Volume VIII Issue VI April 2015

China Challenges Economic Order

After decades of double-dig-it GDP growth, China firmly surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in Au-gust 2010. Economists have used this to spur a debate about which nation the 21st centu-ry will belong to. As American influence wanes in the world, more and more nations are looking at the Chinese for big ideas and to see what they will do with their massive trade sur-plus in the years to come.

Still, critics in Bloomberg News cite a recent slowdown in Chinese GDP growth as evi-dence that the hype over China may only amount to what it is called: hype.

China has recently unveiled two proposals for expansion on a massive scale - the 21st Centu-ry Silk Road Economic Belt and the Asian Infrastructure Invest-ment Bank (AIIB).

Introduced in September 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan, t he 21st Century Silk Road Economic Belt will link China’s eastern seaboard to Europe, East Afri-ca, the Middle East, India, and the Asian South Pacific nations by utilizing modern forms of transport over the ancient Silk Road. It will stop in key nations such as Iran, Turkey, and Rus-

Keith BarnesStaff Writer

On Wednesday, March 18, just hours after two armed gunmen shot dead 20 foreign tourists and injured nearly 50 others outside the Bardo mu-seum in Tunis, Tunisians of all ages descended on Avenue Bourguiba, the cradle of the country’s revolution, to shout their revulsion and anger at what had happened.

Many, draped in Tunisian flags, stood in unison in front of the municipal theater to sing the national anthem in

Terror Strikes Again But Tunisia Is Still StandingYoussef Mahmoud

Contributor

INSIDE

FOCUS On elections in the world

PAGE 6&7

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Argentinian Leaders Scandal; China in Africa; Russia’s Status in CrimeaPage 2

Iran Nuclear TalksPage 3

Page 11

DIPLOMACY

NEWSEdward C. Luck Lecture; Alumni Maren Welch

Interview with U.S. Ambassador to Brazil; SHUNA/SHUMUNPage 12

American Exceptionalism; UN Disaster Response

Opinion

Page 8

NATO Superheroes; Melting Pot Shock Page 9

Vance Crowe; Jason Marker

Looking Ahead

Page 4

Words from Abroad

Anthony DiFlorio; Angelo PiroPage 5

Continued on Page 10...

Photo courtesy of The Volta TimesChinese President Xi Jinping (front row, fourth from left) hosts representatives to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing.

sia by land, as well as Ethiopia, the Arabian Gulf, India, and Sri Lanka by sea, according to For-eign Policy.

The plan is to upgrade exist-ing transport wherever possible and to create necessary infra-structure. The expansive nature of these planned investments, such as a new rail linking the Kenyan cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, has led to compari-sons between the initiative and the 1948 Marshall Plan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed this com-parison on March 8. In the Diplomat, he said that the ini-tiative is “the product of inclu-sive cooperation, not a tool of geopolitics, and must not be viewed with an outdated Cold War mentality.”

The implications of this plan are vast: the land connec-tion traversing central Asia and Turkey known as “the belt” will also have the effect of reorient-ing many of the bypassed na-tions towards China, a country already investing heavily across continents with special interest in Africa.

These investments will be a boom to many of the econ-omies involved, with China al-ready contributing $40 billion to set up a Silk Road Infrastruc-ture fund, according to Reuters.

Many of the countries prof-iting from this endeavor are also members of the new AIIB, which will further assist in fund-ing the Silk Road project.

The AIIB is a new initiative led by China to create a regional

financial institution perform-ing infrastructure development funding, which is the World Bank’s mandate, but outside of Washington’s purview.

While originally slated to consist of only Eastern Pacific nations, many Western nations have recently broken with tradi-tion and resisted Washington’s calls not to join the AIIB.

The United Kingdom, which is often at the forefront of issues regarding the financial world, was eager to join the new institution and expand their influence in the booming East Asian market. The U.K. was the first Western nation to do so, followed by Germany, France, and Italy.

According to the Wall Street Journal, British Prime Minister David Cameron stated that he “wants to get in on the ground floor to help shape governance of the new institution and also make sure it plays a complemen-tary role to the World Bank.”

According to The Guardian, the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has not resisted the China-led project, saying, “If the World Bank Group, other multilateral banks, and these new development banks form alliances, work together and support development, we all will benefit.”

Contact Keith Barnes at keith.barnes@student.shu.edu.

sorrow rather than joy. Others walked about silently, holding hastily assembled signs bearing the words “Je suis Tunisie,” echoing the “Je suis Charlie” placards Parisians had held high when they marched in memory of their own victims of terror.

More still made their way to the museum to lay flowers and light candles in memory of the fallen victims.

In solidarity, the National Assembly, located near the mu-seum, decided to reconvene af-ter its members had been evac-uated, in order to resume the

discussion they had started on a draft law dealing with terror-ism and money laundering—a troubling, and some argue pre-meditated—coincidence.

The country has not known such a devastating blow since 2002, when a lone Tunisian suicide bomber attacked the synagogue of Ghriba, killing 21 people, including 14 Ger-man tourists. It took Tunisia several years to recover from the devastating impact that this barbaric act had on the tourism industry and economy.

After the revolution of 2010-11, and with the excep-

tion of the assassination in 2013 of two prominent leftist leaders that nearly brought the country to its knees, most ter-rorist attacks in Tunisia, grim as they have been, have mainly targeted security forces. They have also been confined most-ly to parts of the country that border Libya and Algeria.

By killing tourists on “Black Wednesday,” the terrorists wanted to cripple what they saw as the “ungodly” tourism industry, on which much of the anemic national economy rests.

Page 10

Chaos in Syria continued; World News Recap

INTERNATIONAL NEWSApril 2015Page 2

Rousseff and Kirchner in Hot WaterLuis SosaStaff Writer

Matthew SchallerStaff Writer

Russia Keeps Control in Crimea

Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Fernandez de Kirchner face controversy yet again un-der the international spotlight. Last year, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff added another political achievement to her list after being re-elected for a sec-ond term in office.

By the same token, Argen-tinian President Cristina Fer-nandez de Kirchner has done relatively well in her strive to remain in power.

However, there is something about these women that keeps their names on the headlines. Most recently, Brazilian discon-tent with Rousseff ’s manage-ment and corruption scandal in relation to the country’s eco-nomic assets, namely Petrobras, has led many to demand her im-peachment.

According to a poll by MDA

On the eve of the one year anniversary of the Crimean ref-erendum which paved the way for Russian annexation, offi-cials from Moscow and Crimea gathered in the peninsula for a panel discussion on how this “reunification” changed the face of the region.

According to the Interna-tional Business Times, partic-ipants of this roundtable had nothing but positive things to say about the so called “Crime-an Spring.”

“If not for the Russian uni-ty, the powerful will of Crimea population to live in Russia, there would have never been the reconciliation,” said Rus-sian Public Chamber Deputy Sergei Markov, a participant at the forum, in the Daily Beast.

However, even though a vast majority of the Russian popu-lation, in the homeland and in Crimea, support the move by Russian President Vladimir Pu-tin, many issues still linger.

According to a recent poll in March 2015 conducted by Levada, a Russian NGO, re-spondents gave divergent views when asked if they were per-sonally prepared to shoulder

the cost of annexation. As stat-ed by Carnegie Europe, despite the integration of Crimea into the Russian state costing Mos-cow $2 billion annually in subsi-dies and transfer payments, the continued conflict in Eastern Ukraine gives the Russian mil-itary easier access to the region.

Through a mixture of mil-itarization and nationalization of the main companies on the peninsula, Russia has been able to exert firm control over this promontory.

However, even with their presence being solidified, Crimea’s appearance on the in-ternational scene is one of con-tinued isolation, as international companies and certain sectors of the economy continue to suffer from the annexation and crippling Western sanctions.

“We are cut from the rest of the world. What’s the point of having a business here if you can’t receive the money from it?” Nikolai, a businessman from the city of Sevastopol, told NBC News. In addition to notable international com-panies like McDonalds and Amazon closing their doors, numerous other sectors of this once economic hotspot have not fared much better.

Crimea was once the host

of a bustling IT industry that is now desolate, as most have been forced to relocate because of crippling sanctions.

In addition, the tourism in-dustry has nearly tanked owing to the Ukrainian authorities halting all trains to Crimea, along with airport and ferry lines being oversubscribed, Newsweek reports.

According to Reuters, the peninsula has also struggled ag-riculturally in the form of nu-merous water shortages and the rise of local food prices, owing to Russia’s continued econom-ic crisis. However, steps have been taken in recent months to deal with this issue, includ-ing Russian banks helping with domestic money transfers and a pledge by Arkady Rotenberg, an associate of Putin, to build a bridge to the mainland to be completed by 2018.

Nevertheless, for Crimea to fully come out of isolation from the international scene means to also eliminate the repressive measures that have been com-mitted against the marginalized Crimean Tatar population.

While the small Tatar set-tlement in Crimea never en-joyed the full support of the pro-Western government in Kiev, the Tatars still remain a

reliable ally in the pro-Western electoral bloc.

According to New Repub-lic, Russian authorities raided the Tatar parliament, banned public commemorations of Ta-tar deportations, and exiled two Tatar political figures.

People associated with the Tatars’ political party, the Mej-lis, have either vanished or been arrested. These points are likely to continue, as long as Crimea continues to be ruled by Russia.

With regards to the interna-tional scene, numerous events have pulled the world’s atten-tion away from Crimea. Recent negotiations on Ukraine have not even discussed the annex-ation.

The fate of this land is un-known, as long as the occupa-tion of Crimea continues to persist without any reaction from Western countries.

Contact Matthew Schaller at matthew.schaller@student.shu.edu.

Pesquisa, featured in a Forbes article by Kenneth Rapoza, 59.7 percent of Brazilians think Rousseff should be impeached.

In the same article, Rapoza outlines several reasons why he believes Rousseff ’s impeach-ment would only hurt Brazil. He states that if Rouseff left office, her absence would leave Brazil without the leadership it needs to wade through the economic shortcomings it has faced recently.

In addition, he mentions that it would also create polit-ical instability, as the Workers’ Party (PT) would pull back if its leader was removed from of-fice. This would exacerbate the already heated partisan rivalry with the Social Democratic Par-ty (PSDB).

Likewise, as reported by the Guardian, Fernandez de Kirch-ner faces new controversy af-ter being accused of providing shelter for an Iranian group that

was responsible for the bomb-ing of a Jewish community cen-ter in Buenos Aires in 1994.

Considering the attacks, Kirchner has responded to throughout most of her politi-cal career, this could be another move by the opposition to deter her already shaky reputation.

However, in spite of these controversies, both Rousseff and Kirchner have managed to remain in power as a result of their strong leadership.

Both of them have proven to be tough skinned women and put to sleep the myth that wom-en cannot rule. Many may crit-icize the effectiveness of their regimes, but most would agree that their presence in interna-tional politics has reshaped the perception of women in the in-ternational arena, one of their most important contributions to world politics.

Contact Luis Sosa at luis.sosa@student.shu.edu.

On March 27, China-Africa relations made headlines when it was discovered that China has been drafting plans for de-velopment of a new naval base in Namibia.

At first glance, China seems to be encroaching into a new area for maritime defense. But Robert C. O’Brien, of Real Clear Defense, notes the sig-nificance of location, as the site of the base is none other than Walvis Bay, Namibia’s only deep water port.

The location of the planned base and Namib-ia’s location on the continent of Africa are seen as very vital for Chi-na’s plan. O’Brien emphasized that if the Chinese Navy begins de-velopment, “[The Navy] would have the ability to patrol the critical Cape of Good Hope around Africa and Cape Horn around South America,” and possess a maritime midway point for China between the Americas, Africa, and Europe.

From a militaristic perspec-tive, this appears a rather ex-pansive terrain to cover. But last year, a report from the National Defense University addressed the Chinese Navy’s expansion, highlighting that a “dual-use” model, where a port can be utilized for both com-mercial interests as well as mili-tary need, is likely the expected model for the base.

This does not come as a shock. In January, the Chinese State Council unofficially an-nounced that more than 50 countries were interested in the Silk Road Economic Belt and

Maritime Silk Road develop-ment projects, according to The Diplomat.

The original scope of the maritime project was to ex-tend as far as Mozambique, Djibouti, and Tanzania. Focus was placed on Kenya’s largest port, Mombasa, as well. But the recent news of this plan for a “dual-use” base indicates that China may be expanding past Kenya and into the Southern Atlantic region, through Na-mibia for commercial purposes. It appears to be a massive ex-tension of China’s economic reach into a new region.

China does not stop there for the develop-ment plans. Brian Eyeler, from the East by South-west, noted that Thailand has

agreed to initiate development of investment vehicles for port development within 12 coun-tries, alongside China – includ-ing seven African ports. Eyeler also noted that the Maritime Silk Road is “all about Africa.”

East By Southwest seems to take a peculiar stance highlight-ing the rationale for this devel-opment as an attempt to break through “the connectivity bot-tleneck” of trade that occurs between Asia and Africa.

If China gets its way, their $40 billion Maritime Silk Road and Silk Road Economic Belt development project will ex-pectedly link up with the mil-itary defense expansion in Namibia. As China begins to release information to the pub-lic about these projects, similar events are expected to unfold across Africa during this time of high development.

Contact Colin Kimberlin at colin.kimberlin@student.shu.edu.

China Expanding Influence in AfricaColin Kimberlin

Staff Writer

“It appears to be a massive extension of

China’s economic reach into a new region.”

INTERNATIONAL NEWS April 2015Page 3

The nuclear talks between the United States (and nego-tiating partners Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia) and Iran have been heating up the headlines in the past few weeks. A framework for a pro-posed accord was announced April 2 and since then, both sides have been attempting to forward their objectives and issuing public statements re-garding how they hope to ap-proach the issue.

The June 30 deadline is fast approaching and not only is Iran being dodgy about what it’s willing to give but President Obama is facing opposition from a Congress influenced by Israeli skepticism.

The nuclear negotiations have the goal of preventing Iran from being able to build an atomic weapon in the next ten to fifteen years, with the in-tention of getting rid of what progress toward the weapons Iran currently has. The subjects of the deal would be 19,000

centrifuges at two enrichment sites, the underground Fordow installation, and the larger Na-tanz center. There is a partially build heavy-water reactor at Arak, uranium mines, and sev-eral research centers also being targeted by the terms of the agreement.

Iran has come to regard its nuclear program as a national treasure, with over $100 billion being funneled into the pro-gram since before the Islam-

Atomic Negotiations Amidst Allies, Iran Makes a DealAbby Shamray

News Editor

Photo courtesy of AP Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses nuclear negotiations.

ic Republic came into being in 1979.

On April 9, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a televised speech that he also posted on his website. Khamenei stated that sanctions must be lifted be-fore Iran signs an accord are in place and that international in-spectors would be banned from any military sites, according to the Los Angeles Times. Regard-ing the April 2 framework, he stated, “There has been noth-ing done, and there is nothing binding,” a line that many took as a step back from the prog-ress that had been made. He also expressed the concern that bettered relations with the West could put at risk the Islamic ide-ology that has been the primary motivator in blocking the US from negotiating with Iran.

Within the US, Khamenei’s speech gave some reason to doubt the validity of the deal. Republican US Senator John McCain questioned on a radio talk show whether or not Sec-retary of State John Kerry was being honest with the public about how certain the frame-

work to curb Iran’s nuclear program was. “It’s probably in black and white that the ayatol-lah is probably right,” McCain stated. “John Kerry is delusion-al.” John Kerry, in response, re-torted that if the Russians, usu-ally not allies to the US, released a statement backing up what he stated to be the terms of the agreement, then the interim agreement Kerry described was not incorrect.

The division within Con-gress and the doubt many ex-

press about how the deal will pan out made many skeptical about what the final agreement will be—or whether or not it will ul-timately happen.

Some US an-alysts, though, did find sub-stance in the speech to be op-timistic, even if only slightly.

The content of the speech expanded be-yond merely discussing nuclear talks and in-cluded wider promises regard-ing opening up relations with the US with increased coopera-tion. Within Iran, officials have promised the public that the nuclear talks could lead to eco-nomic improvement.

Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia group, said that he believes that Khamenei is reluctant to push forward with the negotiations because of the

risks, but if he is able to show im-provements up-front, the public and important political play-ers within Iran would be more welcoming to the possibility.

A n a l y s t s have also spec-ulated that one benefit of the n e g o t i a t i o n s is that there is potential for bettered human

rights within Iran. Many prominent Iranian dissidents

and human-rights and civil soci-ety activists have expressed that increased transparency will only better the human rights abuses currently happening in Iran.

The US’s military aggression and economic sanctions have led to increased suffering in the past, but when news of the deal broke, people in Tehran rushed into the streets to celebrate, the Atlantic reported. Akbar Ganji, who has been called Iran’s “pre-eminent political dissident,” wrote an essay for the Middle

East Eye saying that he viewed the talks and deal as a prereq-uisite for Iranians being able to build a democracy, the base of which they see as security both economically and politically. The reason so many went into the streets in celebration was because they saw it as the pos-sible start of a democratic state.

The Obama administration and its negotiating partners are demanding that relief be de-layed until at least six months after Iran starts implementing the deal with sanctions being slowly lifted as well in order to ensure Iran holds up its part of the agreement, as Republic US Senator Bob Corker told CNN on April 19.

Khamenei’s remarks have been interpreted by analysts as not an effort to shut down the US’s efforts but rather as a method to get to a middle ground by making the other side believe the potential of successful talks is in danger.

The main issue with the ne-gotiations is that neither side trust each other. The US is op-erating under the assumption that Iran will cut any corner it can and cheat at every opportu-nity.

Republic US Senator Marco Rubio said that he believes the agreement leaves too much in-frastructure for Iranian nuclear efforts to use. On the CBS pro-gram “Face the Nation,” he said that the US should not be afraid of taking military action if cer-tain boundaries are crossed and that a nuclear Iran is too likely a possibility to rule out an inter-vention.

Iran is fearful that the US

will used increased power within Iran to gain insight into its military capabilities as well as Khamenei believing the US to be “given to backstabbing” as well as liars. On April 19, Khamenei told military com-manders that the US “created the myth of nuclear weapons so they could say the Islamic Republic is a source of threat,” according to Reuters.

Iran also sees the US as an aggressor who will not hesitate to use military intervention. Khamenei criticized US sup-port for a Saudi-led offense in Yemen during his speech regarding the risks of negoti-ating with the US, not afraid to criticize the US for “support-ing the oppressor.”

Similarly, though, the US has been wary of Iran having a hand in arming the Houthis, a fact that has added to tensions not only regarding the conflict but also surrounding the nu-clear talks.

Neither side feels they can trust each other and both are firm in what they want out of the deal.

There is no doubt that there is a great potential for good to be made out of these talks, but the interior tension in the US between those advocating for the deal and those question-ing how successful the deal with be, as well as Khamenei’s reluctance to let Iran get the short end of the stick, mean that even with all the potential and all that’s been achieved so far, much work has to be done before June 30. Contact Abby Shamray at abby.

shamray@student.shu.edu.

Photo courtesy of Reuters Among these participating negotiating countries, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian For-eign Minister Javad Zarif prepare to deliver statements after nuclear talks at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne on April 2..

alumniApril 2015Page 4

Alumni Spotlight: Vance Crowe ‘10Emily Green

Staff Writer

As Monsanto’s Director of Millennial Engagement, Vance Crowe, MA ‘10, has no easy task. Vance was hired to help Monsanto join the collective global conversations about food, agriculture and the en-vironment. He works to cre-ate a transparent environment where millennials can share their questions and concerns about Monsanto’s business practices.

In a climate filled with many preconceptions, it can be difficult to bridge the cul-tural divide and engage young professionals in his company’s work. Luckily, through his un-derstanding of cross-cultural negotiations, Vance is well-equipped for the challenge.

Vance first came to Se-ton Hall after spending two years in Kenya with the Peace Corps. During his time abroad, he took interest in the complex issue of poverty eradication. It

soon became clear, how-ever, that significant prog-ress could not be made without first eliminating corruption. After return-ing to the U.S., Vance sought to find a solution to this issue at the School of Diplomacy and Inter-national Relations.

It didn’t take long be-fore he discovered a new approach, through the in-sight of none other than Dr. Zheng Wang. Vance quickly became entranced with studying how to pos-itively impact the way that groups of people interact.

Through Dr. Wang’s Cross-Cultural Negotia-tions course, he realized the importance of trying to understand why people believe what they believe. While theory-heavy cours-es may be a bit dreary, Vance stresses that it’s crucial to truly internalize the ideas of the theory. By understanding the concepts, you can create

your own theory about the way the world works and uti-lize it to influence your own approach to inciting change.

Throughout his career at

Seton Hall, Vance co-wrote sever-al articles with Dr. Wang about the application of cross-cultur-al negotiations. He highlights the importance of fostering great relationships with both your profes-sors and peers.

Vance cites his peers as a signifi-cant influence on the development of his skills, trea-suring the oppor-tunity to interact with different cultures in the comfort of the classroom. He was able to shift theory into prac-tical application

by developing a network of friends from across the globe.

When transitioning into your career field, Vance advo-

Vicky MogeniStaff Writer

Are you or do you know an alumnus interested in writing? Contact Areej Elahi at areej.elahisiddiqui@student.shu.edu.

Jason Marker, who com-pleted his undergraduate de-gree in 2009 and his graduate degree in 2011, both from the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, now works at the State Depart-ment, though he certainly did not take the traditional route to get there.

Marker first enlisted in the Army at 17. Shortly after ba-sic training ended, however, he realized that the Army was not for him and was ready to part ways with the Army.

However, not long after, September 11 happened and he re-enlisted for another four years.

After his service, Marker was inclined to continue serv-ing his country. “However, with the friends, experienc-

es, and sense of duty that the Army gave me, I realized that although my uniformed ser-vice ended, I wanted to contin-ue to serve my country, I just didn’t know how,” he said.

At this point, Marker re-ceived some encouragement from a professor. “While I was an undergraduate, Dr. Murphy encouraged me to apply for an internship with the State De-partment. I did, and despite being told by some at the Di-plomacy School that I was not qualified, the Bureau of Po-litical Military Affairs offered me an internship in their front office in Washington, which I accepted.”

After that summer, Marker was hooked and earned an-other internship with the State Department at the Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hence, his journey working for the U.S. government began.

Marker also attained the Presidential Managerial Fel-lowship. “I feel really blessed that I had this opportunity. It was a long, competitive pro-cess,” he said.

When he went through the process, there were three rounds: a resume submission, a written test, and an oral/in-terview to become a finalist.

Once you become a finalist, the onus was on him to find a position within the federal government. The national se-curity institutions are usually the most competitive among the finalists.

Marker continues to attri-bute some of his success to the School of Diplomacy, as-serting that along with the sup-port from his friends, family, and fellow students, the faculty and the administration at the School of the Diplomacy and Seton Hall’s Freshmen Studies

Program were essential to his successful transition into col-lege and academic studies.

“They all invested their time and energy into me and now I am trying to live up to my end of the bargain,” said Marker.

He went on to say that the Diplomacy School has a very well rounded program that will develop your skills for any ca-reer in international relations.

“There were some classes that I thought I would never use again, but I was proven wrong–research methods with Dr. Martin, Public Interna-tional Law with Dr. Moremen, Negotiation with Dr. Wang, research project with Dr. Bar-iagaber, all of the economic classes—the list could go on. You would think my job has nothing to do with economics, but it creeps into everything.”

In the future, Marker plans

on being at the State Depart-ment for a long time. “I really enjoy my job and bringing my perspective and concerns to the table, being able to com-municate them effectively, and seeing the results in national strategies and policies always give me a good feeling.”

His advice to young diplo-mats is simple: “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and take some risks sometimes. If you have a well-founded idea, stand up for it even when the majority don’t agree. You may be surprised by how many people may stand with you. Secondly, enjoy the process without thinking too much of the end result, and finally, your reputation is important. While international relations spans the globe, it really is a small community.”

Contact Vicky Mogeni at vicky.mogeni@student.shu.edu.

cates looking beyond prestige to consider opportunities off the beaten path. It’s important to seek responsibility through opportunities where your skills are truly needed. His own ca-reer path was shaped by unex-pected opportunities, from an internship on an international news show to a shift to the pri-vate sector.

During the interview pro-cess, Vance feels that there is no greater virtue than curios-ity. Ask insightful questions that demonstrate your genuine interest, and try to understand the company’s underlying vir-tues. As Monsanto’s Director of Millennial Engagement, Vance relays his company’s vir-tues to new audiences.

While there is still much work to be done, his skills and passion for understanding show promise that he will be able to bridge the cultural di-vide to shift the young public’s perception.

Contact Emily Green atemily.green@student.shu.edu.

Alumni Spotlight: Jason Marker ‘09, ‘11

Photo courtesy of Vance Crowe Vance Crowe earned a Master’s Degree from the School of Diplomacy in 2010.

words from abroad April 2015Page 5

On April 29, 2015, the Cen-ter for Science Diplomacy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will sponsor and host “Science Diplomacy 2015: Sci-entific Drivers for Diploma-cy,” in Washington, DC.

Science Diplomacy 2015 is the first of an annually held conference on science diplo-macy which aims to provide a more open platform for indi-vidual scientists, international affairs specialists, educators, and students to network, learn about, and share ideas on the latest developments in science diplomacy.

The emergence of the field as an active area of study and policy consideration has, as promoted by the Center, “in-creased its use and users...[whereby] Concepts such as the role of large scale infra-structures in science diploma-cy and mechanisms for sci-entific cooperation needed in undertaking science diplomacy have becomes more recog-nized as important to bridging the scientific and foreign poli-cy communities.”

Substantive discussion and collaboration are expected throughout the conference.

As Dr. Vaughan Turekian, Chief International Officer at AAAS has said, “We have a

Anthony DiFlorio: Washington, DC

In the past few weeks, my travels through the region have taken me to Rome, Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and through Montenegro. However, a trip during a long weekend earlier last month possibly had the most effect on me.

After travelling half a day by bus and getting thoroughly lost, I finally arrived in Vienna, Austria. What I found there was not at all what I expected.

Most people who find themselves in Vienna typi-cally stand in wonder of the amazing architecture, fawning over art museums, or enjoy-ing a nice Viennese coffee or wiener-schnitzel. In addition to this, I myself appreciated the collision of old- and new-world diplomacy.

Angelo Piro: Vienna, AustriaThe presence of an older

diplomacy is quite easy to see in this city. Every block seems to contain some magnificent building that heralds back to the Renaissance, or housed this or that famous person, or wit-nessed a turning point in histo-ry. Vienna, especially, was the site of many important events and persons in old-world diplo-macy.

In the center of Vienna, I wandered through the palaces of the Hapsburg family, one of the most influential and endur-ing royal dynasties that ruled the Austrian Empire, Spain, the Netherlands and even Napole-onic Mexico. While I wandered through their halls, admiring treasures that included every-thing from priceless paintings

and crowns to an ancestral unicorn horn, I began to piece together the massive undertak-ing that was their foreign pol-icy. The intricate policies and structures of diplomacy of that time astounded me.

These few elites, with care-ful and educated planning and advice, managed to control the fate of the Western world and its dependents successfully. It was only with the rise and fall of Napoleon that the Haps-burgs began to waver in the chaos that followed him.

But Napoleon did not end Viennese preeminence in for-eign affairs. In the various palaces and imperial adminis-trative buildings, the Congress of Vienna unfolded as the first major international diplomat-

ic conference. Walking where, two hundred years ago, diplo-mats had decided on a structure of international relations that would generally remain in place to this day is an impressive ex-perience for someone studying these modern interactions.

Vienna did not limit itself to showing only the sort of diplo-macy we might read in a history book and forget. It still stands as a major hub of modern, new-world diplomacy. As I explored the city, I found myself in the office of the headquarters for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an emergent voice in Europe-an security and democracy. As I wandered the city, I managed to tour the building and sit in on a meeting of a small group of as-

sembled delegates on the situa-tion in Ukraine. While reading and thinking about the diplo-macy of the past was surreal, witnessing it happen in front of me was on another level.

All in all, the trip was amaz-ing. Not only was I able to see all the major sites of the city, but I also experienced the past and witnessed the future of European diplomacy.

Seeing the interactions and similarities between old and new-world diplomacy in this amazing city certainly puts a new perspective on my studies at the Dubrovnik International University and at Seton Hall. e the experience and conse-quences of what we study.

Contact Angelo Piro at angelo.piro@student.shu.edu.

very high interest in this meet-ing. We anticipate that we will have foreign policy, congres-sional, academic, and policy at-tendees. Each session will have a reporter and we will produce a brief summary of the con-ference for policy makers.”

A panoply of scientists and policymakers will speak in morning and afternoon ses-sions themed around Earth and Environmental Scienc-es; Bio and Health; Physics; Transboundary and Shared Resource issues; Institutions and Networks; and Coopera-tion During Political Strain.

Notable speakers will in-

clude Flavia Schlegel, Assistant Director-General of the Unit-ed Nations Educational, Scien-tific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Frances Colón, Acting Science and Technolo-gy Adviser to the Secretary of State at the U.S. Department of State, and Romain Muren-zi, Executive Director of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

Effectively communicating science to domestic and inter-national audiences has been one of the primary goals of new Chief Executive Officer of AAAS, Dr. Rush D. Holt, Jr. Holt, who will give open-

ing remarks at the conference, served sixteen years as the U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district and has championed the advancement of scientific education and evidence-based policy making.

Accordingly to AAAS News, Holt’s initiative to en-gage with the organization’s members will help make the case that “science will be able to give people the facts that they need to solve the prob-lems in front of them.”

Dr. Marga Gual Soler, Pro-gram Director at the Center for Science Diplomacy, believes

the science Science Diplomacy 2015 will be a strong forum for harboring understanding and future problem solving across disciplines: “The management of the global commons and shared resources requires a close partnership between sci-entists and diplomats, but they speak very different languag-es. The conference will show-case success stories on how to bridge the two worlds of sci-ence and diplomacy.”

In addition to the Center’s sponsorship of the confer-ence it also regularly engage with policy makers, scientists, educators, and students via its open-access journal, Science & Diplomacy.

The quarterly publication “features a mix of original perspectives and research arti-cles by science and diplomacy practitioners and thinkers from U.S. and international perspec-tives in areas of science for di-plomacy; science in diplomacy; and diplomacy for science,” as published on its site.

Students interested in con-ference activities and Science & Diplomacy may follow on Twitter @SciDip using #SciDip2015 as well as Face-book, www.facebook.com/sci-encediplomacy.

Contact Anthony DiFlorio at anthony.diflorio@student.shu.edu.

Photo courtesy of Flickr The Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

FOCUS ON ELECTIONS April 2015Page 6

Nigeria

Nigeria’s Presidential and National Assembly elections were held at the end of March, after a six-week postpone-ment due to insurgent violence caused by Boko Haram.

Previously scheduled for mid-February, 47 percent of the country turned out to vote on March 28. Nearly 30 mil-lion votes were cast, according to Nigeria’s Independent Na-tional Electoral Commission.

The vote was largely framed as a referendum on current President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, which has been tu-multuous due to security issues within the country.

President-elect Muhamma-du Buhari won in a landslide after receiving over 15 million votes, outpacing Jonathan by nearly 3 million votes. Buhari will officially be sworn in as President of Nigeria on May 29, and already announced an ambitious plan to address the

Lucy NjugunaStaff Writer

The 2016 United States race for the White House is in full swing, with three Re-publican candidates and one Democratic candidate having announced their candidacies – Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Rand Paul of Ken-tucky, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Despite the similarities of the three conservative mem-bers of Congress on domestic grounds, the three republican candidates do not have much in common when it comes to foreign policy.

The issue of foreign assis-tance and the U.S’ relationship with Israel has unquestionably dominated the political and news media circuits recently.

This has proven to be a divisive issue not only for the country, but also for the three Republic candidates.

While Paul has called for an

United States Thomas Ashe

Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of UnitedLiberty.org 2016 presidential election candidates Ted Cruz, R-Texas (left) and Rand Paul, R-Kentucky (right).

end to aid to Israel, Cruz has been an outspoken proponent of aid to Israel.

Senator Paul additional-ly has overtime changed his stance on foreign aid to other countries including Israel, ad-mitting on the Today Show in April that ending foreign aid is something that “will have to be done gradually,” Cruz has still made an effort to distance himself from the beliefs of Paul.

According to Reuters, Cruz said in his presidential an-nouncement speech, “Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, imagine a presi-dent who stands unapologet-ically with the nation of Isra-el.” This was a direct hit at the president, and also Rand Paul. Ted Cruz knows that he needs to distance himself from Paul, and foreign policy is the best way to strike that difference.

Recently, Senator Rubio told USAToday that diplomacy and foreign aid should “vast-

ly outnumber” the country’s use of military force abroad, a statement surely not in lock-step with his fellow Republi-can rivals.

Senator Paul, according to the Washington Post, has stated numerous times that he believes that the United States should not borrow money from China to send to other countries abroad.

Charged with more polit-ical reasons than moral, Cruz has also previously called for an end to foreign aid to Egypt and Ukraine, Politico reports.

Secretary Clinton’s recent entrance into the race will un-doubtedly bring with it contro-versy.

Her record as Secretary of State will be called into ques-tion. Bengazi, improper e-mail use, and other missteps most likely will dominate the de-bates.

Assuming Hillary Clin-ton secures the nomination, her Republican opponent will pose the question to voters

– Do you feel we as a nation are safer after Hillary Clinton’s stint as Secretary of State?

There are always two an-swers to every story. In her case, that will undeniably be a tough sell.

Voters will have a clear choice in this election, judging from the current field. They can vote for experience and prominence in Hillary Clinton.

While Cruz, Paul, and Ru-bio have served in the Senate for a relatively short period of

time, all men serve on influen-tial Senate committees – Cruz on Armed Services and Paul and Rubio on Foreign Policy, giving them all credibility.

Whether their time served in the Senate will back up their credibility is too early to say.

Time will only tell how the election plays out for these three men, and the several oth-ers who have not officially an-nounced their candidacies yet.

Contact Thomas Ashe atthomas.ashe@student.shu.edu

needs of Nigeri-ans.

This plan in-cludes an expan-sion of the solar technology pro-gram that Buhari implemented in 1998, in line with his pledge to de-velop Nigeria’s electricity system in his election manifesto.

A c c o r d i n g to the Daily Post Nigeria, Buhari stated that he would “generate, transmit, and distribute elec-tricity on a 24/7 basis whilst simultaneously ensuring the development of sustainable/renewable energy by 2019.”

Buhari has already had a taste of power -- he led a suc-cessful coup in 1983 that cen-tered on what he called the “war on indiscipline.” Critics of Buhari, according to the Daily Mail, point out that his previous leadership stint in-

volved heavy-handed tactics, but Buhari has marketed him-self as a progressive democrat-ic candidate. The table certain-ly seems to be set for a great deal of positive change as Ni-gerians yearn for security with-in their borders, as the country moves forward as a regional leader.

It seems that events in Nigeria have come full cir-cle, as Buhari has once again emerged on the scene at a time

when chaos seems to be bubbling be-low the sur-face. Buhari has seized this oppor-tunity and leveraged his exper ience to become the first can-didate to defeat an i n cumbent

leader in Ni-geria’s demo-

cratic history. As a victory, this should be

especially satisfying for Buhari who lost the last three elec-tions.

Buhari is the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which also carried an impressive victory overall, winning 19 of the 28 guber-natorial posts. However, BBC Africa correspondent Chris Ewokor notes that the APC failed to win in any of Nige-

ria’s five oil-producing states. This will be of huge concern

to President-elect Buhari, as militant groups could disrupt oil production and starve the fed-eral government of much-need-ed oil revenue.”

Critics of Buhari point out his 20-month military dicta-torship serves as proof of a high-handed leadership style and that it may be a prediction of future events, reported the Daily Mail. Buhari for his part, however, has run a campaign based on the promise that he will promote democracy in this new age which has seen elections be-come more peaceful than in the past. As president, Buhari will enter office with multiple issues that will need to be addressed. Security and economic growth will likely be the focus from the outset. Due to this, Buhari may have an opportunity to quickly ascend as a leader on the inter-national stage as all eyes will be on this administration.

Contact Lucy Njuguna at lucy.njuguna@student.shu.edu.

Photo courtesy of AP Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari speaks during the All Progressive Congress party convention in Lagos, Nigeria in December 2014.

IN THE WORLD April 2015Page 7

United Kingdom

Areej ElahiEditor-in-Chief

Israel

Abby ShamrayNews Editor

With nearly all votes count-ed on March 20, it was clear by the end of election day that Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu’s Likud Party had successfully won at least 29 seats in the 120-member unicameral Knesset, comfort-ably defeating the center-left Zionist Union party and a list of other Israeli Arab parties, according to Yahoo News. Although Netanyahu received strong support during the elec-tions, his victory comes with a price – towards the end of the campaign trail, Netanyahu resorted to extremely hardline rhetoric that alienated both al-lies and enemies.

Although the hardline con-servative promises he made in

The UK will be holding General Parliamentary elec-tions on May 7. Polls show no clear winner, but according to Bloomberg Business, chaos is most likely to ensue. Unlike the 2010 election for Prime Minister when David Cam-eron was able to successfully create a two-party coalition for two terms, analysts are predict-ing that there will be a chance that as many as seven mi-norities can take seats. In the meantime, those minorities are focusing on getting support from each other in order to create a clear majority for the five year fixed term.

The polling company You-Gov Plc shows that the party currently in power, the Con-servatives, is at 32 percent sup-port while the main opposi-tion, the Labour Party, is at 34 percent. The anti-immigration UK Independence Party is at 15 percent. The Conservative party’s coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, are at eight percent with the Greens fol-lowing a few points behind. There has been little variance in the past few months.

the crucial days prior to elec-tion day, such as vowing to increase settlement construc-tion in East Jerusalem and re-jecting the idea of a two-state solution, helped Netanyahu boost his numbers in the polls, he now faces the difficulty of having to prove to an already skeptical world that he hopes to reach peace with his Arab neighbors.

The United States, a long-time ally of Israel, was the first to comment on Netanyahu’s divisive rhetoric after Netanya-hu warned on his Facebook page that the Likud party was in danger as “Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls,” according to the Wash-ington Post.

In response to Netanyahu’s claims, White House Press Sec-retary Josh Earnest said, “The

United States and this admin-istration is deeply concerned about rhetoric that seeks to marginalize Arab-Israeli citi-zens. It undermines the val-ues and democratic ideals that have been important to our democracy and an important part of what binds the United States and Israel together.”

Earnest also added that the US would have to rethink the best way to bring back a two-state solution to the Israeli-Pal-estinian conflict after Netanya-hu publicly rejected the idea.

“Based on those com-ments, the US will evaluate our position going forward,” said Earnest, according to the Huffington Post, though stressing that Obama still sees a two-state solution as the best way to proceed.

At home, Netanyahu risks

backlash from Israel’s Arab cit-izens who make up a sizeable portion of the population. Aida Tuma-Suleiman, an Arab lawmaker, said that Israeli Ar-abs have a long history of fac-ing discrimination in Israel and would not forget Netanyahu’s racist remarks so easily.

“Yesterday Netanyahu di-vided the citizens of Israel. It is them and us, the Jews against the Arabs,” she told Is-rael’s Channel 10 TV. “I won’t let that go quietly. It is dan-gerous. If someone in France or England or Belgium would say, ‘Go out and vote because the Jewish Belgians are voting,’ what would have happened?”

Moreover, Israel faces growing pressure from Eu-rope, where a number of countries have recognized a Palestinian state. According to

the Huffington Post, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schafer said his gov-ernment took Netanyahu’s comments against Palestinian independence “very seriously.”

“We assume and hope that the current Israeli govern-ment’s declared aim remains, which is to enter into talks with the Palestinians about a nego-tiated two-state solution at the end of which there will be a Palestinian state,” said Schafer.

A European Union diplo-mat in Brussels also said that EU officials consider Netanya-hu’s rhetoric a “fundamental breach of the two-state solu-tion.” If Netanyahu sticks to this policy, he said, the EU would have to use its “lever-age.”

Contact Areej Elahi at areej.elahisiddiqui@student.shu.edu.

Rob Ford, a politics lectur-er at Manchester University, said, “If the polls are right, it’ll be a total mess. Every single vote in Parliament is going to need constant wheedling to get it over the line. You could be having regular confidence votes, with games of brink-manship on both sides.” No matter the outcome, the influ-ence on foreign policy and the influence by exterior powers cannot be denied.

In February, analysts at Bank of America Corp. were already forecasting certain in-stability, both politically and economically, following any scenario played out in terms of parliamentary makeup. Based on the advice of vari-ous investment strategists such as Steve Barrow, the head of Group 10 strategy at Standard Bank Plc in London, investors have been hedging sterling investments. Experts are pre-dicting that the pound will be weaker even past the political uncertainty of the elections.

If the makeup of Parlia-ment proves to be as scat-tered as polls predict, the de-cision-making abilities of the world’s sixth largest economy could be greatly hampered.

Additionally, the UK is one of the U.S.’s biggest allies, a per-manent member of the Unit-ed Nations Security Coun-cil, a nuclear power, and one of the biggest advocates for sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. Depending on the outcome of the election, the Scottish independence move-ment could make new advanc-es if Labour is in the majority. If the Conservatives maintain their hold, Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron promised to hold a referendum on UK member-ship of the EU.

UBS Group AG, a finan-cial services company, spec-ulated earlier this year that a Labour-led government might pose risks to some industries such as banking, utilities, and transportation services like bus operators. Traditionally pro-Europe, leaders in the past have expressed interest in hav-ing the UK adopt the Euro. The Labour Party’s support of the EU’s financial regulations could also be one of the rea-sons opponents see Labour as an economic threat. Conser-vatives advocate for softening regulations because they are perceived to be threat to Lon-don’s financial services indus-

try.On the other hand, UBS

Group AG also warned of the referendum on EU member-ship would cause “broader un-certainty.” While the Conser-vatives have been split between pro-Europe and Euroseptic in the past, the increasing desire for the UK to split from Eu-rope has been amplified by the rise of the UK Indepen-dence Party, which has taken the most voters away from the Conservatives than any other minority party.

YouGov President Peter Kellner predicted that the Conservatives, led by David Cameron, will get 293 seats and the Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband, will get 270 seats. Both are short of the 326 seats necessary for a majority. Cur-rently, the Conservatives rely on the Liberal Democrats to supplement them in votes, but Kellner predicts that they will lose about half their seats. The key to making decisions in Parliament will most likely be negotiation but without the Liberal Democrats to boost either major party, both party leaders will have to appeal to other parties.

Kellner speculated that

Cameron and Milibrand will have to appeal to the pro-in-dependence Scottish National Party, which he forecasted to get a record 30 seats. The SNP, though, has already said that it has no interest in joining a coa-lition, but did say it would back a Labour minority government in exchange for certain favors, the first being getting rid of the Trident nuclear-weapons system in a deep sea loch in western Scotland. Milibrand is unlikely to want to give up one of the UK’s central means of defense for the support of a group whose main objective is wanting to leave the UK.

Currently, polls indicate that Parliamentary seats will be split among the parties with no clear majority. Rather than having a clear vision of what the future might hold, each party has a clear stance on how they want the UK to react to important issues such as finan-cial regulations and member-ship of the European Union, voters, politicians, and analysts are left to speculate what a feuding, indecisive Parliament might do for the UK’s stance as an influential state.

Contact Abby Shamray at abby.shamray@student.shu.edu.

opinionApril 2015Page 8

U.N. Fails To Reduce Disaster RiskJohn CareyStaff Writer

Is America Best?

Ten years ago, the United Nations held its second con-ference on disaster risk reduc-tion and created the Hyogo Framework for Action.

In the time this has been in place, more than 800,000 people have died, $1.4 tril-lion in economic damage has occurred, and more than 24 million people have been left homeless by disasters, accord-ing to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Di-sasters (CRED).

These numbers indicate that disasters are still a prob-lem for much of the world and there must be a more compre-hensive plan to address them.

The Hyogo agreement’s goal for the substantial reduc-tion in losses caused by disas-ters has clearly failed.

As shown in the Interna-tional Disaster Database of the CRED, many of these numbers have either decreased slightly or increased when compared to a decade be-fore when the agreement was signed.

In the city of Sendai, only a few miles from where a tsuna-mi hit Japan in 2011, the UN recently held another confer-ence to renew and update their disaster risk reduction frame-work.

The meetings were held from March 14 to the 18 where delegates from the UN, countries around the world, and various NGO’s gathered to figure out what worked and what did not from the previ-ous Hyogo agreement. In the end, the new agreement ham-mered out new goals between

Isla LamontStaff Writer

In 2009, President Barack Obama stated in a public ad-dress, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I sus-pect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek ex-ceptionalism.”

The comment apparently poked the slumbering Uncle Sam in former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Accord-ing to Politico, in early Febru-ary, Giuliani stated, “I do not believe - and I know this is a horrible thing to say - but I do not believe that the president loves America.” In further re-marks to Fox News, Giuliani revealed that he believes he hears Obama “criticize Ameri-ca much more often than other American presidents.”

That is a whole lot of crit-icism; however, the ideas Gi-uliani expresses actually make sense, in context with the growing trend of American exceptionalism.

All politicians have an agenda to appear more desir-able to his or her constituents, and being seen as patriotic is a must for any contender in the political arena. It is not as if sweater vests with flag pins are anyone’s first choice for a fetching ensemble. Yet, the idea that America is “number one,” the best, and superior to any other organized civili-zation in existence or even all of history, appears to be dom-inating the mindsets of leaders from all locations on the polit-ical spectrum.

For example, according to CNN, six states have intro-duced bills to alter the stan-dards of AP History cours-es. They seek to “emphasize the idea of exceptionalism” and “downplay” chapters of American history that contra-dict that rhetoric. So let’s give some credit to Giuliani’s in-sights.

Perhaps, President Obama is a more critical president than most. I do not believe this makes him any less of a con-stitutionally devoted individual than any other United States president. Every day, he as-sesses, leads, provides for, and

protects a country which is filled with raging red-and-blue-tied politicians bellowing over his credentials and his motives.

A president that gives his nation tough love is a president who cares. It would be easy for Obama to release a few sound-bites about how marvelous of a land America is, then stand back and enjoy the applause. But that creates a stagnant at-mosphere; if we are already the best, then what?

Is the “best” nation one that began with the coercion, forced relocation, and murder of its native inhabitants, or the centuries-long practice of slav-ery?

Is the most superior nation one that is responsible for the horrors of Japanese concen-tration camps, and the deaths of millions of foreign civilians in wars, some of which to this day have sketchy motivations?

I find no room in my vo-cabulary for “the best” to in-clude a nation which currently has one of the largest wealth gaps in the developed world, a faltering police to civilian rela-tionship, and a lagging educa-tion system.

We need to look back as we take our next steps forward. The wrongs of American his-tory should be taught in class-rooms, so that it is understood to never happen again. There is absolutely nothing “excep-tional” about attempting to self-righteously blot the pages of history, unless the phrase one is searching for is “excep-tionally arrogant.”

The United States is a na-tion of innovation. We need to address our faults to under-stand how we can live up to the American Dream. What is for certain is that nothing kills that dream more than people who assume that the work is over.

“The Dream” is ever evolv-ing, and it requires hindsight and application of humility to-wards the goal of progression in the moral and social stan-dards of its citizens. Being ex-ceptional does not mean that we didn’t make mistakes; being exceptional is how you move forward from them.

Contact Isla Lamont at rachel.lamont@student.shu.edu.

now and 2030. However, the language re-

mains far too vague. While the agreement calls for a “substan-tial” reduction in deaths and economic losses, there is no con-crete number that states must as-pire to achieve, predicating that this agreement will be just as in-effective as the last.

Recently, Cyclone Pam helped to highlight the importance of creating an effective deal. This severe tropical cyclone struck the island nation of Vanuatu on March 13 around the time of the Sendai talks, causing widespread destruction.

According to BBC, aid work-ers report that more than 80% of the homes and buildings on the island of Tanna have been either partially or completely de-stroyed.

The UN estimates 17 people are dead. It also reports that al-though aid has reached all 22 is-lands, it is stretched thin; drink-ing water has run out across much of the country and many crops have been destroyed.

Any development that the small island nation has made in this century has been wiped out. Cyclone Pam showed just how vulnerable some states remain during disasters.

Disaster risk reduction has generally called for legislative action on the part of countries and an increase in connectivity between countries to allow for aid and information sharing.

The Hyogo agreement con-tained numerous ideas for pro-grams that governments could enact to help them prepare for disasters, such as education programs and resource mobili-

zation. Improved early warn-ing systems have also allowed countries to have more time for evacuation.

However, most of the pro-grams these agreements put forth are mostly reactive to the disaster.

They respond to the disas-ter only after it has appeared or done damage. A better ap-proach to disaster risk reduc-tion would include proactive measures that take climate change into greater account.

Later this year, diplomats will meet in Paris in an attempt to reach a new legally binding climate agreement to surpass the previous Kyoto Protocol.

The original plan was to have countries submit Intend-ed Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) that would outline each country’s plan to tackle greenhouse gas-es.

These INDCs were due at the end of March, but at that time only 33 countries sub-mitted a plan, according to the International Institute for Sus-tainable Development.

The vague language in the Sendai Agreement and the tar-diness on submitting INDCs shows that countries are not taking disaster reduction and climate change issues seriously.

In a broader context, these stumbles could foreshadow a failure in the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda. The only way to truly decrease the risk that disaster poses to pop-ulaces is to address the issue of climate change now.

Contact John Carey at john.carey@student.shu.edu.

Photo courtesy of AFP/UNICEF Pacific Damage caused by Cyclone Pam outside the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila.

opinion April 2015Page 9

NATO: Obsolete Super Heroes?

Anna BondiStaff Writer

Melting Pot Shock

Kathryn ChaneyStaff Writer

On March 20 of this year, the Economist published a political cartoon depicting the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the current confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.

The cartoon depicts NA-TO’s power during the Cold War as a movie line up staring super heroes: Brawn, Shield, Unity, and Projector. Under each hero’s name, the cartoon describes their powers as they would relate to combating the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

However, in the second portion of the cartoon, the same super heroes are shown waiting at a casting call for the alleged second Cold War de-veloping around Russia and Ukraine.

Unfortunately these once super heroes are no longer employed due to budget cuts. Therefore, there is a question as to how much influence NATO can have in modern Europe and the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

In the cartoon published by the Economist, each of the NATO super heroes is given a description of their powers. Brawn’s “daunting

During National Foreign Language Week, Pine Bush High School in Pine Bush, New York, decided to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in various languages, including Arabic, to support diversity in the school.

This sent a ripple effect through the community and outraged many residents who believed this was offensive during a time of war and ter-rorism, reported by the Time Herald Record.

What these residents don’t necessarily understand is that the Arabic language is spoken in 26 countries and has about 280,000,000 native speakers, according to figures from the

deltoids deal deter-rence to Russian rabble rousers.” Shield “protects open skies from ballistic baddies.” Unity “unleashes the undeniable en-ergy of solidarity,” and Projector “pro-motes the power of democratic ideals.” However, it seems that NATO can no longer afford to have these powers on their payroll.

According to an article in the Daily Mail with former Defense Minister Dr. Liam Fox, the entire NATO alli-ance is at stake due to the conflict in Ukraine. Dr. Fox stated that the West should be supplying Ukraine with weapons to com-bat the Russian invasion.

However, the Daily Mail explains that European na-tions have become extensively withdrawn from Ukraine as a result of their fear of further fueling the fire.

The passions that once charged the super heroes of NATO during the Cold War seem to have vanished and been replaced with a concern

for maintaining proper inter-national relations.

Moreover, the Daily Mail also commented that British Prime Minister David Cam-eron will not allocate two percent of Britain’s GDP for the NATO target of defense. Thus, collective self-defense is apparently not on Europe’s agenda.

Furthermore, do the pow-ers of these super heroes still have a place in combating Rus-sian aggression in the modern global community?

Photo courtesy of KAL Cartoon published in The Economist from original publisher CartoonArts International / The New York Times Syndicate.

According to the Encyclo-pedia Britannica, during the Cold War NATO’s primary purpose was to strengthen the Western Ally’s military re-sponse to a potential invasion by the Soviet Union.

One of the key aspects of this was nuclear deterrence based on the idea that with shared nuclear power between France, Great Britain, and the Unites States, the Soviet Union would think twice before at-tempting an invasion.

However, in the case of

Ukraine, the invasion has al-ready happened; Crimea has been annexed by Russia, and the Russian military forc-es show no signs of backing down or leaving, despite sanc-tion and warnings from the western front.

If these actions by Russia were not enough, WND News has reported that Russia is poised to move nuclear weap-ons onto the Crimean Penin-sula.

These nukes should be in-terpreted as a message from the Russian Federation to NATO. Putin is not fooling around, and clearly deterrence is not going to work in this instance. Thus, Brawn and Shield are no longer employed

by NATO.Additionally, a push for sol-

idarity and the promotion of democracy does not hold the sme weight today as it did in the Cold War. By general standards, the Russian Federation is a de-mocracy.

Therefore, the idea of soli-darity has no grounds, as Russia is no longer a communist state, and the spread of democracy is not necessarily a contradic-tion to the ideologies present in Russia. Consequently, Unity and Projector are also out of a job.

Contact Kathryn Chaney at kathryn.chaney@student.shu.edu.

Nations Online Project. It is a language spoken by

Muslims as well as people of many other faiths throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.

However, instead of broad-ening their understanding on the issue, Pine Bush residents made the following comments to CBS2 on the matter: “I was just like ‘are you kidding me?’ That’s so disrespectful,” and “I think it should be spoken in En-glish. This is America.”

What I find disrespectful, however, is to disregard an en-tire language based on a violent minority.

America is a melting pot of cultures where many languag-es are spoken such as Spanish, French, Chinese, Tagalog, and yes, Arabic.

To say that reciting the

Pledge of Allegiance in Ara-bic is immoral or disrespectful and, in fact, racist.

Even though the residents of Pine Bush have a right to be sensitive on the issue of terrorism, as it is possible since some may have lost family and friends in the War on Terror-ism, it still does not give them the right to be racist against an entire group of people that speak a language.

As the LA Times relays, “National Foreign Language Week was meant to promote the fact that those who speak a language other than English still pledge to salute this great country.”

The senior class president of Pine Bush High School, An-drew Zink, told the LA Times he allowed a classmate to recite

the Pledge of Allegiance in Ar-abic to support equality of all people in the spirit of the week.

He did so because he felt like it was the right thing to do and he wanted to create dialogue about diversity.

Unfortunately, the effect was quite the opposite. When he and his fellow classmate did the morning announcements, they were personally attacked.

In an interview with the LA Times, he explained, “The an-ti-Muslim sentiment started to build. The poor girl who read it, she’s so sweet and when she finished reading it people called her a terrorist. They told her to go back to the Middle East. They mercilessly degraded her and I felt awful for her…Some people said they didn’t want to look at me ever again.”

The lack of understanding that this community used to quell the class president and his fellow classmate’s attempt at promoting equality is not an example Americans want to be known for in the future.

As American citizens, we must stop bigotry and start a dialogue about the equality of all people, no matter how dif-ficult it may be. We must join together as Americans and promote freedom and equality for all.

As class president Zink tweeted, “To everyone who disagrees with my decisions, I respect your right to do so and hope we can have a productive conversation. Goodnight PB [Pine Bush].”

Contact Anna Bondi at anna.bondi@student.shu.edu.

international newsApril 2015Page 10

Tunisia:Continued from Page 1...

Middle East: • Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says all sanctions must be lifted when nuclear deal is signed and mili-tary sites will become off-limits to foreign inspection.• U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Iraq halted the momen-tum of ISIS with help from the U.S. and regional allies. • Al Qaeda is exploiting the greater disorder in Yemen caused by Saudi-led airstrikes, U.S. warns.• ICC announces it has no jurisdiction to prosecute ISIS as neither Syria nor Iraq are member states and the U.N. Secu-rity Council has not asked for an investigation.

Asia: • U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter arrives in South Ko-rea as short-range missiles are fired from North Korea. • China’s construction in the South China Sea is for “mari-time purposes” to protect against typhoons, a Foreign Minis-try spokesperson said.• India freezes Greenpeace accounts for allegedly breaking tax laws and working against economic interests.• U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights warns against Malaysian anti-terror measure, which includes indefinite detention without trial.• Chinese police seek charges against five women’s rights activists for “organizing a crowd” and “disturbing order,” said lawyers for two of the women.

South America: • Former Argentinian Finance Minister Felisa Miceli gets a six-year suspension from office after $64,000 in pesos was found in her office bathroom• Traffic in Argentina is brought to a standstill due to strikes by union leaders demanding that the government adjust income tax rules for high inflation• U.S. deports former El Salvadorean General Eugenio Ca-sanova from Florida after a court charged him for violations while in command, including torture and killings.

North America: • U.S. President Obama: It is time to “turn the page” on old divisions between the United States and Cuba. • Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Hillary Clinton have announced their presidential bids for 2016.• North Korea accuses Mexico of illegally holding a ship containing Cuban arms; U.N. says it belongs to a firm black-listed for violating sanctions.

Europe: • A suspect is arrested after three were gunned down in a courthouse in Milan, Italy.• Pro-Russian separatists “summarily killed” four Ukrainian soldiers in their captivity, says Amnesty International.• Greece repays €450-million loan to the International Mon-etary Fund.• French media groups hold emergency meeting after TV network TV5Monde is taken over by individuals claiming to be affiliated with ISIS.

Africa: • Kenya’s government closes 13 money transfer firms suspect-ed of financing militant Islamists.• Egyptian monks protest government plans to build a high-way through the desert that will destroy their monastery.• In Nigeria’s election, Muhammadu Buhari defears Good-luck Jonathan with 55 percent of the vote.• South Sudanese seek shelter at U.N. bases due to increasing civil war violence and starvation.• Kenyan authorities say son of government official was a gunman in the university attack, raises fears of homegrown terrorism.• UN peacekeepers in Mali found guilty for the use of “exces-sive force” when they fired at civilian protesters outside their base in January.

Sources: CNN, Yahoo News, Dayton Daily News,The Guardian, NY Times, and BBC.

What in the World is Going On?

Madison McHughAssociate Editor

SCHOOL OF DIPLOMACY &

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSFrancesca Regalado

Managing EditorAreej Elahi

Editor-in-Chief, PrintRyan Sullivan

Editor-in-Chief, Online

Madison McHughAssociate Editor

Abby ShamrayNews Editor

Stephanie PowersOpinion Editor

Emily BalanLayout & Copy Editor

Dean Courtney SmithFaculty Advisor

Kathryn Chaney

Matthew Schaller

John Carey

Daniel Garay

Angelo Piro

Lucy Njuguna Daniel Cruz

Thomas Ashe

Erin Donovan

Colin Kimberlin

Emily Green

Anna Bondi

Isla LamontVicky Mogeni

Staff Writers and Contributors

This publication is made possible through the generosity of the Constance J. Millstein, Esq. endowed fund.

The views expressed in The Diplomatic Envoy are those of the writers and are not intended to represent the views of the School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University, or the CJM Fund.

They also wanted to intimi-date the institution where Tuni-sia’s first constitution was pro-claimed in 1959 and the second was crafted and unanimously adopted this January. The lat-ter, after acrimonious debates eschewed Sharia as the main source of legislation, enshrined fundamental freedoms and lib-erties and laid the foundations for people-centered gover-nance, with clear guidelines on how power was to be acquired, maintained and exercised.

Tunisians are under no illu-sion that this barbaric act will be the last they see, given the fragility of the country’s inter-nal order and the fact it inhabits a highly unstable region extend-ing from the Sahel all the way to Libya. Border crossings with Libya represent the only lifeline for that beleaguered country on the brink of civil war. More than a million Libyans have al-ready found a home in cities and villages across Tunisia.

But it is a policy full of risks. There is a gnawing fear that many young Tunisian jihadists who have joined the ranks of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) will use these very crossings to return home. Indeed, some

have already started to do so, reinforcing terrorist cells that have been under sustained at-tacks by national security forces.

The recent chilling post-Bar-do messages from ISIS militants threatening additional attacks have only strengthened their resolve. These forces have also been able to rely on the contin-ued vigilance of a population that has served as a formidable deterrence multiplier over the past year.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, in a nationally televised address, pledged to hunt down the alleged perpetrators who re-main at large.

“I want the Tunisian people to understand that we are in a war against terrorism...We will win the war against terrorism as long as we are united,” he said. “We will do so without neces-sarily giving up on the freedom of expression…nor on all other liberties.”

Tunisians and their leaders are aware that the use of force alone is not the answer, given the nature of the underlying conditions that drive and sus-tain violent extremism. They do not want to fall into the trap laid by extremists of sacrificing their hard-won fundamental values on the altar of count-er-terrorism.

This means abolishing laws

inherited from previous regimes that have curtailed fundamental freedoms and criminalized legit-imate political dissent. It means overhauling the educational sys-tem, including the teaching of religion in a way that can cor-rupt minds. Above all, it means reforming the bankrupt eco-nomic system that is at the root of the deficit of dignity that many people have been endur-ing for so many years.

Just three months ago, The Economist declared Tunisia its country of the year, call-ing it a “shining exception” to the trend of the idealism of the Arab Spring giving way to “bloodshed and extremism.” “Its economy is struggling and its polity is fragile,” the maga-zine noted, “but Tunisia’s prag-matism and moderation have nurtured hope in a wretched re-gion and a troubled world.”

With this latest attack, the Arab Spring’s shining excep-tion is being severely tested. A bough has fallen, but the Tuni-sian tree is still standing tall.

Dr. Youssef Mahmoud joined the School of Diplomacy this semester as the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Endowed Visiting Chair in the Practice of Post-Conflict Diplomacy. He hails from Tunisia. The above article first appeared on the International Peace Institute Global Observatory, where Dr. Mahmoud is a Senior Adviser.

Keith Barnes

Luis Sosa

school of diplomacy news April 2015Page 11

Alumni Spotlight: Maren Welch ‘08Emily Green

Staff Writer

Maren Welch, who gradu-ated with her MA/MPA from Seton Hall in 2008, recently moved to Manila and the expe-rience was nothing short of an adventure.

After graduating, Maren was handpicked by her compa-ny, SterlingBackcheck, to work at the one of their first over-seas offices in the Philippines.

For some, a big move abroad might be a bit nerve-wracking. For Maren, however, this was an exciting opportunity to put to use the skills and experienc-es she gained from her time at Seton Hall.

Maren was first drawn to the School by none other than Catherine Ruby. After receiv-ing an invitation to the annu-al Global Leaders Forum, Dr. Ruby piqued her interest in the program by describing the quality of university faculty and its close ties with the near-by United Nations Headquar-ters.

The Diplomacy fac-ulty and administration are, in Maren’s opin-ion, the most valuable resource the program has to offer. However, her experiences were shaped not only by fac-ulty, but by her peers as well.

The diverse student body exposed her to a wealth of new knowl-edge and career op-tions.

Through interac-tion with her fellow students, she became comfortable with dif-ferent cultures and lan-guages. The network she created within the School of Diplomacy allowed her to transition seam-lessly into the new culture of Manila.

Maren stresses that smart networking is a crucial key for success.

Whether you draw from your network of friends or from your local exercise class, you should always make it

known who you are, what you want to do, and how you’re looking to do it.

Maren advocates beginning your network by reaching out to university alumni. She shared an experience where, just a few years prior, she helped a recent graduate secure a position with her company’s Ohio office.

It’s important to always take networking oppor-tunities seriously, and never be afraid to ask a potential connection (or two) out to coffee!

While Maren was confident in making her own transition, she recognizes that it may be a daunting experi-ence for some to start life anew abroad.

She shared that as she was getting settled into the new culture, she found it very help-ful to reach out to fel-low expatriates.

There are many ex-patriate network-ing groups that offer opportunities to meet

others in the same situation through outdoor activities and events. This is a great way to explore your new city and make new connections.

When searching for a job, Maren advocates being open minded. She stresses that nav-igating a career path isn’t as obvious as it used to be, and

you have to take a chance on different opportunities.

Her own company was quite small when she first signed on, but offered her in-credible opportunities as it be-gan to grow.

Maren looks forward to continuing to grow with Ster-lingBackcheck, and has just extended her contract for an-other six month period.

While she keeps an open mind towards professional op-portunities, she hopes to work abroad for as long as she is able to. She enjoys the challenge of working in new cultures, and enjoys sharing her experiences with those in her network.

Just last year, she was able to meet up with President Es-teban over a traditional din-ner and show to share stories of her time in the president’s hometown.

Surrounded by new oppor-tunities and connections, it’s easy to see why Maren’s move abroad has been nothing short of a success.

Contact Emily Green at emily.green@student.shu.edu.

Photo courtesy of Maren Welch’s Outlook Maren Welch, alumna of Seton Hall University.

Photo courtesy of Cynthia Sularz Seton Hall United Nations Association delegates at Pennsylvania State University.

The Seton Hall United Na-tions Association competed at the Pennsylvania United Na-tions Conference on March 19 to 22, winning eight awards including Outstanding Dele-gation. Training Coordinator Sean Zimmerman and Alex Storto shared the Best Delegate award, while President Cynthia Sularz and Daniel Garay won Outstanding Delegate. Verbal Commendations went out to Mohit Patel, Cheyenne Craw-ford, and Nicholas Perugini.

At PUNC, the delegation participated in committees ranging from the Warsaw Pact, the Mexican Drug War, the Falklands War, and even Mars Colonization. Kristal Corona, a SHUNA delegate, said, “It’s taking history in your own hands. It is your way of writing the story, and you play a part in it. Sometimes people feel like they don’t have a big role in the role in the world. Well, you can have a big role in the world, for four hours a session!”

SHUNA Wins First Delegation Award in YearsDaniel Garay

Staff WriterThe delegation enjoyed

PUNC, in comparison to other Model UN conferences during the year. SHUNA Secretary Heather Kwityn expressed, “PUNC was so much better. It was geared to people who enjoy Model UN. It was a place where you could compete and enjoy it. I have more experience on how to function in a committee. And, the people we were with were more relaxed and there for the fun of it. They treated it [as] more of a hobby.”

While PUNC was not on the same caliber of conferences like the National Collegiate Se-curity Conference or University of Pennsylvania Model United Nations Conference, it was a great gathering of formidable delegations, such as the Ohio State University, which won Best Delegation.

As of last year, SHUNA was in the top 50 Model UN teams in the United States after the delegation won six awards at the University of Virginia. Since then, President Cynthia Sularz has made it her mission to educate and train delegates

to become serious contenders in the committee room.

Weekly training sessions, organized by Training Coor-dinator Sean Zim-merman, range from crises like Disney Princess kidnap-pings to Pirates of the Caribbean to the French Revolution. There is a variety of ways for delegates to be creative and get the experience they needed.

During these sessions, del-egates honed their speaking skills and note-passing. Writing notes to crisis is an important aspect of performing well in committee, as these notes can change the game. Using a del-egate’s portfolio powers, given to the delegate by their charac-ter or title, can perform unique actions that can alter the land-scape of a committee.

In conference, the train-ings have helped the delegates bloom in committee. Ms. Kw-

ityn said, “It’s something I’m interested in. You go back to a historical time and just rewrite the story. I like how the re-al-time of debate meshes with historical time. You can com-pletely alter it - we took over Czechoslovakia. We were de-ciding whether we were staying together or dissolving the War-saw Pact.”

There is a sense of serious-ness in committee, but dele-gates cannot help but to have fun. Corona explained, “You have to take on a personality.

It’s kind of like acting in a way. And that makes it more fun. It gets too heated when you put in your own opinions.”

On April 18 to 19, the Se-ton Hall University Model United Nations hosted high school students from the South Orange area as they practice the very same skills that SHUNA delegates exem-plified at PUNC. And now, the delegates of SHUNA will staff and guide these young students, to pass on the legacy.

Contact Daniel Garay at daniel.garay@student.shu.edu.

school of diplomacy news April 2015Page 12

Patriota: “Brazil is very committed to the status quo”

Brazil’s Permanent Repre-sentative to the United Nations, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, vis-ited Seton Hall University on April 13. Ambassador Patriota delivered a lecture on “Brazil in a Changing Global Environ-ment” to a roomful of profes-sors and students. Before his lecture, the ambassador enjoyed lunch with the faculty and ad-ministration of the School of Diplomacy, where he also met a few Brazilian students.

Brazil’s ambitions to pur-sue United Nations reform and an expansion of the Se-curity Council was a popular topic during the lecture and a prior interview with the Seton Hall press corps. Ambassador Patriota reiterated Brazil’s sup-port for the U.N. Charter and international law, but added, “Brazil is looking to change the status quo only in gover-nance mechanisms because we feel that while in certain areas such as financial and economic coordination, the G7 has been replaced by the G20 that is more representative and in tune with today’s multipolarity, at the

Francesca RegaladoManaging Editor

Visiting scholar Luck discusses R2P in the modern ageMadison McHugh

Associate Editor

Seton Hall’s UNA-USA and The Center for United Nations and Global Gover-nance Studies held a lecture and discussion on March 30 featuring former UN Secre-tary-General’s Special Adviser and Tom and Ruth Sharkey Distinguished Visiting Scholar Edward C. Luck.

The lecture, entitled “Nur-turing a Norm: Learning from the UN’s Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Experience,” addressed the history and pro-gression of R2P as a new con-cept turned popular policy.

Luck claimed that there is much to talk about surround-ing the history of the UN and R2P, but shortened his time to discuss the “normative experi-ence and birthing pains while trying to reach a mature stage.”

Luck began his lecture by

saying, “Mass murder is a familiar charac-teristic of the 21st century,” naming countless examples in the Middle East, Africa and more. His approach to the issue of R2P stems from a belief that, “Sov-ereignty cannot be a cloak to international response to this kind of killing,” referenc-ing the UN’s prior guilt for failures concerning past genocides.

He also addressed how timing and previ-ous legislature initially prevented the concept of R2P when it was first brought be-fore the UN.

The first report referencing R2P was supposed to come out a week before the attack on the World Trade Center in

2001. However, it was delayed

until after the event, which re-sulted in “bad timing” for the concept.

Additionally, the specifica-tion on use of force as a “last resort” went directly against

legislation.The issue was

raised again at the World Summit in 2005 where former Secretar y-Genera l Kofi Annan pushed for R2P, and eventu-ally all member states became “firmly com-mitted to protecting populations by pre-venting genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”

In reference to norm development thereafter, Luck said, “Norms evolve in a pattern life cycle in

three stages – norm emergence, cascade, and in-ternalization... While the the-ory was great, the reality was something different,” launch-ing into an explanation of the three pillars of R2P: protect all populations in a territory; as-

sist states in fulfilment of pro-tection; and respond by use of diplomatic, humanitarian, and other means to prevent crimes.

Luck also explained how there were some states which only wished to address one or two pillars, stating, “These are not stops on a subway station; they are parallel and at the same time.”

Luck finished his lecture with a reflection on how to address R2P in today’s world. When asked if a situation calls for R2P, he said it must fit the four crimes enlisted in the UN Charter and “not an inch be-yond.”

He admits to many set-backs, but still has hope for development in the years to come. “We’ve failed spectacu-larly in some cases, but things are still moving forward,” he said.

Contact Madison McHugh at madison.mchugh@student.shu.edu.

Photo courtesy of Madison McHugh Visiting scholar Edward C. Luck gives lecture on March 30.

UN, there have been other in-stances where the organization has evolved but the SC remains very much a reflection of what a majority of observers would consider an outdated distribu-tion of geopolitical power. It still reflects through the [Per-manent Five] the geopolitics of 1945.”

Frustration with the Security Council centers around its “in-ability to deliver on a number of fronts – Syria where more than 200,000 people have died, areas where tension could have been avoided such as Ukraine – in addition to long-standing unresolved questions such as Israel and Palestine.”

Security Council reform has been a top priority of Brazilian foreign policy since initiated by former President Luiz Ina-cio Lula da Silva. According to Ambassador Patriota, the policy has not changed, as the Work-ers’ Party has been in power since Lula’s first term in 2003. Ambassador Patriota warned, “If the Security Council goes on for much longer with its present composition and a handful of countries continue to try to prevent reform, the

serious risk is that there will be an erosion of respect for mul-tilateralism and we will fall into rival hegemonic agendas, which is what more or less happened before World War I.”

As “strong believers in di-plomacy,” Ambassador Patrio-ta describes Brazilians as “very suspicious and mistrusting of resorting to force to solve tensions because very often military force makes matters worse.” This characterizes Bra-zil’s policy of reaching out to states that have been treated as pariahs by the international community. The ambassador discussed Brazil and Turkey’s initiation of a dialogue with Iran regarding the latter’s nucle-ar program in 2010, saying that the effort “could have been a confidence-building measure but what ultimately became a missed opportunity.” The de-lay has allowed Iran to develop more centrifuges and to further enrich uranium.

Regarding another inter-national pariah, Ambassador Patriota praised the reopening of relations between Cuba and the United States: “President Obama has decided to overturn

an anachronistic attitude to-wards Cuba,” a policy that does not reflect today’s world. The ambassador pointed out that the U.S. has long had relations with Vietnam and other coun-tries that have governments similar to Cuba’s.

At the recent Summit of the Americas where the his-toric meeting between Presi-dent Obama and Cuban Pres-ident Raul Castro took place, Mr. Obama also had a bilateral meeting with President Dilma Rousseff, during which a visit to Washington by the Brazilian President was scheduled for June 30.

Ambassador Patriota hinted that the United States was in-fluenced by its isolation in the 2012 Summit: “Many countries had declared that they would not attend another summit un-

less Cuba was present.”Brazil’s position as an out-

spoken advocate for multilat-eralism is most evident in its contribution to U.N. peace-keeping operations. Ambassa-dor Patriota mentioned Lieu-tenant General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz of Brazil, who leads the United Nations Orga-nization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). Brazil’s weighty contribution to peacekeeping operations – greater than that of Russia, a Permanent Member– supports the Latin American leader’s Se-curity Council ambitions. To ignore the new distribution of geopolitical power would be, as Ambassador Patriota says, “tax-ation without representation.”Contact Francesca Regalado at fran-cescarose.regalado@student.shu.edu.

Photo courtesy of Thomas HillDiplomacy Dean Andrea Bartoli (left) and Brazil’s Ambassador to the UN Antonio de Aguiar Patriota (right) at a luncheon before the lecture on April 13.