Category: Achievements

Robert McCleery was a featured speaker at the Second Conference on Integrated Social Policies in Egypt, July 4-5, 2009 in Cairo. The conference was organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity, and was attended by that Minister (H.E. Aly Moselhy), the Minister of Housing, National Democratic Party rising star Gamal Mobarak, representatives of other parties and ministries, representatives of domestic and international NGOs, and other foreign experts. Prof. McCleery headed the second session: Making Basic Services Reach the Poor. He presented a refined and targeted version of the “Development as Connectivity” story, first presented with Prof. De Paolis at the Faculty Research brown bag series, organized by Prof. Kardam, last spring. The presentation also drew on their joint research, presented in a consulting report to the United Nations Development Program, New York, titled: Making Infrastructure Work for the Poor.

Ernie Scalberg, Jeff Woods and Carol Johnson represented MIIS at a recent conference on Globalization at UC Berkeley, sponsored by LISA (the Localization Industry Standards Association).  Scalberg’s session, “The Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Global Business Strategy Development and Multilingual Online Marketing Communication” was the second highest rated plenary session.

MIIS was the “rock star” of the conference.  Companies and other schools were quite impressed with our “Globalization/localization” programs and the quality of our students.  Jeff and Carol staffed the MIIS table, where they met with many new companies and agencies promising to recruit our students. There were attendees who expressed interest in applying for admission to various of our programs.

Professor Jeff Langholz did several summer projects that combined business with policy in the form of sustainable enterprise development.

In June, he traveled to London to advise the CEO of sports apparel giant PUMA Inc. on a major “green business” initiative to be launched in October.  June also saw him writing an analytical report for the World Wildlife Fund that made recommendations on using sustainable enterprises to improve and expand the organization’s efforts. He involved recent IEP alumna and Fulbright Scholar (Brazil) Heather Zissler in this consultancy because of her in-depth knowledge of the subject.

Much of the summer was devoted to researching and writing a 120-page report on sustainable agriculture. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and The Nature Conservancy, the report examines the extent to which growers of spinach, lettuce, and other leafy greens in seven Central Coast counties have implemented a “scorched earth” policy on farms in an attempt to reduce food safety risks.

Last, the WorldWatch Institute – which produces the annual State of the World reports — has published an article by Dr. Langholz in the current (Sept/Oct) issue of its award-winning WorldWatch Magazine. The provocative piece challenges the international conservation community to double the amount of biodiversity protected globally by investing in nature-based ventures.  Please click here for a copy of the article.

Sharad Joshi, PhD, Research Associate with the Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program (MonTREP) and Visiting Professor, Graduate School of International Policy & Management, attended the 13th annual three-week Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategies (SWAMOS), held at Cornell University in July. The program is for junior scholars in the field of security studies.

Professor Tsuneo Akaha’s “From Soft Power to Hard Power: Japan’s Evolving Security Policy” has been published in the Japanese book Japanese Foreign Policy In The Eyes of Japanese Researchers Abroad (Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten).

He gave a talk on “Human Security in East Asia” at the Summer Institute, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, August 3-7, a training program for PhD students from around the world who are interested in Asian regional integration.

He also taught an intensive American Studies course “U.S. Policy in Northeast Asia” at the University of Shimane, Japan, July 25-28.

The most memorable experience of Professor Akaha’s this summer was attending the August 6 A-bomb memorial ceremony in Hiroshima, where virtually every speaker referred favorably to President Obama’s Prague speech on a nuclear-free world.

NOTE: We’d love to share the contributions of other faculty!  If you have achievements you would like to share, please send them to Amy McGill for posting on the blog.

Zhang Lijuan, a new Adjunct Faculty Member in GSIPM, recently published an article comparing U.S. and Chinese foreign policies with respect to Africa.