Cameroon is a West African nation that is embroiled in a civil war between its Anglophone and Francophone populations. What led to this civil war? and how can it be resolved? We explore the causes of the war and the prospects for resolution. [ dur: 36mins. ]

• Patircia Asongwe is Visiting Lecturer at the National School of Administration and Magistracy in Cameroon. She is also Head of Litigation Unit in the Division of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Higher Education.
• Lauura Anyola Tufon is Consultant Expert to Conflict Sensitivity for Catholic Relief Services, Caritas, Archdiocese of Bamenda. She is founding member of the Network of Civil Peace Service in Cameroon.

Protests against violations of federalism agreements were met with state led violence in Cameroon. What were the impacts? We’ll hear from one of the organizers.[ dur: 22mins. ]

• Fontem A Neba was Secretary General of Teacher’s Trade Union of the University of Buea before his arrest on the 17th of January, 2017. He was Secretary General of the now banned Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. Mr. Neba was Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Buea. Now he is in exile and serves as the Secretary General of the Southern Cameroon’s Alliance.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Last April, protests erupting in Colombia against a new proposed tax on the middle and poorer classes were met with government oppression and violence. What are the prospects for political change in the embattled nation of Colombia? [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Arlene B. Tickner is a Professor in the School of International, Political and Urban Studies at the Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia. She is the author of International Relations from the Global South: Worlds of Difference.
• James A. Robinson is Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the University of Chicago and Institute Director of The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. He is the author of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Poverty and Prosperity and The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty, both co-authored with Daron Acemoglu.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Grand Strategy defines the broad goals of nations or even groups. American Grand Strategy is best understood historically, as an amalgam of influences and interests. Is American grand strategy a reaction to events and domestic interests, or is it derived more strategically based on the American place in the world? And what does the history of American grand strategy tell us about its current goals? We speak with three of the authors of Rethinking American Grand Strategy. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

• Christopher McKnight Nichols is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University. He is the author of Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age. He is also co-author of the opinion articles “‘Grand strategy’ has a bad rep. To fix it, get beyond hard power and traditional statecraft”, in the Los Angeles Times, and “America’s traditions pose an obstacle to preventing future pandemics”, in the Washington Post.
• Beverly Gage is Brady-Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy and Professor of History & American Studies at Yale University. She is the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror and a forthcoming biography on J. Edgar Hoover.
• Kate Epstein is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Torpedo: Inventing the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States and Great Britain.

All of our guests are contributors to the book we are discussing today Rethinking American Grand Strategy. Christopher McKnight Nichols is also co-editor of the book together with Elizabeth Borgwardt and Andrew Preston.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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What does the continued occupation and discrimination against its Palestinian population mean for Israeli identity as a democratic nation? What exactly is Israel’s relationship with the world’s Jewish population? And what precisely is the ideology of Zionism? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur:58mins. ]

• Mira Sucharov is Professor of Political Science and University Chair of Teaching Innovation in the Department of Political Science at Carlton University. She is the author of The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and co-editor (with Aaron J. Hahn Tapper) of Social Justice and Israel/Palestine: Foundational & Contemporary Debates.
• Brent Sasley is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas, Arlington. He is the author of the book Politics in Israel: Governing a Complex Society and the book chapter “The End of Oslo and The Second Intifada, 2000-2005.”
• Joshua Shanes is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of Arnold Center for Israel Studies at College of Charleston. He is the author of Diaspora Nationalism and Jewish Identity in Habsburg Galicia. And is the co-author of the article We Need a Better Definition for Ant-Semitism.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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How is memory shaped to influence the politics of war and post-war, in the post-war of former Yugoslavia. What can we learn about how our memories of the past are manipulated to change current and future politics? What can we learn from memory entrepreneurs in the former Yugoslavia? How did they try to change understandings about the past to influence the future? [dur: 58mins. ]

• Jelena Subotic is Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University. She is the author of Hijacked Justice: Dealing with the Past in the Balkans and Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism.
• Brent Steele is Francis D. Wormuth Presidential Chair of Political Science and Professor of Political Science at University of Utah. He is the author of Ontological Security in International Relations and the research paper Maintaining (US) collective memory: from Hiroshima to a critical study of security history.
• Brent Sasley is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas, Arlington. He is the author of the book Politics in Israel: Governing a Complex Society and the journal article Theorizing States Emotions

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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We spend the hour looking at the environmental impact of the US military. How much does the US military pollute the environment? what is its role in climate change causing green house emissions? The military has taken some measures to reduce its impact on the environment and green gas emissions, but our guests say these measures do little to assuage the military’s bigger effects on climate change. What are these effects and what can be done about them? [ dur: 58mins. ]
For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

• Benjamin Neimark is Senior Lecturer at the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom. He is the author of Speaking Power to ‘Post-Truth’: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
• Oliver Belcher is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University, United Kingdom. He is the author of Anatomy of a village razing: Counterinsurgency, violence, and securing the intimate in Afghanistan, and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
• Neta C. Crawford is Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at Boston University. She is the author of the book Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America’s Post-9/11 Wars and the research paper Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change,and the Costs of War

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Donald Trump versus the “Deep State”. A new book examines this political struggle and the tension between the Presidency and the Administrative State. We explore the implications of this struggle with the authors of Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: Deep State and the Unitary Executive. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Stephen Skowronek is Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political Science and Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. His publications include, The Policy State: An American Predicament and The Search for American Political Development.
• John A. Dearborn is a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at Yale University. He is soon to be Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of the forthcoming book Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation.
• Desmond King is the Andrew W Mellon Professor of American Government at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. His publications include, Still a House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama’s America and Fed Power: How Finance Wins.

Together they are the author of Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive.

“This insightful new book explains how and why the Trump presidency became entangled in conflicts with administrators in both the executive branch and the U.S. Congress, while also showing how we might reimagine presidential power, administrative independence, and our system of checks and balances.” —Oxford University Press

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Presidents are often historically judged based on the accomplishments of their first 100 days in office. US President Joe Biden just passed his 100 day mark. How does his record compare to historical records? How likely are President Biden’s proposals to be adopted? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

• Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy

Last week, to commemorate the start of the Ottoman genocide against Armenians, US President Joe Biden officially acknowledged the genocide. He was the first US President to do so. Typically cited as the reason why US Presidents were reluctant to acknowledge the genocide is that future of US/Turkish relations, as Turkey continues to deny the genocide. We explore why a nation denies committing genocides and mass atrocities, and what forms this denial takes. What is the implications of President Biden’s acknowledgment for US-Turkish relations? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 31mins. ]

• Fatma Müge Göçek is a Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at University of Michigan. Her publications include Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East, The Transformation of Turkey: Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era, and her latest book Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789-2009

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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After the genocide event, there are voices of remembrance by generations of past survivor. The victims live with trauma of the experience which is passed on to following generations of survivors. In this hour we discuss with scholars how these events affect individuals, groups, nation states and all of humanity. What does acknowledgement and commemoration mean for Genocide Awareness and Justice? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Dr. Stephen D. Smith, Finci-Viterbi Endowed Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation, is committed to making the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust and of other crimes against humanity a compelling voice for education and action. He has authored many articles including The Memory Generation: Sidney Bernstein is the reason we know what the Nazi concentration camps looked like. He is the producer of Shoah Foundation’s podcast called the Memory Generation.

Maria Armoudian is Senior Lecturer on Political Science at University of Auckland. She is the author of Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs, and an Increasingly Perilous Future and Kill the Messenger : The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World. Her recent article The big lie about the Armenian Genocide published by New Zealand Herald.

Dovile Budryte, Ph.D, is a professor of political science at Georgia Gwinnett College. Her areas of interest include gender studies, trauma and memory in international relations and nationalism. She is the author of Taming Nationalism? Political Community Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States and co-editor of Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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After mass atrocities and crimes against humanity, how can societies reconcile? How is justice performed and how should we recognize these crimes? And what of the clash between international interests and local needs when dealing with the punishment and acknowledgment of atrocities? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Elazar Barkan is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Director of Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He is founding Director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) in The Hague. He is the author of Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices and co-author of Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation.
• Mark Drumbl is Professor at Washington and Lee University, School of Law, and Director of the University’s Transnational Law Institute. He is the author of Reimagining Child Soldiers In International Law and Policy and Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law.
• Jeremy Sarkin is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law and member of CEDIS at Nova University Law School in Lisbon, Portugal. He is the author of The Global Impact and Legacy of Truth Commissions, Reparations for Colonial Genocides and co-editor of Africa’s Role and Contribution to International Criminal Justice.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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