Communique Fall 2017

A CONVERSATION WITH CLINT WATTS On Russia and the U.S. political system.

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A LOST NATION 8 Alumna reflects on her native Venezuela.

Communiqué FALL 2017

All Eyes on North Korea

he world turns to CNS experts to better T understand the rogue regime. PAGE 6

THE VIEW FROM SEGAL

Open Doors

I Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Institute Jeff Dayton-Johnson.

n a typical year, roughly a third of the Middlebury Institute’s student body is made up of international students. This has been true for decades now; the school itself was founded by an immigrant to this country and has always been a beacon for graduate students from around the world seeking the advanced professional skills they need in order to have an impact in their chosen fields.

Of all the adjectives one might choose to describe this past year, however, “typical” might be the most ill-fitting. It has been an unpredictable and unsettling year for international students in the U.S. that has increased the level of uncertainty they face with regard to studying here.

Indeed, a recent survey of more than 200,000 prospective students from all over the world found that, while 61 percent said the political climate in the U.S. would have no effect on them, 33 percent said their interest in studying here had decreased as a result of the current political climate.

This news is naturally of concern to us. And yet, beyond a number of individual, anecdotal conversations that our recruiting staff have had with prospective students, I see little evidence that the political climate in the U.S. is affecting enrollment at the Middlebury Institute.

The proportion of international students

in our current fall class is 36.4 percent— above our historical average—and we continue to receive a steady flow of inquiries from prospective students around the world.

While drawing any firm conclusions based on the scant evidence at hand would amount to pure speculation, I will say that I’m heartened by what I’m seeing and hearing. It seems to me that MIIS has always attracted a particularly resilient type of student, a naturally adventurous person who doesn’t let anything stand in the way of his or her dreams and goals.

What this school offers—the chance to learn from world-class international professionals who are both educators and practitioners, and to do it within a seaside community that manages to be both cozy and cosmopolitan—remains a uniquely attractive proposition for many.

While we’ll continue to monitor any developments that may affect current or prospective students, I believe the Middlebury Institute is well positioned today, with a vibrant curriculum, superb faculty, and a great tradition of welcoming the international students who are so critical to the experience we offer: the chance to be part of a genuinely international community studying issues of mutual concern, while gaining the skills that will allow us to help shape a better future together. n

Of all the adjectives one might choose to describe this past year, however, “typical” might be the most ill-fitting.

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COVER ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANIE DALTON | PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIDGET BESAW

FIVE MINUTES

Green Business Urbavore is an ag-tech start-up that aims to market low-cost, highly efficient home garden systems that are designed to both improve food security and reduce the environmental impact of food production. Middlebury Institute alumni Kenji Tabery MAIEP ’16, Janna Ratzlaff MAIEP ’15, Hesham AlSaati MBA/ MAIEP ’17, and Flynn Pollard MpA/MAIEP ’17 are the team behind Urbavore. Tabery recently spent a few minutes filling us in on the group’s fascinating venture.

Q: How

quickly did the team realize that your class project might have a life beyond the classroom?

advice and suggestions. The staff at the Center for Social Impact Learning were also great cheerleaders and supporters.

A:

The focus of the class where Urbavore started was water conservation. Given that growing one tomato requires 3.3 gallons of water, and that California grows on average 90 percent of all U.S. staple fruits and vegetables—and recently experienced a major drought—we knew from the start that if we could figure out even one small solution to current cultivation methods, it could have a huge impact.

As far as validating our business concept, the big milestone was winning Best Start-Up Idea at the AgTech Summit in Salinas in spring 2016.

Q: Were

Q: Were

feel your biggest obstacles have been?

there particular resources here at the Institute that you found helpful when you were first getting started?

A:

Professor Jeff Langholz helped create a platform for students to launch and validate their ideas, and also encouraged students to pitch at the Startup Challenge Monterey Bay, where we made it to the semifinal round. We also had professors in different departments providing ad hoc

ILLUSTRATION BY GWEN KERAVAL

there any particular keys to your success in moving the idea forward after graduation?

A:

The biggest thing was communication. We set up a virtual collaboration channel on Slack. It simplified the communication flow and helped us organize and collect those thoughts. We also tackled important conversations about decision making up front that helped keep everyone on board and focused on reaching our goals every month.

The biggest barrier is finance. We were fortunate to be able to connect with folks at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) and we keep looking for those opportunities to fuel our operational growth as we move forward.

Q: What are your goals for Urbavore for the next two years?

A:

Part of the UCSC partnership is to beta test our prototype system at two food access sites on that campus this year to be a consistent resource for students on food stamps.

After we test these prototypes in the field, we’ll assess and make adjustments to the prototype by next spring and summer and hopefully launch a one-year pilot project. If the pilot is successful there, we hope to expand our services and impact to the Food Bank of Monterey County.

In the meantime, we’ve been accepted into the Santa Cruz Works accelerator program, which is a six-month program for new tech start-ups that provides financing, executive mentorship, and networking opportunities with investors and leaders in the field. It’s another exciting step forward for us. n

Q: As a start-up enterprise, what do you A:

One is physical proximity—we’re now predominantly a virtual team, with two of us located here in the Monterey Bay/Santa Cruz area and the others remote. It presents inherent challenges, but also opportunities in the sense that it helps us in tackling another challenge— the need to expand our networks beyond the Monterey area.

Fall 2017 3

Q&A WITH CLINT WATTS, MAIPS ’05

A Conversation with Clint Watts Alumnus Clint Watts knows a thing or two about Russia’s attempts to disrupt the political process in the United States. A U.S. Army veteran whose résumé includes service as an FBI special agent on a Joint Terrorism Task Force and as the executive officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, Watts appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in March, where he testified that the Russian regime has in many respects taken the old Soviet active measures strategy and tactics and applied them to the digital age. Watts, currently the Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), spoke with us from his home in New Jersey.

Q: Why

are Russians doing this and what is their end goal?

A:

First, it is important to note that this is not just about us. The Russians have been using these tactics in connection with other elections, such as the Brexit vote and the recent elections in France and Germany. The main goal is to undermine democracy and erode confidence in institutions in the West. Russian security interests are to break up and weaken alliances that challenge their foreign policy.

Breaking alliances, NATO, the EU, is in Russia’s interest. They can envision going up against countries militarily, economically, or diplomatically on a one-to-one basis, but strong alliances between democracies pose a challenge. The fact that their actions in Ukraine and Syria have not been met with any consequences has emboldened them to act more aggressively. The ultimate objective is to destroy democracies from the inside out, to discredit elected officials and shape opinions. Here in the U.S. it began as an effort to make sure Hillary Clinton, a longtime opponent of Russia, did not get elected, and then when Trump became the nominee for the Republican Party, the Russians shifted their support to his campaign. The idea in each of these information campaigns

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is to sow confusion inside Russia’s enemies so that they are fighting among themselves. It worked so well that we are still fighting among ourselves a year later.

Q: Did

the Trump campaign play into Russian hands?

A:

Our political system with its two parties makes us especially vulnerable to this sort of action. These tactics can really bring forward political, social, and economic divisions. At times, the Trump campaign amplified the effectiveness of Russian active measures by discussing hacked materials or repeating Russian narratives regarding voter fraud and election rigging. The important thing to keep in mind here is that this is by and large an opportunistic strategy. It is not all about Trump. The Russians will amplify anything that is antigovernment, anti-immigration, antiestablishment and use it to their advantage.

Q: When

you told the Senate Intelligence Committee to follow “the trail of dead bodies” as part of the Russian investigation, what did you mean?

A:

My response was meant to point out a pattern that is worth looking into. It is

a good idea to follow the money during any investigation, but in this case there is also a trail of dead bodies. Over the last year or two there have been an incredible number of deaths of people who are potentially tied to this investigation— Russian intelligence officers, diplomats, a string of senior Russian officials who are dropping dead, even in Western countries. Some of them have died from natural causes, but other deaths are suspicious. These are people who could have provided information in the investigations, possible sources.

Q: What can we do about this?

A: There is a lot we can do and could be doing, but we are not doing it. We could have official responses to fake news, connect hacking with the goals of hackers so that we can anticipate how they intend to use this information, educate private businesses, and work with media companies and social media providers. What if mainstream media did not share ill-gotten information such as what WikiLeaks publishes? Then the story would die quickly. This has to be a whole-of-government approach, but at this point it is not clear at all if there is an appetite for that in the current administration. n

Clint Watts Job Title Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. past positions U.S. Army Officer; Advisor and Special Agent, FBI; Executive Officer, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

The ultimate objective is to destroy democracies from the inside out, to discredit elected officials and shape opinions.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JON ROEMER

Fall 2017 5

FEATURE

All Eyes on North Korea As international concern about North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs continued to mount this summer and fall, Middlebury Institute experts not only participated in but actually helped to shape the conversation about the critical policy issues involved.

J

effrey lewis led the charge with prominent op-ed pieces in the New York Times and Washington Post.

On August 3, the Times published his piece “Let’s Face It: North Korean Nuclear Weapons Can Hit the U.S.,” and he wrote in an August 24 piece for the Post that “for deterrence to fail, neither Trump nor Kim have to be insane or suicidal. They merely have to be the flawed human beings that we all are.” Lewis, who is the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), was also quoted by CNN and others regarding military options against North Korea: “If

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you attack them after they have nuclear weapons, it’s not a preventive war. It’s just a plain old nuclear war.” In an October 3 column for Foreign Policy, Lewis examined the alarming possibility that fake news could trigger a nuclear war.

“The positions of the U.S. and North Korea are extremely far apart,” Melissa Hanham, CNS senior research associate, told the New York Times on October 2. “If it were easy,” she said of efforts at diplomacy, “we would have done it already.” In a September 18 comment that was widely quoted in coverage of possible attack plans, Hanham told the Huffington Post, “I don’t know what plan would not put Seoul at risk.”

CNS Senior Research Associate Andrea Berger was frequently quoted on questions surrounding trade flows and the effectiveness of economic sanctions.

A widely seen October 1 Washington Post story quoted Berger on the “legacy of dependency” created by North Korea’s history of selling weapons at a discount to international customers such as Egypt.

In addition to being quoted repeatedly in coverage, Joshua Pollack, CNS senior research associate, penned two op-ed pieces on North Korea for the New York Daily News. “President Trump’s bombastic rhetoric will do nothing to denuclearize North Korea” ran on September 9 in

ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANIE DALTON

The middlebury Institute

and its James Martin

Center for Nonproliferation Studies are home to some of the leading—and most widely quoted—civilian experts on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program in the world.

1 3 4 52 26 6,200

Times Jeffrey Lewis made this comment about the efficacy of U.S. missile defense systems, subsequently quoted by multiple news outlets: “If the North Koreans fired everything they had at us, and we fired at all of the missiles, we’d probably get most of them. But is ‘probably get most’ a good day or a bad day?”

In-depth, high-profile stories describing in detail the innovative methods Institute experts use to decipher publicly available clues about North Korea’s nuclear program (New York Times, the Verge, and the Wall Street Journal).

response to Trump’s United Nations address, followed by a September 19 piece, “A brief history of the huge mess in North Korea.” Pollack was also quoted in a widely reprinted September 7 Associated Press story, supporting the conclusion that North Korea is telling the truth about its nuclear capabilities.

Finally, an October 5 Wall Street Journal feature highlighted the ingenious methods used by the Institute’s team to track developments in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs using only public-source materials. Over the past several months, the team’s well-informed and often pointed observations have done more than illuminate these critical issues; they have advanced one of the most vital policy conversations of our times in important ways, pointing out fallacies and delivering timely, astute analysis backed by data and experience. n

Times Bloomberg News, CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post quoted Institute experts in October–November 2016, when there were no significant new developments regarding North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Times Bloomberg News, CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post quoted Institute experts in July–August 2017, when North Korea tested an ICBM and Washington and Pyongyang exchanged heated rhetoric.

Times North Korea experts Jeffrey Lewis, Melissa Hanham, Dave Schmerler manpts ’15, and Shea Cotton were interviewed by CNN, Fox, MSNBC, et al., from the Institute’s on-campus broadcast studio in the first nine months of 2017.

Miles that Jeffrey Lewis, East Asia Nonproliferation Program director, estimates the ICBM North Korea tested on July 28 can fly, putting most of the U.S. within range.

Fall 2017 7

ESSAY BY MARIA LUISA OLAVARRIA, BAIS/MAIPS ’12

A Lost Nation

An Institute alumna reflects, in sadness and fear, on her native Venezuela.

I

n 2010 i left venezuela to come to MIIS. I packed two bags, kissed my mom and dogs goodbye, and embarked on what I thought would be a three-year adventure in California to get my BA/MA in international policy studies. The plan was to return triumphant, a “master,” fully prepared to take on the troubles that had plagued my country, and to rejoin my friends and family in our fight for democracy, free speech, and security.

I’ll cut to the chase and admit that it didn’t work out that way. In the three years that I was in Monterey, the situation in Venezuela deteriorated considerably. Violent crime rates kept rising, political leaders were imprisoned, television stations were closed, inflation was through the roof, and many of my friends and family members also started leaving.

And meanwhile life in California was— it was bliss. I wasn’t afraid of getting mugged or kidnapped on the way to class in Monterey. Everything was easier: odd jobs allowed me to save a little bit of money, and with the friends I had made I was able to travel and experience the student life in the U.S.

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And then the day came. I was graduating and had to decide whether to follow my plan and return to Caracas or accept a job offer from an international organization. The thought of going back home to face the insecurity, the shortages, the corruption, the constant everyday struggle to simply survive brought with it a sinking feeling. I chose the job offer.

Let me make this clear, though: there is nowhere I’d rather be at any given time than home. But the idea I had of “home” in reality existed just in my head.

I’m not alone. In fact, about 1.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated in the past 15 years. This means about 5 percent of the population have left, willingly or not, in search of better opportunities. Early on (in the early 2000s) those who left were mostly medical professionals, IT experts, oil and gas engineers, and students. More recently those leaving are young entrepreneurs, journalists, artists, and people hoping for a better future for their families. Surveys indicate that 90 percent of expatriates are university graduates, 40 percent hold master’s degrees, and 12 percent hold PhDs. Their reasons for leaving are very similar to mine.

Studies have found that a full half of those who have left have done so as a direct result of a robbery or assault, or due to the violent death of a family member.

These are not unfounded reasons: Venezuela’s murder rate is among the highest in the world. The country’s inflation rate by the end of 2016 was 800 percent and was expected to be double that in 2017. In May this year the country was lacking 80 percent of medical supplies. Twenty-eight percent of the people are unemployed and spend most of their time waiting in line at supermarkets in the hopes of ac-

cessing goods at affordable prices. The sarcastically named “Maduro Diet” has led to many people battling malnutrition.

Media outlets have been censored or shut down, and hundreds of people have been murdered during protests or have been arbitrarily arrested.

The flight of some of the best and the brightest seems so matter-of-fact now that most of the conversations I have with family and friends are about who is leaving and when. Those of us who have been away for some years, like me, come back as tourists, outsiders, alarmed by the conditions of our people and the deterioration of the social fabric. Those living in Venezuela struggle to survive each day, and those living outside are burdened with a heavy sense of guilt for not doing more. It’s selfish to pick your own happiness and well-being over that of the entire country.

How are Venezuelans supposed to rebuild a country when a large portion of its society has left? Will we unite and conquer, or will we divide and fall? I hope my fellow countrymen back home trust that those who have left are gathering strength and knowledge and waiting for the right time to return, to invest, to rebuild. I miss Venezuela. I think about it every day. I wish I could wake up to have a cafecito with my mamá, have an arepa for breakfast and share my dreams and goals with my childhood friends. I know Venezuela will not be the same whenever I return, but then again, neither will I be. I dream of raising my children in Venezuela; that they can enjoy the same wonders the country gave me during my childhood. I hope they can be as proud of Venezuela as I am. One day I hope my idea of home will exist in reality rather than just in my head. n

ILLUSTRATION BY CHANTAL BENNETT

Venezuelan opposition activists take part in a peaceful demonstration, carrying black placards with the name of one of the 125 people killed in past protests on each one.

Studies have found that a full half of those who have left have done so as a direct result of a robbery or assault, or due to the violent death of a family member.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Fall 2017 9

MAP

Where in the World?

russia

denmark belgium U.K. germany france

austria

italy

spain

kazakhstan romania

georgia

serbia turkey

morocco

syria

israel

afghanistan china

pakistan india

taiwan bangladesh

eritea

liberia sierra leone

japan

nepal

egypt

nigeria

republic of korea

turkmenistan

philippines

ethiopia malaysia

benin

kenya

ghana

cote d’ivoire indonesia zambia mauritius

number of students:

n0 n1 n2 n 3–9 n 10–19 n 20+

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students from china ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** **********

canada

Farthest dista

n c e tr a veled (11,00

0+ m

iles)

u.s. states where students are from ********** ********** ********** ********** ***

mexico

students come to Monterey

from 53 countries and 43 states, including Washington, D.C. We take a closer look at some interesting factoids.

west coast presence Half of the Institute’s current domestic U.S. student population comes from California, Oregon, and Washington. spanning the globe The current student who traveled 11,000plus miles to attend the Institute hails from the island nation of Mauritius. china syndrome As has typically been the case for the past 20 years, the largest contingent of international students from a single country is the group from China, 110 strong.

INFOGRAPHIC BY MICHAEL NEWHOUSE

state reps The Institute’s current enrollment includes students from 43 states and the District of Columbia. Maybe soon it will include Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and/or West Virginia? new york, new york After California, with 233 students, the next biggest state delegation is all the way on the other side of the country, with 22 students hailing from the Empire State of New York.

brazil bolivia

chile

argentina

uruguay

Fall 2017 11

WHAT I’VE LEARNED MAAME AFON YELBERT-SAI

I realized that I had been putting my life into silos and bringing only a part of me to my different roles.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ELLIS

A State of Being

“D

on’t ask me what i am doing,” says Maame Afon Yelbert-Sai maips ’05, “but ask me what I am being.

I am a human being, not a human doing.”

Yelbert-Sai directs programs and partnerships for the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa; sits on the boards of the African Women’s Development Fund–USA, We Care Solar, Ghana Bamboo Bikes, and Cocoa 360; and provides support to many other organizations. A mentor, mother of three, wife, and musician, she is passionate about being what she calls a “whole woman”— bringing all of who she is to everything she does.

Finding My Voice In 2009 I was working at the Global Fund for Women in San Francisco, my first job in the field after graduating from the Institute, when I was invited to participate in the Women Leaders for the World leadership program in Santa Clara. At the time I had three young kids—twin girls and a son—and was still learning the ropes of motherhood, of being a wife.

As part of the leadership program I was asked to think about my passions and my voice. I realized that I had been putting my life into silos and bringing only a part of me to my different roles. As I went through the program, I got more clarity on this. The capstone was to come up with a project that would make a difference for women in leadership.

Bringing It All Together My hope is that when I show up, what people see is the complete picture of who I am. You will find that when you show up in your fullness, you open up to new experiences. What does this mean in real life? Three things stick out. First, do the

things you love with passion. Second, find your calling. Ask yourself, why are you here? Live your life with purpose.

And third, look at what your experiences have equipped you to do.

Starting with Yourself What you should know about me is that I am proudly African, unapologetically feminist, and boldly Christian. For me, leadership is at its roots simple—it starts with self-understanding. Why are you taking up real estate on this earth? If you do not know that, you cannot lead anyone. In the end, when you embrace bringing all of who you are to everything you do, you thrive and others around you also thrive because your experiences become useful and serve a higher purpose.

Making Music Bringing my voice through music and humor into my work has opened new dimensions. When music shows up, there is a shift in the atmosphere. It can bring out emotions, become a rallying cry and catalyst for change. I am blessed to be able to team up with my husband to create and share wholesome music that inspires and uplifts. Showing up in the fullness of who you are gives you the freedom, joy, and liberty to embrace different ideas.

Paying It Forward Mentorship is also a big part of me. My work and mentoring relationship with MasterCard Foundation Scholars and MILEAD (Moremi Initiative Leadership, Empowerment, and Development) Fellows is vital to me. I learned a lot about mentoring and supporting others from my mother. She raised us as a single mom in Ghana for most of my life, but she also took care of everyone else, a true matriarch. She was so resourceful and

visionary in her thinking. One of her best qualities was her ability to call out the good and see the “gold” in people. When I was growing up she kept helping a man in our neighborhood whom most people had written off. I never understood why.

With her coaching, mentoring, and persistence, today this man is a successful business owner. Lesson—look beyond what you cannot see yet. That for me is bold and visionary leadership!

Finding Forgiveness After my mother passed in 2013, I made a deliberate decision to reconnect and invest in my relationship with my dad. The decision and process taught me a lot about forgiveness and made me a better Christian, leader, and parent. I continue to learn a lot about myself as I learn more about my dad—my love for music, my faith in God, some of my leadership qualities, my love for sports and languages, and some of my personal attributes. As you grow older, you understand what is important in life.

In August 2016, my father passed away.

I am thankful for the peace and closure I feel, especially knowing that I received my father’s blessings.

Picking Battles As a leader it is important to give yourself time to rest and reflect—and sometimes that means saying no. Learn to win wars and lose battles. Keep your eye on the big picture and preserve your energy for what really matters!

Being Bold and Daring Be bold, daring, and intentional about the choices you make. Recognize that your leadership is a journey, a process that continues to be refined as you go through life. n

Fall 2017 13

FACULTY ADVICE

Where to Go and What to Do? We’ve asked six faculty members the following: In these tumultuous times, where do you see your students being able to have the greatest impact over the next few years?

Middlebury Institute students will work in a world that has exposed, elevated, and normalized inequity with a renewed openness to hatred, marginalization, and exclusion. Their studies in administration, business, education, language, and policy are essential tools for confronting injustice. These tools, especially intercultural competence, will allow MIIS students to unveil the causes of structural inequity, challenge those who dehumanize, and operationalize responsive transformative solutions. —David Wick, Assistant Professor of International Education Management As an adjunct, I am proud that I teach my students quantitative skills that will help them make thoughtful policy decisions no matter where they go in life. Many schools can turn out graduates who can write a memo, but MIIS is special because it gives them the ability to find, analyze, and present data in a compelling way—and probably in multiple languages! —Melissa Hanham, Adjunct Professor of Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies and Senior Research Associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies As the level of globalization becomes deeper and wider, so does the impact that translators, localizers, and interpreters can make on cross-cultural communications. Being language service providers, we stand at a critical moment where more and more people and industries rely on our expertise to function properly. These include government agencies, international and nongovernmental organizations, hospitals, courts, major global corporations, social media websites, crowd-sourcing companies, charities,

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etc. We facilitate cultural convergence and help the world transcend linguistic boundaries. —Wallace Chen MATI ’95, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Chinese Translation and Interpretation Students in the TFL and TESOL programs are learning to design language education experiences that foster the development of intercultural communicative competence and critical thinking.

In these tricky times, learning additional languages and seeing the world through others’ eyes could not be more vital. Furthermore, critical thinking skills are key tools in the quest for social justice. Institute TFLers and TESOLers are poised to make an impact by the very nature of what they are learning to do.

—Jason Martel, Midd MA French ’03, Assistant Professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages/Teaching Foreign Language (TESOL/TFL) and Associate Director of the Summer Intensive Language Program What sets MIIS apart from other U.S. graduate schools is the ability of our graduates to employ their advanced foreign language skills in professional activities. This skill set is developed in a multicultural/multilingual environment in which part of the formal learning process involves empathy in interpreting and understanding different international political perspectives. I want to see my past and present students break out of the prevailing ideological mold, abandon groupthink, and base their analyses on the unbiased multilingual study of pressing international issues. —Anna Vassilieva, Professor of Russian Studies and Director of the Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies During my 25 years at MIIS, it has been my honor to teach some of the most dedicated young professionals in the world in the fields of evaluation, and security and development. These students go forth knowing how to plan for and execute programs that have impact, because they know impact when they see it.

They believe in evidence-based programs and policies. They will be courageous change agents who will succeed in reducing and preventing the insecurity, conflict, and violence that impede development. —Ed Laurance, Professor and Gordon Paul Smith Chair in International Policy and Development, and Former Dean of the Graduate School of International Policy Studies n ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT NEUBECKER

SCENE

Open for Business “The face of the Earth as the creator intended it to look,” Henry Miller wrote of Big Sur and wondered if people would ruin its magic. This winter, rain brought down a bridge on one side of this magnificent coastline, a sliding mountain on the other.

“Big Sur island” is now accessible from the north after the opening of the new Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge.

A rare sight: a crowd-free Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ELLIS

Fall 2017 15

IN BRIEF

recent news from members of the institute community in monterey and around the world.

SIGHTINGS ’93, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary and permanent representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, recently made history. After months of consultations and two rounds of intense negotiations, she presided over the successful negotiation at the UN of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Facing extraordinary time pressure and sometimes contentious debate, Ambassador Whyte Gomez facilitated the adoption of this landmark agreement by a vote of 122 nations in favor, one against, and one abstaining.

Western democratic nuclear -weapon states—the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Israel—handle the essential tension between nuclear weapons (which require secrecy) and liberal democracy.

The petition before the court called for legislating a process to develop regulation and oversight of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. Although the court rejected the petition on technical grounds, the ruling represented a breakthrough because the court validated the idea of greater nuclear oversight as “a worthy issue for public debate.” “The fact that the court was willing to effectively reject the state position speaks volumes,” said Cohen.

›› Professor Avner Cohen

›› Alumnus John Myers MAIPS

played a significant role in a recent Israeli High Court of Justice case. Cohen, who has spent much of his career advocating for increased openness in regulation and oversight of Israel’s secretive nuclear program, was one of the petitioners seeking a legislative solution to nuclear oversight.

He directed a comparative study, “Nuclear Legislation and Governance in Four Nuclear Weapons Democracies,” which was researched and written

by CNS/Davis United World College Fellow Brandon Mok. The report examines how four

’04 has moved from running Audubon’s Latin America Program to a new position with the World Wildlife Fund in Colombia. In July the Economist ran an article highlighting his work promoting birding tourism: “Last year the northern Colombia birding trail opened, a joint effort involving Audubon, the United States Agency for International Development, and Colombian NGOs. They trained local guides, and businesses catalogued the route and are promoting it.”

The piece also quotes Myers and a study he coauthored that

›› Elayne Whyte Gomez MAIPS

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found that “bird tourism could generate revenue of $46 million a year and create at least 7,500 new jobs.”

ropean Cybersecurity Forum in Poland. Conference organizers at Cyfy posted several tweets on her talk there.

›› Summer fellows from the

›› Professor William Arrocha

Center for the Blue Economy deployed out to positions with organizations in three states and four countries this past summer. Participants in these fully funded summer internships included Molly Shane MAIEP ’18, working with One Reef in Koror, Palau, to provide support to the Helen Reef Resource Management Program, and Shirin Wertime MAIEP ’18, who spent her summer working with the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Blue Growth Initiative in Rome.

was the focus of a front-page profile in the Monterey County Herald on July 9 as a result of his work on immigration policy in Monterey County.

The profile, which also focused on Arrocha’s recent book Compassionate Migration and Regional Policy in the Americas, coauthored with Steven Bender, delves into his background as an immigrant himself, his work as a board member for a local charter school, and his introduction of a new term into the political lexicon: “compassionate migration.” “Monterey County has the largest share of undocumented migrants per capita in the country,” says Arrocha in the interview, “and they are fully engaged in keeping our economy alive. We owe that community some sense of compassion.”

›› Dr. William Potter, founding director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), had a busy summer. His activities included presenting a paper and being a featured speaker at the CTBTO Science and Technology Forum in Vienna; participating (along with Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova MAIPS ’07) as a member of the delegation of Chile to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the UN in New York (see first item above); and speaking on a panel at the fourth annual Summer School on Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation in Mexico City. ›› Visiting Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Elaine Korzak was a featured panelist at two major cybersecurity conferences this fall: Cyfy 2017 in India, and Cybersec: The Eu-

PRESENTATIONS ›› This summer, Lama Ranjous MAIPD ’18 served on a panel at UN headquarters in New York, speaking in front of 500 people as part of the Youth Assembly discussion about the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Advisory Council’s Report on Youth, Peace, and Security. “I think it is really important to highlight the threats youth face due to climate change,” Ranjous said of her interest in finding “the right policies and programs to solve these problems and threats.” In her

native Syria, Ranjous worked with the Arab Youth Climate Movement and was interviewed by researchers from the United Nations who were looking for information about the impact of climate change on Syrian youth specifically, and young people living in the Middle East more generally. Her work with the researchers led to an invitation to serve on the advisory council. “I was honored to share the report and its findings,” she says. The thematic paper investigates the impact of climate change on the security and development prospects of young people across the globe, as well as examining how ownership of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals could promote the case for youth-led development.

and Alan Lovewell MAIEP ’10, founder and CEO of Real Good Fish, were among the featured speakers at ComCap17, a conference gathering visionaries and creative thinkers on the timely topic of community capital. The September conference was cohosted by the city of Monterey and the Middlebury Institute. “The idea behind community capital— which people also call ‘slow money’ or ‘localvesting’—is simple,” Glenzer explained.

“Capital raised in a local community can and should be invested back into that same community. And investors can and should accumulate both financial and social returns on their investment.” ›› Professor Paige Butler of

›› Jeffrey Knopf, chair of the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies program, was an invited speaker at the U.S. Air Force Center for Unconventional Weapons Studies’ Deterrence Education and Research Symposium at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, in July. His talk, “Influence Strategies and Behavioral Economics: Future Directions for Education and Research on Deterrence,” was delivered as part of a panel on “Developing a Research Agenda for Deterrence.” ›› Kent Glenzer, dean of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management; Jason Scorse, chair of the International Environmental Policy program and director of the Center for the Blue Economy;

the International Education Management program participated as a panel member on a September webinar hosted by the Diversity Abroad Network.

The webinar focused on the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the implications for higher and international education of the Trump Administration’s move to end the program. ›› Professor William Arrocha was the keynote speaker at the Latino Network of Monterey County’s 28th annual Celebration of Culture and Language in September.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS ›› A paper coauthored by Professors Yuwei Shi and

Sandra Dow advocating for the “raw case method of learning” recently won the Academy of Management’s Best Paper in Management Education and Development. Professor Shi was present to receive the award for the paper, titled “Management Education at the Interface: Raw Data, Real Projects, and On-Demand Lectures,” at the Academy of Management’s annual meeting in Atlanta in August. “Over the past few years we have made raw case studies a central feature of the Institute’s distinctive approach to management education, with excellent results,” says Shi. “Raw cases give students the opportunity to grapple with real-world management issues that are shaping the business and social environment around them in real time. It’s a tremendous learning tool and our students have thrived in the various case competitions they’ve entered.” Indeed, a team of Institute students coached by Professors Dow and Shi won the international Business for a Better World Case Competition in Davos, Switzerland, last January, while another student team took second place in the Economist’s 2016 Which MBA? Case Competition. ›› Three recent graduates— Danny Pavitt MAIPD ’16, Nick Stulck MPA ’17, and Lizzie Falconer MPA ’17—are among this year’s cohort of 25 Catholic Relief Services (CRS) International Development Fellows. Each year CRS places fellows for 10-month assignments where

they can draw on their previous education and work experience while broadening their skills.

Most of the fellowships lead to permanent positions, and this year over 600 people applied for the program, which takes applicants through a rigorous, multistage application and interview process. “Professor Beryl Levinger and my career advisors Scott Webb mpa ’07 and Gael Meraud were key in preparing me for every step of the interview process,” says Falconer from her new CRS assignment in Malawi. Pavitt, who will be stationed in the Philippines, says he feels well prepared for the position from his time at the Institute, and he quickly connected with fellow alumni in the country. ›› Four graduates of the Institute’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) degree program were chosen to serve as English Language Fellows (ELF) for the U.S. State Department for the 2017–2018 school year. The ELF program promotes English language learning around the world and fosters mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries, placing highly qualified U.S. educators with graduate degrees in all regions of the world. The four alumnae representing the Institute in the ELF program this year are Assistant Professor Kelley Calvert MATESOL PCMI ’06 (also director of the Institute’s Graduate Writing Center), who will be teaching English in Thailand; Reilly Knop

Fall 2017 17

IN BRIEF

“ Monterey County has the largest share of undocumented migrants per capita in the country and they are fully engaged in keeping our economy alive. We owe that community some sense of compassion.”

—Professor William Arrocha

MATESOL ’16, who will take a teaching position in Niger; Emily Durst MATESOL ’15 in South Africa; and Susan Spano MATESOL PCMI ’17 in Rwanda.

Calvert, Knop, and Spano are all Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. ›› The Institute announced that longtime Advancement staff member Shirley Coly is the school’s new director of development, a role in which she will serve as the chief fundraiser for the Institute, coordinating and collaborating with colleagues on the Vermont campus.

She has joined the Institute Leadership Group and serves as the primary Advancement representative for the Institute Board of Overseers. “Shirley is a valued partner and colleague as we plan for the future, and we look forward to her continued leadership,” said Jeff Dayton-Johnson, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the Institute.

COLLABORATIONS ›› A cohort of 13 fellows completed the inaugural Monterey Summer Symposium on Russia, an eight-week summer program that exposes top Russian area studies graduate students from across the United States to

18

Communiqué

leading voices on Russian-U.S. relations. Developed by the Institute’s Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the program featured leading experts from Russia and the United States delivering lectures and leading seminars on topics ranging from “The Concept of Honor in Russian History” and “The Russian Psyche through Art and Cinema” to “U.S.-Russian Nonproliferation Cooperation.” Admission to the program was very competitive and all successful candidates received tuition scholarships as well as stipends for housing and living expenses. ›› The research for Save the Children’s new annual report, Stolen Childhoods, was codirected by Professor Beryl Levinger and Nikki Gillette bais ’06, MPA ’07, MBA ’09, aided by Professor Fernando DePaolis, who served as technical advisor. “This is the 14th annual report that I’ve done with Save the Children,” says Levinger. This year’s report offers a brand-new study with some groundbreaking aspects in terms of concept and methodology. “Over this time, research for the annual State of the World’s Mothers report

has had a great deal of Institute input. In the first several years of the report, Jean McLeod Mulroy MPA ’99 worked with me on the research, and many students received stipends to contribute to the research effort.” In more recent years, the report has been a collaboration between Gillette and Levinger, with the addition of DePaolis two years ago. ›› The Institute partnered with Stanford’s Center for Ocean Solutions this July to offer the first-ever Blue Pioneers Program, bringing U.S. and Chinese participants together to develop sustainable maritime business and nonprofit ideas for the Chinese economy. The Institute welcomed 15 Chinese and international graduate students, primarily from Peking University, to Monterey for the two-week program. Chinese participants were joined by three Institute students studying international environmental policy and business. The program was funded through a grant from the Packard Foundation focused on increasing leadership and capacity of NGOs dedicated to marine and coastal issues.

States Proliferate?” is the title of a Managing the Atom Project discussion paper authored

by Professor Philipp Bleek, chronicling nuclear weapons proliferation choices through the nuclear age. “This paper grew out of my PhD dissertation and some related work on nuclear weapons proliferation,” says Bleek. “My former Harvard colleagues and I finally decided this needed to see the light of day as a proper publication.

I’m especially pleased by what I believe is the first-ever joint MIIS-Harvard publication.” Published on June 2, 2017, the paper is available through Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. ›› Dr. William Potter’s paper “Disarmament Diplomacy and the Nuclear Ban Treaty” was published in the August–September 2017 issue of Survival. ›› Elaine Korzak, visiting professor and postdoctoral fellow, chronicled a setback for UN cybersecurity efforts in a piece titled “UN GGE on Cybersecurity: The End of an Era?” for the Diplomat. ›› In a September 14 essay for

PUBLICATIONS ›› “When Did (and Didn’t)

Marketwatch, Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev argued that,

Communiqué EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Matt Jennings SENIOR EDITORS

Jason Warburg Eva Guðbergsdóttir DESIGNER

Paul Dahm despite the outward evidence of an economic recovery, U.S. households still aren’t better off than they were 20 years ago. “Materially, U.S. households’ disposable risk-adjusted incomes are lower today than they were in 1999,” he said, based on the structural stagnation of real income, the impact of inflation, changes in Census Bureau methodology, and the hidden worker costs inherent in the new gig economy.

Rhode Island. “She never took her eyes off of the importance of community engagement in protecting coastal resources around the nation,” said W. Russell Callender, assistant administrator for ocean services and coastal zone management for the National Ocean Service.

“Her life and career will cast a long shadow for those who follow the trail she blazed in coastal zone management.” ›› Jens Wiik MAIPS ’15 passed

PASSAGES ›› Margaret Davidson, a member of the Center for the Blue Economy Advisory Council, passed away in May after a long illness. Called “the greatest visionary I ever had the pleasure to meet” by a former colleague at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Davidson was active in coastal resource management issues for nearly 40 years. She joined NOAA as the founding director of its Coastal Services Center, and later served as acting director of the Office for Ocean and Coastal Resources Management. She held a Juris Doctor from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree in marine policy and resource economics from the University of

away suddenly this September after going into anaphylactic shock due to a severe allergic reaction. Jens and his wife, Alina (Banasyak) MATFL ’11, were married in February 2016 at Carmel Mission Basilica, and had been living in Rochester, New Hampshire. Jens was born in Norway to an American mother and Norwegian father. His grandfather on his mother’s side was a World War II Navy veteran and his paternal grandfather fought in the resistance in Norway. Jens served in the U.S. Army for 10 years, including postings in South Korea, Iraq, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and achieved the rank of captain.

During his time in Monterey, Jens was a vital, engaged part of the campus community and

an active member of the Veterans Organization. He sought a career in public service, saying of MIIS students, “We are problem solvers.” ›› Regina Todd MA Russian Language and Civilization ’65, who passed away in October, was one of the original Monterey/Middlebury stories—she earned her degree at the Institute, then taught at Middlebury’s Language Schools during the summer while teaching at MIIS during the regular school year. A native of the Soviet Union, she arrived in Monterey after living through the fall of Leningrad, escaping the Hungarian revolution, and coming to the United States alone in 1960. Translator of the definitive work on the siege of Leningrad (900 Days, by New York Times editor Harrison Salisbury), Regina was also the author of a memoir, My Struggle for Survival. She spent 33 years as a Russian teacher at the Defense Language Institute, while also teaching courses at the Monterey Institute, and was highly regarded by students and colleagues at both institutions. n

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