Tag Archives: Paula LeRoy

A Case for Compassionate Immigration Policy by Dr. William Arrocha

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Immigration is a multi-faceted phenonmena that intersects with issues of human rights,  national policies, international norms, racism, cultural issues, misconceptions, and, in some cases, absurdities.  Arguments bode well for a compassionate policy.

MIIS Professor William Arrocha, negotiator of NAFTA, and regional expert, discusses with Policy Pace host, Paula LeRoy some of the general worldwide issues,  US Immigration History, Braceros Program, the unilateral closing of the Mexican-American Border, Immigration law, and criminalization of work.

Drawing on his research of the US-Central America Region, Dr. Arrocha explains that as the US government retreats from the defender of human rights, immigrants have few protections while being excluded from participatory democracy practices that can improve their own situations and that of the country.

Part 1 describes the History, Challenges and Controversies of Immigration:

click here for live stream: Arrocha 1

Part 2 elaborates on How the Immigration System works, Amnesty, Labor Rights, and Hypocracies: click here for live stream: Arrocha 3

 

What’s Going On in Bajo Lempa, El Salvador? A Model for Development!

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Click here for audio: El Salvador- DN-PP
Professor Adele Negro’s analysis of development and peace making in the Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador provides more good news than one might expect. This 45 min interview with Policy PACE hostess, Paula LeRoy, is chocked full of details, inspiration, and realism about development opportunities and challenges in war torn areas. Environmental issues are a focus. Adele is a tremendous resource about the history of El Salvador, as well as observer of the present situation, after a month long visit March 2012. Each year, she trains and accompanies graduate students from MIIS to assist the region.

Topics covered in the interview include origins, growth and responsibilities of La Coordinadora, a loose but vibrant confederation of 125 villages. Asociacion Mangle,  organized for the protection of  the Mangroves and Bay of Jiquilisco,  has reached world stature as it preserves “the lungs” of the planet, while Ecoviva, serves a funding and advocacy role. http://vivaecoviva.wordpress.com/,   http://sites.middlebury.edu/equipomonterey

Current challenges include annual flooding, a moratorium on harvesting of turtle eggs, the lack of professionalized work force, sustaining livelihoods, and the need for record keeping and capacity building.

Professor Negro suggests a study of why the Bajo Lempa region is economically improving and able to maintain the designation of ‘’zone of peace” while other areas have diminished capacity and greater vulnerability to violence and poverty.  Community leadership, strategic planning, and election of members to national government propel it forward. Youth programs incorporating radio, arts, culture, leadership training and environmental conservation are some of the solutions.

In conclusion, Adele challenges the audience to further develop the practice of solidarity with other communities that doesn’t foster dependency or hierarchies, but is truly a linking of arms with the other community.

Please feel free to share this interview with colleagues and share your responses with us at policypace@live.com

Click here to stream interview: El Salvador- DN-PP

El Salvador is party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, CITES, Basel Convention, Partial Test Ban Treaty, Montreal Protocol, Ramsar Convention. El Salvador has signed, but not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

US Counterinsurgency Doctrine, Practice, and the Afghanistan Case: Dr. Terry Tucker

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Inbound Choppers in Afghanistan 2008

Taliban fighters after victory in Ghazni
                                       Terry Tucker and Afghan Interpreter, 2011

A woman begs in bombed city 

US Counterinsurgency Doctrine is a synthesis of lessons learned over the century, and continues to be a dynamic process. Dr. Terry Tucker, of the Army Lessons Learned division of the Department of Defense, is also a war historian. After 54 months in Afghanistan training Afghani and Coalition Forces, Dr. Tucker now synthesizes Lessons Learned using his intake work with returning troops, trains deploying troops and works to advance the effectiveness of Counterinsurgency.

In this Policy Pace interview with Paula LeRoy, MAIPS Security and Development from Monterey Institute of International Studies, Dr. Tucker gives examples of counterinsurgency principles and practices and particularly elaborates on the Afghanistan counterinsurgency operations. With candor about the mistakes made, regime change, future outlook, and stabilization difficulties, the Afghanistan case is reviewed.

Click here to download the hour long interview.

Please leave us a comment here or at policypace@live.com to let us know if this was interesting to you, if you shared it, and other comments. Thank you.

Challenges and Advances in Small Arms Control: Dr. Edward Laurance

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Destroying Arms in Sri Lanka

Trauma Recovery and Changing Norms in Burundi

 

Arms Collection in Afghanistan

Click here to download this 30 minute interview.

Small Arms and Light Weapon (SALW) Control, a fairly new category of Security Studies, has been innovated and championed by Dr. Edward Laurance, Professor and Gordon Paul Smith Chair of International Policy Studies at Monterey Institute.  With five decades of experience in the military, working for the UN, research, teaching at Naval Postgraduate School and Monterey Institute of International Studies, Dr Laurance’s knowledge is truly enlightening.

He shares with Policy Pace hostess Paula LeRoy particulars of the challenges and advances of small arms control. Among the topics are increased violence in the world, the origins of focus on small arms control, DDR techniques, and changing norms.

The conversation includes successes such as Operation Ceasefire in Boston, and failures such as the DDR in El Salvador. Dr Laurance summarizes the four lenses of armed conflict analysis: people, perpetrators, instruments and institutions that are featured in the new concise OECD book Armed Violence Reduction: Enabling Development.

The interview draws upon Dr. Laurance’s numerous publications, involvement with the Small Arms Survey, United Nations, Conventional Arms Control, and Development Expertise.

Please let us know if this interview was informative, your suggestions, what other interviews you would like posted, and if you would like to be an interviewer for Policy Pace, by commenting here or at policypace@live.com.  Thank you!

** the comment “everyone in Texas has a gun, but there are few homicides” was an obvious exaggeration, meaning ‘there is a strong consensus advocating gun ownership in many parts of Texas (but few homocides).’ Sorry if I offended anyone.

Los Mapuches y Sus Dificultades por Richard Funkhouser

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This episode of Policy Pace is in Spanish for language and context practice.

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Click here to download this pod cast in MP3 format.

Richard Funkhouser, un alumno de MIIS, describe sus experiencias en Chile durante el curso de enero de derechos humanos con Professor Jan Knippers Black, Global Majority y 22 otra estudiantes de MIIS.

Policy Pace host, Paula LeRoy le entreviso de los desafios en communidades indigenous, los cuales se pierderon sus tierras a companias internacionales con collaboracion del gobierno de Chile. Resultaron en enfermadades de toxicos, pobreza, encarcelacion y hostigan con leyes anti-terroristas.

Queremos publicar mas episodias en espanol. Para ayudarnos contact Policy Pace: policypace@live.com

 

Transitional Justice, Moral Dilemmas and Global Majority

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CUNY philosophy professor and Global Majority Board Member Michael Buckley, defines transitional justice as not just about criminality but truth telling, reparations, institutional reform and various concepts of  justice.  While providing examples of moral dilemmas and issues in justice, Michael connects political justice to economic justice and to business ethics.

The interview by Policy Pace host Paula LeRoy, is taped during a Global Majority trip in Chile that brought 24 students to study transitional justice with reknown Judge Guzman, MIIS professor Jan Black, and dissidents in the Mapuche Communities.  Michael describes the goals of Global Majority and its commitment to peaceful resolution, education, and promotion of negotiation techniques.

Throughout the interview, the background of Chile’s struggle for justice after the repression of the horrendous Pinochet dictatorship blends theory with practice.

Click here to download audio podcast in MP3 format. Audio will download to your itunes or media player.

 

 

Mismatched Military Mission in the Afghanistan Theater: Lessons Learned? with Terry Tucker

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Dr. Terry Tucker, of the Department of Army Lessons Learned, summarizes his varied experience in counterinsurgency that includes working for the DEA, Saudia Royal Army, and the ISAF training Afghan and Coalition forces until 2010. Paula LeRoy hosts the first in the series of four interviews for Policy Pace with Dr. Tucker about counterinsurgency, military-civilian integration and Afghanistan.

The interview begins with analyzing how the military’s mission was mismatched with the skills set and history of military training (doctrine). Then recognizing the economic and political issues that color the conflict, a recap of the Powell and Bush doctrine requires a revisiting of Westphalia and Geneva Hague’s definitions of war.

The strength of Al-Queda is evaluated in terms of how war was “declared,” the impetus of fear, and the possibility that the US’s aggressive response has led to its own diminishment.  Fifteen minutes into the interview, Dr. Tucker elaborates on several examples of improvements in the use of soft power, cultural and language sensitivity, showing some lessons learned. The final part, considers conflict as a social movement, a theory which forms the basis of present day counterinsurgency tactics.

Click here to download the audio in MP3 format. The entire interview is 46 minutes.Add Media

If you have any comments, suggestions, or interest in being interviewed, please contact us at policypace@live.com