SIPA News - Spring 2013 by Jesse Gale

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SIPANews

SIPANEWS

VOLUME XXVI No. 2 may 2013 Published annually by Columbia Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School of International and Public Affairs Office of Communications and External Relations Managing Editor: JoAnn Crawford Editors: David MacDonald, Ethan Wagner Contributing Writers: Valle Aviles Pinedo, Meghan Berry, Florian Dautil, Risa Edelman, Tiffany Esteb, Cory Fox, Anja Gilbert, Amir Jina, Aly Jiwani, Victoria Lauredo, Samantha Libby, AndrĂŠs Lizcano Rodriguez, David MacDonald, Benjamin Martinez Newman, Neha Mehta, Shalini Mimani, Ellen Morris, Sara Ray, Marcus Tonti, Ethan Wagner, Annie Yang Zhou Contributing Photographers: Pablo Alfaro, Eileen Barroso, Susan Cook, Michael Dames, Bruce Gilbert, Lenny Pridatko Cover Photograph: Lenny Pridatko Design and Production: Columbia Creative School of International and Public Affairs Interim Dean: Robert C. Lieberman Interim Senior Associate Dean: Patrick Bohan Associate Deans: Jesse Gale, Caroline Kay, Dan McIntyre, and Shalini Mimani Office of Communications and External Relations JoAnn Crawford, Director of Publications and Special Events Phoebe Ford, Associate Director, Digital Media Jesse Gale, Associate Dean, Communications and External Relations Scott Pesner, Director of Alumni Affairs Sara Ray, Administrative Assistant Marcus Tonti, Editorial Director

Office of Development and Alumni Relations Shu-Zhen Chen, Assistant Director of Donor Relations Shalini Mimani, Associate Dean, Development Jason Rizzi, Annual Fund Manager Madelyn Storms, Director of Development Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs 420 West 118th Street Office of Communications and External Relations: sipa.columbia.edu

On cover, from left to right: Rania Nasir, Tabitha Snowbarger, Danmi Lee, Ethan Wagner, Christia Panizales, Audrey Hanard, Jamiah Harris, Lindsay Litowitz at TedxColumbiaSIPA (story on page 30).

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Energy at SIPA Edited by Benjamin Martinez Newman

On the Ballot By Meghan Berry with additional reporting and writing by Marcus Tonti

Interview with Jenik Radon By Neha Mehta

A Capstone Workshop: Gun Control By Samantha Libby

Capstone Highlights

Simulation on the Crisis in Syria By Florian Dautil

Collisions on a Lorry: A Trip to the Sea of Jade By Andrés Lizcano Rodriguez

By Samantha Libby

By Annie Yang Zhou

Anh & Em: Vietnamese Language for an American Romance

The Devastations of Many Generations: Impressions of Staten Island’s post-Sandy Relief Efforts By Victoria Lauredo

SIPA Students Lend a Hand to School Damaged by Superstorm Sandy By Cory Fox

TEDxColumbiaSIPA By Ethan Wagner

SIPA Students Attend Doha Climate Change Summit By Anja Gilbert

Tour of India Cities Provides Primer on Politics, Business, Society

Investing with a Purpose By David MacDonald

Fall 2012 Highlights

Spring 2013 Highlights Papandreou: “Europe Needs to Revisit Its Fundamentals” By Valle Aviles Pinedo

The PhD in Sustainable Development By Amir Jina

SIPA Thanks… John Christopher Howe MIA ’83 Magzhan Auezov MIA ’98

SIPA Fundraising Campaign By Shalini Mimani

SIPA Honors Global Leaders By Sara Ray

The European Dilemma: Integration or Decline

By Valle Aviles Pinedo

SIPA Alumni Council Mentoring Program Expands

Center on Global Economic Governance Fall 2012 Events

Class Notes 2013 Compiled by Benjamin Martinez Newman

SIPASA Expands Its Mandate By Aly Jiwani

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Energy at SIPA

Edited by Benjamin Martinez Newman

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any core challenges of the 21st century center on our use of energy. How will we balance growing global demand for energy with the negative effects of carbon emissions? What impact will the shale gas boom in the United States have on established international trade flows? Which financial structures are most effective to support the expansion of energy access in developing countries? What is the energy mix of the future, and how will we craft coherent legislation to encourage the necessary investment? SIPA has established itself as a leading institution on this multifaceted subject. The vibrant Energy and Environment concentration, active student groups, annual conferences and lecture series, augmented by the Center on Global Energy Policy and Columbia Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Earth Institute, make SIPA a hub for this crucial area of inquiry.

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energy curriculum Energy and Environment Concentration The Energy and Environment Concentration provides students with a broad and balanced view of energy and the environment. This includes sustainability, economics, development, technologies, business models, management, policies, and regulatory frameworks in the context of national, international, and regional issues. The concentration has three tracks: International Energy Management and Policy, Sustainable Energy Policy, and Environmental Policy and Management.

Energy and Development Capstone Workshops

nergy poverty is a real issue for many of the least developed countries, and since 2005 SIPA has offered Capstone workshops that offer a unique opportunity for students to see firsthand how bottom-up solutions can address the problem. Led by two popular SIPA faculty members, Ellen Morris and Phil LaRocco, the energy and development Capstone workshops provide field-based

experience in the design, refinement, and critique of enterprise-driven approaches for increasing access to clean energy. Sites are usually far from the capital cities—in small rural villages in Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Pakistan, Haiti, Ghana, and, this year, in India. The clients are diverse—ranging from large organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to small local energy enterprises such as Toyola Energy in Ghana or umbrella organizations representing 30 small island nations. Morris and LaRocco engage Capstone clients that offer unique and different challenges for the students, emphasizing results that satisfy three conditions: to assist the client; to add to the skills and experience of the students; and to expand the boundaries of “energy for development” as a field. Clients comment that they have benefited tremendously from the creativity and high caliber work of the student teams. Aboubacar Oualy, the coordinator for the Regional Energy

The energy and development Capstone team in rural Haiti, spring 2012. Left to right: Ellen Morris, associate professor of practice in energy and environment and faculty adviser; Jacques Hector, driver; Michelle Moghtader, International Security Policy ‘12; Harry Guinness, Energy and Environment, IEMP ‘12; Gifty Sekyere, Energy and Environment, IEMP ‘12; Michael McCullogh, Urban and Social Policy ‘12.

Poverty Program at the UNDP in Dakar, Senegal, has worked with several of the energy and development capstone teams on different projects since 2007. Mr. Oualy said: “The SIPA students have tackled some very challenging projects for UNDP in Senegal, Mali, and Ghana. The students always bring a fresh perspective and tremendous enthusiasm to come up with high quality deliverables that are extremely relevant to our work in the region. We have always had a field component to our projects, and that allows young people to see firsthand the implications of energy poverty and the role that UNDP can play.” In some cases, the energy and development Capstone workshops have been a transformative experience for students, influencing their career decisions. Former students have gone on to create social enterprises, NGOs, or to work in government ministries tackling the issue of energy poverty. —Ellen Morris

Members of the energy and development Capstone team in Accra, Ghana, spring 2010. From left to right: Gbenga Olowoyeye, Energy and Environment, IEMP ‘10, Ken Lee, Energy and Environment, Environmental Policy, ‘10; a solar entrepreneur in Ghana; Parker Fay, Energy and Environment, IEMP ‘10.

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energy events Launch of Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy

olumbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy was officially launched on April 24 with a half-day conference at Low Library. New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

and National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon gave keynote addresses. The Center on Global Energy Policy provides independent, balanced, data-driven analysis to help policymakers navigate the complex world of energy. It approaches energy as an economic, security, geopolitical, and environmental concern. And it draws on the resources of a world-class institution, faculty with real-world experience, and a location in the world’s finance and media capital. Jason Bordoff, director of the new center, joined SIPA in January directly from serving as special assistant to President Obama. Also speaking at the launch event were Daniel Poneman, acting energy secretary; Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates; Ryan Lance, chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips; Carlos Pascual, special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs with the U.S. Department of State; Dr. Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute; Dr. Susan Tierney, managing principal, Analysis Group, and other distinguished guests. Jason Bordoff served until January 2013 as special assistant to the president and senior director for energy and climate change on the staff of the National Security Council, and, prior to that, held senior policy positions on the White House’s National Economic Council and Council on Environmental Quality. One of the nation’s top energy policy experts, Professor Bordoff joined the administration in April 2009. At Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, Professor Bordoff is a professor of professional practice and serves as director of SIPA’s Center on Global Energy Policy. His research and policy interests lie at the intersection of economics, energy, environment, and national security. Prior to joining the White House, Professor Bordoff was the policy director of the Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative housed at the Brookings Institution. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a consultant to the National Intelligence Council, and serves on the board of the Association of Marshall

Scholars. During the Clinton administration, Professor Bordoff served as an adviser to the deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department. He was also a consultant with McKinsey & Company, one of the leading global strategy consultancies. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he was treasurer and an editor of the Harvard Law Review and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Professor Bordoff also holds an MLitt degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University.

Jason Bordoff

“The Center is committed to providing policymakers with the balanced and rigorous analysis that will allow us to realize the vast potential of this unique moment in energy history.” –Jason Bordoff

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon

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energy events Maria van der Hoeven of IEA Discusses World Energy Outlook 2012 “This is it—what we all measure our numbers against, the benchmark.” So spoke one audience member moments before Maria van der Hoeven began her discussion of the World Energy Outlook 2012. Faculty and students who wanted to receive the energy gospel from its source filled the Faculty House Seminar Room on November 28 to hear van der Hoeven—the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA)—speak at SIPA’s Leaders in Global Energy lecture series, organized by visiting professor Manuel Pinho. Van der Hoeven summarized the changing global energy landscape and suggested that we are on an unsustainable path. With global demand set to rise by more than one third by 2035, she said, the world is on track for a temperature increase of three degrees Celsius, far beyond the safety target of two degrees. Van der Hoeven also identified three game-changers in the energy sector: the return of the United States as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, Iraq’s potential for production growth, and energy efficiency. Van der Hoeven commented that technological breakthroughs in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have unlocked tight oil and shale gas resources in the United States, spurring economic activity. Since the United States is by far the largest consumer of petroleum products, the recent increase in domestic production has the potential to change global trade dynamics. In fact, the IEA projects that international trade will switch toward Asian markets as imports to the United States fall. This trend will be further supported by the second game-changer, Iraqi production, which is anticipated to account for 45 percent of the growth in global production. Van der Hoeven went on to explain that as world energy demand grows and investments in carbon-neutral energy sources such as nuclear and renewables remain minimal, the World Energy Outlook makes the case for energy efficiency as a game-changer. A more efficient grid and less energy-intense technologies can satisfy demand as well as generation expansion. “With barriers to nuclear growth and upcoming expirations on renewable energy subsidies,” van der Hoeven argued, “energy efficiency should be the low-hanging fruit.” Van der Hoeven warned that climate change should be the defining issue of our time but has instead become a second-rank topic. She closed her lecture by calling for a constructive discussion about the divisive topics and consistent measures to create positive incentives. —Benjamin Martinez Newman

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Laszlo Varro of IEA Discusses Trends in Global Coal Market The Center on Global Energy Policy kicked off the 2013 spring semester on January 23 with a discussion of the medium-term coal market report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), featuring Laszlo Varro, head of the Gas, Coal, and Power Division. In contrast to the common perception of coal as an outdated energy source, Varro said, “Coal demand growth [worldwide] is more rapid than total energy growth, 2.65 percent to 1.2 percent, and on track to catch up with oil.”

“Coal demand growth [worldwide] is more rapid than total energy growth, 2.65 percent to 1.2 percent, and on track to catch up with oil.” The United States is unusual among nations, as its market share of coal is diminishing. This is in part due to stringent regulation that discourages infrastructure investment in coal power generation, and in part because of the recent shale gas boom and corresponding low prices. Because of the high cost of transporting natural gas, other countries still face significantly higher prices, reinforcing the economic rationale for coal. In an ironic development, coal consumption is rising in Europe despite the EU’s emissions trading system, as Germany seeks to replace nuclear power plants.

Brazil’s Energy Sector Is Most Dynamic in Latin America, António Bernardo Says China and India, Varro claimed, will be responsible for around 90 percent of coal demand growth over the next five years, as both countries face a rising demand for electricity that they must meet by any means. “China is making the largest investments in renewable energy sources,” Varro said, “but is also seeing historic growth in coal consumption.” Varro also suggested that, considering the economic and political pressure to expand energy access and the domestic abundance of coal, this trend is unlikely to slow for China. India finds itself in a similar situation, dealing with crippling brownouts on an ongoing basis, as capacity is too low. Given the truly global nature of the coal market, there is little doubt that supply can meet demand and coal power development will continue. As for the question of the environmental impact of this development, Varro stated succinctly that carbon dioxide emissions would continue to rise. With regard to carbon capture and sequestration technology as a means of curbing atmospheric carbon, Varro explained that “CCS is too expensive for the private market to implement, and it cannot compete without a major regulatory push.” Students in SIPA’s Energy and Environment concentration can look forward to exploring further this tension between economic development and environmental responsibility. —Benjamin Martinez Newman

After a semester of top-caliber speakers, the Leaders in Global Energy lecture series concluded on December 6 with remarks on Brazil by António Bernardo, a member of the supervisory board at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Bernardo, who is also managing director of his company’s offices in Portugal and Spain, discussed the challenges and opportunities in the energy sector of what he called “Latin America’s most dynamic market.” “Specifically in energy,” he said, “Brazil is one of the key hubs, with its abundance of natural resources and booming energy sector.” He noted that more than 70 percent of the nation’s electricity production is based on renewables, with hydroelectric and solar leading the way. Meanwhile, deep-sea exploration is projected to further boost Brazil’s oil industry. The rapid growth of the energy sector presents unique challenges and opportunities for Brazil, he said. “Energy infrastructure is a driving force of development and economic growth. Between oil and gas exploration, and power generation expansions, Brazil can benefit throughout the value chain.” To reap the full benefits, however, Bernardo said, it is important to have a stable regulatory environment. He said the Brazilian government must set clear guidelines to enable investment and innovation. Looking ahead, Bernardo expressed optimism about both the Brazilian market and increasing interconnection of markets in the region. He said this is leading to a diversification of investments for private players that will continue to fuel growth in the region. Brazil is a fascinating market, he noted. The reason Roland Berger is active there is the same reason interested young professionals should keep an eye on it. Bernardo, who had also joined a class with Professor Manuel Pinho earlier in the day, said he was impressed by the students in SIPA’s Energy and Environment concentration—so much so that Roland Berger will launch a Capstone project in collaboration with SIPA in the spring of 2014. —Benjamin Martinez Newman

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energy Student groups The SIPA Energy Association and the Environmental Coalition, two of the largest groups on campus, each organized an annual conference to maintain a dialogue on the most relevant issues in energy and environment.

Columbia University Energy Symposium Columbia University’s Annual Energy Symposium is a student-run event, established to foster the exchange of ideas between industry professionals, students, and members of the academic community. The Symposium is jointly organized by the SIPA Energy Association and the Columbia Graduate School of Business Energy Club to offer a wide spectrum of perspectives that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the energy industry today. The 2012 Symposium, “New Energy Market Dynamics,” was held on November 30 in Alfred Lerner Hall, with 400 students and professionals filling the auditorium. The panels discussed today’s trends and how tomorrow’s energy landscape will be determined by current

innovation and financing decisions. The lunch keynote speaker, Ed Morse, Citi’s Global Head of Commodities Research, highlighted to what extent the U.S. and global energy paradigm has changed as a result of increased domestic natural gas supply. After a day of thought-provoking discussion, the Symposium closed with David Sandalow, the undersecretary of energy, who spoke about Hurricane Sandy and navigating the risks of climate change. Next year’s event will be held on November 22, 2013. http://www.cuenergysymposium.com —Benjamin Martinez Newman

SIPA Energy Association The SIPA Energy Association is dedicated to connecting SIPA students with practitioners in the energy sector and educating students about career opportunities in the field. SEA’s activities include arranging visits to SIPA by actors in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors, and field trips for students to energy installations and institutions.

From left: Symposium directors Tristan Wallace, Benjamin Martinez Newman, and Fernando Arias with undersecretary of energy and Center on Global Energy Policy scholar David Sandalow

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Symposium panelists Michael DiCapua, Stephen Marlin, Michael Holman, and Bruce Usher

Columbia University Earth Summit The Columbia University Earth Summit is a they discussed climate change topics like water, student-run conference focused on discussing energy, and agriculture one on one while explorenvironmental issues and generating actionable ing the neighborhood around Columbia. At the solutions. An initiative of the SIPA Environmental interactive Policy Workshop on March 30, a team Coalition, the Earth Summit brings together repof students drew on lessons from the prior day’s resentatives of business, government, nonprofits, discussions to draft and submit a concrete policy and academia to examine major environmental proposal for legislative review. issues through an interdisciplinary lens. The The Earth Summit also featured engaging conference also seeks to engage participants discussions on the causes of and potential soludirectly in driving environmental progress. In tions to climate change, including an opening addition to panel discussions on the intersecaddress by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a panel on tions between the environment and a wide array climate security and justice featuring Palau of issues, including policy, finance, health, security, and education, the Earth Summit offers attendees many concrete opportunities for action. The Second Columbia University Earth Summit, “Driving Collaborative Solutions,” held on March 29 at the Columbia University Faculty House, featured a number of these opportunities From left: Risa Edelman and Seisei Tatebe-Goddu for action. Through the Social Venture Challenge, sponsored by ambassador Stuart Beck, and a closing keynote the Resolution Project and The Earth Institute’s by Jeffrey Seabright, vice president for environCenter on Globalization and Sustainable ment and water resources at The Coca Cola Development, teams of undergraduate particiCompany, on the role of the private sector in pants designed and presented business plans tackling climate change. for social ventures and competed for funding. http://www.columbiaearthsummit.com All Earth Summit attendees were invited to participate in thematic working lunches, where —Risa Edelman

SIPA Environmental Coalition The School of International and Public Affairs’ Environmental Coalition (ECO) is a student group dedicated to elevating the profile of global and local environmental issues. ECO raises awareness by offering skills-based trainings, hosting educational and social activities, and providing opportunities for advocacy through collaboration. The goal is to spur action and engage the Columbia community in dialogues that highlight the links among related fields.

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On the Ballot By Meghan Berry with additional reporting and writing by Marcus Tonti

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ho’s on the Ballot, a new website that explains just that, was developed out of a friendly conversation between SIPA professor Ester Fuchs and her

former student William von Mueffling CC ’90, BUS ’95. “William was complaining about the lack of information on the candidates, and I told him, ‘That’s ridiculous. Just look on the web,’” said Fuchs. “But I quickly realized it’s not that easy.” In order to find out who would be on her own local ballot, Fuchs had to visit several city and state websites—even more if she wanted information on the candidates. So von Mueffling, president and chief investment officer of Cantillon Capital Management, issued Fuchs a challenge—if she was willing to cull data from these disparate sites and present everything informed New York City voters needed to know in a user-friendly format, he would fund the project. “I couldn’t pass this up,” said Fuchs, a professor of international affairs and political science. “This is, after all, Columbia University in the City of New York, and I knew the site would be invaluable to residents of New York City.” Fuchs says that voter turnout has been steadily declining over the past 40 years: in 2009, just 28 percent of registered New York City voters cast ballots in the mayoral election. “If you give people easy access to this kind of information, it increases the likelihood they’ll go out and vote,” said Fuchs. “The basic premise of this site is ‘let’s make it easy.’” For much of 2012, Fuchs worked closely with the New York City Board of Elections, which mails sample ballots a few weeks before each election, and her project manager, Chris Santulli MPA’12. Santulli, who has worked as a project manager in the USP concentration since March 2012, had done multiple research projects on civic participation in local government in urban areas and hopes to pursue a PhD in this field. Once the mechanics of the site were in place, the next step was to spread the word about the new resource. To this end, Fuchs built an advisory board comprising leaders in nonprofit organizations, businesses, and city agencies. Each group, including the New York City Campaign Finance Board, Citizens Union, the Partnership for New York City, the Immigration Coalition, and the Urban League, is sharing the website with its own constituencies. Columbia political scientists Dorian Warren and Robert Shapiro and Kathryn Yatrakis, dean of academic affairs for Arts and Sciences, are

helping with outreach, strategy, and evaluation. As a result of their efforts, prospective voters who visit Who’s on the Ballot (whosontheballot.org) can simply enter their address to get a host of information—the date of the next election; their local polling place; a list of who’s running for office at every level of government; even links to candidates’ campaign websites and social media pages. Users can also find election news, sign up for election reminders, determine their registration status, and download registration forms. The nonpartisan website, which is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese, does not record any of its users’ personal information. The website, officially launched in late October, was helped along by a visual advertising campaign, cosponsored with the mayor’s office, which featured the Pilobolus modern dance company. The website faced a critical test early on thanks to Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall in the city on October 29, barely a week before the November 5 election. The storm knocked out power in neighborhoods throughout the city and forced the relocation of numerous polling places. Thanks to

Fuchs says that voter turnout has been steadily declining over the past 40 years: in 2009, just 28 percent of registered New York City voters cast ballots in the mayoral election. the site’s partners in city government and various nonprofits, the site was able to post updates about relocated polling places, changes in voting hours, and other information relevant to the election. Since then the site has run unimpeded, with an update in February for a special election in a city council district in Queens. The next citywide elections will take place later this year: party primaries for the mayoralty and other local offices are scheduled for September 10. Fuchs plans to use Who’s on the Ballot in New York as a roadmap for comparable projects in other cities. “This project has broad implications because it was started in New York. If we can do it here, this can be done anywhere,” said Fuchs. “Voting is the most important participatory activity in a democracy.” Meghan Berry is associate director, editorial services at Columbia Office of Alumni and Development. Marcus Tonti is editorial director at SIPA. S I PA N E W S 1 1

Interview with Jenik Radon

By Neha Mehta

f SIPA were a person, he would look a lot like Jenik Radon. An international business lawyer who finished his undergraduate degree at Columbia in 1967, Radon has

business on five continents. He consults with the Afghan government on multiple issues and has been working in Afghanistan in multiple capacities for more than four decades since being a researcher and spending his honeymoon there. He was the first to officially raise the U.S. flag in Soviet-occupied Estonia when he retook the occupied U.S. Embassy, and he co-drafted Nepal’s constitution, which gave millions of stateless people citizenship and brought peace to the civil war-torn nation. Radon also won Georgia’s highest civilian award after negotiating the multibillion-dollar oil and gas pipelines from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey. Last year, he led a Capstone project focused on the extractive industry in Uganda, which won SIPA’s Dr. Susan Aurelia Gitelson Award for Human Values in International Affairs. The report has influenced the Ugandan law-making process on the extractive industry. Radon recently visited his 100th country—none other than the youngest nation in the world, South Sudan, where he lectured on efficient ways to harness natural and public resources in the country. Radon is known to take trans-Atlantic flights for one-day meetings, because “building relationships is important.” He leaves for meetings abroad right after his class on Energy, Corporate Responsibility, and Human Rights and is back just in time for the next one— e-mailing students from airports across time zones with his feedback on their assignments and course material. Radon stays in touch with his students even after they graduate: he has attended more than 50 student weddings around the world—from India to Mexico, Australia to Estonia, Spain to Germany, and is off in June to Turkey for a SIPA wedding.

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Second row: Catholic Bishop Eduardo Kussala of South Sudan (far left), keynote speaker Jenik Radon (center), with other participants at the “Oil Extractive in a Developing World—A Bumpy Road for Riches and for Whom?” conference of Justice Africa and Cordaid in Juba, South, Sudan, in September 2012. Bishop Kussala spoke at Columbia on April 29, 2013, on “South Sudan: Where Is It Today and Where Is It Going? The Challenges.”

One of the most loved professors at SIPA, Radon won the “Top Five” teaching award for his work during the spring 2010 semester. He spoke with SIPA News about the latest country he visited, what makes him at home anywhere in the world, and the most important lessons he would like his students to learn. South Sudan recently became the 100th country you visited. What were your impressions of the country? My impression is that it is a very challenged country. More than 90 percent of its economy is based on oil. It is landlocked, and it makes things more difficult because it needs to develop a good relationship with all its neighbors, as well as Sudan itself. I think that South Sudan needs to be very creative in finding employment opportunities for its people. My impression is there is a long, hard road ahead. From a geopolitical point of view, it needs to look at Uganda and Kenya and other East African countries as friends. South Sudan also

needs to get over the war . . . some in the country have been fighting so long that they sadly don’t have any other skills. What are your current projects in South Sudan? I am working on a project with the Catholic Church of South Sudan to create a new natural resource magazine. It is in the planning stages right now. On my visit to South Sudan last September, I met a Catholic bishop who was very dynamic. When he went to Rome for a meeting, I asked him if he could gain support for developing a magazine on extractive industries. That’s how this project came about. We plan to have both a paper as well as a digital magazine, incorporating a lot of social media in the process. This could be something that has traction worldwide. Also, next year, I am planning to do a Capstone project in South Sudan on the lines of the project we did in Uganda in 2012 on oil and what my current Capstone team is doing in Mozambique this year.

Jenik Radon (third from left) meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, with Ambassador Dr. Shambhu Ram Simkhada, member of Nepal’s Secretariat of the Special Committee for Supervision, Integration, and Rehabilitation of Maoist Army Combatants, and Dr. Guo Xiaoke of the Tsinghua International Center for Communication Studies, Beijing, China, at the inauguration of the GP Koirala Foundation for Democracy, Peace, and Development on March 19, 2011. G. P. Koirala, former prime minster of Nepal, restored peace to Nepal after a decade-long civil war.

How was the Uganda Capstone project report received? It was very well received throughout Uganda and the donor community. A number of the recommendations we made have been incorporated into the country’s new petroleum law. How do you traverse so many countries and cultures with such ease? I am of German origin and was brought up bilingual. I had to adjust between what I learnt or saw at home and what I saw at school and try to meld the two. The German thought process is different from the English thought process. German has fewer vocabulary words, but in a way, it has more, because we can put two or three words together and form a new concept, because it is a building block language. It is much more exact in its impression. English, on the other hand, has a very rich vocabulary. By speaking bilingually throughout my life, I learnt that there are two ways of looking at

things. If there are two ways, there are three ways. If there are three, there are four. None is right, none is wrong. This opens you up and enables you to work with different people. I am always with the locals, no matter where I am. In Uganda, I am with the Ugandans, in Estonia with the Estonians, in India with the Indians, even if I don’t speak their language.

Latin America. I applied for the class, and I was selected. It was one of the best things I ever did. I learnt through anthropology the power of observation, the importance of listening to people who don’t speak your language, and just figuring out the basics of what they are trying to say. What is your advice to graduating SIPA students?

In terms of getting a better worldview, what do you suggest students should do? They should definitely get out of their comfort zones. Americans and Europeans, for instance, should go to Asia and Africa. Asians should probably go to Europe and North America. See and experience different viewpoints. Getting out of the comfort zone also means getting away from a place where you automatically understand everyone because of the language. You need to be where you don’t quite understand everything. I took anthropology at Columbia as an undergrad because I saw in the catalogue that the class would go to

My advice to SIPA students is the advice that I give to all young people. It’s also the advice that my father gave me. Do what you want to do, because if you don’t, you have two jobs, the job of getting up in the morning and the job of doing the work. But if you like what you do, you have only one thing to do, to do your work well. The world is open, and if you do what you like, what you feel comfortable and good at, then accomplishment will follow. Some things go faster, some things go slower, but it comes. Neha Tara Mehta is a dual-degree student in journalism and international affairs.

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a Capstone Workshop

Gun Control By Samantha Libby

idway through our final Capstone brief to the Brady Campaign,

phones began to vibrate. As my partner explained how we’d tracked down court documents from a murder committed with an illegal gun in Wisconsin, I checked the alert. Twenty children believed killed in Connecticut. Slowly, we passed the phone around. Almost simultaneously, Jon Lowry, a senior attorney for the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, interrupted our presentation. “I’m sorry. There’s just some terrible news coming in.”

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Second Amendment supporter and gun enthusiast Derek Ringley displays an unloaded pistol that was being sold in an impromptu auction across the street from a gun buyback program at the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas on January 19, 2013, in Dallas, Texas.

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Nearly every mass shooting in the United States has been conducted with a large capacity magazine. And in almost every case, the shooting stopped when the shooter’s gun jammed or the shooter stopped to reload. When we began our Capstone workshop in September 2012, gun violence was near the bottom of the political agenda. With a tight election under way, neither candidate wanted to touch an issue as sticky as gun control. The assault weapons ban, authored in the Clinton years, had expired under President Bush in 2004, and although President Obama had promised to resign it, a new bill had yet to be submitted to the floor. With nearly 300 million firearms in circulation within the United States and 40 percent of all gun sales taking place without a background check, we started the fall during an era of unprecedentedly lax gun control. Our task was to research and report on the illegal firearms trade in the United States. At that time, despite the recent tragedy in Aurora and the ever-present memory of Virginia Tech and Columbine, our research quickly revealed the myriad of factors contributing to our country’s grim history of gun violence. Every hour, three people die from gun violence in the United States. Every day, eight of those people will be children.1 According to the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime, the

1. “Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/home/home. shtml (accessed October 2012).

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United States is the tenth most violent country in the world, measured in terms of gun deaths per 100,000 people. In absolute terms, the United States accounts for 80 percent of all gun deaths in the top 23 richest countries combined.2 Many of the weapons used in these tragedies were bought legally. In 62 mass shooting incidents over the last 30 years, 80 percent of firearms used were purchased legally.3 Through independent research and interviews with the Queens and Manhattan district attorneys, special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), and a federal prosecutor, SIPA’s Capstone workshop based our research on four major policy areas: trafficking, background checks, assault weapons, and high capacity magazines. Nearly every mass shooting in the United States has been conducted with a large capacity magazine. And in almost every case, the shooting stopped when the shooter’s gun jammed or the shooter stopped to reload. Though less discussed than assault weapons, large capacity magazines have come under increasing scrutiny. Assault weapons are used in only one percent of violent crimes, while high-capacity magazines were present in nearly one-fourth.4

2. United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Data Analysis—Homicides, www.unodc.org/unodc/en/dataand-analysis/homicide.html (accessed October 2012). 3. Inside Story Americas, “Will the US Ever Change its Gun Laws?,” Al Jazeera, December 18, 2012; www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas /2012/12/2012121895811272151.html (accessed December 18, 2012). 4. Rick Jervis, “Gun Control Advocates Target HighCapacity Magazines,” USA Today. July 31, 2012; http:// usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-0731/gun-control-colorado-theater-shooting/56621536/1 (accessed November 29, 2012).

From left to right: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks during the Senate and House Democrats’ press conference on the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, January 24, 2013. Gina Brewer, the manager of Texas Gun, one of the 6,700 gun dealers located near the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, insists that she has not sold weapons to Mexican drug cartels representatives, in San Antonio, June 17 2009. A person holds up a sign during a rally in Hartford, on February 14, 2013, at the Connecticut state capital to promote gun control legislation in the wake of the December 14, 2012, school shooting in Newtown.

Under the Brady Law—passed in 1993—all purchasers of a firearm from a Federal Firearms License holder must undergo an instant background check via the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). However, private sales, such as those at gun shows, do not require a background check. Because of the frequency and prevalence of gun shows and the growing Internet market, unchecked and even anonymous sales account for 40 percent of all sales within the United States. Weak federal laws and a national stalemate on legislative action have created a patchwork of state laws that encourage interstate arms trafficking and are helping to fuel a violent war in Mexico. Using the data collected from these four policy spheres, our team developed a brief focused on background checks. Because nearly half of all firearms sales are conducted without a background check, we wanted to look at incidents of gun violence that could have been prevented by this simple effort. Working with the Brady Campaign, our team searched for a case that exemplified the effect of the loophole on society—so that we could approximate the cost of a single gun on society. We chose the case of Zina Haughton, who was murdered by her husband Radcliffe soon after filing a restraining order against him. Despite a long history of domestic violence, he used the website Armslist.com to purchase a .40 caliber handgun. Federal law forbids individuals under a restraining order from purchasing a firearm. If Armslist.com had conducted a background check, he would not have been able to obtain the weapon he used to kill Ms. Haughton and two bystanders—Maelyn M. Lind, a 38-year-old mother of four, and Cary L. Robuck, a 35-year-old mother of two—at the spa

where Ms. Haughton worked.5 In order to determine the cost of Mr. Haughton’s firearm on society, we used costbenefit analysis methodologies to estimate medical, criminal justice, and social costs. All costs incurred by families, victims, first responders, and the community at large were derived from court transcripts, estimated insurance costs, etc., were divided and tallied into each of these separate impact categories. The table below contains the total estimated cost for each impact category.

Summary Cost Findings Impact Category

Cost ($)

Health Costs

$365,950

Health Costs*

$455,380

Fear and Insecurity

$3,203,722

Earning Loss and Psychological Costs

$1,633,718

Criminal Justice*

$712,455

Total, Criminal dies

$5,203,390

Total, Criminal lives*

$6,005,275

* Research, data, and calculations used to arrive at these numbers are fully detailed in the final report available via SIPA or the Brady Campaign.

The fact that a single firearm could cost a community between 5.2 and 6 million dollars seems, at first, staggering. But in fact the numbers were deemed “conservative,” as our estimates erred

on the low end as to not inflate the data. What is perhaps more striking is that this crime could have easily been prevented with a simple background check. While it would be impossible to monetize the loss of a life, we aimed to show that the cost of an instant background check is minute when compared to the costs incurred by a community. * * * These days, gun control is no longer relegated to the back pages of newspapers and to the agendas of a silent minority in Washington. With promises from President Obama of a “comprehensive plan to address gun violence,” the door remains wide open for change in an arena less regulated than motor vehicles or over-the-counter medications. But while high-profile bills have been introduced, the real question for advocates is not what bills are passed, but what concessions are forced into those bills, just as the gun show loophole was placed in the Brady Bill. As viewer fatigue sets in and the chorus from the gun lobby grows stronger, it remains to be seen if this country can truly close the political divide.

Workshop Participants Adviser: Dean Leah Gunn-Barrett Students: Maria Fernanda Ballesteros, Samantha Libby, Jonathan S. F. Margolick, Nicolas Menard, Alia Nagm Samantha Libby is a second-year SIPA student studying human rights and international media and advocacy.

5. Editorial, “Brown Deer Police Need to Provide Answers,” Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, Oct. 24, 2012, available at www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/brown-deerpolice-need-to-provide-answers-jg7bcji-175690871.html.

S I PA N E W S 1 7

Capstone Highlights Online Education Programs and Global Higher Education Client: Institute for International Education Adviser: Hui Soo Chae, director of development and research at the Edlab, Teachers College, Columbia University, and associate director of the Gottesman Libraries Number of Students: 3 Goal of the project: Gauge the perceptions of administrators, faculty, and students abroad about online education and assess its potential impact on international student mobility (i.e., the rate at which international students travel to the U.S. for their education). Favorite part of the project: “One rarely gets the chance to begin research on a subject that hardly anyone has engaged in before. It makes the research less directed but in some ways more rewarding, since any direction one takes usually leads to exciting and unexpected data.” —Anthony Chiarito

“Too Big to Fail”: Optimizing SIFIs Size and Scope of Activities

SIPA Capstone group on the construction site of Broadway Housing Communities’ Sugar Hill, Harlem Development. From left to right: Abraham Francis-Fallon (BHC director of information and communications systems), Farah Thalji, Annalisa Liberman, Steph Tung, Faaria Kherani Volinski.

The Creation of a Business Plan Based on New York City Green Roof Models Client: Broadway Housing Communities

Client: Citigroup Adviser: Fernando Sotelino, adjunct professor of international and public affairs, SIPA Number of Students: 7 Goal of the project: Look at three different areas of the regulatory framework—Living Wills, Resolution Planning Authorities, and the possibility of an International Resolution Authority—to address whether the prospect of no future “bailouts” for SIFIs (Systemically Important Financial Institutions) is tenable and thus develop a tool for Citi’s incremental business. Favorite part of the project: “I really enjoy the freedom to think creatively about a subject and do so outside of a formal classroom setting. Citigroup has been a great partner in this effort as they have been extremely accessible and have allowed us access to senior management to discuss their own experiences on our topic.” —John Stinson

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Adviser: Judith Pincus, adjunct associate professor, SIPA, and senior vice president, FEGS Health and Human Services System We Care Division Number of Students: 7 Goal of the project: Develop a business plan for the rooftop garden at Broadway Housing Communities’ affordable housing project in Sugar Hill, Harlem. Favorite part of the project: “Each rooftop farm site visit is a new discovery—the urban version of unlocking the fabled secret garden. The skyline views atop the roofs are not too shabby either.” —Annalisa Liberman

The Future of PlaNYC: An Urban Sustainability Benchmarking Study and Recommendations for PlaNYC’s Future Success

Developing a Model for Assessment of Political Risk in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Client: Booz Allen Hamilton

Client: The New York City Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability

Adviser: Clifford Young, adjunct associate professor, SIPA

Adviser: Steven Cohen, executive director of The Earth Institute and professor in the practice of public affairs, SIPA

Goal of the project: Use political risk methodologies to assess relative regime stability and other economic and political threats in Jordan and across the region.

Number of Students: 12 Goal of the project: Analyze the sustainability and governance practices in 30 U.S. and seven international cities, as well as the political institutions and stakeholders that have affected their sustainability agendas and programs. Using this research and analysis, produce a set of recommendations designed to strengthen PlaNYC and facilitate the long-term continuity of urban sustainability policy in New York City. Favorite part of the project: “One of the best parts of this project is that we have to chance to put into practice the project management skills we’ve been cultivating since we started the ESP program last summer. In terms of project content, we get to hear the stories behind the sustainability plans from cities across the country and around the world, and use this information to take a critical look at sustainability in NYC and offer recommendations to keep the city a leader in sustainability practice.” —Max Litt

Number of Students: 7

Favorite part of the project: “Interacting with regional experts in the academic and professional fields.” —Rob Barocas

Leveraging Social Media and Mobile Technology to End Malaria in Cameroon Client: Malaria No More Adviser: Helen Epstein, assistant professor of international and public affairs, SIPA Number of Students: 4

Transforming the Core Curriculum for Sustainable Education Client: The Park Slope Education Complex at Middle School 088 Adviser: Nancy Degnan, director, Columbia University, Center for Environmental Research and Conservation Number of Students: 11

Goal of the project: Assess how social media and mobile technology can be used in Cameroon (and beyond) for behavior change in health and to develop a social media and mobile phone behavior change strategy that complements the current traditional media campaign to fight malaria. Favorite part of the project: “We are trailblazers in the realm of social media research in Cameroon, and we hope to form a communications and behavior change strategy using social media and mobile technology that could be relevant beyond the context of Cameroon.” —Melanie Kohn

Goal of the project: Design and implement a sustainable core curriculum, management, and finance plan at M.S. 088 that can serve as a model for other middle schools in the future. Favorite part of the project: “It is very rewarding to know that the work we are conducting now will impact students’ views on sustainability and provide them with knowledge and skills that will allow them to meet future sustainability challenges.” —Erin Entler

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Simulation on the Crisis in Syria By Florian Dautil

The threat of a deadly attack by the government on its people in Syria. An emergency Security Council meeting on how to prevent the attack. Breaking news that the attack has indeed taken place, with hundreds of civilian casualties. A parallel Contact Group meeting in Geneva on how to resolve the international community’s deadlock on Syria. And finally, a Security Council resolution after eight hours of nonstop negotiations.

his scenario played out at SIPA on November 14, 2012, with the director of the United Nations Studies Program, Professor Elisabeth Lindenmayer, creat-

ing an imaginary situation for students in her class, UN Peacekeeping Operations, International Enforcement, and Special Political Missions in Africa and the Middle East. The objective of the exercise, said Lindenmayer, was to give the students an insight into the complexities of the negotiations and the decision-making process of the Security Council. “I believe in learning by doing, particularly when the issues are as complex as they are in the case of Syria. There are a lot of moving parts to international negotiations, and it is important for

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students to understand the geopolitical background in which they take place,” said Lindenmayer. The simulation took meticulous planning to put together. In her capacity as the reader for the class, Seisei Tatebe-Goddu MIA ’13 worked closely with Professor Lindenmayer to make the fictional scenario as real as possible. “We spent several weeks discussing how to sequence the simulation, how to motivate students to prepare for their roles, and the content of the scenario,” said Tatebe-Goddu. The threat of the imaginary attack by the Syrian regime was used to call an emergency Security Council meeting. “I saw that this threat would be the only game-changer for the Council, as it was deadlocked on Syria,” said Lindenmayer. Each of the 21 students in the class played an

assigned role in the Security Council or the Contact Group, which included Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Clear and traditional divisions in the Security Council emerged at the start of the simulation. The positions remained entrenched several hours into the negotiations, until the “breaking news” of the attack by the Syrian regime reached the Council. The ice began to thaw, and things changed even more dramatically when news came in of a counterattack by the Syrian opposition. For many students, the process of reconciling the differences in the Council was a great learning experience. “I was able to exercise and improve my own analytical, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills,” said Maggie Powers HRSMA ’14, who played the role of India, president of the Security Council. Even as members of the Security Council were grappling with their individual positions, there was a parallel negotiation process going on in the adjoining room with the Contact Group. Alex Fankuchen MIA ’14, who played the role of UN-Arab League joint envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, said the process made him acutely aware of how negotiation and mediation are determined by personalities. “The simulation really helped demonstrate that, ultimately, a few people sitting around a table will act as the conduits for national agendas and, if they can’t interact on a personal level, a solution that appeared possible on paper may never come to pass,” said Fankuchen. Every single word, expression, and clause became the object of fierce negotiations at the Council. At 1:45 a.m. on Thursday morning, the resolution was put in blue and voted upon. It was adopted with 13 votes in favor, 2 abstentions, and zero against. UN officials were present to play the role of Security Council Affairs Division officers at the simulation—and to help the students find their way through the complex negotiations. Quentin Coolen, a policy consultant for UNDP and lecturer at SIPA, who stepped into the shoes of the director of the UN Security Council for the simulation, said he was very impressed by the students’ commitment to issues. “The amount of

work they put in preparing their country’s position was really humbling. Not only did they master the arguments, but they also argued and fought fiercely to the bitter end.” For students who took on controversial roles, the simulation was a way of understanding how the international community perceives certain states. Eric Bohenstein, a UN Studies Program student, played the part of the representative of Iran in the Contact Group. “Despite being at the table in the Contact Group of regional players, Iran’s integral role in the conflict was dealt with only marginally as the dialogue and process was dictated by the P-3,” said Bohenstein. The Chinese opposition remained entrenched for much of the simulation—but turned into abstention when push came to shove. “As a representative of China, I was able to escape from conventional wisdom by thinking and arguing from a different perspective than I had before, which helped me understand international problem-solving mechanisms,” said Cheong Ju Kim MIA ’13. Students came away from the experience immensely grateful for being pushed to think out of the box. “The potentially hostile environment of the contact group and the unwavering priorities of individual members of the Security Council facilitated an environment that required me to think outside the box,” remarked Caitlin Mollica HRSMA ’13, who played the dual roles of the EU high representative and the UN secretary-general. Lindenmayer hopes that, with this experience under their belts, the students will be able to interpret the news on the Security Council’s paralysis over Syria with greater clarity. “I am hoping that when they read the news that the Security Council deadlocked and had failed Syria, they will understand what is behind it,” said Lindenmayer. Florian Dautil is a second-year SIPA student enrolled in a dual degree program with Sciences Po Paris, studying economic and political development with a specialization in international conflict resolution.

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Collisions on a Lorry: A trip to the sea of Jade By AndrĂŠs Lizcano Rodriguez

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here were two big highways that led there, one on the east and one on the west of the country. I was exactly in between them, far away from any kind of public transportation,

on a small, unpaved road that led north through the desert. It was noon, the sun was burning, and there was nowhere to hide from it. After a few hours, I started to worry that nobody would ever drive by that crossroads. Finally a lorry appeared. I joined about 20 other travelers squeezed together on the roof. It smelled like goat, sweat, and desert. I feared I would fall off at any moment. At first the other passengers observed me carefully. Then they laughed at me for being excited about the elephants and the zebras on the sides of the road and taught me the Swahili names of the animals. Soon I had forgotten all my fears and discomfort and was happy to be in middle of Kenya, on the top of a lorry, inhaling dust, and driving along a winding road that seemed to lead nowhere. It was June 2010; I had interned for two weeks at the Kenyan newspaper People’s Daily in Nairobi and was now on my way to Lake Turkana, “The Sea of Jade,” on the Ethiopian border. As the sun was setting, the lorry reached its destination, a small town called Maralal. A crowd of locals started shouting at me as I climbed off the vehicle. They were offering the usual things: a ride, a tour, a hotel. I was tired and hungry and let one of them lead me to a restaurant. “I’m the Tony Blair of Maralal,” my guide said ceremoniously. He was skinny and tall and took long and hasty steps. When we got to the restaurant I had to laugh. It was a little hut with a sign that said Hard Rock Café Maralal. Tony Blair ordered Nyama Choma, roasted goat meat, for me. Then he left, saying he would be back. The meat was hard to eat. I was thinking about how skinny and old the goat must have been when another man sat next to me and murmured: “Don’t trust Tony. He’s dangerous. He wants to keep all your money.” I was surprised and grateful for the warning. But after talking to other people, I found out that is what everybody in Maralal says about everyone else. However, these same people exhibit constantly shifting loyalties, spending their days together on the streets, drinking their notorious locally brewed alcohol, and chewing khat. I never saw people eating, and I was not surprised. After that Nyama Choma. I had decided to stick to Chapati—Kenyan bread—and tea. Days passed, lorries didn’t. Every morning I routinely visited what I thought of as the “lorry terminal.” It was a place full of people who shouted and ran around just like people do in a bus terminal before a bus arrives, except that here nobody ever arrived and nobody ever left.

On the fourth day, a lorry finally came in the afternoon, and I was able to continue my journey up north. We were about 20 people sitting in the back. It was full of boxes, empty bottles of beer, tires, and goats. Some elders and babies lay in the corners. Most of the passengers belonged to the Turkana tribe. We drove on for hours until the driver needed to sleep and stopped between a few huts. I crawled onto the roof of the lorry. It was quiet, there was a warm breeze, and the sky was starry. In the morning I woke up to the sunlight and the movement of the truck. I actually started to get used to traveling on a lorry and eventually made friends with some of the other passengers. We first saw Lake Turkana shortly before sunset. Huge and jade-green, it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. I slept in a hut by the lake, and the next afternoon one of the passengers took me up to a small hill. It was my last night at Lake Turkana, the sun was setting, and we were surrounded by dozens of children. I started making grimaces to amuse them, but instead of laughing, they all got very scared and ran a few meters away, except for one girl, who was about seven years old. “We don’t need to be afraid if we

all stay together,” she shouted in Swahili and held her position as I advanced towards her with my twisted face. I was touched by how she wanted to lead her friends and stand up to me. I wished she could go to college and eventually lead and care about the Turkanas and her country in the same way that she now cared about her friends. I also wished that I, who had actually gone to college, would be as brave if ever faced with something as strange and scary as I must have appeared to them. Her name was Eritran. I wrote my e-mail address on a piece of paper and asked our friend to tell her to learn English and write me an e-mail. On the way back to Nairobi I thought about Tony Blair and Eritran. We all come from different worlds, but worlds constantly collide and the ability to adapt to these worlds, to live on the edge, and to jump back and forth, is probably one of the most valuable things I have learned from traveling. I flew out of Nairobi on June 30, 2010. Sometimes I still open my inbox hoping to find an e-mail from the bravest of all Turkana girls. Andrés Lizcano Rodriguez is a dual degree student studying international public management at Sciences Po Paris and international finance and economic policy at SIPA.

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Anh & Em

Vietnamese Language for an American Romance By Samantha Libby

orty years ago, our parents would have been ok with murdering each other. But times change, and now I was running naked down the banks of the Red River

in the middle of an unusually cold winter in Hanoi as Quynh shouted, “This is what it’s like to have an American girlfriend!” We stopped at the river, the edges of our fingertips just barely touching. It was as if the whiskey had suddenly worn off, and we knew we were standing on the edge of something that could easily kill us. Just weeks before Vietnam News had run a story of two fishermen drowning in the same river. A month before, a woman had fallen from the bridge only to be stabbed by broken metal beams jutting up from the riverbed. I let my muddy foot rest in the river. The water pulled it slightly to the left, toward Quynh. The current was strong. I admit now that I led him into the river. You can only run for so long. For the first time in 6,000 miles and four continents, I floated. I let go, and 2 4 S I PA N E W S

he swam, and we drifted towards the center of the river. The water was pitch black except for lights passing above, motorbikes moving north and south along Long Bien Bridge. I made little impact in the deep water as I swam, the current pulling us away into the northern provinces. Anh Yeu Em. I replied, without knowing why, in English. * * * English terms of endearment are widespread, their meaning equally so. Our world contains everything that exists in the mighty chasm that lives between “I love you” and “I like you.” While their context, meaning, and intended reception are varied, their ability to communicate is not. Society, culture, environment, media, art, family, and past experience all inform our translation of those phrases. We cannot help how we love. It is how we are raised. It is all around us as we form our personal ideas and desires about

affection. One would be hard pressed to find a culture that does not question, even demand, a definition of love. And yet, it is the answer that always varies, not the question. * * * Vietnam has the same misfortune as many countries with which the United States previously engaged. It is almost always referenced in terms of war. But this was a different, more brutal type of warfare. A kiss, and the turn of about 500 heads in rush hour traffic. Rows of children as I hang our laundry. Two years of curious stares and earnest questions: lay chom chua? Are you married yet? I kick-start our forever-dying Japanese Repsol and drive us into the mayhem, misnamed as traffic, to a chorus of applause. Women in the market would know me before I met them, holding out small plastic bags of freshly cut mango drenched in chili powder as an offering of what I never

learned. Even the corrupt police would step back in shock after we pulled off our helmets and would bow slightly, letting us pass without the obligatory bribe. Nobody wants to be that American when living abroad. But I was. When we carried our mattress up three flights of stairs, the entire neighborhood watched on lawn chairs. Forced to explain why we were together, why we chose each other, why it worked—too soon we were forced to answer big questions, maybe too big for young people who hardly knew themselves. Already caught in a hopeless culture clash, we lost all sense of “rules” that two individuals must play by. Until you are alone in a strange country, you don’t quite realize how much you rely on those rules. When to call, when to show up, where to go, what to say, when to say “I love you,” when to sleep together, when to complain, when to get angry, when to forgive, when to walk away, and when to stay and fight. With what words would we answer these questions? * * * Love in Vietnam has its own language, separate from the larger linguistic mechanism of communication. Language between lovers in Vietnamese is highly specialized and specific. “I” and “you” have greater meaning because, quite simply, those two words do not exist in Vietnamese. Vietnamese is characterized by a series of reflexive pronouns that form a specified hierarchy between separate individuals, turning social situations into a collective interaction, rather than one between individuals. In essence, there is no common “I” in Vietnamese. You are only who you are in relation to present company. For every pronoun there is a reciprocal pronoun, denoting “higher” or “lower” status, thereby giving respect to the speaker. Observing the table on the right, let’s assume you are having a conversation in Vietnamese. The pronoun is given to the listener based on his or her relationship and age with respect to you, the speaker, or reciprocal. For example, to my students I am cô and they are con, cô being a symbol of respect for an elder, an educator; con being an endearing term for children. But to a woman the age of my mother, I must respect her and become cháu, or con (depending on the actual difference of age), below her, and she is now bác or cô, and “higher.” If she is very old, then she becomes bà and my status changes once again. Respect in the pronoun system increases exponentially with age. This accounts for the common opening question between people. “How old are you?” It is enough to confuse any I-, you-, or

me-wielding Westerner, but surprisingly, stability is found in a fixed pronoun case—Anh and Em—the infamous romantic pronoun pairing. * * * A couple does not become Anh and Em instantly. It is an evolutionary process that requires careful navigation and tact. As explained to me by my young Vietnamese colleague, Anh and Em can be achieved between two lovers in the following progression. First, being the same age, the two people refer to each other with pronouns denoting their similar age. Then, as they become closer, they call

Without Anh, you cannot have your Em and vice versa. You cannot be alone in love. each other by their given name. And then, when they become involved in an official relationship, the girl refers to her boyfriend as “Anh” and in response, she is “Em.” Possessive modifiers are rare in Vietnamese and the unsaid between a Vietnamese couple when they refer to each other as Anh and Em, is—in maybe the best and worst translation: I am yours. Looking deeper into Vietnamese, even Asian culture, the answer is in the age-old yin and yang idea of balance. Anh implies Em, Em—Anh, an equal balance of male and female love. To Vietnamese

people, it is as simple as saying that a half requires another half to make a whole. Without Anh, you cannot have your Em and vice versa. You cannot be alone in love. * * * The current swept us far from where we began. Long bunkers, once used as hideouts during Nixon’s bombing campaign, now serve as makeshift tea shops and sinh to (milkshake) stands. We emerge from the river, dark shadows that can only watch the long string of motorbike lights cross in and out of Hanoi. Some were coming from the poorest parts of Vietnam, ready to start a hard week in the steadily expanding and modernizing capital that is gradually replacing its humble skyline with taller glass and steel fixtures. Others were going home, eager to escape the pollution in the countryside that bears little resemblance to the skyscrapers dotting the once blank horizon. Almost four years later, we’ve dragged that mattress 6,000 miles, up and down winding staircases, across silent cities, and through fields of sorrow and pain, across the ocean to my home, a most unwelcoming harbor swallowing up sweat and hard work into the very fibers of the strange multicultural cloth from which we are both cut. Maybe the historians were wrong, because the war still rages on. Our people continue to think of each other on the same terms. The question of peace seems as trite as its natural cousin. Perhaps this is because the answer is in a language that we cannot yet understand.

Pronoun

Reciprocal

Relationship

con

father

mẹ

con

mother

anh

older brother

chị

older sister

anh or chị

younger sibling or cousin of the same generation

con

cha, mẹ, bà, etc.

one’s child

cháu

ông, bà, bác, chú, etc.

grandchild; niece; nephew; cousin of junior generations

ông

cháu or con

grandfather

bà

cháu or con

grandmother S I PA N E W S 2 5

The Devastations of Many Generations:

Impressions of Staten Islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s post-Sandy Relief Efforts By Victoria Lauredo

Sheila and Dominic Traina amid the remains of the house they had lived in for 43 years, which was demolished by Hurricane Sandy in New Dorp Beach, Staten Island November 15, 2012.

usan O’Shady, or S.O.S. as her friends call her, leans against the bus stop outside Bayley Seton Hospital on Staten Island’s Vanderbilt Avenue. She drags a last inhale

from her cigarette before shouting, “Tell her Bill, tell her about the thermometer in the soup!” Bill, who prefers not to disclose his last name, was relocated on November 7 with his twelveyear-old son, Chris, and their two-year-old boxer, Max, from Susan Wagner High School, where they were first sheltered after Hurricane Sandy, to Bayley Seton. Max hadn’t barked since the family’s arrival at Bayley Seton. Bill, like 124 other Islanders sheltered at Susan Wagner, is now sleeping on a cot on the second and fifth floors of the hospital, sections that reopened for the first time in five years to house the disaster victims. The new sections are sandwiched between the hospital’s main operations in Psychiatric Emergency and Evaluation and Referral Services. “I’ve been here for three days—that’s nine meals—only one of them’s been hot,” Bill grimaced. “So we get a donation, a large vat of soup, and the health inspector, he comes and he sticks his thermometer at the very top, which is of course going to be the coldest part! It was 90 degrees, and I think it has to be something like 110 or 115. Anyway, he made them throw it out! I came up to him and asked why he didn’t stir it first to get the heat from the bottom, but he said he couldn’t—it was against regulations.” Charlie Forthman experienced the same situation. Forthman, a middle-aged volunteer from Okmulgee, Oklahoma, is collaborating with Foursquare Foundation, an evangelical aid organization assisting the relief efforts throughout this outer borough. “Oh, you should’ve been here yesterday. It was chaos.” Forthman explained how he and fellow Foursquare members spent hours moving boxes of apples and oranges into storage rooms at the hospital, only to be told by the health inspector that they had to undo all the work because the boxes had to be six inches off the ground to meet health standards. “These same boxes that probably travelled here on the floor of a truck!” exclaimed Forthman. Before my arrival at St. George’s Terminal on November 10, I knew little about the so-called “forgotten borough” of Staten Island. But having grown up in South Florida, I knew a thing or two about hurricanes and tropical storms. I was prepared to experience much of what I recalled from Florida disasters—the splintered wood, the structural skeletons, and that permeating dampness that always seems to linger after the tempest. Bayley Seton Hospital is an ironic case of

overorganized chaos. Forces that should cooperate—FEMA, the Red Cross, independent volunteer organizations, and hospital health inspectors— crowd each other out. Yet on November 15, at FEMA’s headquarters in Miller Field, a heroic portrait of coordinated relief efforts was displayed for President Barack Obama as he helicoptered in for a quick survey of the storm-ridden sectors of Staten Island. An unprecedented weather disaster seems to have broken everything but the rigid inefficiencies of bureaucracy, which persist in spite

of disaster and cannot be masked by the thrill of presidential parades. Upon my second visit to Bayley Seton on November 15, no one was humming with excitement over President Barack Obama’s impending arrival on the island. For the displaced whom I had met at the hospital almost a week earlier, it seemed every day weighed as heavily as the last. I held my breath as the elevator door revealed the walls of the fifth floor and followed the scribbled, neon “Cafeteria” signs. Inside, a modestly

An unprecedented weather disaster seems to have broken everything but the rigid inefficiencies of bureaucracy, which persist in spite of disaster and cannot be masked by the thrill of presidential parades.

A young boy rides his bicycle on a flooded street in the New Dorp Beach neighborhood of the Staten Island borough of New York, November 1, 2012.

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lit room was decorated with Red Cross volunteers smiling behind a table of aluminum trays. The lunch tables were littered with distraught faces. One woman’s head of dirty blonde hair hung over a guitar as she strummed slowly in an aimless rhythm. Karen Jackson, the liaison from Project Hospitality, a Staten Island outreach program in partnership with New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, led me into a small kitchenturned-office, where a pile of manila folders lay next to the sink. Her incredulous blue eyes scanned me. “Well, what is that you want to write about?” she scoffed. Ms. Jackson handed me an index card with the contact information for Barbara Brancaccio, the Department of Homeless Services’ media coordinator. Shortly thereafter, one of the police officers was called to help me find my way out of the building. The gesture was a polite reminder not to stick my obtrusive nose into any rooms. I exited the side of the hospital, sitting at the same bus stop where I had met S.O.S. five days earlier. I remembered the moment she urged me to “go get the story.” Amid her half-lucid confessions, she exuded a certain honesty. S.O.S. wasn’t hiding

her inadequacies, or the heaviness she visibly carried. At 1:20 p.m., I arrived at Miller Field, where FEMA had established a federal emergency response center shortly after Hurricane Sandy devastated the neighborhood. It was the day that President Obama would visit the storm-ravaged zones in the New York City area. After an aerial tour of the damage in Far Rockaway and Breezy Point, the president arrived at Miller Field for a limited time to shake hands and express condolences to the residents of the surrounding Staten Island communities of Midland and New Dorp beaches. Beyond the security gates, a maze of white tents culminated in a food truck and a FEMAoperated goods distribution center. I followed an acute Staten Island accent to a tuft of beachblonde hair brushed underneath a white fleece headband. The female voice was speaking feverishly to a Red Cross volunteer. “Did you want to talk to us, sweetie?” asked Natalie Gaweda, 49, a veteran Staten Island resident accompanying her elderly neighbor, Donna, who lived two blocks from her home on Slater Boulevard in Dongan Hills. Donna’s entire home was in disrepair, and, according to Gaweda,

“Donna doesn’t have the wherewithal to ask for help. She doesn’t have it together yet.” “This isn’t a cookie-cutter disaster. Everyone was affected differently, everyone has reacted differently,” she reflected. Despite considerable water damage to her home, Ms. Gaweda seemed resolute and hopeful. She was optimistic about the work FEMA was doing and even applauded NYC Rapid Repairs Program, although she herself had not used the plan, deciding to expedite her home’s restoration out of pocket. Three days later, when I called Gaweda to see how she was doing, her voice was less resilient. She wanted to go to Mass on Sunday but had to wait for the repairmen to remove the remaining water from her basement and fix some electrical damage. We conversed about her plans for getting back to work that following Monday, November 19. She had not returned since before the storm— nearly three weeks. “I think I’m going to have cereal for lunch. I had macaroni and cheese for breakfast,” Ms. Gaweda confessed. “All mixed up,” I laughed, trying to lighten the mood. “Yes,” she answered faintly. On the bus ride from Miller Field to St. George’s Terminal, my eyes fell on a sign outside a small home on 875 Targee Street that read, “But let all those who trust in thee rejoice,” a fragment of Psalm 5:11. I recalled that I had glanced at a Bible verse earlier that day, without paying much attention. I reached into my purse. Inside my wallet, I pulled out Natalie Gaweda’s business card, which had an excerpt from Isaiah 61:3,4 written on the back: “That they be called oaks of righteousness, distinguished for uprightness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former desolations and renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” Victoria Lauredo is in her final year of a dual degree master’s in International Affairs at Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University’s SIPA, studying international security and human rights.

Linda Restaino in front of a message written by her son on the boarded up back wall of her property, which was flooded during Hurricane Sandy in New Dorp Beach, Staten Island November 14, 2012.

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SIPA students Cory Fox and Niccolina Clements (pictured) of the SIPA education collaborative delivered school supplies to P.S. 329 on Coney Island with Pablo Alfaro.

SIPA Students Lend a Hand to School Damaged by Superstorm Sandy By Cory Fox

his year, a new SIPA student group called the Education Collaborative led a donation drive for P.S. 329, an elementary school in

Coney Island flooded by Hurricane Sandy. P.S. 329 serves more than 400 students in a high needs community; more than 80 percent of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students come from families receiving public assistance. In the wake of Sandy, the students were temporarily relocated to another facility, along with 57 other public schools throughout the city. After a cursory cleanup, students and teachers returned to P.S. 329 on November 19, but all first-floor classrooms remained unusable because of mold and bacteria growth as a result of the flooding. All furniture and classroom materials on the first floor had been destroyed, and teachers and students had to adapt to makeshift spaces with few supplies. (To see a chronicle of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s damage and ongoing reconstruction, visit www.rebuilding329.com.) When the SIPA Education Collaborative offered to hold a donation drive, Principal Marbury responded enthusiastically.

The Education Collaborative created an Amazon wish list for items the school needed most. Over the next few weeks, the group publicized the wish list through SIPA social media networks and collected cash and material donations on the fourth floor of the International Affairs Building. After two weeks, the Ed Collaborative had collected several boxes of supplies (many of which were donated by academic offices within SIPA), $379 in books and materials through the Amazon wish list, and $215 in cash, which was used for more supplies. Board

members dropped off the donations at P.S 329 in late November and were warmly greeted by the principal and her staff. Students at P.S. 329 returned to new first-floor classrooms in late February. Meanwhile, the SIPA Education Collaborative, formed in spring 2012 by a group of first-year students, has continued its work to further the education cause at SIPA. The group has helped organize an international education career conference; held networking happy hours with students interested in education at SIPA, Teachers College, and the Law School; assembled an education internship panel for first-year students; and compiled a database of educationrelated classes across Columbia. The SIPA Education Collaborative is developing a new community at SIPA focused on career opportunities and events in education, as well as advocating for increased focus on education issues in the SIPA curriculum. You can find more information on the group at www.sipaec.blogspot.com. Cory Fox is a second-year SIPA student studying urban and social policy. S I PA N E W S 2 9

TEDxColumbiaSIPA

“T

he day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anais Nin’s words illuminated the screen as

Christopher Emdin—assistant professor at Teachers College, advocate for innovative approaches to education, grieving brother to a sister he lost too young—electrified the audience with his appeal to embrace adversity and tribulation, because from them we learn to overcome difficulty. At TEDxColumbiaSIPA, held on February 15, 2013, at SIPA’s Kellogg Center, Emdin wasn’t the only speaker who riveted the crowd with an impassioned talk. Also taking the stage that day were Nobel Prize winners and CEOs, founders and inventors, best-selling authors and award-winning actors and playwrights, ambassadors and scholars. The event marked the first time that the innovative spirit of TED—the California-based conference that has grown into a juggernaut, with more than a billion total views for its online videos—came to SIPA. Drawing jointly from TED’s mission of “Ideas Worth Sharing” and SIPA’s focus on solving the greatest challenges around the globe, the event was organized under the banner of “A Better World.” But rather than dividing the day along traditional categories focusing on a single field, like education or energy, the schedule aimed to put people in the same room who may not typically run in the same circles, yet whose work may deeply influence one another in unusual ways. Take, for example, the session titled “A Safer World.” One speaker discussed the circumstances under which we might consider negotiating with terrorists; another shared views on gun safety, while a third underscored how rethinking the way our transportation system is designed can greatly affect the safety of our streets. Paul Krugman, the influential economist and columnist, delivered a novel talk on the long-term effects of the financial crisis. Poet and journalist

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By Ethan Wagner

Eliza Griswold shared a haunting story of the damage hydraulic fracking has inflicted upon the water supply in western Pennsylvania. And with a demonstration of their unique blend of music, puppetry, lights, and storytelling, PigPen Theatre Co. wowed the audience, which included not only those attending in person, but thousands watching around the world via the Internet, as far away as Tanzania and Turkey. In the end, the success of the event—organized and led entirely by students—can be measured not only by the number of speakers, the sum of money raised, and the growing total of web hits for the talk videos, but in the passion that spread from the stage to the ears, eyes, and minds of listeners and the new ideas inspired by exposing so many creative, talented people to one another. Find out more at www.tedxcolumbiasipa.com. Ethan Wagner is a recent SIPA grad who specializes in economic development and international media and served as one of the co-hosts and co-organizers of the first TEDx event at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

The schedule aimed to put people in the same room who may not typically run in the same circles, yet whose work may deeply influence one another in unusual ways.

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SIPA Students Attend Doha Climate Change Summit By Anja Gilbert

hree SIPA students traveled to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Doha, Qatar, in November to participate in side events and negotiations.

The meeting—referred to in United Nations lingo as the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18)—is a forum for creating a legally binding international agreement that limits global average temperature increases to two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Expectations were exceptionally low this year. “What scares me is that climate policy is sliding off the international policy agenda,” noted Fatih Birol, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist, in an interview ahead of COP 18. This year, in particular, a long-term commitment to address climate change seemed overshadowed by Europe’s economic crisis. The EU leaders did not discuss climate strategy at their four economic summits, and in the U.S. climate change did not emerge as a topic during the presidential election season. The less ambitious agenda was not unexpected. The mission for COP 18 had more to do with procedure than with crafting a political agreement; the major goal was to draft a work plan for negotiating a new legally binding international climate agreement by 2015. There were, however, three major milestones reached at COP 18. First, due to the “Durban Platform,” Doha marked the first time negotiations have not been separated by the differences between developed and developing countries. Second, the Kyoto Protocol, which now covers only 12 percent of emissions, was reauthorized for another eight years. Third, a voluntary pollution-reduction commitment, which covers some 80 percent of global emissions, completed the negotiations track and first steps toward a plan that would cover 100 percent of emissions. Students went to COP 18 for a variety of reasons. Risa Edelman and Seisei Tatebe-Goddu, as codirectors of the Second Columbia University Earth Summit, tracked conversations and emerging themes to help them determine the hottest topics for this year’s Summit. Anja Gilbert participated in events related to monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas emissions at the national and corporate level.

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From left: Anja Gilbert, Seisei Tatebe-Goddu, and Risa Edelman

In spite of the conference’s many challenges, student attendees did witness a few bright spots in the proceedings. While international cooperation was far from ideal, examples of subnational leadership and progress were exciting and kept the momentum alive. For example, China provided more information on its seven pilot programs at the provincial and city levels that are expected to provide lessons for a national market mechanism to limit carbon. Hosting COP 18 in Doha, Qatar, provided a unique perspective into the carbon and development challenges faced by a hydrocarbon exporter. Qatar is developing so quickly that it imports much of its skilled and manual labor—only one in five

residents are Qatari. It is both the world’s largest natural gas exporter and largest carbon emitter per capita. Along with the rest of the international community, student participants questioned why the event was hosted in Qatar—the first OPEC country to ever host a COP. Was this an attempt by the UN to force leadership on climate change in Qatar? While many in the climate community waited for Gulf countries to take on ambitious new pledges, only Lebanon and the Dominican Republic did so. Speakers at side events injected perspective into a forum centered on the technical aspects of process, drafting text, and finance. Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, UN high commissioner

for human rights (2002–2007), and former SIPA faculty member, asked why youth were not angry and, if they were, why their voices were not being heard. Nicholas Bianco of the World Resources Institute provided both good news and a reason to take action in the U.S., commenting, “Emissions in the U.S. have fallen 8.6 percent below 2005 levels due to the recession, an uptick in natural gas usage, and state renewable energy standards . . . But some of these trends are expected to reverse.” The conference’s incremental progress toward agreements on implementation ended on a moving note. As the negotiators slowly made agreements, Typhoon Bopha killed more than 500 people and displaced thousands in the Philippines. The tragedy gave meaning to the grueling task of agreeing on text. Lead negotiator Neaderey Saño of the Philippines gave an emotional speech during the

Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWK-KP), saying, “Every single hour, even as we vacillate and procrastinate here, we are suffering. There is widespread devastation back home, we have never had a typhoon like Bopha, and heartbreaking tragedies like this are not unique to the Philippines. I appeal to the leaders from all over the world to open our eyes to the stark reality we face . . . If not us, who? If not here, where?” Reports from the event relay that the hall went silent, followed by an eruption of applause. After a week of vague promises and recent memories of Superstorm Sandy at home, it was a sobering and much-needed reminder of why everyone had attended this conference. Anja Gilbert is a second-year SIPA student studying energy policy.

SIPASA Expands Its Mandate

IPA is home to some of the most talented policy students in the world. While we all prepare ourselves to help solve the world’s most difficult problems through effective

use of the various public, private, and multilateral institutions designed to address these challenges, how do we participate in the effective administration of our university? With this question in mind, the SIPA Student Association (SIPASA) sought to institutionalize the role of students as partners in the management and development of SIPA. During its 2012 academic year, SIPASA undertook a yearlong project to transform its by-laws into a full-fledged constitution. The new constitution expanded SIPASA’s mandate beyond improving student life. It

By Aly Jiwani

institutionalized channels for SIPA students to participate in strategic areas at the core of SIPA’s management and development—most notably, alumni and development, external relations, branding and marketing, and student recruitment and orientation. SIPASA formed new student-administration committees to offer student perspectives directly to the administration. The class of 2013 SIPASA board rolled out a new initiative called SIPASA Dialogues to create ongoing opportunities for students to interact with each of SIPASA’s portfolio areas in eleven small, focused groups, to provide feedback. By collecting information, advice, and ideas, the student government now has concrete data and legitimacy to bring to every level and office of the administration

in order to affect the changes that SIPA’s students want to see. This is the power of advocacy. SIPA students are being trained to affect public policy in meaningful ways. We can start by affecting policy here at Columbia University. SIPA students can become contributors to the public policy debates surrounding Columbia such as campus expansion and local development, environmental stewardship, and the future of higher education. The rest of the University counts on SIPA to bring credible voices to the table. Aly Jiwani is a second-year student studying international security policy and is SIPA’s University senator for 2012–2013.

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Tour of India Cities Provides Primer on Politics, Business, Society By Annie Yang Zhou, with Gabriela Rocha, Akshay Verma, and Alejandra Kubitschek Bujones

n campus in New York, SIPA students spend their days learning about the economic and political factors that shape the growth of a country or culture. But the firsthand impressions that come only from visiting a place can also help students to refine their perceptions of a country experiencing rapid change. During winter break 2012, after almost a full year of planning, 16 SIPA students traveled to six cities in India—an unforgettable journey that included New Delhi, the capital; Agra, home to the Taj Mahal and onetime capital; Mumbai, the financial and business epicenter; and the historical city of Udaipur, the “City of Lakes.” Leading the trip were three student leaders who were eager to show their friends the wonders of their home country—Jaivardhan Singh, former chairman of the SAA (South Asian Association); Akshay Verma, former co-president of SIPASA (SIPA Student Association); and former SAA president Viveka Purandare. The students visited sites such as the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential Palace), Red Fort, Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid, and Lodhi Gardens in Delhi; the magnificent Taj Mahal and Agra Fort in Agra; Elephanta Island, the Gateway of India, and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai; the beautiful beaches and historical towns of Goa; and, finally, the royal palace, museum, and lakes of Udaipur. While there was plenty of sightseeing, the group also enjoyed unique opportunities to discuss India’s political, economic, social, and media environment with numerous distinguished figures. In Delhi, the group discussed the current geopolitical climate, reforms, and policies with the

president of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee; Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling political coalition and longest serving president of the Indian National Congress; Mr. Shashi Tharoor, a member of parliament from Kerala who vied for the position of UN secretary-general before the selection of Ban Ki-moon; Mr. Digvijay Singh, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee; and Dr. Nirupam Bajpai, director of the Columbia Global Center in Mumbai. They also met Ms. Barkha Dutt, a television host and media personality, and Dr. Anita Kamra Verma, who is renowned for her contributions to the field of nanobiotechnology research at Delhi University. Each provided interesting perspectives on Indian society, particularly on media freedom and scientific advancements. While in Raghogarh, a historical village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, home to one of the trip’s hosts, the group was able to experience the “real” India—visiting the villagers’ homes and gaining insight into the villagers’ socio-economic concerns. The group had the opportunity to visit a school established by a group of political leaders to educate local students and raise the quality of education in the region. The students also visited a sugar cane factory, which represents a basic industry in rural Madhya Pradesh, and witnessed a series of sustainability initiatives that brought gas and electricity to homes through the use of methane biodigesters. In Mumbai, the group learned about the nation’s current business and economic environment, meeting one of India’s best-known business magnates, Mr. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and CEO of Reliance Industries. S I PA N E W S 3 5

Some participating students’ shared impressions

SIPA students with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi (front row, center)

The group then traveled to the ancient city of Udaipur and met with the royal family, the Mewars. While touring their palace and museum, the students learned about the conservation, heritage preservation, and development projects in the city. Finally, the group returned to Delhi to attend a pre-wedding reception and experience the colors, food, music, and hospitality of an Indian wedding—a cherished memory that will remain with the students through the thousands of photos taken at the event. During an age of telecommuting and Skype, it’s easy to assume that one can know and participate in any culture from afar. But for these SIPA students, travel and the sensory experience of moving through India offered a richer and more nuanced understanding. Annie Yang Zhou is a second-year SIPA student studying economic and political development with a focus in management. She is also the founder and managing partner of Universal Pacific Advisors.

I was struck by the contrasts of India. It’s a country where you can meet two families of five—one living in an extraordinarily opulent home, with dozens of cars, and the other living in a one-room dung-insulated hut. It’s a country where you’ll stand in awe at the marvelous symmetry of the Taj Mahal and step outside its gates to be greeted by a young beggar boy dragging deformed poliostricken legs. It’s a country with the cleanest subway and the dirtiest streets. Everywhere you go it is apparent that India is straddling the development line. —Annalisa Liberman MPA ’13, Urban and Social Policy Nationality, ethnicity, race, and gender meant nothing to the villagers of Raghogarh, Madhya Pradesh. They welcomed us into their homes as if we were family and shared everything, even the little food that they had. —Tara Badri MIA ’13

Shashi Tharoor [an MP from Kerala] told us that “whatever is true about India, the opposite is also true.” We really got to see what that means in three weeks. India is the most complex, contradictory, and surprising country I have ever visited. —Selma Stern MPA ’13, International Security Policy Apart from the colors, the vibrancy, and the vivacity of India as a nation, India is clearly a country on the move, developing at an unprecedented pace. We were fortunate to witness and learn about the opportunities and the development challenges India currently faces. Despite stark differences, one common trait was clearly observable in each of our encounters. From the influential political and business leaders we met to the children in the villages we visited, what struck me the most was how warmly we were welcomed. Indian hospitality went above and beyond our expectations, and I cannot thank our hosts enough for organizing and providing us with this once-in-alifetime opportunity. —Alejandra Kubitschek Bujones MPA ’13, Economic and Political Development

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Investing with a Purpose

arch 12 marked the launch of a fundraising campaign for 118 Capital, a new impact investing organization run by students from SIPA and Columbia Business School. More than a hundred students and impact investing professionals attended the event, which featured a presentation and talks delivered by the student founders, a SIPA professor, and a social entrepreneur. “We will seek direct investment in social entrepreneurs with sustainable business models and a social mission,” said cofounder and second-year SIPA student Dennis Price, stating that 118 Capital hopes to raise a million dollars to seed its fund. Impact investing is a relatively new space that sits at the crossroads of development and finance. According to the Global Impact Investing Network, a nonprofit that promotes impact investing, “Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return” [see graphic at right]. The recipients of this funding are often labeled “social” entrepreneurs, in recognition of their desire to build a business that makes a positive social impact in addition to profits. This dual mission—combining the profit motive with a social purpose—has resonated among SIPA students. In 2011, a group of them launched the Columbia Impact Investing Initiative, or CI3. In less than two years the organization has worked on more than 20 consulting projects, engaging more than 200 students from across the University. After working with other impact investors, the CI3 team felt it was ready to put money to work themselves, and that’s why 118 Capital was born. “Our mission is to give students hands-on experience with how social entrepreneurship is done,” according to 118 Capital cofounder Rudolfo Prieto, also a second-year student, who spoke with SIPA News before the event. They will do this by investing funds in social enterprises in North and South America. These investments would likely be done in tandem with established names in the industry, like IGNIA or the U.S.-Mexico Foundation. The latter foundation invited three 118 Capital founders

By David MacDonald

to Mexico in February to participate in an impact investing conference. In his presentation Price discussed a social entrepreneur he met in Mexico whose firm, Biodent, provides dental education and services to thousands of Mexican children. “It’s too big for microfinance, too small for traditional investments, and too risky for commercial banks,” The vertical axis measures investment return, and the horizontal axis measures he said, highlighting a social impact. gap in emerging capital Source: Acumen Fund markets that has led to the so-called “missing middle.” While small- and medium-size entercapstone project on impact investing (see story prises (SMEs) are growth engines in the developed on SIPA Capstone projects, pp. 20–25). He also world—responsible for half of GDP and more than mentioned that SIPA is one of the first schools to half of employment—low-income countries tend to have a student-run impact investment fund, along be dominated instead by large conglomerates and with Michigan, Harvard, and the University of microenterprises, which fail to provide the same ecoPennsylvania. nomic dynamism. Impact investing seems well suited 118 Capital—which takes its name from SIPA’s to fill this gap. “We need impact investment funds location on West 118th Street—is a registered to step in where governments and foundations are nonprofit organization and is not directly affiliated absent, to fund local innovation on a large scale,” with Columbia. As such, its funding sponsors and said Michael Spencer, a social entrepreneur who student employees will not keep any profits made attended the launch. on investments; these will be reinvested in new One obstacle to the industry’s growth is the projects. Price is optimistic that the first investment difficulty inherent in blending multiple forms of can be made in the next academic year, when capital—philanthropy and venture capital—which members of a new SIPA class can get involved. are traditionally viewed as incompatible. “Impact “This is all about training the next generation of investing is a nascent industry,” said Felipe Arango, impact investors,” he told the audience. a banker-turned-impact investor who sits on 118 Just two years after its introduction at SIPA, Capital’s board of advisers. “To break these silos impact investing looks set to take off. It is fitting separating the private sector, policy, and sustainthat SIPA, a school whose strength lies in its multiability management, it will be increasingly impordisciplinary character, will be home to a launching tant to have people like these [SIPA students] who pad for future practitioners in this growing indusunderstand the big issues.” try. As Felipe Arango said in his remarks, “A new “The hope is that this initiative will help paradigm requires new leaders.” mobilize all of the schools at Columbia, from David MacDonald is a graduating SIPA student and SIPA to Law and Business,” said SIPA professor editor of SIPA News. John Walker, who teaches a class and advises a

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fall 2012 highlights Guéhenno Discusses Challenges of Syria Crisis On November 13, 2012, students packed in to SIPA’s Kellogg Center to hear Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice at SIPA, give a talk entitled “To Syria and Back: Why We Must Not Give Up.” At the outset of the event, Guéhenno commented that he knew he faced a challenge when his former boss at the UN, Kofi Annan, asked him to be the deputy joint special envoy of the UN and the Arab League for Syria. “I felt a bit like an oncologist who cannot say ‘I only deal with the easy cancers,’” he joked. “But you don’t pick and choose. Even if you know the odds are very low, you have got to try.” Guéhenno, who was the UN undersecretarygeneral for peacekeeping operations from 2000 to 2008, explained how Syria had become a

battleground in the region. “Assad’s defeat in Syria would show that Iran’s influence in the region is not what it would like it to be,” he explained. To overcome obstacles, Guéhenno stressed, it was imperative to overcome the polarization of the region. “Iran should be in the tent rather than outside. This is a minority view at the moment among Western powers,” he noted. “But if one wants a conclusion, there has to be some engagement with Iran.” Despite a limited influence in the conflict, the West must continue to push for peace in Syria, said Guéhenno. “We have to accept that when the fighting stops, we will most likely be disappointed by what emerges from the postcrisis settlement. But I think as a moral duty, engaging through the UN and through the UN-Arab League Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is fundamental,” he said.

BRICLab Conference Examines the Quest for Global Economic Growth Hundreds of interested students, faculty, and friends came to the second annual conference of Columbia University’s BRICLab at Low Library on November 27, 2012. BRICLab, a SIPA-based forum on Brazil, Russia, India, and China, led by Professors Christian Deseglise and Marcos Troyjo and housed within SIPA’s Center on Global Economic Governance, brings together policy and business leaders to discuss the challenges that the BRICs face as drivers of global economic growth. Conference participants had clear positions. “The goal must be to find balance between innovation and sustainability,” said Marcelo Lyra, the vice president of Braskem, a petrochemical company based in São Paulo. Discussing the arduous road to global economic recovery, members of the day’s first panel agreed on the limitations of the current governance system and the flawed perceptions of emerging economies. SIPA’s Professor Arvind Panagariya pointed to the clear imbalance of a global governance system in which small European countries have a larger say than India. Marco Maia, a senior Brazilian official,

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agreed. “Great disparities exist in the international arena, but we nevertheless need to pursue a common agenda.” At a second panel, speakers addressed business opportunities in the BRICs. “There are a variety of barriers to entry into BRIC markets,” said Liam Casey, CEO of PCH International, an electronics manufacturer. “We need to have common international standards to push efficiency.” In the closing keynote address, Professor Jan Svejnar, director of SIPA’s Center on Global Economic Governance, asked how the international community should cope with the tension of integrating the BRICs into the existing institutional system. The world may rely on these nations to bolster

global economic growth, but entrenched players sometimes push back. Professor Svejnar closed by cautioning, “Without international cooperation we cannot succeed.” —Benjamin Martinez Newman

In Visit to SIPA, Annan Discusses His Life in War and Peace

The SIPA community was abuzz on October 17, 2012, when former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan visited the School to speak about his book Interventions: A Life in War and Peace. Annan’s talk highlighted a series of episodes that illustrate the beliefs that have informed his life. For

example, he told a story about his time studying at Macalester College in the bitterly cold city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. “There was one item that I was determined not to use: the earmuffs. I found them inelegant. But one Sunday I went to get something to eat, and I almost lost my ears. The next day I bought the biggest pair I could find, elegant or not. I had learned a lesson: Never walk into an environment and behave as if you know better than the natives.” Annan also explained how his experience of Ghana’s transition to independence taught him that great change was possible. He noted that Malaysia also achieved independence in 1957 and had since far outpaced Ghana economically. This different trajectory fascinated him, he said, since it raised the question of what drives development. As head of peacekeeping operations in the mid1990s, Annan explained, he saw an increase in missions, but often without a corresponding increase in resources. In somber tones, he described the buildup to the Rwandan Genocide. Following the unsuccessful and unpopular mission in Somalia, the international community lacked the will to intervene on a

large scale. Annan admitted that he was among the many leaders at the time who underestimated the potential scale of the violence. The audience warmly applauded the lecture and then launched into a sometimes pointed questionand-answer period. A first-year student from Rwanda asked whether the tragedies in the ’90s suggest that there was a threshold for intervention. Annan candidly admitted that he had difficulty setting an official threshold. Interventions, he said, are subject to the decisions of the international community, while the definition of conflict is often a matter of interpretation. As such, the UN must approach each situation case by case. Understanding this demands a proactive approach, a lesson learned painfully in Rwanda. Annan’s discussion of Interventions: A Life in War and Peace offered a frank assessment of his work. He refused to deny his and others’ mistakes, but instead shared the human struggle towards peace despite inherently human flaws. —Benjamin Martinez Newman

Gelb Explains “Why the U.S. Often Screws Up Its National Security Policy” “Our greatest strength is our practical, no-nonsense approach to problems. Our forebears didn’t let bullshit get in the way of solving problems.” This direct, earthy language came from Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and former New York Times reporter, who spoke at SIPA on October 11, 2012. Gelb gave the annual George Ball Lecture on “Why the U.S. Often Screws Up Its National Security Policy.” Forgoing the podium, Gelb stood close to the audience, like an entertainer engaging a crowd. He claimed impartiality, insisting that he viscerally dislikes both the Democratic and Republican parties. Gelb began his remarks by detailing what he called the American preoccupation with Iran. “We’ve been rhetorically boxing ourselves into a war with Iran with the threat of military action— the logic being that they’re nuts.” He noted later: “During the Cold War we similarly said, ‘The Soviet Union is crazy. They’ll launch a nuclear war.’ Now we have the same mindset with Iran.” So what are the real threats to the United

States? Gelb cited terrorism, cyberwarfare, and the fact that our economy is “being brought to its knees.” He said our debt to China is currently $1.5 trillion and that this fact advertises the weakness of the American economy to the world. “Security is at least as much about the economy in the 21st century as it is about the military. It’s because of this that U.S. power is declining, relative to power we had before . . . We have less power today, and other countries have more. We had economic supremacy and now we’re on the decline.” Because of this, Gelb said, the United States must rethink how it leads. “We can no longer say, ‘follow me,’” he said, “but we can lead from behind by getting others to accept more responsibility and to act in their own interests.” Gelb cited several missteps and miscalculations in the lead up to both the Vietnam and Iraq wars. He said the American ideology is to make the world better, but that creating democracy by war or fear never works. —Tiffany Esteb S I PA N E W S 3 9

spring 2013 highlights Papandreou: “Europe Needs to Revisit Its Fundamentals” By Valle Aviles Pinedo

n February 20, SIPA students and the Columbia community attended SIPA’s prestigious Gabriel Silver Memorial Lecture to listen to a first-hand account of the

European financial crisis. The lecturer was not only one of Europe’s key players when the debt crisis erupted, but also the leader of one of its most affected countries. George A. Papandreou, 60, served as prime minister of Greece from October 2009 to November 2011. His previous government positions include minister of foreign affairs and minister of education and religious affairs. In addition, he has been president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement political party (PASOK) and head of the Socialist International, a coalition of social democratic, socialist, and labor parties. This spring he taught a course at SIPA titled Challenges to Democracy and Governance in Times of Global Crises: Europe and Greece. Its goal was to explore the political and economic challenges that Europe faces, using the Greek case as a starting point. At the lecture, titled “Bailouts and Ballots: The New Challenges to Democracy and the Case of Europe,” Papandreou called on European governments to work together to “bring back the European spirit” and noted that “Europe is a democratic experiment. It needs to reinvent itself by revisiting its fundamental values.” Papandreou warned about the dangers of nationalism and the consequences of a “more divided and polarized” Europe. For him, the lesson of the crisis is simple: “We acted more like local leaders playing to our constituencies’ fears rather than leading to a stronger union.” Papandreou said that although all fingers point at his country, “this is a European problem.” He admitted that Greece “was a mismanaged economy,” but he criticized those who “wrongly diagnose” the crisis and only blame peripheral countries, known as the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain). “I’m proud of being a PIG,” Papandreou joked.

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“Some people think that these lazy southern Europeans should be punished. They think that we drink and dance too much, but the truth is that Greeks work the longest hours in Europe, according to the OECD.” However, Papandreou acknowledged Greece’s past of “state clientelism, corruption, and lack of transparency.” He recalled the first time he attended a European council as a prime minister. At that time, the Greek government had already revealed the real size of Greece’s deficit. “We were all shocked by the numbers. Some suggested deep and immediate austerity measures. I replied that the deficit was only the tip of the iceberg. We needed to consolidate our budget by prioritizing the deeper problems Greece was facing,” Papandreou said, while admitting that Greek statistical agency distorted the country’s real figures. Papandreou suggested that this distortion underlines the “institutional problems Greece had.” For example, Papandreou remarked that, according to the Brookings Institution, Greece could reduce its fiscal deficit by 8 percent if it reached the corruption level of Denmark. “What this shows is that Greece didn’t need austerity, but a real revolution,” he said. In an interview with SIPA News, the former prime minister emphasized this point. “You don’t solve anything only with cuts,” he said. “We need to regain the confidence of our people, and we need further and deeper reforms.” Papandreou also commented that Greece

should identify its competitive advantages and invest in them to promote growth and employment. “I have enormous faith in Greece’s capabilities,” he said. Among his proposals are the creation of Eurobonds, debt forgiveness, a greater investment in green growth, and an Erasmus program for the unemployed, among others. “Unemployed young people could go to a different European country, get some training, and when the crisis is over, come back to their countries and apply the new skills they got,” Papandreou said. At the Silver Lecture, Papandreou recalled the first time he came to Columbia, in 1972, to deliver funds to a Greek student. At that time, Greece was under a military dictatorship, and Papandreou was involved in a prodemocracy group that helped the resistance movement and the families of Greek political prisoners. Papandreou said he learned that “democracy is never a given” and that “empowering societies is a constant democratic challenge.” “Here at Columbia, the diversity of the student body, the global reach of activity, and the spirit of a different, tolerant, and critical-thinking leadership is alive and well. So this time I’m here in a different mission . . . or maybe it’s a similar one: fighting again for democracy.” Valle Aviles Pinedo is a first-year MIA student studying human rights and international media.

The European Dilemma: Integration or Decline By Valle Aviles Pinedo

he European Commission recently forecast that the euro-zone economy would shrink again in 2013. Meanwhile, unemployment continues to rise, affecting nearly 19 million

people, and the prospects for the next two years are no better. Could be this be the end of the European Union as we know it? A distinguished group of thinkers, economists, and policymakers tried to answer this question at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library, at a panel discussion hosted by Columbia’s World Leaders Forum and SIPA’s Center on Global Economic Governance. The panelists discussed the challenges that Europe faces and the implications for the region and the world’s economy, politics, and democracy. Columbia’s own Joseph Stiglitz warned that although Europe is in recession, many European countries are in depression. The Nobel prizewinning economist pointed out “the enormous amount of destruction in human capital” in Europe due to the crisis. Stiglitz emphasized that this is “a manmade disaster with four letters: the euro.” “The euro is a great project, but when they created a single currency before a political framework was made, that was what invited the disaster,” the Nobel laureate said, while calling on the European authorities to undertake deeper structural reforms. “Europe was not an optimal currency area; it wasn’t a group of countries that could easily share the same currency. There was no solidarity to create the institutions that would have made the euro work,” he concluded.

Stiglitz believes that there was a “fail analysis” of what was going to be needed to make the euro work. In his view, the architects of the euro only took into account two parameters: that countries should not have too much debt (a limit of 60 percent of GDP), or too large a deficit (3 percent). “That may have been necessary, but it was clearly not sufficient. When you have a misconception at the beginning, and a misdiagnosis as time goes on, it’s not surprising that things don’t work well,” Stiglitz explained. George Soros, investor and founder of the Open Society Foundations, agreed with Stiglitz and said that the Maastricht Treaty had “a very flawed design.” “The architects of the euro knew that it was incomplete because it created a currency union without a political union,” he pointed out. For Soros, the Europe Union is currently facing “an existential crisis.” The American-Hungarian investor said that the problems of the euro have already transformed the EU from what it was originally conceived into something “radically different.” And, he added, “Although the EU was meant to be a voluntary association of equals, today there are debtor countries subordinated to the dictates of the creditor countries and relegated to a secondclass membership.” Soros warned that the situation is going to deteriorate further. However, he predicted that after Germany’s September elections “there will be a change in attitude.” Germany’s efforts to push for austerity and

its opposition to the creation of Eurobonds were criticized by the panel. Kemal Derviş, Columbia professor and director of the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, warned about the size of Germany’s current account surplus, which he called a “serious imbalance.” “When there is an imbalance both the surplus and the deficit countries have to contribute. We are always worried about the Chinese current account surplus, but the country in the world with the largest trade surplus is Germany,” Derviş pointed out, while suggesting that Northern European countries should pursue a “more expansionary policy at home” and “reduce their own surplus.” Derviş argued that despite the difficulties, “there is a political will to solve this crisis.” Likewise, Ambassador Anne Anderson, permanent representative of Ireland to the United Nations, said she “genuinely” believes “Europe will regain the momentum.” “I’m convinced there is a political imperative that will continue to drive us forward. You got to look at the big story,” Anderson said. Former Greek prime minister George A. Papandreou, a SIPA Global Fellow, emphasized that Europe is still a “great political project.” The Greek politician admitted that although Europe “has to do more,” many people often “underestimate” what Europeans can do together. Papandreou said the crisis has shown the inefficiencies of the euro-zone project and the need for more integration and structural reforms to boost competiveness and reduce imbalances. “Austerity is not the solution. We need a longterm growth strategy, and we need to make the EU a people’s project,” Papandreou said, while warning that Europe “should leave its current racist discourse” because it is undermining the basic principles on which the EU was built. “The EU is likely to survive. Europe as a whole is rich, so it’s a question of political will to find the right solution,” concluded Jan Svejnar, director of the Center on Economic Governance at Columbia.

From left: Kemal Derviş, Joseph Stiglitz, George A. Papandreou, Ambassador Anne Anderson, George Soros, and Jan Svejnar

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Center on Global Economic Governance Fall 2012 Events September 27, 2012

October 4, 2012

The Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Countries Can Take Off

European Federalism as a Response to the Crisis in Europe

Justin Yifu Lin discussed his latest book on new structural economics and reflected on his experiences at the World Bank, where from 2008 to 2012 he was chief economist— the first ever from a developing country.

Award-winning Czech journalist and commentator on political economy issues Jan Macháček discussed federalism as a response to the current crisis in Europe. In doing so, he addressed the question of whether we are witnessing in Europe an institutional and constitutional crisis or a debt crisis.

September 28, 2012

October 8, 2012 Presidential Economic Advisers Forum 2012 Jeffrey Liebman and Glenn Hubbard, senior economic advisers to President Obama and presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney, respectively, debated the economic policies of each candidate and their respective party. Panelists included Columbia professors Sharyn O’Halloran, Joseph Stiglitz, and Michael Woodford. Chrystia Freeland, global editor-atlarge at Thomson Reuters, moderated.

The European Crisis in Its Political Context Persistent concerns over the economic health of Europe triggered dramatic action by the European Central Bank. Will this suffice, or will equally dramatic action on the political front be required? Karel Schwarzenberg, minister of foreign affairs, Czech Republic, and Urmas Paet, minister of foreign affairs, Estonia, addressed these questions and the next steps for the European Union and its member states.

October 2, 2012 The CGEG Leaders in Economic Governance Inaugural Lecture How Can Government Help Keep the United States Competitive? Dr. Rebecca M. Blank, acting secretary of commerce, United States Department of Commerce, discussed how government could help ensure that the United States continues to lead the global economy in the 21st century as other nations have become more competitive.

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Santiago de Chile stock exchange and financial district

November 7, 2012 The Impact of the European Crisis on Emerging Markets Guillermo Calvo (SIPA-PEPM), Domingo Cavallo (Yale), George Kopits (The Wilson Center), Carmen Reinhart (Harvard Kennedy School), Jan Svejnar (SIPA-CGEG), and Ernesto Talvi (CERES and Brookings Institution) discussed the impact of the crisis in Europe, on emerging economies in Latin America and East Central Europe.

December 3, 2012 Long-Term Investing: An Optimal Strategy in Short-Term Oriented Markets

Joseph Stiglitz

October 25–26, 2012 CGEG Conference on Labor and Development An Assessment of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2013 This two-day conference, in collaboration with Cornell University, focused on major labor issues in developing countries, contrasting the official approach of the World Bank and member governments with those of independent academic and policy experts. Panelists included Nobel laureates Edmund Phelps and Joseph Stiglitz, distinguished academics, policymakers, and practitioners.

CGEG, Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought, and the Sovereign Wealth Funds Research Initiative co-sponsored a conference focused on promoting longterm investing strategies amid market forces encouraging short-term orientations. CGEG director Jan Svejnar was a discussant on the panel entitled “Natural Expectations, Macroeconomic Dynamics, and Asset Pricing” with David Laibson of Harvard and William Goetzmann of Yale.

The PhD in Sustainable Development By Amir Jina

he students in the PhD program in Sustainable Development are extremely diverse. That’s the first thing that I realized when I accepted my place in the program.

With a background in physics, I was seeking to learn more about how the environment affected society and began looking for MA programs while I was teaching at a public high school in Japan. I came to Columbia to do a master’s in Climate and Society—a degree that tied together my interests in the natural and social sciences. Through Climate and Society, I had the opportunity to work with the Red Cross in South Asia, and this reinforced my desire to continue researching natural disaster impacts and humanitarian policies in developing countries. While at Columbia, I was able to see firsthand how the intellectual community at SIPA and across the University could provide exactly the breadth of knowledge needed for an interdisciplinary PhD program. When I joined the Sustainable Development PhD, it was with a cohort of students who had studied at institutions all over the world, who quickly became my collaborators, and from whom I continue to learn. All of us study different aspects of development, and all of us have come to the PhD with interdisciplinary interests that usually can’t be incorporated into a traditional doctoral program. Like me, others in the program also obtained master’s degrees from Columbia before joining the PhD program. Kimberly Lai (MPA-ESP ’11), currently in her second year, joined the program immediately after graduating from Stanford. Majoring in management science and engineering as an undergrad, she, like most of our students, took a unique path toward earning a higher degree in social science. “[I] worked as a management consultant and helped to run an art school, before joining The Nature Conservancy.” While there, she developed her interest in the management of natural resources and expanded her knowledge of this complex field while pursuing her MPA. Now she researches the development and governance of natural resources, particularly the world’s oceans and forests. The Sustainable Development PhD allows her to “choose the fields best suited to addressing the problem, rather than forcing you to

approach interdisciplinary issues from the perspeca difficult pursuit, but our sets of complementary tive of a single field.” skills, interests, and experiences, along with our Jaehyun Jung (MPA ’12), a first-year in the rigorous training at SIPA, have resulted in some PhD program, was employed at a government bank of the most interesting research in environment in Korea after graduating with a degree in business and development in any doctoral program in the administration. While working on “projects aiming world. The breadth of scholarship at Columbia and to facilitate economic cooperation between Korea the unique flexibility that SIPA allows have shown and African countries, [he] became interested in us that for research in Sustainable Development, pursuing a PhD in international development,” with there’s truly strength in diversity. a particular interest in urban and health issues in Amir Jina is a fourth-year student in the PhD proAfrican countries. Accepted to numerous economgram in Sustainable Development. ics programs, he chose Sustainable Development because the “faculty and the flexibility” of the program would allow him to master not only PhD-level economics, but also the health sciences necessary for his research. Though numbering only around 30 students (along with a growing number of graduates), we represent fields ranging from physics to philosophy, and collectively have policy and field Kimberly Lai, lower left, in Indonesia experience in some of the poorest countries in the world. With students training in, among other things, health, climate, or environment to fit their interests, it is perhaps surprising that such a varied group can find shared research goals. Yet, we manage to engage in frequent collaborations due to a strong training in economics and econometrics that provides us with our common social scientific language. Interdisciplinary research can often be Amir Jina (center) and friends S I PA N E W S 4 3

SIPA thanks … John Christopher Howe MIA ’83

e are grateful and pleased to announce John Christopher Howe’s recent donation of $10,000 to SIPA’s Annual Fund, which has established The Howe

Foundation Fellowship for SIPA Veteran Students, a named fellowship to support SIPA veteran students during the 2013–2014 academic year. Mr. Howe, MIA ’83, is the founder and chief executive officer of Old Hill Partners and The Patriot Group. The Patriot Group is an asset-based lender and shares offices with Old Hill Partners in Darien, Connecticut. Mr. Howe received his undergraduate degree from Tufts University after graduating from Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. He also holds a Master of International Affairs degree with a specialization in international business from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. As a dedicated SIPA alumnus, Mr. Howe supports our community in many ways. He has hired a number of SIPA students for internships with his firm, has come back to campus as a guest speaker for our Dean’s Breakfast Series, and he led

a conversation over breakfast with SIPA’s veteran students at the Columbia Alumni Center. Recently, Mr. Howe met personally with current president of the Columbia SIPA Veterans Association (CSVA) and former army sergeant Jessi Tseng MPA ’14. Mr. Howe and Ms. Tseng spoke candidly about the need for additional funding for more veteran students at SIPA. As a captain in the United States Army, serving ten years in both an active and reserve capacity, Mr. Howe was excited to meet with Ms. Tseng and hear about her time in Iraq and as a student at SIPA. Ms. Tseng’s passion for generating more financial support for SIPA veterans helped convince Mr. Howe to make this generous gift to SIPA. Mr. Howe’s fellowship gift will play an important part in supporting SIPA’s veteran community. In particular, The Howe Foundation Fellowship for SIPA Veteran Students will allow the Office of Financial Aid to extend financial support to deserving and qualified veteran students who may not be eligible for funding through the Yellow Ribbon Program or GI Bill.

Magzhan Auezov MIA ’98

IPA is delighted to announce the establishment of the Auezov Fellowship Fund. Created by Magzhan Auezov MIA ’98, the endowed fund will provide fellowships to

SIPA students, with a preference for students who are residents of Central Asia (to include the following five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) or students studying topics related to Central Asia. The gift will be matched on a one-to-one basis under the SIPA Challenge for Endowed Financial Aid, made possible by the generous bequest of John Kluge CC ’37. When asked about supporting the education of future SIPA students, Mr. Auezov responded, “I thank SIPA for this opportunity to contribute to the development of greater understanding between our countries. I wish future fellows success in their academic and professional endeavors!” Mr. Auezov has been managing director and a member of the managing board of the Almatybased JSC Kazkommertsbank since 2002. He also

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has been chairman of the board of the subsidiary bank Moskommertsbank since 2009. In addition to his position at Kazkom, Mr. Auezov is chairman of the Kus Zholy Foundation. Born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Mr. Auezov was educated at Kazakh State University, Georgetown University, and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He also is a graduate of ABN AMRO Banking Academy (Amsterdam) and holds a Certificate of Professional Development from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Auezov speaks Kazakh, English, and Russian and is the author of a number of publications in the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK) and abroad on the development of the economy of the RK. He is a regular participant of international conferences on economy and finance arranged by such entities as Euromoney, the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Monetary Fund.

SIPA Fundraising Campaign By Shalini Mimani

n December 2012, SIPA crossed the $100M mark for funds raised during its current campaign, the first organized and coordinated fundraising effort in the School’s history. This

unprecedented achievement is the result of many factors: the leadership and guidance of SIPA’s Campaign Advisory Council and Advisory Board; thousands of gifts from thousands of donors; and countless hours invested by SIPA’s Alumni Council, other volunteers, faculty, and staff. SIPA is infinitely grateful to its community of supporters for helping it reach this significant milestone on the road to building the world’s leading school of global public policy. SIPA’s campaign, like those of the other schools and units at Columbia, is a subset of the University’s current $5B campaign, which is one of the most ambitious fundraising campaigns in the history of American higher education. SIPA’s 60th anniversary celebration in 2006, led by Dean Lisa Anderson, jumpstarted a process of outreach to alumni and other friends of the School and began to build the foundation for a successful campaign. When the University-wide campaign was launched in that same year, SIPA initially announced a campaign goal of $75M in 2006. It was not, however, until John H. Coatsworth began his term as dean in 2007 that SIPA began to gain significant fundraising momentum. Under Dean Coatsworth’s leadership, SIPA surpassed its $75M campaign goal far ahead of schedule, and so the School reset its goal to $105M, to be reached by December 31, 2013, when the University campaign will officially come to a close. Additionally, SIPA intends to raise a cumulative total of $150M before the next University-wide campaign is announced, taking advantage of opportunities made possible by the current campaign, including the Kluge Challenge for endowed fellowships at SIPA, which provides matching funds for donors who establish endowed fellowships at SIPA. SIPA’s campaign focuses on three strategic pillars: emerging leaders (students), integrated expertise (faculty), and global public engagement (centers and programs). These three pillars are the very core of SIPA. The development program actively strives to strengthen these priorities by raising money for student fellowships, internships,

and programs to amplify and supplement the curriculum; faculty positions and professorships; and research institutes and special programs, among other initiatives. The SIPA campaign has helped the School to double its fellowship budget, recruit top scholars and practitioners to strengthen the faculty, revitalize and permanently endow its International Fellows Program, reboot the Center on Global Energy Policy (led by new faculty recruit and Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs Jason Bordoff), and create the Center on Global Economic Governance (led by new faculty recruit and James T. Shotwell Professor of Global Political Economy Jan Svejnar). For more information about SIPA’s campaign— or to offer suggestions—please contact Shalini Mimani, SIPA’s associate dean for development, at sm2486@columbia.edu. Shalini Mimani is associate dean for development, SIPA.

Under Dean Coatsworth’s leadership, SIPA surpassed its $75M campaign goal far ahead of schedule, and so the School reset its goal to $105M, to be reached by December 31, 2013, when the University campaign will officially come to a close.

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SIPA Honors Global Leaders By Sara Ray

IPA’s 13th Annual Global Leadership Awards Dinner was held on April 18, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan. The awards honor individuals who have contrib-

uted significantly to the global public good through their work in public policy and administration. This year, SIPA honored alumna Judy Cheng-Hopkins, assistant undersecretary for peacebuilding support at the United Nations and Ambassador Richard N. Gardner. “Global Leadership Award winners are remarkable, and this year we were thrilled to have two awardees who are so intimately connected to and supportive of SIPA,” said interim dean Robert C. Lieberman. Ms. Cheng-Hopkins received her MIA from SIPA in 1978. Soon thereafter, she departed for Africa to work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which marked the beginning

of her 30-year career with the UN. During this time, Ms. Cheng-Hopkins has been a leading figure in the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Capital Development Fund. She was appointed assistant undersecretary for peacebuilding support in 2009 and, in this role, she administers and oversees UN peace operations worldwide. Her extraordinary work in this capacity earned her a place on Forbes magazine’s 2011 list of the “10 Most Powerful Women at the UN.” Ms. Cheng-Hopkins was honored at the Global Leadership Awards Dinner for her tireless dedication to public service and for exemplifying the values of SIPA. Richard N. Gardner, Columbia professor emeritus, shared his voluminous experience in diplomacy and public service with SIPA students during his 60-year career at the University. His

work expanded far outside academia: he served as ambassador to Italy and to Spain, and he also worked extensively within the United Nations and the U.S. Department of State. Ambassador Gardner has been an appointee of four U.S. presidents and was a part of the Trilateral Commission for 30 years. He was deeply involved with his students at Columbia and often taught, advised, and mentored SIPA students on issues of international relations and diplomacy. SIPA was proud to honor Ambassador Gardner at the Global Leadership Awards Dinner for his dedication to the global good and his invaluable contributions to the experiences of SIPA students throughout the decades. Sara Ray is an administrative assistant in SIPA’s Office of Communications and External Relations.

From left to right: Asta Bareisaite MIA ’13, Judy Cheng-Hopkins MIA ’78, Richard N. Gardner, Pushkar Sharma MPA ’13, and Interim Dean Robert C. Lieberman

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SIPA Alumni Council Mentoring Program Expands The SIPA Alumni Council Since 2010, the SIPA Alumni Council has worked to strengthen SIPA’s alumni community, enhance its network, and foster the connection of alumni to the School. Comprising a 15-member executive committee as well as a 40-member plenary body, the Council is chaired by Roger Baumann IF ’84, MIA ’85. The Alumni Council has been instrumental in creating programs that involve alumni in the life of the School, including a three-year-old mentoring program and a new admissions ambassadors program. Council membership is considered each spring to a limited number of alumni who have been involved in Columbia and SIPA alumni events and programs. For more information on the SIPA Alumni Council, contact Scott Pesner, From left: Patricia Perez MPA ’14 and Fatima Saidi MPA ’11 at a mentoring event in Washington, D.C.

n 2012–13, SIPA’s Alumni Council Mentoring Program has expanded to include alumni and students from all corners of the globe. The program, begun in 2010 by Aaron

Singer MPA ’04 and other members of the SIPA Alumni Council, initially focused on alumni in the New York area. The program then expanded to include Washington, D.C., doubling the number of participants and including some students. In 2011– 12, the program matched more than 200 alumni and students across the United States. This fall, the program had more than 600 applications from alumni and students worldwide. “We started the program hoping that it was what alumni were looking for, but we never expected it to grow so large,” said Singer. “Many alumni have signed up to do this a second or third time. I’m surprised!” “The program has reached a point of great momentum,” agreed Jeffrey Levine MPA ’05, who co-chairs the mentoring committee with Singer. “It’s great to see such enthusiasm from alumni.”

The program works by using a team of alumni to sort applications regionally and by field in order to determine the best overall matches. Participants are then sent the names of their mentors/mentees; those in New York or D.C., the most densely populated areas, are also invited to attend a networking reception. In the coming years, Levine sees shifting to a continuous matching process. “We’re transitioning from the early stages to something of a more permanent structure,” said Levine. “We want to create an ongoing process so we’re more fluid.” The program will continue to focus on creating meaningful, long-term relationships. “It’s all about the one-to-one relationship,” said Singer. “The program offers you the ability to sit down with someone in a safe environment, someone who shares your background and experiences at SIPA, and be able to look at your career path.” “It’s great to see how far people go in their careers, thanks to SIPA,” said Levine. “And it’s great they’re still willing to be engaged and give back.”

director of alumni affairs, at sp3078@ columbia.edu.

SIPA Alumni Council Executive Committee Roger Baumann IF ’84, MIA ’85, Chair Laura Ballman MIA ’00 Alfred Chow MIA ’09 Allison Cooke Kellogg IF ’72, MIA ’73 Alexander Dake MIA ’86 Habib Enayetullah MPA ’91 Kirsten Frivold EMPA ’03 Stephanie Kahn MIA ’09 Jeffrey Levine MPA ’05 Shamsudeen Mustafa MPA ’06 Anuj Shah MIA ’06 Aaron Singer MPA ’04 Lakshmi Sundaram MIA/MPH ’03 Sarah Tomolonius MPA ’09 George Marshall Worthington MIA ’78

S I PA N E W S 4 7

Class Notes 2013

Compiled by Benjamin Martinez Newman

1971

Larry Gage IF ’71 has joined the law firm of Alston & Bird LLP as senior counsel.

1973

1993

William Wechsler MPA ’93 is the deputy assistant secretary for special operations and combatting terrorism at the U.S. Department of Defense.

Allison Cooke Kellogg IF ’72 MIA ’73 was honored by the New York Junior League this past March at its 61st Annual Winter Ball for her outstanding volunteer work.

1995

1976

1996

Robert Bostrom MIA ’76 has joined Greenberg Traurig LLP as shareholder in the corporate and securities and financial institutions practices. Jeffrey Kashida MIA ’76 was a main speaker at a seminar this past fall for Osaka area business leaders who are trying to expand their businesses in the United States.

1984

Lanny Breuer CC ’80, IF ’84, Law ’85, is stepping down as head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.

1990

Alexander Jackson MIA ’90 has joined Cutwater Asset Management as managing director and head of the bank loan group.

1992

Lady Trish Malloch-Brown MIA ’92 is an independent humanitarian affairs consultant based in London and cofounder of the Washington Circle, an outreach group targeted at women in the D.C. area who are interested in humanitarian affairs.

4 8 S I PA N E W S

Michael Brandmeyer MIA ’95, IF ’95 has been named partner at Goldman Sachs.

Dean Poulakidas MIA ’96 has been promoted to general counsel at Willis Lease Finance Corporation. Judy Farrell MPA ’96 has joined Jewish Guild Healthcare as vice president, government affairs, for GuildNet.

2000

William Hewitt MIA ’00 and his wife, Laura, welcomed their first child, Elizabeth Parkhurst Hewitt, on October 3, 2011.

2008

Binta N. Brown Barnard ’95, JD ’98 SIPA ’08 was named as one of the “40 Under 40” by CNN Fortune magazine.

2010

Emma Lindqvist MIA ’10 is associate director of marketing and client relations at the Eurasia Group. Maria Paula Carvajal MPA ’10 is an associate analyst, Sovereign Bank Group Latin America at Moody’s Investor Services.

2011

Anna Lindberg Cedar MPA ’11, SW ’11 says she loves her job as a social worker at La Clinica de la Rosa and is open to answering any questions for folks who are interested in applying to any of the available positions there. Ilana Weiss MIA ’11, MPH ’11 has been named director of policy and public health at La Isla Foundation.

Rafael Borja Samperio MIA ’00 joined Goldman Sachs FICC division as a managing director responsible for client coverage in Latin America.

2012

2003

Apryl Gibson MIA ’12 is a youth development specialist at Peace Corps Response/National Alliance for Volunteer Action in Bulgaria.

Kirsten Frivold EMPA ’03 has been named to the board of the Columbia Alumni Association.

2005

Xavier Pierluca MPA ’05 is the chief investment officer of financial services with Bamboo Finance in Geneva, Switzerland.

Roni Szwedzki MIA ’12 has been named global business intelligence manager at Samsung C&T.

Emma Loebelson MIA ’12 is an associate at TD International in Washington, D.C. Victor Casanova Abos MIA ’12 is a research assistant at the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery UNDP.

Alumni Authors

Here is a list of just some of the SIPA alumni who have published books in the past year: Susan Aurelia Gitelson MIA ’66, GSAS ’70 is the author of Giving Is Not Just for the Very Rich: A How-to Guide for Giving and Philanthropy (2012), which offers the reader many ideas for reaping the benefits of giving. Gary S. Schiff PhD ’73, Cert ’74 looks at the history of Polish Jewry through his own family history in In Search of Polin: Chasing Jewish Ghosts in Today’s Poland. The new novel of Charles Santangelo MPA ’83, Turning Point, looks at what would have happened if the Florida election recount in 2000 had turned out differently, through an action-packed political drama wrapped in a love story between an idealistic environmentalist and a conservative Air Force pilot. Andy Molinsky MIA ’93, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Brandeis, has written a new book, Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures without Losing Yourself in the Process. Carlos Terrones MPA ’08 details his work as an international development practitioner in Afghanistan, including in Maiwand, one of the birthplaces of the Taliban, in his first book, The Other Front in Afghanistan: Stories of Maiwand. Building Governance and Development. Lenny Pridatko MIA ’12 has published Columbia University in Pictures, a collection of photographs from May 2009 through February 2013, covering all of Columbia’s campuses.

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