The World Beyond the Headlines from the University of Chicago show

The World Beyond the Headlines from the University of Chicago

Summary: The World Beyond the Headlines series is a collaborative project of the Center for International Studies, the International House Global Voices Program, and the Seminary Co-op Bookstores and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Its aim is to bring scholars and journalists together to consider major international issues and how they are covered in the media.

Join Now to Subscribe to this Podcast
  • Visit Website
  • RSS
  • Artist: The Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago
  • Copyright: 2004-10 by the individual speakers

Podcasts:

 "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:22:03

A panel featuring John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "The Israel Lobby" was originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006. It provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 Chicago Humanities Festival: Wangari Maathai | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:22:03

Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Maathai was elected to Kenya's National Assembly with 98 percent of the vote in 2002 and in 2003 was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife. She is the author of "The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience". Co-sponsors: The Division of the Humanities and Rockefeller Chapel.

 "The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:21

Lecture by journalist William Langewiesche. In his book The Atomic Bazaar, Langewiesche investigates the burgeoning global threat of nuclear weapons production. As more unstable and undeveloped nations find ways of acquiring the ultimate arms, the stakes of state-sponsored nuclear activity have soared to frightening heights. Even more disturbing is the likelihood of such weapons being manufactured and deployed by guerrilla non-state terrorists. Langewiesche also recounts the recent history of Abdul Qadeer Khan and examines in dramatic and tangible detail the chances for nuclear terrorism.

 "The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:40:24

Lecture by Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. While America is focused on religious militancy and terrorism in the Middle East, democracy has been under siege from religious extremism in another critical part of the world. As Martha Nussbaum reveals in The Clash Within, the forces of the Hindu right pose a disturbing threat to India's democratic traditions and secular state. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 "Failing America’s Faithful: How Today’s Churches are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:47:02

A conversation between Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and Susan Thistlethwaite, President of Chicago Theological Seminary. In her book Failing America's Faithful, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend issues a spiritual call to arms to those who feel like her that today's churches—Catholic and Protestant alike—are failing to promote the welfare of those who depend upon them. After recounting her personal story in one of the most prominent Catholic families in America, she shows how America's neediest are now forgotten while their churches fight political battles against abortion rights and homosexual marriages. She provides hope through powerful examples of individuals effecting change and maintains that our individual actions can return our churches to their traditional role as shepherds to their flock. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Cosponsored with the Chicago Theological Seminary.

 "Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:11:14

Based on nearly a decade of painstaking research in archives and census records, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elliot Jaspin's book Buried in the Bitter Waters provides irrefutable evidence that racial cleansing occurred again and again on American soil, and fundamentally reshaped the geography of race. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture.

 "The Current Security and Economic Situation on the Korean Peninsula" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:24:13

A discussion with Alexander Vershbow, United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and Lee Tae-sik, Korean Ambassador to the United States. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Cosponsored by the Korea Economic Institute, the Korean Consulate of Chicago and the Center for East Asian Studies.

 "The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:59:27

James Mann is author in residence at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and the author of Rise of the Vulcans, About Face, and Beijing Jeep. He was previously the Los Angles Times Beijing bureau chief. In his new book, The China Fantasy, Mann explores two scenarios popular among the policy elite. The "Soothing Scenario" contends that the successful spread of capitalism will gradually bring about a development of democratic institutions, free elections, independent judiciary, and a progressive human rights policy. In the "Upheaval Scenario," the contradictions in Chinese society between rich and poor, between cities and the countryside, and between the openness of the economy and the unyielding Leninist system will eventually lead to a revolution, chaos, or collapse. Against this backdrop, Mann poses a third scenario and asks, What will happen if Chinese capitalism continues to evolve and expand but the government fails to liberalize? From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 "Ending Global Poverty" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:09:33

A lecture by Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute and Professor of Sustainable Development and Health Policy and Management at Columbia University and the author of The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Cosponsored by the University of Chicago's Human Rights Program, the School of Social Service Administration, Rockefeller Chapel, and Chicago Promise.

 "Islam in America: A Conversation with Paul Barrett and Umar Abd-Allah" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:11:59

Paul Barrett and Dr. Umar Abd-Allah in a discussion of their recent works, American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion and A Muslim in Victorian America. Dr. Abd-Allah's work is a biography of Alexander Russell Webb, one of the earliest American converts to Islam to achieve a modicum of fame. Mr. Barrett's book offers portraits of a number of contemporary American Muslims, demonstrating the complexity of the community and diversity of opinion within this community. Paul Barrett was a reporter and editor for 18 years at the Wall Street Journal, and currently directs the investigative reporting team at Business Week. Dr. Abd-Allah is Scholar-in-Residence at the Nawawi Foundation. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 "Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:26:59

A talk by Danny Postel, Senior Editor of openDemocracy, an online global magazine of politics & culture. The Iran depicted in the headlines is a rogue state ruled by ever-more-defiant Islamic fundamentalists. Yet inside the borders, an unheralded transformation of a wholly different political bent is occurring. A "liberal renaissance," as one Iranian thinker terms it, is emerging in Iran, and in his pamphlet Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran, Danny Postel charts the contours of the intellectual upheaval. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 "Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:14:18

A talk by Sallie Hughes, Asst. Prof. in the School of Communication at the Univ. of Miami, on her book, Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico. The book examines the dramatic changes within Mexican society, politics, and journalism that transformed an authoritarian media institution into many conflicting styles of journalism with very different implications for deepening democracy in the country. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:43:18

A talk by Tariq Ali, editor, New Left Review. Since 1998, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has brought Hugo Chávez to world attention as the foremost challenger of the neoliberal consensus and American foreign policy. While Chávez's radical social-democratic reforms have brought him worldwide acclaim among the poor, he has attracted intense hostility from Venezuelan elites and Western governments. Drawing on first-hand experience of Venezuela and meetings with Chávez, Tariq Ali shows how Chávez's views have polarized Latin America and examines the hostility directed against his administration. Ali discusses the enormous influence of Fidel Castro on both Chávez and Evo Morales, the newly-elected President of Bolivia, and contrasts the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionary processes. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 "Monsters to Destroy: Bush's War on Terror and Sin" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:19:34

A talk by Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Colorado-Boulder on his book, Monsters to Destroy. In an ambitious effort to clarify a complicated issue, Ira Chernus tackles the question of why U.S. foreign policy aimed at building national strength and security has the paradoxical effect of making the country less safe and secure. His answer: The ''war on terror'' is based not on realistic appraisals of the causes of conflict, but rather on ''stories'' that neoconservative policymakers believe about human nature and a world divided between absolute good and absolute evil. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

 "Blind Into Baghdad: America's War in Iraq" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:26:13

Atlantic Monthly editor James Fallows discusses his new book, based on his award-winning series of articles for the magazine. Fallows analyzes the decision-making behind the Iraq war, and argues that the administration didn't fail to plan — it just ignored the plans of its own experts. Fallows also places the war within the larger context of the war on terror, arguing that the Iraqi venture has greatly undercut our global efforts to curtail terror attacks and the effectiveness of terrorist organizations. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

Comments

Login or signup comment.