Article: "IDL - Bridge Between North
Ossetian State University and Stanford," Severnaya Ossetia
Chat Session with prof. Ron Mitchell (March 16, 2005)
Tsarikaeva:
Good morning, everyone! Greetings from NOSU. We're here: Inga Nikolenko,
Lana Tsarikaeva and Marina Tsogoeva
Meilach:
May I ask the 1st question?
Zherikhina:
Good day from Yaroslavl!
Meilach:
I would like to ask about your opinion about Kyoto protocol and it's
ratification by Russian Federation. Make it change the behaviour of the
countries?
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Chat Session with prof. James Fearon (March 10, 2005)
Fearon:
impartial mediators: there is an interesting debate going on about this
in relatively "theoretical" int'l relations research right now in the US
...
Ukhanova:
Hello, dear professor Feron. What do you think about future external
policy of the USA in respect of the Russian Federation? Thank you.
Fearon:
Some argue that there are actually advantages in certain circumstances
to having a partial mediator. One idea is that since impartial mediators
only want to get peace, they can actually be less credible in
transmitting info between parties, because parties may think they will
say anything to get peace. ...
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Chat Session with prof. Chip Blacker (October 2004)
Golovchenko : Professor Blacker,What's your own relation to Russian nuclear strategy?
Blacker : I'm assuming you're asking what my view is
of Russian nuclear strategy, yes?
KukharenkoN : Some information in IDL 101 is old due to recent international events ( Iraq , North Korea ). Will the course be updated next year?
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Chat Session with prof. Ron Mitchell (April 4, 2004)
Samoilova : OK. Our first question is: The majority of actions and measures in the environmental protection are based on prohibitions. According to the prospect theory , people are more inclined to risk when they lose something . And actions connected with the prohibitions mean losses to the people who are forbidden to do something. For example to bury waste products. That is to say restrictions and prohibitions provoke much more violations. Please, comment how effective prohibitions as a preventive measure in environment protection.
Mitchell : So, on prospect theory, that is a nice connection. I would have to give it more thought, but one thought about that is thinking that, for rules that prohibit behavior compliance is always possible but unlikely, ie, people are capable of compliance (they are doing something so they can always stop)....
Mitchell : whereas with rules that require behavior, there are two sources of noncompliance -- people don't want to comply (lack of incentives) or people can't comply (lack of capacity). But, I think the issue of prospect theory and how people frame gains vs. losses would also be an important issue. I just have not spent time thinking about that. If you are interested in these issues, however, you might look for an article by Jeff Berejikian in American Political Science Review that discusses prospect theory and the Montreal Protocol.[end] Read more ..>
Chat Session with prof. James Fearon (April 4, 2004)
mikhailov : What is the best campain of UN peasekeeping?
shapovalov : What are the perspectives of UN in solving of international conflicts?
Fearon : hard question to address in two sentences. Until the end of the cold war, the UN's basic posture was a mediator that facilitated agreements between warring parties, and would, with mutual consent, provide verification and monitoring services for cease fires and peace deals. ...
Fearon : Since the end of the cold war, and with a huge move into UN interventions into civil war torn states, the UN has in effect experimented with (or been forced to experiment with) much more active postures, in settings where it is hard to say that there is mutual consent in a meaningful sense. UN people I've talked to are generally very uncomfortable with this. e.g., the idea of being sent to do a big UN PKO in Iraq horrifies most of them, because they think the UN is not presently equipped to carry out such a task. Read more ..>
Chat Session with prof. Ron Mitchell (March 11, 2004)
Yakovleva : Is the problem of lackness of fish or forest vital to America now?
Ronald Mitchell : The US is quite concerned about some common resources, but has decided to have policies that, for some of these resources, act as if they need not be concerned about overuse of the commons. The current US policy with respect to climate change suggests that the US is not willing to take action unless other countries do as well, including developing countries.
Ozernaya : Do you consider that the problem of cosmic wastes is important?
Kortshikova : USU, question #1: How do you think, what are the main solutions to the problem of humans indifference?
Ronald Mitchell : If by cosmic wastes, you mean "nuclear wastes", this is a very important issue that requires both political and technical solutions. EoA. As for human indifference, an important element is trying to change people's values so they are concerned about the environment as much or more than economic concerns or security concerns. ....
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Chat Session with prof. James Fearon (March 11, 2004) Volkov : Our first question to Prof. Fearon. How many conflicts is US government involved in mediating currently? What main strategies are implemented
Fearon : There are about 20-26 active civil wars on going at present, depending on how you define "civil war". I expect that US diplomats are involved in talking to participants in all of these ...
Volkov : We have another question: Do religious issues usually play a primary role in the development of modern conflict, or religion is used after the ethnic conflict has developed?
Fearon : Then there will be quite a few more conflicts that are not particularly violent yet or at the moment, I would guess that the US diplomats/personnel are involved in one way or another in talking to participants in many of these as well. But I'm not sure how many, if any conflicts, is the US formally designated as a mediator...
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Chat Session with Karen Seto (IDL 102, Nov. 13, 2002)
Kalmykova: USU: Thank you for your interesting lectures. Our question
is about sustainable development. Is the model of sustainable development
desirable and feasible only for industrialized countries? Thank you very
much in advance.
KarenSeto: That is a good question. No, the model is not just for
industrialized countries, but also LDCs—which may follow a slightly different
model. LDC= less developed country
MikhailovaKs: What your way should take place, that all without
exception of the country have realized necessity of application of serious
working measures for achievement of steady development?
Chat with prof. David Holloway (IDL 101, Nov.4, 2002)
....
Kuznetsov: Do You think that the Nuclear (Biological) Weapons is the necessary mean
of the external policy nowadays?
David_Holloway: No, I don't think it is necessary for a state to have nuclear
or biological weapons for its external policy. Some states have been very successful
without such weapons (e.g. Japan or Germany)...
And most states have made it clear that they do not want to have
nuclear weapons by signing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Over
180 countries have signed the treaty, all but five as non-nuclear
weapons states. The thing that worries me, however, is that we might
drift into a world in which many states do come to believe that such
weapons are necessary for their external policy. The current nonproliferation
regime is fraying at the edges, and I don't think we have a really clear idea
how to strengthen that regime.
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Chat with prof. Ron Mitchell (IDL 102, Oct. 29, 2002)
....
Sidorenko: There is a scientific uncertainty about the problem of
climate change: one group of scientists considers the human activity to
be the reason of it and the other one thinks that the climate changing
is a natural process. What point of view do you espouse?
Mitchell: In response to Sidorenko, my sense of it is that there
is considerable consensus that humans are influencing the global climate
... (I will use ... to signify that I will continue in the next message
during the chat)... The nature of human influence on climate is such that
we will not be able to be sure of our influence until it is too late to
stop having a bad influence, so we should adopt a precautionary approach
....
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Chat Session with prof. Chip Blacker (Oct. 9, 2002)
....
Litvinskaya: Considering the fact that the balance of power system
was characteristic of pre-WW I period and Cold War system - of 1945-1991,
what are international relations and security based on nowadays?
Blacker: In my judgment the system, at least for the moment, is
unipolar in character. But it's complex. . .
Although the US currently deploys enormous power by most quantitative
measures, the attacks of September 11 strongly suggest that there is a
new kind of destructive power in play -- one for which we, by which I
mean the world -- is not prepared. This is wholly unprecedented, and no
one quite knows what to make of it. ....
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Three new universities join SIIS/IDL in the Fall of 2002
The SIIS Initiative on Distance Learning is expanding its presence in
Russia by inviting three new regional universities to participate in the
program beginning fall quarter 2002. After a careful selection process,
SIIS/IDL is pleased to welcome Amur State University (Blagoveshchensk),
Tymen State University, and Moscow Higher School of Economics. All of
our new partners were excited about the opportunity to explore crucial
topics of contemporary international security offered by the program and
expressed an interest in utilizing distance learning technologies. Read
more ..>
SIIS/IDL training workshop brings together faculty from Petrozavodsk
to Blagoveshensk
During the last days of the summer and before the beginning of the new
academic year, SIIS/IDL has brought the faculty from all participating
universities to Moscow for a three-day, intensive training workshop in
the methodology of distance learning. During this session, SIIS/IDL instructors,
together with the academic staff from Stanford and the Moscow, developed
common approaches to the teaching of the SIIS/IDL courses for the coming
academic year. First part of the training session was conducted by Dr.
Marina Moisseeva, a Senior Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Distance
Learning of the Russian Academy of Education. Read
more ..>
Publicity
Russian students study political science with Stanford
professors through innovative distance-learning program, Lisa Trei,
Stanford Report. Read
more ..>
Russian students learn poli sci from a distance, Deena Skolnick,
Staff Writer, Stanford Dailya.
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Initiative on Distance Learning Completes First Year. Read
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Interactions
Students Experience American Political Science Through Distance Learning,
Brock Read, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Read
more ..>
Electronic University, Chelyabinsk Press Release.
Read
more ..>
New Educational Initaitives at the Yaroslavl State University,
Igor Kiselev in Polemika. Read
more ..>
TV Report, City Channel, Yaroslavl, Russia. (Streaming Real Media
Format, in Russian). Read more ..>
Presenation by SIIS/IDL student, Roman Lukianenko (at the NATO workshop.
Yaroslavl, Spring 2001(streaming Real Media Format, in Russian)).
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