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Ideas: Professor Omar G. Encarnación Writes “Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Is Part of the State's Long, Shameful History” for Time

In an ideas piece for Time, Omar G. Encarnación, professor of political studies, asserts that Florida’s “long history as America’s breeding ground for toxic anti-gay politics” is pivotal in trying to understand how the state’s “Parental Rights in Education Bill,” which prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools from kindergarten through the third grade, was signed into law last month. 
 
Rather than understanding Florida as the battleground of a contemporary right-wing culture war, Encarnación discusses “Florida’s dark and painful LGBTQ history,” with homophobic legislation spanning back to the 1950s, and the lack of any formal reckoning with that past as crucial in understanding the politics leading to this new law. “In the absence of such a reckoning, history continues to repeat itself in Florida with grave consequences for the state’s reputation, the welfare of its LGBTQ citizens, and even for the American nation as a whole,” he writes.

Post Date: 05-17-2022

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Diplomat in Residence Frederic C. Hof Discusses His New Book about the Secret Effort to Broker a Syria-Israel Peace Deal

In an interview with New Lines magazine, Diplomat in Residence Frederic C. Hof reflected on his time as a U.S. ambassador and the insights laid out in his new book, Reaching for the Heights: The Inside Story of a Secret Attempt to Reach a Syrian-Israeli Peace. One basic but essential challenge, according to Hof, was that “neither side was ever convinced that the other side was serious about wanting peace and ready to do what it would take to bring it about.” The talks, once initiated, were carried out in secrecy, making significant progress, even reaching the state of “a discussion paper that could serve as a draft peace treaty and a separate U.S.-Israeli memorandum of understanding,” writes Nicholas Blanford for the Christian Science Monitor.

Full Interview in New Lines
 
Read More in Christian Science Monitor

Post Date: 05-10-2022

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Diplomat in Residence Frederic C. Hof on the Importance of Diplomacy, Teaching at Bard, and His New Book

Speaking with Joe Donahue on the Roundtable on WAMC, Diplomat in Residence Frederic C. Hof talked about what makes for a good diplomat, his insights as the chief architect and mediator of the United States effort to broker a Syria-Israel peace deal, and how his experiences have influenced his teaching at Bard College. “The Bard student body is terrific,” Hof says at the top of the interview. As the conversation shifted to the war in Ukraine, Hof emphasized that, even now, diplomacy remains an option. “Diplomacy is always, always in the equation,” Hof said. “I think we have to keep in mind that diplomacy has to be backed by the potential use of military force if it’s going to be effective.” Hof’s new book, Reaching for the Heights: The Inside Story of a Secret Attempt to Reach a Syrian-Israeli Peace, was published April 5, 2022. 
 

Post Date: 05-03-2022

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Professor Sanjib Baruah on How the UN’s Ukraine Vote Shows the Racial Subtext of Global Politics

In Professor of Political Studies Sanjib Baruah’s article “Not the World’s War,” published in the Indian Express, he argues that the ambivalence of many countries in condemning  Russia has made the fault line between Europe and non-Europe visible. The UN resolution was supported by an overwhelming majority of countries with 35 abstaining to vote. Baruah points out that commentators have mostly speculated on the interests of the abstaining countries rather than try to understand their positions. “Ukrainians now strongly identify with ‘Europe’ and ‘the West.’ Unfortunately, these concepts are haunted by the memories of colonialism and racial segregation,” writes Baruah. “Orientalism, as Edward Said put it memorably, ‘is never far from … the idea of Europe, a collective notion identifying “us” Europeans against all “those” non-Europeans.’ ” Ambivalence from abstaining countries in “non-Europe,” according to Baruah, should hardly be surprising. “One can’t expect the struggle for recognition as privileged ‘Europeans’ to inspire warm sentiments of solidarity in non-Europe. In these circumstances, abstaining from the vote to reprimand Russia for its war on Ukraine was not an untenable position.”
 

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Not the World’s War

(Originally published in print by Indian Express, excerpt below)
by Sanjib Baruah

“Like sex in Victorian England . . . race is a taboo subject in contemporary polite society.” This is how the late R J Vincent, a highly regarded British international relations theorist, began his 1982 article, ‘Race in international relations’. Behind the diffidence about race, he said, there lurk dire apprehensions about racial divisions in international affairs. Apparently, Alec Douglas-Home, British prime minister in the early Sixties, was among the few politicians to publicly acknowledge such forebodings. Douglas-Home is reported to have said, “I believe the greatest danger ahead of us is that the world might be divided on racial lines. I see no danger, not even the nuclear bomb, which could be so catastrophic as that”.

His fears were not unfounded. It was during his brief tenure as prime minister (1963-64) that radical Black American leader Malcolm X appealed to the leaders of newly-independent African countries to place the issue of the persecution and violence against Blacks on the UN agenda. “If South African racism is not a domestic issue,” he said, “then American racism also is not a domestic issue.” US officials worried that if Malcolm X were to convince just one African government, US domestic politics might become the subject of UN debates. It would undermine US efforts to establish itself as leader of the West and a protector of human rights.

Two years ago, the worldwide protests against racism and police violence sparked by the police killing of George Floyd reminded everyone that the influential Black intellectual W E B Du Bois’s contention that America’s race problem “is but a local phase of a world problem” still resonates in large parts of the world.

Perhaps America’s Ambassador to the UN, Black diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield could have given some thought to DuBois’s prophetic words before commenting on the large number of African abstentions in the UN General Assembly vote deploring the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She vigorously rejected any analogy with the non-aligned stance of former colonial nations during the Cold War. The resolution was supported by an overwhelming majority of countries: 145 to 5 with 35 abstentions — India, China, and South Africa among them.

Post Date: 03-29-2022

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Professor Sanjib Baruah Reflects on Why the Capitol Attack Remains Hotly Contested in the United States

Writing for the Indian Express, Sanjib Baruah, professor of political studies, examines the impact of the January 6 Capitol attack in the United States. Tracing the demographics of those who participated in the attempted insurrection, most were from counties “that have seen the white population shrink fast and the non-white population grow rapidly,” Baruah writes. One year later, many Republican representatives remain wary of denouncing the attack on the Capitol, a position Baruah argues is in line with the current U.S. political climate. “The Republican Party’s ambivalence towards the insurrection is largely because of its mainstream provenance and because the ideas and values underpinning it have purchase among many white Americans,” he writes.
 
Full Story in the Indian Express

Post Date: 01-11-2022

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Fifty Years Later, Professor Sanjib Baruah Reflects on the Impact of the Civil War That Split Pakistan 

On the 50th anniversary of the 1971 civil war in East Pakistan, Sanjib Baruah, professor of political studies, wrote about its destabilizing effects and impact on India’s national identity for the Indian Express. “The standard story is that most refugees returned home soon after the liberation of Bangladesh,” Baruah writes. “This is partly responsible for the unfounded myth that India’s domestic political order was insulated from the refugee influx. This is, of course, not how the refugee influx is remembered in Assam and other Northeastern states.”

Full Story in the Indian Express

Post Date: 12-21-2021