School News AGS

Dr. Kathryn Harrison, Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, will be animating AGS's next Wine and Cheese evening on Wednesday May 6th, with a discussion of "International Carbon Trade and Domestic Climate Politics."

The presentation will begin with a puzzle: how have jurisdictions such as Norway, whose economies rely on fossil fuel production, emerged as climate leaders? The answer lies in the fact that international responsibility is assigned exclusively to territorial emissions, thus allowing countries that export most of the fossil fuels they produce to evade responsibility for the much greater emissions that inevitably will occur at the point of combustion. The case of fossil fuel exporters prompts a broader examination of the implications for domestic politics of three distinct roles countries play in the global carbon supply chain - fossil fuel producer, manufacturer of carbon-intensive goods, and final consumer. By offloading environmental responsibility to trading partners, however unintentionally, those that export fossil fuels or import carbon-intensive goods lessen the political challenges of reducing domestic emissions. The conclusion speculates that shifting responsibility for carbon emissions to either the point of final consumption or fossil fuel extraction could facilitate international agreement.

Bringing students, staff, professors, and guests together around a buffet of French wine and cheeses in an informal atmosphere, AGS Wine and Cheese evenings have become a tradition of the school and the opportunity to host interesting talks and debates on various aspects of international affairs.

Dr. Kathryn Harrison is a Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. She is also a chemical engineer, and started her career working in the Canadian oil sands. She is the author of the book Passing the Buck: Federalism and Canadian Environmental Policy, co-author of Risk, Science, and Politics, and editor of three volumes, the most recent of which is Global Commons, Domestic Decisions: The Comparative Politics of Climate Change. Her current project is a study of the comparative politics of carbon taxes in five countries, one of which is France. See full profile.

This talk and discussion will take place on Wednesday, May 6th at 6:00 pm. A few seats are open on RSVP: please contact info@ags.edu for confirmation and directions.

The 10th edition of the AGS graduate conference was a success, with participants from all over the world gathered in Paris to discuss the Influence and Role of NGOs in Global Governance. Speakers from Canada, Hungary, Nigeria, India, Guatemala, Ireland, Austria, France, the US, New Zealand, and Haiti shared their research findings and experience on various aspects of the topic, with thematic panels on NGOs' impact on policy change, gender equality and LGBT rights, international development, and human rights.

A highlight of the conference was the keynote panel, featuring Jean-Marie Fardeau, Director of Human Rights Watch France, Susan Perry, Professor at AUP, and Rahel Steinbach, Programme Officer at UNEP, engaging in a stimulating and inspiring discussion on what NGOs can achieve locally and internationally.

"While NGOs can't change global governance, they can achieve crucial goals such as fighting violence against women and the issue of child soldiers," says Jean-Marie Fardeau. "Speaking from my experience at Human Rights Watch, we have the flexibility that enables us to catch new issues as they appear, such as that of killer robots, and put them on top of the global agenda." Rahel Steinbach adds: "Just seeing the life threats that NGO leaders receive tells you how useful they are and how much motivation they have."

By bringing in this practitioners' insight along with the scholarly exchanges, this conference aims at bridging the gap between academia and action in the field. "Some of us are planning to start our own NGO someday, and it is priceless for us to have this knowledge as we progress toward this goal." says Lucas Miglionico, M.A. candidate at AGS (class of 2016).

An innovation of this year's edition, the second day of the conference was devoted to workshops combining expert presentations with enhanced interaction and brainstorming. The four panels focused on NGOs in Democratic vs. Non-democratic States, NGOs and International Law, International Development, and Partnerships with Multinational Corporations. The discussions were led by Chiara Condi, Head of the Paris-based NGO LedByHer, Dr. Ruchi Anand, AGS Professor and Conference Faculty coordinator, and two AGS students: Sakshi Mishra, M.A. candidate, and Emirjona Cake, Ph.D. Candidate.

Ahmed Samy Lotf (class of 2016), who came from Egypt to complete his Master's in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS after living in the US, in Turkey, says: "The discussions and ideas that came out of these workshops were much more informative to me than anything I could get from formal conference discussions. This was a great opportunity to bring together academics with their expert knowledge, practitioners with their real-life experience, and active learning students with their fresh minds and out-of-the-box thinking. This group diversity, along with the informality and freeness of the discussions, resulted in highly innovative ideas. It will be up to us, students, to develop those ideas and integrate them into future public policy-making."

In addition to the new ideas and increased awareness, another outcome of the conference was the rich educational and professional experience that it yielded to the AGS students who organized the event and to those who took part in the panels. For the AGS conference is entirely organized by the students, under the faculty supervision of Dr. Ruchi Anand and with a new student director every year – each one passing on the tradition to the next.

Rebecca Apperson, M.A. candidate (class of 2015) was the student director this year. She says: "Organizing an event from start to finish in itself is a challenge and a great source of learning in terms of vision, planning, logistics and... determination! The multiplicity of facets of this single event, from writing the call for papers, to reviewing the abstracts and putting together the panels, to coordinating the teamwork and marketing the event to outside participants, made it a highly relevant experience with highly transferrable skills for our future careers. This was also a great opportunity to network with professionals and other graduate students in our field. And the long days of work with a good mix of excitement, pressure and laughter made for lifelong memories!"

Dr. Ruchi Anand says: "What an amazing two days of intellectual festivities in Paris on our little planet AGS! Initiated by me a decade ago, the Graduate Student Conference at AGS reaffirms my undying faith in the power of dialogue to foster an exchange of ideas among like-minded young intellectuals in generating new and innovative ways of treating subjects of international relations. Discussing the role of NGO’s at all levels of global governance - local, national and global - on several problem areas, the panels and workshops, with a noteworthy participation from AGS students, achieved the goals of the conference. The theme of this year's conference was particularly timely for AGS as it launched the NGO Certificate program a year ago, which seeks to combine the academic and practitioner oriented perspectives on a very important, emerging-at-the-forefront, rich and complex field of study – NGOs & civil society in global governance.”

More on the Certificate in NGO management program

This AGS Graduate Student Conference 2015 was organized with the support of AGS's partners Fondation Alliance Française, Maison des Cultures du Monde, and Banque Populaire Rives de Paris.

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Day 1 | Day 2

AGS now has dedicated housing available for its students, with 30 fully renovated studios or one-bedroom units in a modern apartment building located in the upscale 16th arrondissement of Paris.

This new development was decided by AGS make it easier for its students to move and settle in Paris. The French capital, like most European capitals, is known for having a challenging housing situation, with, often, long searches and a lot of competition of future tenants. In addition, due to the French laws that are very protective of landlords, many documents and guarantees are required from the tenant, which can make it complicated to obtain the right to rent an apartment. While AGS has had extensive – and successful - experience in helping students to navigate through this system, having dedicated housing will allow for even greater flexibility and efficiency.

“Very few Parisian institutions in Paris can offer their own housing to students, especially in the heart of Paris,” says Alexis Delabre, Chairman of the Board of AGS, who initiated this project through a partnership with Fondation Alliance Française. “This option will not only facilitate the housing situation of our students, it will also contribute to enhancing the sense of community among AGSers.”

The building is located on rue de Musset, a small and quiet residential street a block away from the larger tree-lined Avenue de Versailles, which has all of the stores and cafés for a perfect Parisian life. This neighbourhood is known for being safe and pleasant, with a good combination of quietness and liveliness. It is within walking distance to the famous Marché d’Auteuil open-air farmer’s market (10 minutes), the Bois de Boulogne park for a daily jog (10 minutes), and the banks of the Seine river, and 30 minutes door-to-door to school by metro or tramway.

The 30 apartments are all equipped with a bathroom, a kitchenette, and Wifi. A lot of attention is being put into the furnishing, which is underway, so that all apartments are as welcoming as the school. 

More details here

See the latest pictures, taken as the last renovations were being done:

AGS is offering a newly redesigned International MBA program. Still following the one-year format of the existing MBA, taught in Paris and fully accredited in the US in partnership with Arcadia University, the newly redesigned program includes an added specialization in global management and international development. This extended focus will lead graduates to an even wider spectrum of careers, qualifying them for positions not only in the corporate world, but also in intergovernmental organizations and NGOs.

This new development builds on the successful MBA experience of the past four years to further enhance the advantages of combining AGS's expertise in International Affairs with Arcadia's expertise in Global Business. "Bridging International Relations with International BUsiness is meant to best provide corporate leaders with an in-depth understanding of the cultural, social and political context in which they operate at an international level." explains Dr. Alexis Delabre, Chairman of the Board of the American Graduate School in Paris.

A highlight of this new program will be a field experience taking the students to a developing country to work on a micro-finance project with rural communities. Students will also be able to take elective courses from the International Relations graduate course catalog, allowing them to tailor the program around their particular interests and career objectives. 

See more information on this program.

(Photo: Arcadia University website)

Dr. Rahel Steinbach, Programme Officer at the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), Energy Branch, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, will be delivering a talk in Dr. Anand's International Environmental Politics class on Thursday March 19 from 3-4 pm. This talk will be part of the course discussion on Environmental Justice. Dr. Steinbach's talk is entitled, "Gender and Sustainable Development: An inextricable Link". It will focus on the reasons for mainstreaming gender into environmental and sustainable development approaches and demonstrate how it is being done. She will be accompanied by her team-mate Marie Jalabert.

Dr. Rahel Steinbach is an international development practitioner with expertise in sustainable development, climate change, energy efficiency, gender mainstreaming, bottom-up development/grassroot initiatives, project management, and strategic organizational management. She has 14 years development experience with UN agencies, government, civil society and private sector covering Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas with a holistic focus on socio-economic and sustainable development issues. Dr. Steinbach has extensive experience in strategic planning, financial and operational analysis, policy formulation, programme and fund management, including experience in financial and results-based reporting and evaluation. She has a Ph.D. in sustainable development focusing on bottom-up development (grassroot initiatives) and is fluent in English, French, Spanish and German.

On February 12th, AGS hosted a career workshop for the students in the M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy program. AGS alumni residing in Paris came to share their experience and insights about international affairs careers in France and internationally. They provided advice on resume writing, networking strategies, and career planning, as well as information on job opportunities in Paris and the technicalities of working in France. A special focus was given to careers with the UN and other international organizations.

This event was organized by Patrick Clarizier (Class of 2009), Joseph Mangarella (Class of 2011), Wren Peyrard (Class of 2010) and Brandon Roddey (Class of 2011) as part of the "Planning your future" workshop series. A mentoring system has been put in place for AGS students to benefit from the support of the Paris alumni in their career planning and job search - a nice way for the AGS alumni to pay it forward to the next generations of AGSers.

As part of AGS's continued work and engagement for women's rights, we hosted on February 4th a presentation and discussion on the theme: "Female Genital Mutilation: Why you should care and what you can do?" on February 4th. The talk was co-led by two guest speakers: Lorraine Koonce, Esq., and Dr. Tobe Levin, both of who are active fighters against FGM. Lorraine Koonce is a New York attorney and English Solicitor specializing in gender issues; she teaches international law at AGS. Tobe Levin is Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University's International Gender Studies Centre (Lady Margaret Hall) and Associate at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. An engaged advocate against FGM since the late 1970's, she is the Vice-president of FORWARD Germany, an NGO dedicated to this cause.

In their presentation, Koonce and Levin exposed the reality of the barbarian procedure undergone by women who are victims of FGM, which they emphasized is an important step toward raised awareness and informed understanding of why everyone should care. The discussion went on to explore some of the multiple and complex reasons that lead populations to perpetuate this practice. "FGM involves a toxic mix of motivations, from respecting tradition to desiring beauty, from honoring Mother and Father to wanting community harmony – or community escape," writes Levin in her blog, UnCut/Voices.

As Ahmed Samy Lotf, one of the M.A. candidates in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS (Class of 2016), noted during the discussion: "It is by understanding the root causes of FGM that we can act to eliminate it. As an example, in my home country, Egypt, one of the reasons behind the practice of FGM, besides culture and tradition, has been religion - more precisely the misinterpretation of religion. In 2008, Al-Azhar, which is the largest Islamic institution in the country, issued a ban of FGM, which then was sponsored by the State and incorporated in the Law. This led to a substantial drop of the practice of FGM (from 96% to 72% over the course of just one year among the 19-30 age group according to the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey - cited by IRIN Middle-East). This shows how targeting the roots of the problem is an efficient way to approach it."

Following the presentation, Levin and Koonce invited the AGS students in the audience to volunteer for the newly-founded NGO that they both support, called the CRF (Clitoris Restoration Fund), which sponsors women to gain back their bodily integrity through surgery conducted (pro bono) by French surgeon Pierre Foldes. This is a meaningful opportunity for AGS students to support an important cause while gaining experience in humanitarian work in Paris.

This talk was part of the AGS Wine and Cheese evening series, which brings together students, alumni, faculty, and members of the international community in Paris twice a semester to share information and echange views on a topic of international relations, around a buffet of French wines and gourmet cheeses for a convivial atmosphere.

AGS is committed to continuing to fight violence against women through its research, teaching, and other activities bridging academia with practitioners in the field. Following the recent International Conference on Violence Against Women hosted by the school in Paris on November 28, Dr. Eileen Servidio, who heads the International Relations programs at AGS, is working on the forthcoming publication, under the auspices of AGS's research center, of a second edited volume following Crimes Against Women (Nova Science Publishers, New York: 2010). The first volume was a collection of 28 articles by scholars and pracitioners in the field, presenting a survey of gender-related crimes in the world with a three-fold focus: crimes rooted in concept and law, crimes deriving from religion, customs, and tradition, and crimes perpetrated in times of conflict.

On February 1-2, the undergraduate students spending the Spring semester in Paris through the Arcadia/AGS study abroad program travelled to Strasbourg, in the Eastern region of Alsace in France. This was an opportunity for the students to see firsthand the EU political institutions, which they learned about in the classroom. They were given a private guided tour of the Council of Europe, the oldest intergovernmental organization in Europe and the one that brings together the largest number of European countries, with 47 member States. A Council staff member explained to the students the inner workings of the Council and the way it operates in connection with the European Court of Human Rights. This was followed by a visit to the Main Chamber of the Council.

The students also took advantage of this trip to explore the city, taking a boat tour, walking through the historical parts of the city and its picturesque streets, climbing up Notre-Dame de Strasbourg Cathedral, and enjoying traditional Alsatian food.

This is one of the two trips that undergraduate students in the Arcadia-AGS Study Abroad program in Paris do every semester as one of the ways to experience France and Europe beyond classroom learning. The other semester trip is to Nice on the French Riviera, where the students discover the regional characteristics of Provence and Southern France.

More on the Arcadia-AGS Study Abroad program in Paris

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The Spring semester has begun. Classes started today for the new students who joined us this week for the International Relations and Diplomacy Master's and Ph.D. programs. With students from a diverse range of cultures, from Norway to Sierra Leone and from Nigeria to Puerto Rico, the new group promises to spark great class discussions in and out of the classroom.

This semester, along with our new students, we are happy to welcome a new faculty member: Bertrand de Largentaye, who will be teaching the Principles of Economics course. Bertrand de Largentaye worked as a Economy and Trade Counselor in the French government, where he held positions in the Ministries of Agriculture, Finance, and Foreign Trade, before joining the European Commission. He also served as a member of the French delegation to OECD and UNESCO.

Two former ambassadors are teaching a course in the program this semester: Dr. Dominique Dreyer, former Swiss Ambassador to China and India, is teaching the course on "South Asia: Geopolitics Since WWII", which can be taken by students on its own or as part of a two-course series in view of an Area concentration allowing them to gain expertise in Asian Studies. Dr. Wilfried Bolewski, former German Ambassador to Jamaica, Belize, and the Bahamas, is teaching the Foreign Policy Tutorial, which will include a student internship in Paris, and will culminate in the production by each student of a Foreign Policy Paper with actionable policy recommendations. Also among faculty members who are running a course this semester is Human Rights Watch France Director Jean-Marie Fardeau, who is co-teaching the course on NGO Management with Humanitarian Aid International Consultant Solène Edouard. This edition of the course will be exceptionally open to study abroad students from our partner university Arcadia.

The first two events of the semester are scheduled in the next ten days to give the incoming students a taste of what will be their new academic and social life in Paris during the program: On January 30th, our now traditional Friday Night Drinks will give them the opportunity to get to know each other and mingle with alumni, faculty and staff. On February 4th, a special edition of the AGS Wine and Cheese event will exceptionally host three speakers: Patrick Clairzier will announce the launch of the AGS/Arcadia Journal of International Studies, and Dr. Tobe Levin and Prof. Lorraine Koonce Farahmand, Esq. will continue the discussion on violence against women started at the November 28th conference, with a presentation and debate on FGM.

AGS just welcomed the new group of undergraduate students who joined the program for a study abroad semester in Paris. After a welcome dinner at a traditional French restaurant, the students enjoyed their first few days discovering what will be their home city for the next four months, and getting introduced to the program and activities. This orientation weekend started with a walk through the AGS neighborhood, which took them to Luxembourg gardens and the historical Montparnasse artists' district. Saturday afternoon was spent doing a guided walking tour of the left bank, focusing on the theme of French Revolution. Sunday was dedicated to a visit of the Eiffel Tower, followed by a tour of the nearby Quai Branly museum, where they saw unique primitive arts collections from the African, Asian, Oceanic, and American civilizations.

Classes started today with the French language courses at AGS's partner school Alliance Française Paris-Ile de France, based on the assessment tests that they took at the end of last week in order for each one to be placed in the course that is best suited to his or her level of French.

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