without Politics and an Articulate Economy-Environment Relationship Michelle de Leon, mad354@cornell.edu At the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and declared 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve “the development of a universal, integrated and human rights-based agenda for sustainable development, addressing economic growth, social justice and environmental stewardship.”1 SDGs are intended to continue and improve the 8 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aimed to eradicate poverty by 2015. MDGs are frequently criticized as failures, especially in light of today’s overwhelming number of cases of poverty and hunger. Notably, though building off of MDGs, SDGs “reflect lessons learned from the MDGs”2 by setting nuanced goals with metrics for monitoring progress. Despite the goals and indicators, the Agenda will struggle to meet its overarching goal for sustainable development because SDGs frame issues as technical, not political, problems and use contradictory language concerning the environment. According to the UN, goals are met once the indicator has been satisfied, but indicators frame development issues as simply technical. As the report on SDGs “Indicators and a Monitoring Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals: Launching a Data Revolution for the SDGs”3 fails to mention political influences on development issues, the document frames development issues as simply technical, suggesting that both technology and resources will solve problems. In terms of technology, implementing an information management approach that integrates data from various levels of government to the Agenda will not guarantee meeting goals because local and national governments must have coordination to produce quality data. However, the means to organize data requires infrastructure which developing countries often lack. Moreover, the data is voluntarily provided, and thus because countries are not required to contribute, SDGs data that the UN manages will not accurately assess the goals. In turn, incorporating data into the SDGs framework does not pave a concrete road to development.
1
United Nations. 2014. The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives, and United Nations Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. 2015. Indicators and a Monitoring Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals: Launching a Data Revolution for the SDGs, 215p. 3 Ibid. 2
5 Similarly, more resources will not solve development issues without the recognition of political influences. SDGs indicators highlight more money, food, and education, among other resources, as the simple answers to poverty. For example, SDG 2 is to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture,” and through its indicators focusing on crop yield, proportion of well-nourished individuals, and the expansion and quality of agricultural land, SDGs suggest that the answer to hunger is growing more food.4 The UN World Food Programme recognizes “there is enough food in the world today for everyone to have the nourishment necessary for a healthy and productive life.”5 Therefore, the distribution, rather than the quantity, of food is the problem. While poverty certainly contributes to hunger, government intervention in food production hurts the distribution of food when trading interests are embedded in agricultural production. For one, corn is one of the largest components of global coarse-grain trade, accounting for about 75% of total volume in recent years,6 and the United States is the largest producer and exporter of corn.7 The New Deal and the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 commenced modern agricultural subsidy programs,8 and today, American farmers receive financial assistance totaling 20 million USD.9 Exporting heavily subsidized crops globally hurt local farmers who cannot compete with the less expensive imported crops.10 While the demand for commodity crops are decreasing (i.e., Corn feed and residual use is projected 50 million bushels lower11), heavy subsidies continue for political trade reasons, not because of a lack of natural resources. The Agenda aims to address environmental stewardship, but SDGs do not clearly define the relationship between natural resources and the economy: are the two linked
4
Ibid. World Food Programme. Hunger: Frequently Asked Questions. wfp.org/hunger/faqs. Accessed 6 May 2016. 6 United States Department of Agriculture: Economic Research Service. Corn: Trade. ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn/trade.aspx. Last updated 11 February 2016. Accessed 6 May 2016. 7 Ibid. 8 Daniel A. Sumner. "Agricultural Subsidy Programs." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. 9 The Economist. “Milking Taxpayers.” The Economist. 14 February 2015. Accessed 6 May 2016. 10 Halweil, B. 2002. Home Grown: The case for local food. Worldwatch Paper 163, 83p. 11 United States Department of Agriculture. 2016. World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates, Washington D.C., 40p. 5
6 or separate? SDGs “are integrated and indivisible
and
balance
the
three
dimensions
of
sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental,”12 and while the Agenda distinguishes the economy and the environment, it uses contradictory language to suggest that a) the environment is only a tool of the economy but also b) the nonhuman has intrinsic value. For example, the economy takes dominance in light of SDG 15: “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.” An indicator to measure progress toward this goal is the annual change in degraded or desertified arable land, rationalizing that “land degradation [is] a reduction in the condition of the land, which affects its ability to provide ecosystem goods and services and to assure its functions over a period of time.”13 Human life and economic success depend on economic services such as clean air and timber. In turn, the rhetoric of protecting the environment for ecosystem services reflects economic dominance over the environment, a common governmental approach. The United States Department of Interior (DOI) 2016 invasive species management plan utilized a similar economic lens: when introducing the motivation for invasive species management, the DOI noted how “[invasive species] contribute to social instability and economic hardship, consequently placing constraints on the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable development, and economic growth.”14 Both the DOI and the UN aim to manage invasive species to support sustainable development and economic growth. Despite the DOI’s mentions of sustainable development and economic growth, the push for biodiversity conservation surfaces the question of the environment’s intrinsic value, and SDGs attempt to imply the intrinsic value of the environment. The Agenda uses the Red List Index which “tracks the rate of extinction for marine and terrestrial species groups in the near future (i.e. 10-50 years) in the absence of any conservation action” as a metric for SDG 15.15 While this rationale implies conservation for the sake of the species, the Agenda does not justify the importance of protecting the environment for its own sake. It does, however, justify conservation for ecosystem services. In turn, by remaining ambiguous about the economyenvironment relationship, suggestions that the environment has intrinsic value contradict the Agenda’s focus on protecting the environment for economic reasons.
12
United Nations. Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld. Accessed 6 May 2016. 13 United Nations Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. 14 The U.S. Department of the Interior. 2016. Safeguarding America’s lands and waters from invasive species: A national framework for early detection and rapid response, Washington D.C., 55p. 15 United Nations Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
7 Without
a
clearly
defined
relationship between the economy and the environment, the perception of humans as separate from the environment is perpetuated.
This
dichotomy
allows
for
environmental
degradation
which
counterintuitively hurts ecosystem services. As such, because humans depend on the environment for life, Giddings et al. propose an alternative lens to the human-nonhuman relationship by nesting the economy within society and society within the environment.16 This model embraces how societal interactions occur within the natural environment, and the economy is a subset of society. Consequently, the environment has intrinsic value and the importance of the economy as a significant actor in society and the environment is not ignored, neither of which SDGs explicitly outline. Because the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to address economic growth and environmental stewardship, efforts toward SDGs must comprehensively consider political causes of development issues and define the relationship between the economy and the environment. When this is done, governments, the private sector, and individuals will be better guided to address the root causes of poverty. Sustainable development cannot wait in the face of continuously impoverished communities and increasingly degraded environments.
Response: Sustainable Development Goals Cris Lee ‘18, cl2272@cornell.edu The author tackles an interesting aspect of global governance through the Millenium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. The author smartly points to the difficulty in framing the success as the root of some of the problems in identifying political and economic thresholds. She then analyzes the problem through the framework which makes most proposals to establish the goals somewhat problematic. The author’s identification of a flawed framework is indeed a critical part of the literature, but it would do the paper benefit to note possible alternatives to the existing definitions.
16
Bob Giddings, Bill Hopwood and Geoff O’Brien. 2002. Environment, Economy, and Society: Fitting Them Together in Sustainable Development. Sust. Dev. 10, 187–196.
8 Model United Nations Travel Team Spotlight Joshua Mensah ‘18, jam836@cornell.edu Cris Lee is currently a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying government. TJ is a veteran of the Cornell International Affairs Society as well as the traveling team, attending conferences such as UPMUNC, QMUNi and PUNC. Recently at PUNC, Criss Lee won an honorable mention. Here’s what he had to say about his experience on the travel team and experience with CIAS thus far: Q: What Model UN experience do you have? A: High school Model UN for 3 years and college model UN to this day. My first Model UN conference was rather disappointing. I knew about policy, I just never expected people to use diplomatic maneuvering. In the end, it took me near a year to actually be able to employ better political and caucusing tactics in committee. I used to do General Assemblies all the time. More recently, I moved on to Crisis Committees. Q: What do you like most about Model UN? A: Model UN as a whole is just an enjoyable power trip of sorts. You're restrained by policy, but none of the bureaucratic politics that are needed to implement it. In the end, it’s just your creativity to work your country's platform into something you like, provided that it is still recognizable. It can lead to pretty funny realities, not so much for your citizens or subjects. Q: Could you tell us about your award and what you did within your committee? A: An honorable mention at the Pennsylvania United Nations Conference as Stepan Zorian, an Armenian nationalist. The committee concerned the city of Baku and its politics during the Russian revolution and the last days of World War I. I was rewarded with emphasis to the fact that I forced myself into the mayor's office, though I personally think the fact that I fire bombed the oil fields and told a baldfaced lie to a court that was supposed to convict anyone working against the committee (in other words me) and got away with it. Q: How will you apply your experiences of Model UN to your future endeavors? A: I found that conference work beyond Model UN usually asks for people to think on their feet. I've used the concept several times before, so I'm sure it'll be applicable to something.
9 Failed Drilling Referendum Stirs Polemic in Italy, Represents Graver Issues Benjamin Abeles, bba28@cornell.edu The Referendum in Italy The Italian government often relies on referendums to resolve national issues; perhaps that of greatest significance is the referendum of 1946 in which the public voted to end monarchic rule and to form a Republic. Recent polls have treated a broad range of topics from nuclear energy to medically assisted procreation and to constitutional amendments. This April, concerned with the environmental harm caused by offshore drilling, nine regional governments proposed a referendum in which the public would vote to either ban offshore drilling, or to allow its continuation. While the referendum itself was narrow in scope, the political debate which surrounded the vote was not: questions about Italy’s high unemployment rate, about its goals for renewable energy, and about the very fairness of the referendum itself stirred polemic in the wake of the state-wide ballot. It is this lively debate that indicates Italy’s precarious position and its sense of urgency. The Vote on Drilling The question on April’s drilling referendum was simple enough: a “no” vote would allow oil companies to renew offshore drilling contracts after those concessions’ expiration dates, while a “yes” vote would mean definitive cessation of all offshore drilling after the expiration of current agreements. Proponents of the “no” vote argued that the banning of offshore drilling could both eliminate 10,000 jobs and jeopardize Italy’s energy independence. On the other hand, proponents of a “yes” vote cited environmental concerns and noted that because offshore drilling makes up only a fraction of Italian gas consumption— under 4%— the harm to Italy’s energy independence would be minimal. All debate was rendered void, however, when on Sunday, April 17, only 32% of eligible voters took trips to the polls, turnout falling far short of the 50% participation rate required by the referendum’s quorum.17 Participation and Party Lines Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of the Democratic Party has built a platform on economic growth and job creation since rising to the head of the government in 2014. It would make sense for Renzi, whose ambitious Jobs Act has promised to spur growth, to simply support the “no”
17
http://www.wsj.com/articles/italian-energy-referendum-fails-to-draw-necessary-turnout-1460930252
10 vote. Instead, Renzi took the curious (and seemingly counter-democratic) stance of encouraging abstention. There is some political logic behind this decision— nonfulfillment of the quorum would signify total failure of his opposition’s efforts— however, these calls for abstention could (and did) come at the price of backlash. In Apulia, the southern territory along the Adriatic coast where the issue offshore drilling is perhaps most pertinent, regional president Michele Emiliano polemicized Renzi’s calls for non-action, implying that Renzi’s Democratic Party was acting at the behest of the oil lobby: “Is the government hostage of the petroleum lobby? Certainly, it is evident here.”18 Beppe Grillo, whose anti-establishment Five Star Movement supported the “yes” vote on environmental grounds, shared Emiliano’s sentiment, praising voters who “had fought like millions of Davids against the Goliaths of the oil lobby.”19 As pushback, Renzi kept true to his employment platform, giving a speech shortly after the closing of the polls in which he celebrated the protection of 11,000 jobs. The wrath extended far beyond debate over the oil lobby when The Five Star Movement— often stylized as Il MoVimento or M5S— went as far to call the quorum “an antidemocratic instrument.” A post on Beppe Grillo’s blog made the case for the proscription of the quorum, noting that many other Western democracies have long abolished the requirement. “Without a quorum there is more democracy,” the blog post continued, “the players in the field are forced to enter an honest and informative political battle in which citizens are convinced, rather than tricked by deceitful games.”20 Perhaps, however, Renzi’s opponents are giving him and his calls for abstention— hardly a deceitful game— too much credit. It is of course impossible to pinpoint the exact reason for such high levels of abstention. Turnout in the southern region of Campania (home of Naples and the Amalfi Coast) only reached 26%, to which Corriere columnist Felice Naddeo quipped “more people were at the beach than at the polls.”21 What Renzi called abstention could simply be a lack of interest: the topic of offshore drilling is somewhat esoteric, and a springtime Sunday, as Naddeo noted, may
18
http://www.corriere.it/politica/16_aprile_18/referendum-quorum-e17b2b8c-04db-11e6-9af5d262a7a5f049.shtml My translation. 19 http://www.corriere.it/english/16_aprile_18/turnout-of-3118percento-as-referendum-fails-to-stopdrilling-1a7177a2-0581-11e6-9d1f-916c0ba5b897.shtml 20 http://www.beppegrillo.it/2016/04/tutti_a_votare_per_litalia_e_per_la_democrazia_battiquorum.html My translation. 21 http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/politica/16_aprile_18/referendum-recordastensionismo-campania-seconda-d-italia-9d56c47a-0530-11e6-82d8-6c037a2b14bc.shtml My translation.
11 induce trips to the beach rather than to the local voting place. Taking a more critical look at the referendum, Pierluigi Battisti, another Corriere columnist, wrote nostalgically: “Once upon a time referendums never had a quorum-ache…[past referendums] were questions about constituents’ and political parties’ identities. On drilling, matters of identity are missing, and yesterday’s results nearly represent a miracle for those who pushed the referendum.”22 In contrast with issues such as divorce and abortion (former referendums with participation rates of 88%23 and 79%24, respectively), drilling rights represents an issue of little pertinence to the average Italian. Common interest and relevance aside, Renzi’s calls for abstention may very well come back to haunt him: no member of the Democratic Party wants to be known as the anti-democrat. Moreover, it is hard to disagree with the Five Star Movement’s calls for the abolition of the quorum. The absence of such a restriction would likely provoke more debate and involvement in the democratic process, which, after all, is precisely the purpose of the referendum. Grave Outlook? Examining the macroeconomic implications of the referendum’s failure, a handful of analysts argue that Italy has missed an opportunity to create growth through green investment. The ending of offshore drilling would create the need for investment in renewable energy sources— something that Renzi has previously pledged. Besides the environmental advantages, it is this precise type of investment that could help lift Italy’s economy out of recession. In a blog post on EUROPP of the London School of Economics, consultant Biagio Carrano and developmental economist Irene Monasterolo cite findings that show Italian investment in renewable energy could create 100,000 jobs for the struggling economy.25 The shift, however, could represent an uncomfortable trade-off in the short run— the cutting of around 10,000 jobs in favor of potential growth. For a country that finds itself in precarious times such a move could be a difficult sell. Conclusion
22
http://www.corriere.it/politica/16_aprile_18/referendum-quorum-e17b2b8c-04db-11e6-9af5d262a7a5f049.shtml My translation. 23www.elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=F&dtel=12/05/1974&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es 0=S&ms=S (Ministry of the Interior Data) 24http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=F&dtel=17/05/1981&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es 0=S&ms=S (Ministry of the Interior Data) 25 http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2016/04/23/italys-off-shore-oil-referendum-another-lost-opportunity/
12 A “yes” or “no” question does not come with an easy answer, as demonstrated by Italy’s most recent referendum. Whether the failure of the drilling referendum was caused Renzi’s calls for abstention or widespread apathy, the quorum does seem like an inefficient filter that can only slow progress and hinder democracy. Debate about the ethics—and practicality—of the quorum aside, one must consider offshore drilling’s consequences for the Italian economy’s present and future. The trade-off of cutting present jobs in favor of future investment is, however, incomparably complex. While the question was clear cut—a classic yay or nay— April’s drilling referendum represented great rifts within Italian democracy and graver questions about the sustainability of Italy’s economy and environment.
Response: Failed Drilling Referendum Stirs Polemic in Italy, Represents Graver Issues Joshua Mensah ‘18, jam836@cornell.edu The author demonstrates how domestic politics corrupt international goals through Italy and drilling rights. The many actors (the leader, the parties, citizen participation, lobbyists) that interact to adhere to construct policies should not be forgotten as the international community strives for a more environmentally safe world. It would be interesting to see how Italian energy politics compares to other developed countries. And whether domestic agreements matter more than international agreements on climate change. If multiple countries experience political corruptions in green goals, international emission reduction targets might become less and less feasible.
13 Internship Spotlight Walter Rose ’18, wsr46@cornell.edu Marc Masson is a Junior in the College of Industrial and Labor Relations studying Industrial and Labor Relations with minors in International Relations and European Studies. Marc has been involved with CIAS since his freshman year and has served as Vice-President of Public Relations, Director of Professional Development and chaired committees for both CIAC and CMUNC. Last summer,, he completed an internship with the Zambia GSL Program in Lusaka, Zambia. Here’s what he had to say about his experience:
Q: Considering your academic interest, how did you select your internship? A: At the time I applied to my internship, I was really interested in policy research and analysis. The Zambia GSL Program gave me the opportunity to do this kind of research, as well as expose me to a part of the world I had never seen before. Q: What was your application process like? A: The ILR School released an email to the undergraduate body calling for applications to both the Zambia and India GSL programs that it runs. The curious thing about the Zambia GSL program, however, is that is actually a Global Health program for students pursuing that minor – ILR just made a deal with the program to send a few ILR students to Zambia in the Global Health program and a few Global Health students to India through the ILR program. After applying, I was interviewed for the position and was subsequently selected and placed in the pre-departure course for the program. Q: How can someone prepare for applying to this internship? A: You should develop a background in policy research if you can, otherwise simply take global health courses (or labor & employment law in ILR). The key requirements for this program are to have an open-mind, adaptability, and a desire to learn. Q: Describe your internship A: I arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, the last day of May, and immediately began a week long course on Zambian history, culture, law, and politics. I was paired with a research partner from Cornell, with whom I lived in a local host family and conducted our joint research project (which was developed based off of our interests and the needs of the organization we were
14 placed with – the Law Association of Zambia). Every day for the next two months, my research partner and I traveled via minibus, foot, and taxi around Lusaka interviewing a variety of representatives from civil society organizations, development agencies, government ministries, labor unions, as well as lawyers and paralegals. It was fantastic experience that allowed me meet many Zambians from different backgrounds and really see Lusaka. Accessorily, I also had the chance to visit a Peace Corps volunteer at their work site in rural Zambia, as well as to travel to Livingston and see Victoria Falls. The semester after this internship, I continued to refine the research my research partner and I did, and finally produced a paper that ultimately published in a peer-reviewed academic journal housed at the Cornell Law School – the Journal of Open Access to Law. I am very proud of this achievement, which will undoubtedly help me as I seek out future research positions and apply to graduate school. Q: How did you feel CIAS prepared for the internship? A: CIAS gave me the confidence to cold call people and talk to total strangers in Zambia. Keeping up on what was going with other CIAS members’ summers both on their Facebooks and on the CIAS Facebook group was also a great way to avoid being homesick and stay connected to back home. Q: How did you find housing for your internship? A: It was organized by the program. I stayed one month in homestay with a Zambian family, and the second month in Christina fellowship housing. I didn’t have a shower, just a tub and a bucket, but I made do with what I had (bucket showers are not that bad actually). Q: Where did you go to eat during your internship? A: When I was with my homestay family, they usually cooked dinner for us – nshima (basically corn meal), some relish, and either chicken or fish. For breakfast, we usually just made butter sandwiches and tea. Finally, for lunch, I had the option of either going to a “traditional” food place which served more nshima, or to one of the many chicken and fast food places in Lusaka. Something that the other program participants and I (there were 8 of us) did as well was meet up to eat dinner at an Indian restaurant one or two times a week – there is a surprisingly huge Indian and Pakistani population in Lusaka, so Indian restaurants where quite common.
15 Modern Security (and Diplomacy) Woes: 21st Century Attacks on Diplomatic Missions Austin McLaughlin ‘18, awm83@cornell.edu The attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 is a watershed event. While it took months of press and Congressional inquiry to unfurl what actually occurred and what motivated the attack, it has become evident that the White House first inaccurately characterized the attack as impromptu instead of planned by a terrorist organization.26 It is important for all nations to ponder as embassies and consulates worldwide are under an increasing threat of assault. Despite significant protections, these institutions are often targets of attacks in attempts by various organizations to make political statements against sovereign states. Attacks have become increasingly common in the 21st century, while diplomatic compounds are vulnerable and not given sufficient protection from their host countries. Wendy Chamberlin, President of the Middle East Institute, says being a target is part of the job for diplomats serving in risky areas.27 "High-profile targets like ambassadors have always been in danger because they're the symbol of the United States," Chamberlin says. "What you don't want to represent is that you distrust the people, that you don't want to engage with the people, that you hate being there. It's an important part of your mission and get out and mix with the population.� Too often, countries tolerate forms of intimidation against these symbols of governments with which they disagree. This is a clear denigration of the authority of the target nation and its embassies and consulates. After the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, the global community saw firsthand the repercussions and setbacks that are the consequences of an unprovoked assault. The loss of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the chief American diplomatic officer in country, sorely damaged official relations between Libya and the United States during a period of an internal political crisis in Libya.
26
Serwer, Adam. "The Truth About Attacks on Our Diplomats." Mother Jones. Mother Foundation for National Progress, 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 20 Dec. 2013. 27 Serwer, Adam. "The Truth About Attacks on Our Diplomats." Mother Jones. Mother Foundation for National Progress, 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Jones and the Jones and the
16 However,
this
issue
is
not
restricted to the United States; since the turn of the century, the world has seen similar altercations against the diplomatic missions of South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and many others.28 29 30 ISIS, al-Shabaab, and Hezbollah, respectively, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Such malicious and incendiary activity targeting any diplomatic institution is disruptive to the peacemaking process, especially in conflict areas such as the Middle East and North Africa. It is ironic that these diplomatic outposts, inherently charged with reconciling disagreements between nations, might also be the sites of physical conflict because of a level of passivity by a host country. Host countries lacking political courage often mishandle these conflicts despite the potential to escalate to military aggression. Looking forward, if select nations cannot be trusted with the security of the diplomatic missions which they host, installing a greater defensive presence utilizing United Nations peacekeepers will become essential, particularly around the highest concentrations of diplomatic missions in high-risk locations. These bulwarks would not only be protective, but also likely be preemptive of such attacks. A country's soft power, according to American foreign policy expert Joseph Nye, rests on three resources: "its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when others see them as legitimate and having moral authority).� How can United States vested foreign policy interests and its soft power be exerted without diplomatic missions? After the Benghazi attack, there were conflicting reports and uncertainty as to a unified American position on the subject. With that in mind, this issue will remain a challenge for American diplomacy and, for that matter, any other country that is a target of terrorism. Curiously, the United States State Department’s strategy of combating Islamist radicalism through strategic communication has also to come under review.
While the
ostensible mission of our foreign policy, as articulated by Nye, is to propagate American values and dis-intermediate conflict, much of the world views these outposts as part of the American
28
Reuters in Tripoli. "Unidentified Gunmen Attack South Korean Embassy in Libya." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 12 Apr. 2015. Web. 14 May 2016. 29 Sheikh, Abdi. "Car Bomb Aimed at UAE Officials Kills Three Somali Soldiers in Mogadishu." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 24 June 2015. Web. 14 May 2016. 30 Georgy, Michael. "Islamic State Says behind Bombing at Italian Consulate in Cairo." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 11 July 2015. Web. 14 May 2016.
17 intelligence and defense apparatus.31 In conclusion, if we are to expect protection for our own missions or of any other country’s mission, there must be an affirmative defense against the supposition that diplomatic missions are gathering intelligence or up to any form of policy mischief.
Response: Modern Security (and Diplomacy) Woes: 21st Century Attacks on Diplomatic Missions Alison Schonberg ‘16, ars283@cornell.edu I think no one would dispute this issue; embassies are certainly targets in their host countries and require stronger protection, but your proposed solution is problematic for three reasons. First, peacekeepers are stretched thin. The UN is unlikely to deploy them in service of individual embassies and consulates when they are more urgently required in UNMISS (South Sudan) and MINUSMA (Mali), and the prospect of guarding over 100 embassies in a single country is hideously impractical. Next, if in fact you suggest that the UN should only guard U.S. embassies, this is also problematic. The UN is an international force, and U.S. national security is certainly not the UN’s main concern, especially when we deploy so few peacekeepers, and rank 76 on a list of countries by troop contributions.32 My final critique is that peacekeeping forces are under fire (figuratively and literally) for failing to protect civilians in Mali, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a number of other UN missions. Why, then, would they be a more appropriate protective force for U.S. embassies than U.S. Marines or any other U.S. personnel?
31 32
Nye, Joseph S. The Future of Power. New York: PublicAffairs, 2011. Print. Troop and police contributors. United Nations Peacekeeping. (2016).
18 Last Month in CIAS Marc Masson ‘17, mjm673@cornell.edu From CMUNC to CIAS Gala, last month was the most packed of the semester for CIAS. As a rising senior, I can already tell that next time will be the last time I get to experience these things, and I feel the pressure to make the most of it, but for everyone else it seems like business as usual – and that’s good. CMUNC this year appeared to me to be the most organized and uneventful iteration of the conference that I had seen to date. The whole conference appeared to go smoothly, and Sophie did a fantastic job as Secretary-General managing this event. I am confident that Austin will carry on the legacy of past SGs and ensure that CMUNC continues to grow! CIAS Gala was a bittersweet ending for the semester, as many of the friends I had made since I first joined CIAS will be graduating. Malika gave a rousing speech about how “CIAS means family”, and I agree with her 100%. Each graduating senior had their own little quirks, interests, and ways they stayed involved with the club. We will miss them greatly, but they will forever be part of the CIAS family that extends far beyond the frontier of graduation. I wish everyone a fantastic summer. To those coming back to Cornell next semester, see you then! To those graduating, remember that you have friends from CIAS that you can count on for years to come!
19 (Soon to be) Alumni Spotlight Kristen Reichenbach, Class of 2016 I’m taking a bit of liberty with my last Alumni Spotlight to share my perspective as a soon-to-be alum. While joining the ranks of CIAS alumni may confer some sort of special knowledge about the application of Model UN in the real world (I won’t know officially for another two weeks), the advice* I offer in this piece is based on the overlap I see between MUN, my experiences on the hill, and life more broadly. Like most students, I’ve learned a lot both in and outside of the classroom, but the instances in which I have learned the most, which have had the greatest impact on me happened when I let myself explore or wander away from what I knew. At the start of freshmen year, I had the opportunity to stick to what I knew best – journalism and mock trial. However, rather than continuing to play the victim (literally) in mock trial or unenthusiastically write for the Sun, I tried something new by joining CIAS, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my undergraduate career. Over the years, I’ve had other chances to strike out from the familiar or where I thought I was going, not the least of which happened at the start my senior year. I came into this year believing I knew what field I was going to end up in after graduation, but a fateful suggestion by one of my professors opened my eyes to a path I thought was no longer an option. Now, with graduation rapidly bearing down on me it is this path that I have chosen to pursue. So as I was thinking about what I was going to write for this piece, I thought I should say, “Don’t close the door” – meaning that one shouldn’t think that it’s too late to chase an opportunity, to do something. I thought that’s what my experiences were teaching me, but upon closer examination simply not closing yourself off is too passive a way to live your life. So, I’m amending my advice to say, “Keep yourself open…” Whether you realize you’re crafting a redundant working paper in committee or your crisis note was just shut down – be open to trying new plans of attack. Whether you’re nervous about going to a networking event or deciding to study abroad – be open to meeting new people. And if you’re worried about stepping away from the clear path onto a more uncertain one – be open to the possibilities. Life won’t always work out the way you hope or expect it to, but being open to what it offers will certainly help you to adapt and thrive where it does take you. *Follow at your own risk