Category Archives: Scholars’ Circle Interviews

Information and recordings from Schloars’ Circle radio show is posted here.

President Biden has called Russia’s attack on Ukraine a war crime. What does that mean in term of legal remedies? When and how are war crimes adjudicated? Prosecuting those who commit crimes against humanity or war crimes is one part of justice, the other part is redressing the victims and survivors. What can be done to redress them? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. She has published two digests on the case-law of the ad hoc tribunals and is the author of Existing Legal Limits to the Use of the Veto in the Face of Atrocity Crimes.
Gabor Rona is Professor of Practice at Cardozo Law School. He is the author of Is There a Way Out of the Non-International Armed Conflict Detention Dilemma? and State Responsibility to Respect, Protect and Fulfill Human Rights Obligations in Cyberspace.
Rebecca Hamilton is Associate Professor of Law at American University, Washington College of Law. She is the author of Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide and co-author of Social Media Platforms in International Criminal Investigations.
Kate Mackintosh is the inaugural Executive Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law. She was Head of Humanitarian Affairs for Doctors Without Borders. She is the author of How long until the planet’s destruction is an international crime and the forthcoming The crime of ecocide through human rights: new tools for Climate Justice.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination for the US Supreme Court – March 27, 2022

March 26, 2022 host

In what ways is the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson historic? What impact will having a former criminal defense attorney on the Supreme Court have on future rulings or on dissents? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Danielle Holley-Walker is the Dean and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law. She is the author of “A New Era for Desegregation” and “After Unitary Status: Examining Voluntary Integration Strategies for Southern School Districts.”
Abbe Smith is Director of the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic and Professor of Law at Georgetown University. She is the author of Guilty People and co-author of Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct In Minority Communities.
Olu Orange is the Director of the USC Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program and also the Director of the USC Dornsife Agents of Change: Civil Rights Advocacy Initiative. A practicing attorney, he has won several important cases, including B.B. (Burley) v. County of Los Angeles — a knee-on-neck police death case which established that police officers who intentionally cause harm cannot offset their own liability with their victims’ negligence. The case has been referred to “George Floyd without video.” And in 2018, A.G. v. County of Los Angeles which established that non-biological children have standing in California to sue for the wrongful death of persons who raise them as parents.

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Scholars’ Circle – Black Women Intellectuals how they empowered the civil rights struggle – March 20, 2022

March 20, 2022 host

What role have black women played in the civil rights era and black empowerment in addressing issues of white supremacy? We explore the importance of black women intellectuals, the way in which they have framed the scholarship, the analysis, and policies. [ dur: 34mins. ]

Ashley Farmer is Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies & History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era and co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition. She is also the Co-Editor and Curator of the Black Power Series with Ibram X. Kendi.

Several states have passed legislation barring teaching critical race theory in public schools. Today we explore critical race theory and how race is taught. How should academics proceed in light of the political backlash to teaching about race? [ dur: 22mins. ] This was originally recorded July 21, 2021. This is an excerpt, the complete version can be heard here.

Utz McKnight is Chair of the Department of Gender and Race Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Race and the Politics of the Exception: Equality, Sovereignty, and American Democracy and Everyday Practice of Race in America: Ambiguous Privilege.
Laura E. Gómez is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She has taught the Critical Race Studies Program in the law school’s upper-year curriculum. Professor Gómez has co-founded and served as the first co-director of UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies Program. She is the author of Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism and Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. 2nd ed.
David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at New England University. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, and the forthcoming Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization.

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Scholars’ Circle – Sanctions, what we learned from it’s use and impact on Russia – March 13, 2022

March 12, 2022 host

Just how effective are sanctions? How are they used and what exactly do they entail? Can sanctions be applied in a way that they would not cause harm to citizens? And what does sanctions research suggest about their impact on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Erica Moret is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Global Governance and Visiting Lecturer at the Department of International Relations/ Political Science at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. She is the author of “When should the United States use hard-hitting sectoral and financial sanctions?” and “Sanctions on Russia: Impacts and Economic Costs on the United States.”
A. Cooper Drury is Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Science and Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri. He is author of “Neo-Kantianism and Coercive Diplomacy: The Complex Case of Economic Sanctions” and “Media-driven Humanitarianism? News Media Coverage of Human Rights Abuses and the Use of Economic Sanctions.”
Timothy Peterson is Associate Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. He is author of “Sanctions and Alternate Markets: How Preexisting Trade and Alliances Affect the Onset of Economic Coercion.” And the forthcoming “Does Punishing Sanctions Busters Work? Sanctions Enforcement and U.S. Trade with Sanctioned States.”
Bryan Early is Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean for Research at the University at SUNY Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. He is the author of “Using the Carrot as the Stick: U.S. Foreign Aid and the Effectiveness of Sanctions Threats” and “Still Unjust, Just in Different Ways: How Targeted Sanctions Fall Short of Just War Theory’s Principles.”

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Scholars’ Circle – The Human Rights issues in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – March 6, 2022

March 6, 2022 host

We discuss the situation on the ground in Ukraine, human rights violations, such as war crimes, and what is needed to end the war. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Sasha Romantsova is the Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. She joins us from Kiev, Ukraine.
Steve Swerdlow is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has conducted extensive field work internationally with a particular focus on Central Asia and the Caucuses.

Ukrainian refugees are fleeing the war by the hundreds of thousands. Poland is their most common destination. How is Poland responding and what does this mean for its refugee policies? We explore the refugee crisis and its impact on Poland. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska is a freelance journalist who covers covers politics and societies across the post-Soviet space, South Asia and the Middle East. Her articles are published on Al Jazeera English, the Guardian, Eurasianet, the Diplomat and many other English and Polish language media. She is the co-editor of Ukraine and Russia: People, Politics, Propaganda and Perspectives and Migration and the Ukraine Crisis: A Two-Country Perspective..

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Russia Attacks Ukraine – February 27, 2022

February 26, 2022 host

Russia attacked Ukraine this week. What does this mean for the region and the world? What are the international reactions to this invasion? What should be the international response? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Anna Ohanyan is the Richard B. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Stonehill College, and a two-times Fulbright Scholar in the South Caucasus. She is the editor of Russia Abroad: Driving Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia and Beyond, and her latest book “The Neighborhood Effect: The Imperial Roots of Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia“. Professor Ohanyan is also a nonresident senior scholar in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations and Co-Director of the Central European Studies Program at the University of Southern California (USC). He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West.
Serhiy Kudelia is Associate Professor of Political Science at Baylor University. He is the author of When Numbers Are Not Enough: The Strategic Use of Violence in Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution, “The Donbas Rift” and the op-ed “Breaking the Russia-Ukraine Stalemate“.

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Scholars’ Circle – Military coup d’état – History and reasons for it’s emergence – February 20, 2022

February 19, 2022 host

Military coups have increased over the last year and a half. What is driving this challenge to democracy? How concerned should we be? Regional organizations and powerful states have sometimes played important roles in averting takeovers by military coups. How successful have they been? How can they improve? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Fabrice Lehoucq is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is the author of Breaking out of the Coup Trap: Political Competition and Military Coups in Latin America (with Aníbal Pérez-Liñán) and Political Institutions, Instability, and Democratic Performance in Latin America: A Research Agenda.
Joseph Wright is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University and the co-Director of its Global and International Studies (GLIS) program. He is the co-author of How Dictatorships Work (with Barbara Geddes and Erica Frantz) and the forthcoming Historical Dictionary of Modern Coups d’etat (with John Chin and David Carter).
Jonathan Powell is Associate Professor at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida. He is the co-author of Of Strong Men and Straw Men: Appraising Post-Coup Political Developments, Investing in Stability: Economic Interdependence, the Capitalist Peace, and Coups d’état and, with Clayton Thyne, Global Instances of Coups from 1950 to 2010: A New Dataset.
Clayton Thyne is Department Chair and a Professor in the Political Science department at the University of Kentucky. He is the co-author of Democratic Versus Authoritarian Coups: The Influence of External Actor on State’s Post Coup Political Trajectories and, with Jonathan Powell, Global Instances of Coups from 1950 to 2010: A New Dataset.

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Scholars’ Circle – American Common Ground with Public Land Uses – History and Reform Opportunities – February 13, 2022

February 12, 2022 host

Over 600 million acres of land is collectively owned by the American people. What is the history of public lands and how is the contemporary discourses about public lands framed by this history? We interview the author of a new book on the history of public lands in the US. [ dur: 34mins. ]

John Leshy is emeritus professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law, San Francisco. He is the author of OUR COMMON GROUND: A History of America’s Public Lands.

Public lands are one of the collectively owned riches of Americans. How does this history influence our contemporary debates on public land use? How has President Joe Biden advanced the cause of public lands and how is this different from other presidents? [ dur: 24mins. ]

Mark Squillace is Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado Law School. He is the co-author of Natural Resources Law and Policy, The Judicial Assault on the Clean Water Act, and Embracing a Civic Republican Tradition in Natural Resources Decision-Making.

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Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

February 5, 2022 host

Democracy is eroding in the United States? What are the causes and what should be done? Is the erosion of democracy because of political elites and specifically the reaction of the Republican Party to the 2020 election? Or does it run deeper? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jacob S. Hacker is Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper and the 2010 bestseller Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, all books co-authored with Paul Pierson.
Sigal Ben-Porath is a professor in the Literacy, Culture, and International Education Division of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science. She is the author of Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice is Really About, Free Speech on Campus, Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship, and Citizenship under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict .
Martin Gilens is Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Social Welfare at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He is the author of Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America and co-author, with Benjamin I. Page, of Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do about It.
Larry M. Bartels holds the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. He is the Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. He is the co-author of Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (with Christopher Achen) and Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age.

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Scholars’ Circle – Conflict hot spots: Ukraine and Yemen – January 30, 2022

January 29, 2022 host

Conflict hot spots are popping up all around the world. We discuss two of them.

Is Russia acting out of aggression or self-defense in its threats against Ukraine? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations and Co-Director of the Central European Studies Program at the University of Southern California (USC). He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West.

The Houthis in Yemen launched drone strikes against the United Arab Emirates this week. Is this a new round of escalation in that ongoing and devastating war?

We will explore the new escalations in the civil war in Yemen. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Hamoud Salhi is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of International Education at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is commentator for Arabic media.
Charles Schmitz is Professor of Geography at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an Affiliated Scholar with the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He is the author of the publications Historical Dictionary of Yemen, “Huthi Visions of the State: A Huthi Republic with an Unofficial Imam,” in Hamidaddin, Abdullah (ed). The Huthi Movement in Yemen: Ideology, Ambition and Security in the Arab Gulf and “A Parasitic Political Economy,” in Amat Alsoswa and Noel Brehony (eds.), Building a New Yemen: Transition and International Community.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Category Archives: Scholars’ Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – War Crimes and Justice for Victims and Survivors- April 3, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination for the US Supreme Court – March 27, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Sanctions, what we learned from it’s use and impact on Russia – March 13, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – The Human Rights issues in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – March 6, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Russia Attacks Ukraine – February 27, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Military coup d’état – History and reasons for it’s emergence – February 20, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – American Common Ground with Public Land Uses – History and Reform Opportunities – February 13, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Conflict hot spots: Ukraine and Yemen – January 30, 2022

By Maria Armoudian