CUSA is a proud co-sponsor of UC Irvine's Real Food Series. This series is an open dialogue and education about the connections between people, food, the environment, and sustainability. Campus and community members are embarking on an educational series about ecologically-sound production, community-based food, humane treatment of animals, and fair labor through the dynamic facilitation of meals, panels, movie screenings, and tours. More information about the series as well as a listing of events and RSVP information is available at the Real Food Series website.

Bryan McDonald was featured in an interview on KUCI’s “Privacy Piracy” with Mari Frank on Wednesday, February 25 from 5-6 pm. During the interview, Dr. McDonald covered CUSA’s research, education and public service activities and provides more details on our projects related to terrorism, food security and human security. You can listen to this interview online or download a podcast of it at www.kuci.org.

Matthew Mitro, President of the Indego Africa Project presented a talk on "Harnessing Global Trade to Promote Human Security: Social Entrepreneurship and the Indego Africa Model," as part of CUSA's CAHS Speaker Series. This talk was be held on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. at The Pacific Club. RSVP required. Please visit the event page for more details.

Bryan McDonald presented CUSA's research on terrorism, including results for our NSF funded survey of American's, as part of a talk on “New Threats to World Security: Terrorism and other Transnational Threats.” This talk was presented to Palmia Men’s Issues Group, Mission Viejo, California, February 12, 2009.

CUSA co-sponsored a talk on "The Value of Options: Statistics, Historical Models and the Path from El Salvador to Iraq" by David Pedersen, Asst. Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCSD. This talk was held on Thursday, January 29, 2009 from 3:30-5:00 PM in SSPB room 4250.

As part of International Education Week 2008, the CIE (study abroad office) and the International Studies Public Forum present: "Global Leadership: Careers in International Development and Humanitarian NGOs," on Thursday, November 20, 3:30-5:00pm, in 1100 Social Science Plaza A. Speakers inlcdue: Cecelia Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science, and Director, Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies and Thomas Tighe, CEO and President, Direct Relief International.

CUSA is a cosponsor of the UCI Invisible Children club's 2nd Annual "Mr. UCI Contest" on Wednesday, November 19 at 7:00 pm in the UC Irvine Student Center's Pacific Ballroom A&B. All of the proceeds from this event Sacred Heart Secondary School in Northern Uganda as part of Invisible Children's Schools for Schools program. Tickets will be sold on Ring Road during Week 7 and Week 8! Thursday (11/13) and Friday (11/14) the table will be in Anteater Plaza and Tuesday (11/17) and Wednesday (11/18) table will be in Aldrich Ring! They are $7 if bought in advance, otherwise $10 at the door!

CUSA is proud to announce that we have selected Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole, the founders of Invisible Children, as the recipients of the 2008 Human Security Award. What started out as a film-making adventure in Africa, transformed into much more, when these three young Americans original travels took a divine turn, and they found themselves stranded in Northern Uganda. They discovered children being kidnapped nightly from their homes and forced to fight as child soldiers. Learn more about this year's Human Security Award Ceremony on October 29, 2008.

The Olive Tree Initiative, a diverse group of UCI students, just returned from the Middle East, where they heard perspectives from Israeli and Palestinian academics, community leaders, and activists with firsthand knowledge of the conflict. The mission of the journey was to gain knowledge beyond what is received through secondhand information and mainstream media, to hear directly from Israelis and Palestinians and to share this learning with the community. CUSA helped sponsor the Olive Tree Initiative, which held an event on "Beyond Stereotypes" on Thursday, October 23, 2008.

CUSA presented a course on "Unconventional Security Issues" to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC, Irvine. The course, on October 14 and 21 included presentations by CUSA's Bryan McDonald about the changing landscape of security threats facing the United States.

CUSA's research will be featured at two panels at the upcoming IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona from October 5-14, 2008. The WCC will bring together more than 8,000 of the world’s leading decision makers in sustainable development from governments, NGOs, business, the UN and academia. Learn more about the 3rd World Conservation Congress and check back with our site for more information about CUSA at the WCC.

CUSA hosted British polar explorer and environmental leader Robert Swan for a single presentation during his Voyage for Cleaner Energy. The Voyage for Cleaner Energy is a 5-year, worldwide lecture series and sailing expedition that includes stops in the U.S., Russia, Europe, China and India. This event was held Tuesday, May 13, 2008 from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) Building on the campus of the University of California, Irvine. Learn more about this event.

Dr. Vandana Shiva presented the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies' 17th Annual Margolis Lecture on "The New Food Wars: Globalization, GMOs, and Biofuels." This speech on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 was supported by CUSA as part of our program of activities on food security.

CUSA presented a course on "Unconventional Security Issues" to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC, Irvine. The course, on April 17 and 24 2008 included presentations by CUSA's Richard Matthew, Heather Goldsworthy, Bryan McDonald and Crystal Murphy Morgan about the changing landscape of security threats facing the United States including: terrorism, climate change, food security and infectious disease. The presentations also discussed efforts in humanitarian, conservation and development sectors, including micro-lending programs, to address these challenges.

CUSA co-sponsored a talk by Bipasha Baruah on "Public-Private-NGO Partnerships in Water and Sanitation Service Delivery in India" on February 14 at 12:30 pm in Social Ecology I room 112. This talk was presented by the the Department of Planning, Policy and Design, the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs and the Urban Water Research Center.

CUSA took part in Focus the Nation: Sustainability and Climate Change Solutions at UCI on January 31, 2008. Part of a nationwide series of events, the Focus the Nation event at UC Irvine lays the foundation for a serious discussion about global warming solutions. CUSA related presentations included:

• Richard Matthew, "Climate Change, Peace and Conflict."
• Bryan McDonald, "Climate Change, Sustainability and the Global Food System."

Richard Matthew presented the results of CUSA's research on the security implications of global climate change at "Worldlink: Connecting Youth to Global Affairs," the 11th Annual Youth Town Meeting in San Diego, California on January 24, 2008. Meeting’s theme was "Untying Global Knots: Corruption, Global Warming, Media Bias and Poverty/Health," and the topic were chosen by the youth who attended the 2007 meeting.

Bryan McDonald presented “Navigating the Changing Security Landscape” to the UC, Irvine Chancellor's Club on Tuesday, January 22, 2008. McDonald, who was a 2006-2007 Chancellor's Club Fellowship recipient, provided an overview of unconventional security issues and the changing security landscape in the context of two cases: (1) food safety and security, and (2) the growth of virtual worlds and cyber security challenges.

CUSA co-sponsored a talk on "Beyond Panaceas in Water Institutions," by Dr. Ruth Meinzen-Dick on Thursday, January 17, 2008, from 12:30PM- 1:45PM in Social Ecology I, Room 112. Dr. Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Richard Matthew participated in the UC I Vote: Election 2008 Town Hall being held on Monday, January 14 at 6:00 p.m. at Crystal Cove Auditorium in the Student Center. Also at this event, laptops were available for students to access www.MyElectionDecision.org, an interactive election information website co-developed by CUSA, the Irvine division of Calit2 and Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

 On Thursday November 29th CUSA presented a lunch on "Science and Security" with Dr. Donald Kennedy, the former Provost and President of Stanford University and current editor-in-chief of Science magazine. Dr. Kennedy was at UC, Irvine to present "Science and the University: An Evolutionary Tale Part III: Science, Security and Control" the 2007 Clark Kerr Lecture on the Role of Higher Education in Society.

CUSA cosponsored "Building the Green Economy," an event presented by UCI's Students for Sustainability on Wednesday November 14th at 7:00pm in Humanities Hall 262. Nina Rizzo and Jason Mark spoke about their experiences with campus environmental organizing and building the green economy. Their stop at UC Irvine was part of a Young Leaders Addressing Climate Change & the Green Economy west coast tour by train and bicycle organized by Global Exchange.

CUSA Director Richard Matthew presented a lecture on "Climate Change, World Peace, And the Earth Charter" to the 2007 San Gabriel Valley Earth Charter Community Summit on October 27, 2007. At the event, Richard Matthew was recognized with a Certificate of Appreciation from the California State Assembly, and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives from his work in promoting environmental awareness.

David Bornstein was presented with our 2007 Human Security Award for his work to raise awareness about social entrepreneurs who are solving many of the world's most intractable problems. The 2007 Human Security Award Ceremony, which featured a keynote address on "How to Change the World," by David Bornstein, was held on Thursday, October 25, 2007.

On October 25, 2007 we convened a workshop on "Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Security: Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change." This workshop examined the potential of social entrepreneurship to serve as a vehicle for helping vulnerable communities--that is communities already compromised by resource scarcity, failing governments, widespread and chronic poverty, and various health and education challenges-- mitigate and adapt to climate change. This workshop was made possibel through generous support of CUSA’s Coalition Advocating Human Security (CAHS) program, the Canadian Consulate General of Los Angeles and the Government of Canada, the UCI School of Social Ecology, and the UCI Center for Citizen Peacebuilding.

Scott Edward Anderson, one of the participants in CUSA's workshop on "Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Security: Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change," has posted an entry about the workshop on his blog The Green Skeptic.  

CUSA co-sponsored a talk by Professor Scott Bollens on "Cities, Nationalism and Democratization" on Thursday, October 4, 2007 from 12:30PM- 1:30PM in Social Ecology I, Room 112. This talk is being presented by the Department of Planning, Policy and Design at the University of California at Irvine.

CAHS presented, "The Role of the Military in Disaster Preparedness," a luncheon with Professor Bert B. Tussing, Director, Homeland Defense and Security Issues, United States Army War College Center for Strategic Leadership, Thursday, September 20, 2007, 11:30 a.m. at The Center Club in Costa Mesa.

CUSA presented a course on "Unconventional Security Issues" to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC, Irvine. The course, on September 18 and 25, 2007 included lessons on a range of security issues including climate change, food security, terrorism, and infectious disease.