Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – Refugees right to return in international law ; Effects of earth’s magnetism on birds, whales, bees and turtles – September 8, 2024

September 9, 2024 host

States have legal requirements to receive refugees and can return them after a conflict ends. But does this mean there is a right of return? What are the conditions of the right of return? Is it conditional on the provision of security for the state to which they are returning? [ dur: 40mins. ]

Susan Akram is Clinical Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. She directs Boston University Laws International Human Rights Clinic. Her published works include International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: a Rights-Based Approach to Middle East Peace, “A Comparative Perspective on Safe Third and First Country of Asylum Policies in the United Kingdom and North America: Legal Norms, Principles and Lessons Learned” and Palestinian Refugees.

How do birds, bees, whales and turtles use the earths magnetic field to guide their behavior? [ dur: 18mins. ]

Andres Vidal Gadea is Professor of Molecular Neuroethology at Illinois State University. He is the co-author of Magnetosensitive neurons mediate geomagnetic orientation in Caenorhabditis elegans and Factors that influence magnetic orientation in C. elegans. JCPA.

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

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

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Scholars’ Circle – Right of Self-Determination ; Civil War politics examined- September 1, 2024

September 1, 2024 host

Kamala Harris declared that the Palestinians must live in dignity, security and self determination. But what is the right of self determination? How has it been practiced legally and practically throughout history? And does self determination mean independence? [dur: 30mins.]

Hurst Hannum is Professor of International Law Emeritus at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is the author of, Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination: The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights, Rethinking self-determination and Rescuing Human Rights: A Radically Moderate Approach.

While the US Civil War ended slavery, it didn’t end the political issues that caused the war. What exactly happened in the immediate aftermath of the war?

Book Cover of Civil War by Other Means has an red X on the title of the book

The political divide in the US from the Civil War persists today. We discuss the history of the period and its impact on contemporary politics with Jeremi Suri author of the book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy . [ dur: 28 mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the 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 co-author of “Problems with President Records are Not Just About Trump” with Kenneth Osgood. He is also the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office. He is the host of the podcast This is Democracy.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – Bangladesh students revolt that ousted its president – August 25, 2024

August 25, 2024 host

What led to the overthrow of Bangladesh’s leader Sheikh Hasina? Were they political, economic, or social reasons? Or the promises of what advocates are calling a “second wave of independence”?
What does the new Bangladeshi government need to build upon this political moment? What can the government do to successfully democratize and economically develop the nation? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Ali Riaz is Distinguished Professor at the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University. He is the author of Pathways of Autocratization – The tumultuous journey of Bangladesh politics.
Mathilde Maitrot Senior Lecturer, Department of Social & Policy Sciences Centre for Development Studies at the University of Bath. She is the co-author of an article Discipline, development and duress: the art of winning an election in Bangladesh.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – Reforming Supreme Court of United States ; How proxy wars are dominating international relations – August 18, 2024

August 18, 2024 host

With the upcoming election Democrats have proposal to reform Supreme Court with term limits, ethics oversight and many more. Our panel look at how and why people are concerned over the influence peddling related to recent decisions. Hosted by Maria Armoudian. [ dur: 35mins. ]

Erwin Chemerinsky is the Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. His many publications include, most recently, Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights, and The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State (with Howard Gillman).
Andrew Koppelman is John Paul Stevens Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Increasingly Dangerous Variants of the “Most-Favored-Nation” Theory of Religious Liberty and The Supreme Court and the new religious aristocracy in the Hill.

Why do states choose to use third parties to intervene in other nation’s civil wars and political conflicts? On today’s show we interview Andrew Mumford on the legality, efficacy, and implications of the waging of proxy warfare. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 21 mins. ].

This interview was recorded in February 2020.

Andrew Mumford is Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at The University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author about Proxy Warfare Counterinsurgency Wars and the Anglo-American Alliance.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – President Biden chooses to step down and Kamala Harris ascendancy to lead the Democratic Party into November 2024 election – August 11, 2024

August 11, 2024 host

We explore the choice of Kamala Harris as the Democratic party’s candidate despite not running in primaries, the choice of President Biden to withdraw from the race, whether he should step down and what the decision means for age and service in the US, and some of the policy implications such as Supreme Court reform and foreign policy. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and 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 his latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He hosts the podcast This is Democracy.
Peter F. Trumbore is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Oakland University. He is the author of Brexit, the Border, and Political Conflict Narratives in Northern Ireland, with Andrew Owsiak. and Running on Foreign Policy? Examining the Role of Foreign Policy Issues in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 Congressional Campaigns.
Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.

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

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Scholars’ Circle – Book Author interview : Informers Up Close, case-study of Communist Czechoslovakia (1945-1989) – July 21, 2024

July 21, 2024 host

Autocratic regimes often use people throughout the population to serve as informants. Why do people choose to become an informant and collaborate with autocracies? And what constitutes justice against these informants once the state democratizes? We discuss a new book on the topic Informers Up Close with its authors Mark Drumbl and Barbora Hola. [ dur: 58mins. ]

photo of a windows on a multi-tenenat building with tile of the book Informers up close , stories from Communist Prague.

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 Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law , Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy and he is the co-editor of Sights, Sounds and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecution with Caroline Fournet.
Barbora Hola, Senior Researcher, NSCR & Professor Department of Criminal Law & Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is a Senior Researcher at the NSCR. She has an interdisciplinary focus and studies transitional justice after atrocities, in particular (international) criminal trials, sentencing of international crimes, rehabilitation of war criminals and life after trial at international criminal tribunals. She is co-editor of Punishment in International Society: Norms, Justice, and Punitive Practices.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Private Military Corporations and State responsibilities – July 14, 2024

July 14, 2024 host

Private Military Corporations have become a growing element of the warfighting landscape. States have historically had a monopoly on the use of military force. But private corporations challenge this monopoly. How much do they increase the lethality and likelihood of war? How much can private corporations be regulated? And what are the challenges to regulation? We explore the political, military, legal, and socioeconomic implications of private military corporations. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Ori Swed is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Texas Tech University. He is the editor of The Sociology of Privatized Security with Thomas Crosby. He is the author of “The Afghanistan War’s Legacy: The Reimagining of the Outsourcing of War and Security” and “No Accounting for Bad Contracting: Private Military and Security Contracts and Ineffective Regulation in Conflict Areas“
Sorcha MacLeod is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and member of the United Nations Working Group on the use of Mercenaries. She is the author of Certifying Private Security Companies: Effectively Ensuring the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights?, Defining private security accountability and Regulating human rights in the context of outsourcing military logistics and armed security.
Christopher Kinsey is Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. He is the author of International Law and the Control of Mercenaries and Private Military Companies, Turning war into business: Private security companies and commercial opportunism and the book Corporate Soldiers and International Security: The Rise of Private Military Companies
Anna Leander is Professor and Chair of the International Relations and Political Science Department at the Geneva Graduate Institute. She is the author of The Power to Construct International Security: On the Significance of Private Military Companies and Militarization matters: rhetorical resonances and market militarism. She is co-editor of Handbook of Private Military-Security Companies with Rita Abrahamsen.

This interview was recorded in July 2023.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – When democracies prosecute corruptions of its former political leaders – July 7, 2024

July 7, 2024 host

The criminal indictments of former President Trump have created a political crisis in their unprecedented nature. Historically, U.S. presidents have not faced criminal charges, even in cases where there is a high likelihood of guilt, in large part due to respect for the office. Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon embodies this norm.

What can the U.S. learn from other countries that have prosecuted former presidents? And what can we learn from American history about the prosecutions of political figures? Is the prosecution of former heads of state simply the weaponization of justice mechanisms? And how common is this political charge? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and 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 his latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He hosts the podcast This is Democracy.
Tom Ginsburg is Leo Spitz Professor of International Law and Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of the books The Endurance of National Constitutions, Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes,and co-author of the paper The Comparative Constitutional Law of Presidential Impeachment.
Ezequiel González Ocantos is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America, The Politics of Transitional Justice in Latin America: Power, Norms and Capability Building, and co-author of Prosecutors, Voters, and the Criminalisation of Corruption in Latin America(w/ Paula Muñoz, Nara Pavao & Viviana Baraybar).

This interview was recorded August, 2023.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – How Christian Nationalism affects elections in US ; Faith based Communities, a study – June 30, 2024

June 30, 2024 host

The rise of the religious right or Christian Nationalism aided in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and has been a significant voting bloc ever since. How much is this movement driving American politics? How organized are the groups that comprise the movement? And what exactly is its political agenda? [ dur: 35mins. ]

Katherine Stewart is the author of a new book, THE POWER WORSHIPPERS: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. She is an investigative reporter and author who has covered religious liberty, politics, policy, and education for over a decade. She is also the author of The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.

Book cover : Faith and Community by Rebecca Glazier

Churches and congregations are facing decreased attendance and low enthusiasm from younger populations. How has civic engagement built their numbers? Doug Becker explores with the author of a new book – Faith and Community: How Engagement Strengthens Members, Places of Worship, and Society.on the topic. [dur: 23mins. ]

Rebecca A. Glazier is Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is the Director of the Little Rock Congregations Study and author of Faith and Community: How Engagement Strengthens Members, Places of Worship, and Society.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Book Author interviews: Presidential Vetoes an historical view; Paradox of Free Speech – June 23, 2024

June 29, 2024 host

We discuss with John Vile his book Encyclopedia of Presidential Vetoes from Washington through to Biden – History, Subjects, and Procedures. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Book cover : Encyclopedia of Presidential Vetoes

John R. Vile is Dean and Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of, The Writing and Ratification of the U.S. Constitution: Practical Virtue in Action, Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2015, and ReFramers: 170 Eccentric, Visionary, and Patriotic Proposals to Rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

What are its legal, social, and political limitations of free speech? How does the advent of social media and concerns over misinformation have an impact on the exercise of free speech? And how do the new developments of free speech and its limits have an impact on the First Amendment protections? We discuss a new book You Can’t Always Say What You Want: The Paradox of Free Speech with its author Dennis Baron. [ dur: 29mins. ]

Dennis Baron is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a frequent commentator on language issues in the national media and has written a number of popular books, including What’s Your Pronoun? (2020).

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars’ Circle – Refugees right to return in international law ; Effects of earth’s magnetism on birds, whales, bees and turtles – September 8, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Right of Self-Determination ; Civil War politics examined- September 1, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Bangladesh students revolt that ousted its president – August 25, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Reforming Supreme Court of United States ; How proxy wars are dominating international relations – August 18, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – President Biden chooses to step down and Kamala Harris ascendancy to lead the Democratic Party into November 2024 election – August 11, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Book Author interview : Informers Up Close, case-study of Communist Czechoslovakia (1945-1989) – July 21, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – When democracies prosecute corruptions of its former political leaders – July 7, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – How Christian Nationalism affects elections in US ; Faith based Communities, a study – June 30, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Book Author interviews: Presidential Vetoes an historical view; Paradox of Free Speech – June 23, 2024

By Maria Armoudian