The Europe Center is jointly housed in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Global Studies Division.
FSI researchers strive to understand how countries relate to one another, and what policies are needed to achieve global stability and prosperity. International relations experts focus on the challenging U.S.-Russian relationship, the alliance between the U.S. and Japan and the limitations of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
Foreign aid is also examined by scholars trying to understand whether money earmarked for health improvements reaches those who need it most. And FSI’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center has published on the need for strong South Korean leadership in dealing with its northern neighbor.
FSI researchers also look at the citizens who drive international relations, studying the effects of migration and how borders shape people’s lives. Meanwhile FSI students are very much involved in this area, working with the United Nations in Ethiopia to rethink refugee communities.
Trade is also a key component of international relations, with FSI approaching the topic from a slew of angles and states. The economy of trade is rife for study, with an APARC event on the implications of more open trade policies in Japan, and FSI researchers making sense of who would benefit from a free trade zone between the European Union and the United States.
The four-volume Encyclopedia of Global Studies covers the field of global studies and subjects related to it, such as globalization, transnational activity and themes of global society. This encyclopedia is written for the educated general reader as well as students and professionals working in the field of global studies. It is the first encyclopedia of its kind, and aims to become the internationally-recognized reference work for academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the various dimensions of globalization. It provides succinct summaries of concepts and theories, definitions of terms, biographical entries, and organizational profiles; offers a guide to sources of information; and establishes an overview of Global Studies in different parts of the world and across cultures and historical periods. The wide range of subjects covered include the following:
- intellectual approaches, such as global sociology, political economy, world systems theory, peace and conflict studies, and communications;
- global and transnational topics, such as cross-border conflicts and terrorism, worldwide health crises and climate disruption, the planetary immigration patterns and new cultural diasporas, and the seemingly boundless global market, rapid communications, and transnational cyberspaces devised by technology and new media.
The four-volume Encyclopedia of Global Studies covers the field of global studies and subjects related to it, such as globalization, transnational activity and themes of global society. This encyclopedia is written for the educated general reader as well as students and professionals working in the field of global studies. It is the first encyclopedia of its kind, and aims to become the internationally-recognized reference work for academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the various dimensions of globalization. It provides succinct summaries of concepts and theories, definitions of terms, biographical entries, and organizational profiles; offers a guide to sources of information; and establishes an overview of Global Studies in different parts of the world and across cultures and historical periods. The wide range of subjects covered include the following:
- intellectual approaches, such as global sociology, political economy, world systems theory, peace and conflict studies, and communications;
- global and transnational topics, such as cross-border conflicts and terrorism, worldwide health crises and climate disruption, the planetary immigration patterns and new cultural diasporas, and the seemingly boundless global market, rapid communications, and transnational cyberspaces devised by technology and new media.
The four-volume Encyclopedia of Global Studies covers the field of global studies and subjects related to it, such as globalization, transnational activity and themes of global society. This encyclopedia is written for the educated general reader as well as students and professionals working in the field of global studies. It is the first encyclopedia of its kind, and aims to become the internationally-recognized reference work for academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the various dimensions of globalization. It provides succinct summaries of concepts and theories, definitions of terms, biographical entries, and organizational profiles; offers a guide to sources of information; and establishes an overview of Global Studies in different parts of the world and across cultures and historical periods. The wide range of subjects covered include the following:
- intellectual approaches, such as global sociology, political economy, world systems theory, peace and conflict studies, and communications;
- global and transnational topics, such as cross-border conflicts and terrorism, worldwide health crises and climate disruption, the planetary immigration patterns and new cultural diasporas, and the seemingly boundless global market, rapid communications, and transnational cyberspaces devised by technology and new media.
The four-volume Encyclopedia of Global Studies covers the field of global studies and subjects related to it, such as globalization, transnational activity and themes of global society. This encyclopedia is written for the educated general reader as well as students and professionals working in the field of global studies. It is the first encyclopedia of its kind, and aims to become the internationally-recognized reference work for academics, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the various dimensions of globalization. It provides succinct summaries of concepts and theories, definitions of terms, biographical entries, and organizational profiles; offers a guide to sources of information; and establishes an overview of Global Studies in different parts of the world and across cultures and historical periods. The wide range of subjects covered include the following:
- intellectual approaches, such as global sociology, political economy, world systems theory, peace and conflict studies, and communications;
- global and transnational topics, such as cross-border conflicts and terrorism, worldwide health crises and climate disruption, the planetary immigration patterns and new cultural diasporas, and the seemingly boundless global market, rapid communications, and transnational cyberspaces devised by technology and new media.
Fyodor Lukyanov is editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, published in Russian and English with the participation of Foreign Affairs magazine. He has an extensive background in different Russian and international media, in which he worked from 1990 to 2002 as a commentator on international affairs.
Lukyanov now widely contributes to various media in the US, Europe and China. His monthly "Geopolitics" column appears in the Russian edition of Forbes magazine. He is a member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, an independent organization providing foreign policy expertise and also a member of the Presidential Council on Human Rights and Civic Society Institutions.
Oksenberg Conference Room
Silvio Berlusconi has been a force in Italian politics during the past two decades. As the country’s prime minister and richest man, the media mogul managed to slip through sex scandals and criminal charges only to be forced out of office by Europe’s debt crisis.
As a new government led by economist Mario Monti takes place, Ronald Spogli talks about Berlusconi’s fall, what’s next for Italy and whether the United States should get involved in the eurozone’s tailspin. Spogli, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Italy from 2005 to 2009, is a Stanford trustee and major benefactor to the university’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
What will Italy’s government look like under Mario Monti, and how will it trim the country’s $2.5 trillion debt?
Monti is an economist by training and has been president of Bocconi University, Italy’s most prestigious business school. He was the European Commissioner and that position earned him international influence and experience. So here’s somebody who has economic savvy, institutional gravitas, and the ability to be perceived as above politics.
The new government is expected to carry out the stability program enacted immediately before Berlusconi’s resignation on Saturday. This law contemplates asset sales to reduce debt, among other measures. The idea of a wealth tax has been floated in Italy – which by most measures is the richest country on the continent – as a way to immediately and significantly pay down the nation’s debt.
The Monti government is likely to consider this and other options to reduce the country’s indebtedness. However, it will have to gain parliamentary approval for any new laws. And depending on the nature of the bill proposed, passage of legislation could prove problematic.
How did Berlusconi manage to survive sex scandals and corruption charges, only to be brought down by Italy’s financial crisis?
I think he survived because for most Italians, his personal life was less relevant than his actions and promises as a politician who could do good things for Italy.
He came into power in 1994, and his ability to dominate Italian politics for nearly two decades has been the main story. He came in with an expectation that as Italy’s richest man and as a successful businessman, he would help jumpstart a country that had begun to stall economically. The notion was that after stagnation had begun to creep in, Silvio Berlusconi was the person to break the logjam and move Italy forward.
But for the last 20 years, Italy has had half the economic growth rate of Europe. That’s the biggest issue against Berlusconi. But nobody is 100 percent convinced that he’s really gone for good. He has an amazing ability to resurrect himself. He’s proven that throughout his political career.
How does Italy’s debt burden fit in to the rest of Europe’s economic woes?
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In terms of the sheer magnitude of the problem, the Italian circumstance dwarfs Greece’s situation and the ability of the initiatives meant to deal with other countries’ crises. The issue is whether the new Italian government will be able to calm the bond markets.
Restoring credibility is absolutely vital. The fundamental concern is that there’s no offered solution to an Italian debt problem. There is no bailout being contemplated that’s big enough to be able to deal with the issue, unlike Greece.
The euro crisis has claimed the political lives of prime ministers in Greece, Spain and Italy. Can we expect more high-profile political casualties?
It’s interesting how the markets – in such a short period of time – have forced a political change that the internal Italian political system has been unable to achieve for quite some time. It’s difficult to speculate as to whether those forces will move to more counties. But it certainly wasn’t contemplated that they’d have this impact on Italy, so its fair to say that nothing is completely off the table.
In the United States, candidates vying for the Republican nomination in next year’s election say America shouldn’t get involved in Europe’s financial mess. Is that the right attitude?
Europe is extremely important to the United States. Not just for economic reasons, but for political reasons. This is a European problem to solve. On the other hand, if it gets to the point where it continues to have a very damaging impact on the world’s capital markets, I think the resolve to keep it as an isolated problem may fade.
Beyond the narrowly defined economic impact of the crisis, we have many issues of global security that we cannot effectively deal with without the help of Europeans. If they’re going to go into a pronounced period of economic contraction, that’s going to heavily impact their ability to be a great partner for us. Italy is a perfect example of this concern. We counted on its help in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. Those are expensive missions, and if the country doesn’t grow its economy, it’s harder for them to be a great American ally. Italy’s economic situation extends to our basic international security interests.
Italy's economic crisis is the subject of a Nov. 18 presentation given by Roland Benedikter, a scholar at FSI's Europe Center.
In the last two decades there has been a sharp growth in the numbers of people that have been “expelled,” numbers far larger than the newly “incorporated” middle classes of countries such as India and China. I use the term “expulsion” to describe a diversity of conditions: the growing numbers of the abjectly poor, of the displaced in poor countries who are warehoused in formal and informal refugee camps, of the minoritized and persecuted in rich countries who are warehoused in prisons, of workers whose bodies are destroyed on the job and rendered useless at far too young an age, able-bodied surplus populations warehoused in ghettoes and slums. One major trend is the repositioning of what had been framed as sovereign territory, a complex conditions, into land for sale on the global market – land in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Central Asia and in Latin America to be bought by rich investors and rich governments to grow food, to access underground water tables, and to access minerals and metals. My argument is that these diverse and many other kindred developments amount to a logic of expulsion, signaling a deeper systemic transformation in advanced capitalism, one documented in bits and pieces but not quite narrated as an overarching dynamic that is taking us into a new phase of global capitalism. The paper is based on the author’s forthcoming book Expulsions.
Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University (www.saskiasassen.com). Her recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton University Press 2008), A Sociology of Globalization (W.W.Norton 2007), both translated into Spanish by Editorial Katz (Madrid y Buenos Aires), and the 4th fully updated edition of Cities in a World Economy (Sage 2012). Among older books is The Global City (Princeton University Press 1991/2001). Her books are translated into over 20 languages. She is the recipient of diverse awards and mentions, ranging from multiple doctor honoris causa to named lectures and being selected as one of the 100 Top Global Thinkers of 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine.
Recommended readings:
Sponsored by The Europe Center, the Abassi Program in Islamic Studies, and the Mediterranean Studies Forum
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