School News AGS

On September 29th, Larry Kilman hosted the first AGS Wine and Cheese Evening of the semester, on the theme of information, media, and democracy.

Larry Kilman is Associate Director for Communications at the Institute for Media Strategies and Assistant Professor of NGO Management at the American Graduate School in Paris. He is the former Secretary-General of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). He worked as a journalist for more than 20 years in Asia, Europe and the United States, primarily with Agence France-Presse, Radio Free Europe and The Associated Press.

The article below is adapted from his presentation.

How propaganda and entrenched beliefs weaken democracy"

By Larry Kilman

How propaganda and entrenched beliefs weaken democracyThe weakening of traditional media – both self-inflicted and by forces outside of their control -- poses a serious threat to democratic societies, and is already reducing our ability to protect our freedoms.

Despite the ease with which we can now access news and information, the primary role of news media – to serve as an independent watchdog against corruption, incompetence and other wrongdoing – has been undermined. This weakened role has allowed propaganda and lies to proliferate.

For the last two decades I’ve worked for an advocacy organization that defends and promotes press freedom, and the economic independence of news media as an essential condition of that freedom. When I began this work, the organization was led by a publisher from Brazil who was persecuted when the country was a military dictatorship, and by a Spanish editor who remembered the dark days of the Franco regime. That might seem like ancient history now, but not for them. Even after their rights were restored, they continued the fight wherever threats to press freedom occurred, and they continue to fight to this day -- because they do not take press freedom and freedom of expression for granted. They had suffered from a lack of freedom first hand.

Over the years, this work has brought me into contact with many courageous men and women who have been censored, persecuted, attacked, imprisoned and even murdered merely for trying to do their jobs in countries that do not respect freedom of expression. No matter where they came from – from countries as diverse as Lebanon, Cameroon, Vietnam, China and Russia – they all are similar in that they refused to bow to repression, and they all had a stubborn streak, refusing to give up the fight. We owe such people a debt of gratitude for defending this right at great personal cost – their societies, their countrymen and women and each and every one of us are the beneficiaries of this dedication.

It is worth mentioning, and it comes as a surprise to many people, that even today, the vast majority of the world’s population are denied the basic human right of freedom of expression.

I mentioned this to put things in perspective; we who are lucky enough to live and work in mature democracies sometimes take our rights for granted - we hardly give it a thought, we consider it like the air we breathe. But while we generally don’t face prison or physical attacks for speaking our mind or writing our opinions, that doesn’t mean we should complacently believe that all is well. Our rights can be slowly eroded without us really noticing until it is too late.

It is self-evident to say we are living in a world fraught with change – much of it good change, what we call progress, but much of it disturbing. Endless wars and aggression, terrorism, millions of refugees, the fracturing of the European Union, the rise of blind nationalism and sectarianism, not to mention the polarized environment of the US elections. And we need to understand this world, so we can cope with the difficult decisions it presents. So in the context of this discussion, the question for us is really, “are citizens getting the independent, credible news and information they need to make informed decisions in democratic society?”

You would think the answer would be clearly yes. The rise of digital and social media should have guaranteed it. Never before have citizens had greater access to information and tools to engage in debate. But unfortunately the availability of information is not necessarily translating into better informed citizens.

Consider:

- After the UK voted to exit the European Union, a survey by the Electoral Reform Society found that the public felt ill-informed about the vote. How could this be? No European issue has received more attention, and yet voters felt ill-informed. The polling showed that despite the flood of information, people felt they lacked clear insight about the vote and that the leadership on both sides failed to engage or convince them. In other words, they felt that most of what they were hearing was suspect; they lacked credible information to help them make a decision.

- A similar situation is occurring around the US presidential election. Research conducted by the Gallup Organization in conjunction with the University of Michigan and Georgetown found that seven in 10 Americans are reading, seeing or hearing something about the US presidential candidates on a regular basis. But again, they have little insight into essential issues. With the exception of Donald Trump’s views on immigration, they recall little about the policies of the candidates. In the case of Mr Trump, his accusations and statements are what they remember. For Hillary Clinton, it is her character, her past behavior, and her health.

- Most Americans, in fact, don’t seek out news and are not heavily engaged in it, according to research by the Pew Center. In the digital news environment, the role of friends and family is prominent for many – and for some it’s an echo chamber, Pew found. Not surprisingly, many rely on one-sided news from family and friends – and conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are very much alike in this regard – they’re more likely than moderate voters to rely on one-sided information.

- And ignorance can be dangerous. In a recent survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by researchers from Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton, two-thirds of the respondents said they were following the situation in Ukraine at least somewhat closely. This is what they say, but it is utter nonsense. The survey found that, despite their claims to be paying attention, they had little knowledge of Ukraine. Only 1 out of 6 could find Ukraine on a map. And this is why it is dangerous: the farther their guesses were from Ukraine’s actual location, the more they wanted the US to intervene with military force.

These are just a few examples, but I think it is safe to say that we live in an information world where it has become more difficult to differentiate between independent, credible information and propaganda, where misinformation and conspiracy spread like wildfire. Technology, combined with a lack of trust in institutions – including traditional media -- and lack of transparency contributes to this rapid spread.

This has long been a chronic problem where people are kept in the dark by restrictions on free expression; but we’re seeing it now all around us – in Turkey, where the recent coup is widely seen as being backed by the US, despite any evidence; in the UK, where many voters believed exaggerated claims about the cost of UK membership in the EU; and in the United States, where many continue to believe that President Obama is a Muslim born outside of the US and that climate change is a myth.

You may even have heard a term for this – “post-truth politics” – which The Economist defines as a reliance on assertions that “feel true” but have no basis in fact. In a fragmented media environment, where the opinions of family and friends often carry more weight than not-to-be-trusted news sources, strongly held beliefs seem almost immune to contradictory facts.

Ricardo Gandour, a Brazilian journalist who has just completed a study on this very issue at Columbia University, notes that many surveys show that traditional newsrooms – which he calls “stable platforms of journalistic production” -- are still the source of significant amounts of news. But he adds: “with newsrooms reeling, and staffing decimated, a weakening of the stable platforms threatens to cause general informational impoverishment, a degradation of the entire information ecosystem.

“Adding to the worry, people today are exposed to news mixed with gossip, opinion, hot takes, and branded content, from a variety of sources but often through a single platform—mainly social networks, which tend toward a clustering of like-minded individuals.”

In short, many people are living in a echo chamber where already entrenched ideas are reinforced. Ask yourself, has a Facebook post every succeeded in getting someone to change their mind? It is probably more likely that people who regularly receive posts that don’t support their views will block the sender rather than be convinced to change their opinion.

This echo chamber effect is being partially blamed for the low turnout among young voters in the Brexit referendum. Young people were overwhelmingly against leaving, and many were shocked by the results – as those in their circle overwhelmingly shared the same opinion, they never thought the leave option had a chance of succeeding. This clearly influenced those who opted not to vote.

This is not to say we should be entirely pessimistic. There is much that can and is being done.

Most importantly, it’s essential to reject the claim that “news finds you.” To break out of the echo chamber, you have to seek out news sources that don’t find their way to you by algorithm or by like-minded friends and family members. Multiple news sources, including those you don’t agree with, are more important than ever.

It is also important to be aware of where news comes from. Far too often, you will hear someone say they “heard it on the news”, when in fact a little probing will determine the source was an e-mail of dubious provenance. Traditional media has their faults, but in the long run they arguably remain the most dependable sources of news. Their newsrooms may be smaller than they once were, but they still have dedicated staffs that are doing much to fulfill their essential role as providers of credible information. No emerging media has yet to fulfill this role on a wide basis.

News organizations deserve your financial support – their decline is no small thing, and their business models are broken. Advertising once largely funded large newsrooms, but today

Facebook and Google take the majority of online advertising – 85 cents of every new dollar spent on online advertising in the US, according to Morgan Stanley. They provide great services, but they are largely advertising-funded companies and they are sucking the market dry. These companies provide distribution platforms for vast amounts of information, but little if any funding for journalism creation – you could say they’ve built their revenue on the back of information created by others, with little or no recompense to the creators. Newsrooms now largely depend on reader revenue to maintain themselves. And society as a whole will suffer if they fail.

Finally, media literacy must be higher on the education agenda – understanding when and how you’re exposed to bias and manipulation should be a priority in schools, and early. It’s important to be skeptical, but not cynical. We are living in an age where we are bombarded with information – what we need to make informed choices is in the mix, it’s just a matter of finding it in all the noise.

This semester the NGO course started with an inspiring account by Ahmed Samy Lotf, who was invited by Professor Ruchi Anand to talk to his fellow students about his experience interning with a refugee relief NGO in Greece.

As part of his Master’s program at AGS, Ahmed devoted his summer to helping refugees from Syria and other countries with the humanitarian organization ERCI (Emergency Response Centre International). His internship encompassed two types of mission in two different locations: in Thessaloniki, in the North of Greece, he participated in an educational program for a refugee camp, where he was in charge of drafting the curriculum. On the island of Lesbos, one of the epicenters of the migration crisis, he participated in a special rescue program, helping boats of refugees ashore and providing assistance to facilitate their access to proper medical care, housing and other forms of aid.

This internship has allowed Ahmed to gain insight of the reality on the ground of a global crisis that has been at the forefront of the current international relations issues, one that has both deep humanitarian and deep political implications. In his presentation, Ahmed related this experience to the larger NGO sector and international relations arena.

This internship came as a natural milestone in a journey that started a few years ago when Ahmed decided to shift careers and leave business for a profession that would allow him to help others at a global level. This took him from his home country Egypt, through Turkey, to the American Graduate School in Paris to complete a Master's in International Relations and Diplomacy. As he is about to finish this program, Ahmed says: “Now I have the tools to enter the world that I need to enter, which is that of NGOs and International Organizations, to help better causes for a better world.”

Below are a few pictures of Ahmed during his internship in Greece (courtesy of ERCI)

On July 15, Professor Ruchi Anand invited AGS alumna Laura-Lee Smith to give a guest lecture in the JSA summer course on International Relations that she teaches at Princeton University.

Ms. Smith gave an overview of NATO’s origins, its expansion over time, and its future, evaluating five different possible scenarios and discussing critical considerations regarding burden-sharing of the twenty-eight member countries.

Laura-Lee Smith graduated from the American Graduate School in Paris in 2009, earning her M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy. Her Master’s thesis focused on the efficacy of nuclear-deterrent economic sanctions and the role of direct diplomacy in the US-Iran case. As a dual degree student, she also earned a second Master’s degree in Diplomacy and Strategic Negotiation from AGS’s partner institution Université Paris-Sud.

Upon graduation, Ms. Smith did an internship at the US Department of State in Washington, before accepting a two-year research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to conduct a study on the NATO mission in Afghanistan, focusing on the role of Germany.

Ms. Smith specializes in foreign and security studies. As a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, her published research findings are about German public opinion and NATO burden-sharing in the Afghanistan conflict. Her analyses are based on interviews with political leaders, diplomatic and military officials, and special advisors from the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, German Bundestag, German Bundeswehr, NATO, and European Commission.

A six-year Berlin resident, Ms. Smith now lectures at the SRH Hochschule Berlin where she coordinates the Foreign Expertise Module. She is also working on her Ph.D. at the University of Erfurt, Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. Her dissertation topic is "An Empirical Study of Local Security in Afghanistan, 2008-2013". (See Laura-Lee Smith's profile on the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy website.)

Commenting on her participation in Dr. Anand’s course at Princeton, Ms. Smith says: “It was an exceptional teaching day and wonderful to meet Ruchi again after our last meeting at the AGS graduation in the French Senate seven years ago. Ruchi continues to be an inspiration for me and I admire her passion for her students and research. I am very thankful to her for allowing me to teach her talented students of JSA Princeton University.”

Dr. Ruchi Anand has been teaching for the JSA (Junior Statesmen of America) program every summer since 2002, at Georgetown, Stanford and Princeton, in addition to her academic activities at AGS.

The American Graduate School in Paris graduation ceremony took place on June 4^th in the French Senate in Paris. H.E. Lawrence Cannon, Canada’s Ambassador to France and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, was the commencement speaker. Graduates from the US, India, Egypt, Nigeria and Norway were awarded a Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from AGS in partnership with Arcadia University. “Celebrating our graduates from around the world with an American degree in this landmark of French political institutions is a nice symbol of the international character of the American Graduate School in Paris”, said AGS’s president Eileen Servidio-Delabre.

In his address, Ambassador Cannon encouraged the graduates to keep learning throughout their career: “Wherever you are from, however you got here and whatever your future destination is, you will remember this day for the rest of your life. You can be very proud of what you have achieved here. (...) You are forever a graduate of the American Graduate School in Paris. More than the crowning of a memorable stage in your life, you should consider this graduation day as the beginning of a most productive period of your life – literally, a commencement. Some among you may choose to continue your studies, while others will head out in the professional world immediately. One way or the other, you are embarking on a journey where stiff competition and a rapidly changing environment will be the norm. The two most important tools you will be needing during this journey are knowledge and perseverance.”

Ambassador Cannon went on to share an inspiring account of his own experience: "Mine has been a career that spans roughly forty years in public service at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels of government of Canada, and now as an Ambassador. Along that way I have met many interesting and important people, from the Dalai Lama to the King of Saudi Arabia, I have seen many fascinating places, from the ice fields of the Arctic to the sands of Afghanistan. I have dealt with a surprising variety of issues, from the safety of baby car seats to nuclear disarmament. I’ve learned a lot on how societies choose or do not choose to govern themselves. But the most important thing that I have learned is that I still have things to learn.”

Conferring the diplomas upon the graduates along with Dr. Servidio-Delabre was Dr. Warren Haffar, Dean of International Affairs at Arcadia University: “As the accrediting institution for your degree, Arcadia takes special pride in AGS – in its mission, in its faculty and staff, in its students, and in its stunning location, we really acknowledge how special this program is. What each of you graduating today has done in completing your Master’s degree is of particular importance, at this point in our current history, to reaffirm the importance of diplomacy as the best tool for international relations.”

Dr. Servidio-Delabre further emphasized the value of using this tool and the education acquired at AGS as agents of change: “Whatever you do, whether you work for your government, or for an NGO, or in finance, you can make a difference. Little differences are just as important as big differences – and we all can make small differences. If you do that, you will give value to your diplomas.”

Following the conferring of degrees, Aurora Eck Nilsen, a graduate of the dual Master’s program in International Relations and Diplomacy (AGS) and International Peace and Conflict Resolution (Arcadia), gave a testimony as a student representative. “Looking around the room today it highlights one of the great strengths of AGS – that it is a truly international school. It has provided an extremely interesting perspective and it has taken our discussions to a new level. I have been challenged from perspectives I haven’t met anywhere else in my life. I think it has helped us to become more sensitive, emphatic and tolerant, which are key qualities in our field. Another great strength of our school is our professors, who have showed us true devotion.” She went on to comment on each one of her classmates' qualities: “We are truly international people, with roots around the world. It feels like the future could be anything, anywhere. There is no doubt that this group will go on to do amazing things.”

See photo albums on Facebook:

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Robert Clarke, AGS Class of 2018, was invited to present a paper at the 18^th International Conference on Education to be held in Athens, Greece on May 16-19, where he will represent the government of Liberia. Hosted by the Athens Institute for Education and Research, this annual conference brings together scholars and graduate students from all over the world to discuss international education issues. Among the other conference speakers this year are scholars from Purdue University in the US, Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France, UCL in the UK, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and other institutions in Canada, Russia, Taiwan, and South Africa, and other countries.

Robert Clarke’s paper is entitled “The implications of the lack of quality education on Liberian Youth and Economy”. It looks at such indexes as unemployment and higher mortality rates, crime, lack of standard health facilities, and imperatively education, and offers recommendations.

Robert Clarke will also attend two other conferences in the coming weeks: on June 6-10, he will attend the 25^th International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) in Finland, on the theme of self-directed learning and democratic culture. On June 13-17, he will attend a conference on “Human Rights in Age of Ambiguity”. This conference is hosted by Fordham University and coordinated by the Human Rights sections of the International Studies Association (ISA) the American Political Science Association (APSA), the International Political Science Association (IPSA), and the European Consortium for Political Research.

When asked to comment on this already impressive scholarly track record for a first year Master’s student, Clarke says he was recommended by Professor Ruchi Anand to answer call for papers and submit abstracts. In order to encourage her students to present at conferences and gain scholarly experience, Professor Anand has made abstract submission a course requirement in her Theory and Factors of Analysis in IRD.

Robert Clarke is also very active on the professional and practice side. Since his arrival in Paris last October, ahead of the start of the semester, he has established a foundation in his country, Liberia, READ foundation – acronym for “Reforming Education and African Development”. The mission of the foundation is to empower young people (with prime focus on girls’ education) to bridge the gap between the youth population and the government of Liberia, by providing or supporting education opportunities to children and teenagers, providing career guidance, and forming partnerships with universities in the US, Europe, and Asia to negotiate fee waivers and scholarships for Liberian students. As founder of READ foundation, Mr. Clarke has partnered two executive members, both of which are females with an eye and passion for working with underprivileged children in Africa: Ms. Leda Knowlden, a Liberian national who is now based in the US, and Ms. Janice Johnson, a citizen of Ghana. Both have extensive professional experience in the humanitarian sector. The vision of READ foundation is not limited to Liberia but extends to other countries across the African continent, so as to enable children and young people across borders to benefit from the opportunities it seeks to create.

Robert Clarke joined the Master’s in International Relations and Diplomacy program at AGS in Spring 2016. “I look forward to returning to Liberia and focusing on building READ foundation as an institution of prominence, but importantly as a place of hope for children across Africa.”

On April 21-22 the American Graduate School in Paris is holding its 11th annual graduate student conference on the theme “The Complexity of Religion in International Politics: Theoretical, Legal, and Geopolitical Perspectives.” Taking place in Paris, the conference will gather academics, graduate students, and professionals from ten countries to discuss the growing importance of religion in world politics.

Dr. Ruchi Anand, the professor who initiated the Annual Graduate Student Conference at AGS, explains that the goal of the conference this year is “to contest and eventually unseat naïve notions that the world is today a secular place, that the complexities and influences of religion do not impact personal, national, or international politics. Religion as a marker of personal, group and state identities has been a determinant of international cooperation and conflicts long before Huntington’s clash-of-civilizations or Albrights’ mighty-and-almighty theses. It continues to influence our globalized world where religion is a powerful determination of identity being, becoming and belonging. Even today, at least thirteen countries have laws that criminalize atheists. Leaders like Cameron chose to describe the UK as a ‘Christian country’ when only 30% of its citizens consider themselves religious. Wars are fought over real and ‘constructed’ religious messages. Terrorism maligns the name of religions while many others simply practice their faiths. At this conference we will brainstorm the many facets of religion and dialogue about this important and difficult subject in a respectful and meaningful manner with the purpose of making sense of it through academic exchanges."

During the two-day event, other panelists from the United States, France, Germany, Egypt, Turkey, and other countries will discuss a variety of topics dealing with the nexus of religion and politics, including the case of sectarian conflict in Ireland, the frontier of China and Mongolia, the Muslims of Georgia, the Islamic State and the war on ISIS.

The keynote panel closing the conference will include Ambassador Graeme Clark, Minister, Deputy Head of Mission at the Canadian Embassy in France; Dr. Christophe Grannec, a Francophone Canadian professor whose research on the role of NGOs and international organizations in promoting inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue was recently published as Le dialogue interculturel et interreligieux à l’heure de la mondialisation; Dr. Manlio Graziano, associate professor at AGS, an Italian scholar specializing in the geopolitics of religion whose recent publications include Holy War and Holy Alliance, describing the relationship between world religions and international disorder and In Rome We Trust about the increasing political influence of Catholics in American politics; and Dr. Sabrina Pastorelli, a French researcher specializing in politics and religion in Europe, whose recent publications include Religion in the Public Spaces and The Burqa Affair Across Europe. Ambassador Michael Einik, former American Ambassador to Macedonia, who teaches courses on diplomacy at AGS, will moderate the panel.

The AGS International Graduate Student Conference is hosted every year with the purpose of offering a forum for the exchange of ideas on the most pressing issues of international relations. Through this annual conference, the American Graduate School in Paris seeks to build bridges between academics and practitioners in the field to examine these well-known issues beyond the headlines and explore the wider context and the implications for international relations. The event is entirely organized by AGS Master’s and Ph.D. candidates in the AGS International Relations and Diplomacy programs in Paris, under the supervision of Professor Ruchi Anand, author of Self-Defense in International Relations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

See conference schedule

See keynote panelists' biographies

For its first meeting of the Spring semester on March 17^th, The AGS Middle East Society was honored to welcome British-Iranian journalist Sanam Shantyaei to talk about the political situation of Iran in the international political landscape.

A specialist of Iran and the Middle East, Sanam Shantyaei has more than a decade of experience as a foreign correspondent and international news television producer.  She notably established Reuters’ TV operations in Tehran, where she covered the Iranian 2009 presidential elections and the mass street protests that followed, as well as the escalation of the nuclear standoff with the West, and the storming of the British embassy in 2011.  She is currently based in Paris, where she is a correspondent for the international news network France 24 and a specialist of Iran coverage.

She shared her expertise with AGS’s students, faculty, alumni, as well as guest students from Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas and Université Paris Sud, during a 30-minute presentation that gave a clear and insightful picture of the stakes of the Iranian elections and the situation of the country since president Rohani came to power in 2013.

Here is a brief summary of her talk:

How much has Iran changed under President Hossan Rohani who came to power in 2013? Iranians had suffered from what is called ‘voter fatigue’ and were reluctant to go to the polls.  Under Ahmadinejad’s administration the country had been economically crippled, not only because of the sanctions, but because of corruption.  Iran’s relations with the international community had deteriorated.  The international image of the country was damaged, especially by such things as Ahmadinejad’s denial of the holocaust.  In addition, in 2009 many Iranians had taken to the streets to protest what they thought were fraudulent elections, to no avail.  “But the closer we got to the 2013 poll, the more we understood that a vote for someone like Hassan Rohani would be a vote for reform and moderation over extremism.”  Rohani was endorsed by the former reformist president Mohammad Khotami for whom he used to be Iran’s nuclear negotiator. They had established a detente with the international community and, for the first time, had scaled back Iran’s uranium enrichment program.  With his reform-leaning policies he managed to win some 70% of Iran’s voters.  The current cabinet has more US college graduates than any other (non-US) country in the world.  Although they still believe in the values of the Islamic republic and the revolution they fought for, having lived in the West they understand the need to modernize and have the ability to act as intermediaries with the West.  They have used social media.  Members of the cabinet have gone on Facebook and Twitter to inform the Iranians about what they are doing.  For example, when the interim agreement was reached during the nuclear negotiations, the foreign minister tweeted five magical words:  “We have reached an agreement.”   That is how we journalists got the news.   Secondly, they used social media to create a positive image of themselves. Rohani took to Twitter to wish all Jews a blessed Rosh Hashanah, which set a different precedent from Ahmadinejad, creating a different image of the Iranian government in the international community.  This is in a context where these social media are banned in Iran.  So what we are witnessing is an administration that is changing the way it is communicating as well as its government policies.  For example, consider the historical nuclear deal.  “I have been covering these negotiations since 2008.  At so many different points we thought it was not going to happen.  And the reason for that was because there was so much opposition coming from so many angles.  There was opposition from Iran’s long-time enemy Israel, from Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, from Tehran’s hard liners and Washington’s hawks.  None of the groups mentioned wanted an agreement.  So it was up to Zarif, the main negotiator, and Rohani, the president, to make this a success.”  After Zarif shook the hand of President Barack Obama on the sideline of the UN General Assembly, some conservatives in Tehran called for his impeachment.  But Rohani and Zarif were able to succeed because they got the stamp of approval from Iran’s highest official, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.  “If he hadn’t supported the deal we wouldn’t have one today.” After this historic nuclear deal Iran is coming out of the darkness.  Iran is one of the world’s largest oil producers.  In addition to that, 100 billion dollars of Iran’s own assets are being released by the US back into the country.  Rohani travelled to Europe and has managed to sign contracts worth billions of dollars with European countries.  “This was a good deal.  Why?  What was the alternative?  A potential military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which would have drawn in other regional players, at a time when the region has crumbled under the Islamic state group in Iraq and Syria.”  Now the US-led coalition can enlist Iran, the only power with ‘boots on the ground’ into its fight against ISIS. Iran is no longer a nuclear threat against Israel.  But they still face a lot of opposition.  Which brings us to the subject of the recent elections.  These generated a lot of international and media attention because they also involved the election of the Assembly of Experts, who will select the next Supreme Leader.   These will be the most important elections because these people will select the man who runs the country – not Rohani, but the Supreme Leader.  Whoever dominates that council will choose the person who leads Iran for the next generation to come.

Inaugurated last semester as an initiative by AGS students under the impulse of AGS professors Mariam Habibi and Joav Toker, the Middle East Society organizes talks, debates, and screenings around various themes related to Middle Eastern culture and politics.  At each of these events, a few seats are reserved to the public; if you are interested in attending, please write to info@ags.edu.

On Tuesday, March 1st Professor Yates organized his yearly thematic tour of "Legal London and the Magna Carta" with his students from the Law School of Cergy Pontoise, AGS's partner school offering the dual program "LL.M. in French and European Union Law and Business Ethics". The excursion consists of a one-day trip to London, with a guided tour of the Royal Courts of Justice and a visit to the British Library, which hosts two of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. This trip gives a quick yet insightful illustration of the history of the Common Law, which has influenced not only the British legal system but also that of the United States, and has therefore, indirectly, contributed to shaping international relations today.

Given the success of this excursion and the relevance of it to the International Relations program, it was decided that the next edition would be open to AGS students. Douglas Yates says: "I look forward to AGS students' experiencing an English Jury Trial first-hand, as part of our program's commitment to experiential learning."

By Dr. Manlio Graziano, Assistant Professor of Geopolitics and Geopolitics of Religion at AGS

Colin Gray, one of the most important strategic thinkers of the 19^th century, wrote that geopolitics deals with “the important and enduring, as opposed to the trivial and the transient”. The ongoing crisis in the Middle East has shed a light on some “important and enduring” traits of international politics that “trivial and transient” ideological blindness has kept hidden for a long time.

Russia and Turkey have been at war twelve times throughout history; the first time being in 1569 over the Khanate of Astrakhan. In the 17th and 18^th centuries, the two countries were at war on an average of every 25 years, and in 1877 Russians were a step away from achieving their historical dream: the conquest of Constantinople, also known as Tsarigrad in Russian, the Tsar’s city.

For Russia, the control of Constantinople was crucial in creating a route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea; from this perspective the connection between Crimea and Syria today is clearer. The Bosporus and Dardanelles straits would allow Russia continual navigable sea access, writing a fresh new chapter in her history. It is, in fact, the lack of year-round navigable waters that has kept Russia from becoming a superpower, by slowing its economic exchanges and also by compromising its military activities.

Nowadays, however, it seems out of place to speak about Russia’s will to become a superpower. The conditions are missing: the falling oil prices, the ruble crisis and the international sanctions placed on Moscow do not improve her short- or mid-term perspectives. Nevertheless, because of their history and traditions, the Russian elite tend to care more about what is important and enduring. In other words, it has a geopolitical vision of the world that many of its competitors lack because of their trivial and transient concerns.

This does not mean that we will soon face a thirteenth Russian-Turkish war, or that Putin has in mind to conquer Istanbul. It means, instead, that when important and enduring matters are at stake, Russian and Turkish interests collide.

But this is not the only important and enduring feature that the Middle East conflict has revived. A geopolitical rivalry between Turkey and Iran has also begun to arise again. In terms of longue durée, this rivalry is much more deeply rooted in the past than that of the Russian-Turkish rivalry since it has been inherited from the conflict between the Persians and Greeks; Ottoman Turks being the latter’s geopolitical heirs. The most ancient of those wars goes back to the 5th century BCE, two thousand years before the first war between Turkey and Russia. The heart of the conflict between the Greek-Turkish world and the Persian world was Mesopotamia. The second to last event of that conflict was the conquest of the Tigris and Euphrates plains by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century, which constituted the climax of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the downfall of the Persian Safavid Empire. The last leg of this long-lasting conflict was the return of Iran to Mesopotamia following the Saddam Hussein’s fall and the rise to power of the pro-Iranian faction’s in Baghdad.

Even the Turkish and Iranian elite have a geopolitical point of view about international relations. The extraordinary economic growth and the rapid democratization of the country in the first decade of the 21st century had led Ankara to undertake a course of action that was soon labeled as “Neo-Ottoman.” This “Neo-Ottoman” vision aimed at reestablishing the ancient Balkan, North African and, especially, Middle Eastern connections of the empire that fell one-hundred years ago. On the other hand, Iran, after the pathetic failure of Khomeini’s pan-Islamist project and because of the American intervention in 2003, turned again toward his traditional area of interest: Mesopotamia and the Greater Syria. Those who claim that after the end of Khomeini’s (and Ahmadinejad’s) era the Tehran ruling class is today more Persian than Muslim are not entirely wrong.

For its part, the European Union does not and cannot have a geopolitical point of view of its external relations because of its short historical background, and since it lacks a continental common interest. Today, the EU is composed of 28 different, and often opposite, national interests, and it has more than 28 different geopolitical traditions. This could lead to a situation where the German chancellor travels to Istanbul to blame the Russians, while in Paris the voices favorable to a crucial role of Russia toward a resolution in the Syrian crisis are always more audible. Given the fluctuating historical relations of Germany and France with Russia, it is quite possible that Berlin and Paris interchange positions tomorrow. But today it is difficult not to think of the August 1914 alliances.

Yet, geopolitics is not fatalism. Dealing with the important and the enduring is essential. This does not however, prevent from making disastrous decisions. Thus, the fact that Russia’s, Turkey’s and Iran’s resolve has been set by their geopolitical vision will not prevent them from paving their way to hell.

This article was published in Italian on the news website La Voce di New York on February 11th, 2016: see here.

The AGS Middle East Society is resuming its activities for the Spring. The first meeting of the semester will be held on March 17th. The theme of the talk and discussion will be the situation of Iran in the Middle East and in the international political landscape, with a particular focus on the upcoming Iranian elections and the relief of sanctions by the international community.

Our guest speaker will be Sanam Shantyaei, a British-Iranian journalist with more than a decade's experience as a foreign correspondent and international news television producer. A speaker of French, English, Spanish, Italian and Farsi, Sanam has lived and worked in Britain, France, Cuba, Italy and Iran. She is currently based in Paris, where she is a correspondent for the international news network France 24, for which she is also notably a specialist on Iran coverage. Previously, Sanam worked for Reuters news agency, and established its TV operations in Tehran, during which she covered the country's disputed 2009 presidential elections and subsequent mass street protests, as well as the escalation of the nuclear standoff with the West, and the storming of the British embassy in 2011.

Inaugurated last semester as an initiative by AGS students, led by professors Mariam Habibi and Joav Toker, the Middle East Society organizes talks, debates, and screenings, around various themes related to Middle Eastern culture and politics.Two more events are planned this semester after the March meeting, in April and May. A few seats are reserved to the public; if you are interested in attending, please write to info@ags.edu.