Archive for the ‘International Affairs’ Category

By Paul Kinsinger

Headlines often paint a grim picture of life in the Middle East. People who view the region from afar see a dangerous place full of angry extremists who can’t get along with themselves or others. Recent stories of human rights violations in Syria and power struggles in Egypt only strengthen the perception of dangerous fallout from the Arab Spring. Yet the media lens distorts reality by focusing on unusual or extreme events. At Thunderbird School of Global Management we believe the best way to understand a culture is to experience it firsthand. Westerners who visit the Middle East might be surprised by what they encounter at the corner café — just as Middle East observers coming the other direction might be surprised by the lack of race riots or hate crimes on your street. In both cases the reality is more mundane than what media headlines suggest.
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By Daryl James

Cairo Alumni Chapter Leader Alsherif Wahdan ’08 normally listens to his wife. When she worked as an educational adviser, he took her advice to apply at Thunderbird and found a Global MBA program that allowed him to keep his full-time job in Qatar while studying online. Later, he jokes, he took her advice and proposed marriage. But he ignored her warnings on Jan. 28, 2011, when she urged him to stay away from massive demonstrations that already had left dozens dead and hundreds injured across the country. “I left my wife and kids at home crying,” he says. “I went to Tahrir Square, knowing there was a chance I would not make it back.”
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Russia has hit speed bumps on its path to democracy, but former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev called for patience and historical perspective during an event co-sponsored by Thunderbird School of Global Management. “When countries outside Europe and the United States criticize us, we understand that,” Gorbachev said through an interpreter April 28, 2012, at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. “But when countries like the United States or Great Britain criticize Russia, we point out that it took your countries hundreds of years to develop the modern democracy, so you should give us a little more time.” | Related article: Perestroika in America | Video: Halfway to Russian Democracy (1:25) | Photos: View images on Flickr
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Restless Americans are ready for change like the perestroika movement that transformed the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev said April 28, 2012, during an event co-sponsored by Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona. “It’s not some kind of detailed advice, but I think America needs its own perestroika,” Gorbachev said through an interpreter April 28, 2012, at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. | Related article: Halfway to Russian Democracy | Video: Perestroika in America (1:25) | Photos: View images on Flickr
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By Dr. Eileen Borris, Thunderbird Adjunct Professor

Nigeria has experienced a catastrophic explosion of violent religious conflicts in the last decade, contrary to some expectations that the inauguration of democratic governance would usher in stability, mutual coexistence and tolerance. The most recent crises erupted in Plateau State, where many men, women and children were killed. One initiative launched in response to the violence is the Nigeria-Plateau State Peace Dialogue Project, developed and supported by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in Italy. During phase one of this project, which started in December 2010, I traveled to Abuja, Nigeria, to facilitate three separate peace dialogues. Participants included Muslim and Christian men, women and youth. Although anxieties surfaced in the beginning, each group came together to build greater understanding. Subsequent phases will promote peace through legal advocacy and the establishment of Schools for Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Learn more in this Thunderbird Knowledge Network video. | Video: Lessons from Nigeria (2:38)
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Young people with access to social media technology will help transform Middle East culture in the coming months, Thunderbird Professors Paul Kinsinger and Melissa Beran Samuelson said Sept. 13, 2011, in a faculty webinar. “The demographics in much of the Arab world is extremely young,” Kinsinger says. “There is tremendous pressure on these governments and these societies to find opportunities for people coming of age.” Samuelson says the United States saw a similar youth movement in the 1960s. “When you’re young, there is a lot more possibility in the air,” she says. “And that helps drive some of the revolution.” The professors respond to alumni questions about Libya, Syria, Egypt, Israel and other Middle East hotspots in this hourlong webinar. | Webinar: Arab Spring Update (57:54)
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People who view the Mideast uprisings as an “Arab Spring” are missing the broader significance of a global movement, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Aug. 29, 2011, at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. “I don’t think Arab Spring is the right name for it,” McCain said. “It obviously has spread throughout the Arab world and is still going on. But I would argue that it’s going on all over the world, not just in the Arab world.” McCain said the only comparable time in recent history might be the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union. “We live in a time when we should be most excited,” he said. “Never in history have so many hundreds of millions of people had an opportunity to experience freedom and democracy and an observance of human rights.” | Video: Sen. John McCain at Thunderbird (13:13) | Podcast: Sen. John McCain at Thunderbird (13:13)
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