Video

Panelists:
– Fawaz A. Gerges, professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies, Sarah Lawrence College
– Michael Eisenstadt, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Moderator:
– Larry P. Goodson, professor of Middle East studies, United States Army War College

Co-sponsored by the Asbell Center for Jewish Life and the United States Army War College Read more

Stem Cell Research: What Are the Moral Considerations?

Shannon Brownlee of the New America Foundation, William May, Ph.D. a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics (but not speaking on its behalf) and Calvin Simerly, PhD., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Streaming video (length: 1:07:23) Read more

Is the European Union Constitution Dead?

Gianfranco Pasquino, professor of political science, University of Bologna

Streaming video (length 1:00:03)

In two successive referendums, the French and the Dutch have rejected the European Union Constitution. However, more than ten other member States have ratified, either by a parliamentary vote or through a referendum, the same Constitution. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to say that the European Union has come to a standstill. On the other hand, it would be as much foolish to deny that major institutional and political problems have come to the surface. Which are the problems and which are the solutions being entertained? Will the European Union be again, and how soon, in the position to proceed to a deeper unification? Read more

Teaching 9/11: The Role of Media, Museums and Schools in the Construction of our National Memory

How the nation’s memory of 9-11 is being created through cultural institutions.

James Fallows (Atlantic Monthly), Ron Simon (Museum of Television and Radio), Fiona Spruill (NYTimes.com), Marvin Kalb (Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government).

Streaming video

length: 1:43:53
(Sept 9, 2004 – Dickinson College. Co-sponsored by Dickinson College and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History) Read more

"The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap."

Scholar and author Stephanie Coontz explores the myths of traditional marriage.

Download Audio (length: 43:50)

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Coontz is a faculty member at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and the director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families. She has published extensively on the topic of marriage and family life and is the author of several highly praised books, such as The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap and Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. Read more

Presidential War Powers

John Yoo, Louis Fisher and Michael Vorenberg in a panel discussion

Streaming video (length 1:30:18)

Panelists:
– John Yoo is former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsil of the U.S. Dept of Justice and professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley
– Louis Fisher is Senior Specialist in Separation of Powers for the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress
– Michael Vorenberg is author of Final Freedom and professor of history at Brown University Read more

Globalization, Religion and Politics

James Gelvin, Professor of Middle East history at UCLA

Streaming video (length 1:07:54)

Islamist movements trumpeted the same commitment to social justice and social welfare as had governments before the 1970s. That commitment still resonated with the inhabitants of the region. Their own populist credentials in tatters, states throughout the region answered those who challenged them with repression. In the case of Iran, this did not work. In 1978-9, a broad-based revolutionary movement overthrew the shah. In other cases, repression has provided what may prove to be only temporary relief. It is a bit ironic that in the post-cold War “Age of Democratization” and “Age of Globalization,” so much of the Middle Eastern population has thus found itself enmeshed in the twin snares of authoritarianism and economic stagnation. Read more