CUSA will host 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 will be 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.
CUSA Director Richard
Matthew's presentation at a colloquium on “Global
Climate Change: National Security Implications”
sponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute and the
Triangle Institute for Security Studies is now available
in
Global Climate Change National Security Implications.
2008. Carolyn Pumphrey, ed. The Strategic Studies
Institute, U.S. Army War College.
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.
In recent months, an
increasing amount of attention has focused on global
food prices and their impacts in many parts of the
world. CUSA’s research on
food security looks at the ways in which many
current global challenges, including poverty,
environmental degradation, climate change, agricultural
practices are contributing to rising prices for foods.
Visit our food security page
to learn more.
Heather Goldsworthy, a CUSA Research Associate and
PhD student in Planning, Policy and Design, has been
chosen as a 2008 UCI Medal Dinner Fellow. This award is
given annually by the School of Social Ecology "to its
most outstanding graduate students in recognition of
their superior performance in both the academic and
research arenas." A portion of proceeds from the UCI
Medals Dinner, an event that celebrates the recipients
of the campus' highest honor, the UCI Medal, provides
funds for the stipend.
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.
Two papers related to
our NSF funded project on "Societal Implications of Individual
Differences in Response to Turbulence: The Case of Terrorism"
were recently presented at the 49th Annual Convention of
the International Studies Association, San Francisco,
California, March 26th - March 29th, 2008.
The Center for
Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA) was recognized as
one of the four hubs of global research on the interface
of environment and security alongside much larger
organizations in Toronto, Zurich and Oslo by the German
Advisory Council on Global Change in their report
World
in Transition: Climate Change as a Security Risk.
CUSA was chosen as a
founding member of the United Nations Environment
Programme’s (UNEP) Environment, Conflict and
Peacebuilding Expert Advisory Group. CUSA, along with
experts from prestigious universities like Duke
University, the University of Maryland, Columbia
University, and organizations like the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars and the International
Institute for Sustainable Development, will provide
expert guidance to UNEP’s effort to integrate
environmental concerns into peacebuilding and conflict
resolution programs.
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 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.
An article about our work as
part of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security project has
been published in Hans Günter Brauch, (Ed.),
Globalization and Environmental Challenges: Reconceptualizing Security
in the 21st Century. Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental
Security and Peace, Vol. 3. Springer, 2008. An item about this volume
appeared on the Woodrow Wilson Center's
New Security Beat.
We have created a new
page for our project on "Societal Implications of Individual
Differences in Response to Turbulence: The Case of Terrorism"
which examines the extent to which traumatic events and
perceptions of global threats may evoke different
political responses that in aggregate can influence
democratic values, institutions and practices.
We have updated the
project pages for CUSA's research programs on "Climate
Change and Human Security" and "Microfinance,
Human Security and Sustainable Development."
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.
CUSA's Crystal Murphy
Morgan and Bryan McDonald were featured on the
January 15, 2008 episode of "Dialogue
with Doti & Dodge," to discuss CUSA's research on "Addressing
Security Challenges of the 21st Century."
"Dialogue with Doti & Dodge," is an award-winning talk
show hosted by economist Jim Doti, president of Chapman
University, and Chapman Trustee Kristina Dodge, that is
produced by Chapman University and KOCE's the OC
Channel.
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.
Roxane Cohen Silver, a
CUSA Faculty Affiliate and
UC Irvine psychologist,
and her colleagues have published a study in
Archives of General Psychiatry
that finds
Sept. 11 stress increases risk of heart problems.
Read more about this study and
watch an interview with
Alison Holman, professor in nursing science and lead
researcher for the study.
Dr. Carl H Schultz, a CUSA
Advisory Board member, presented "The 411 on DISASTER
RECOVERY" to the Orange County Forum on Wednesday,
December 5, 2007. Dr. Schultz is Director, Disaster
Medical Services in the Department of Emergency Medicine
at UCI Medical Center. Learn more at the
Orange County Forum
website.
UC Irvine psychologist
and CUSA
Faculty Affiliate Roxane Cohen Silver will
receive the American
Psychological Association Award for Distinguished
Service at the group's leadership conference in
October. The honor, bestowed to one individual annually,
was initiated by the APA Board of Scientific Affairs to
recognize outstanding service to psychological science.
Silver is a national expert in the field of stress and
coping and has spearheaded the longest-running national
study of psychological responses to the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
Kristen M. Day,
Associate Professor of Planning, Policy & Design and a
CUSA
Faculty Affiliate, has been selected to receive
the UCI Academic Senate’s
Distinguished Mid-Career Faculty Award for Service.
The awards are given to Senate members who have achieved
excellence through their activities in research,
teaching and service. The Academic Senate's
Distinguished Faculty awards are selected by the
Committee on Scholarly Honors and Awards.
CUSA has been selected
as the new home for the
newsletter of the International Studies Association’s
Environmental Studies Section. The International
Studies Association (ISA) is a group of scholars and
practitioners founded the in 1959 to pursue mutual
interests in international studies. Representing eighty
countries, ISA has over four thousand members worldwide
and is the most respected and widely known scholarly
association in this field.
Richard Matthew, CUSA's
Director, has been selected as an editorial board member
for The Open
Political Science Journal. The Open Political
Science Journal is an Open Access online journal, which
publishes research articles, reviews, and letters in all
areas of political science.
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.
Andrea
Ballestero
has been selected to receive the
2007-2008
Heather Mills McCartney Fellowship in Human Security
for her project on
“Translating the human right to water: Pro-poor prices, water
security, and collaboration in the Caribbean coast of
Costa Rica.”
CUSA’s Coalition
Advocating Human Security (CAHS) program is pleased to announce the
winners of its 2007-2008 fellowships. CAHS fellows will promote research, education,
public awareness, and evidence based policy making to address urgent
cases of vulnerability linked to global changes that impact the lives of
individuals, communities, and nations. The 2007-2008 CAHS fellows are:
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.
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.
CUSA has worked with the
Irvine division of Calit2 and Lawrence University in
Appleton, Wisconsin to develop an informational website
is available at:
http://www.myelectiondecision.org/
Richard Matthew presented
on "Using Sustainability to Build Stability in Africa:
Strategic Policy Issues for the Army," on a panel on
"Stability, Security and Development," at the U.S. Army
War College.
"Climate
Change: What it Means for Us, Our Children, and Our
Grandchildren," a new book edited by Joseph F. C.
DiMento, Director of UCI's Newkirk Center for Science
and Society and a CUSA Faculty Affiliate, is now
available in hard copy or paper back from MIT Press.
CUSA presented a course
on "Unconventional Security Issues" to the
Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute at UC, Irvine. The
course, on September 18 and 25, included lessons on a
range of security issues including climate change, food
security, terrorism, and infectious disease.
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.
September is
National Preparedness Month.
National Preparedness Month 2007 is sponsored by the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security. In support of this effort, we
have updated our pages on
Emergency Preparedness, School
Safety, and Pandemic Influenza
Planning.
CUSA Director Richard Matthew spoke on
"Climate Change and Peace" as part of The Soka Gakkai International
(SGI-USA) Culture of Peace Resource Centers'
Culture of
Peace Distinguished Speaker Series on Saturday, July 21, 2007.
An article about a CUSA
co-sponsored workshop on “Environmental Challenges in
War-Torn Societies: Sustainability and Human Security in
Post-Conflict Reconstruction” appears in the
April 2007 issue of
Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP).
CUSA presented a
conference on “Transforming
War Torn Societies and Failing States: Opportunities for
Integrating Microfinance Services, Sustainable
Development and Security,” on Thursday, April 19,
2007 at Georgetown University’s Mortara Center for
International Studies in Washington, D.C.
