Global perspectives on the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize

The recent Nobel Peace Prize award has garnered all kinds of reactions from every corner of the globe. From the highest circles of socio-political commentary down to grassroots-level netizens, shouts of praise and cries of indignation have flooded nearly every media outlet imaginable.

Amidst the swell of this reaction, a write-up was done in the Communique, a student publication at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, which reflected some of the breadth of this spectrum through the voices of globally-minded Columbia graduate students from China, the Chinese diaspora, and the West. Read more on the Communique article here:

www.columbiacommunique.org/?p=852

Particularly as part of this article features a quote from one of your humble Global Centers blog authors, I encourage you to keep as objective a viewpoint as possible in considering the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize results. Was this decision non-partisan? To what degree do we need to contextualize our understanding in terms of macro-level factors and polarized interests?

An important thing to remember in this evaluation is the actual purpose of the Prize. According to its website, the Nobel Peace Prize seeks to award: “...the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. How well does this year’s selection reflect this mission? More emphatically, does this year’s selection actually further its mission of encouraging “fraternity between nations” and “promotion of peace congresses”?

Thanks to the Communique and Thomas Chen for allowing the inclusion of their article.

Fund Unpaid Internships!

Learn how to fund your unpaid internship this summer!

Join Center for Career Education and Fellowships Office staff at two workshops this fall:

October 27^th from 12 – 1 pm in the CCE Conference Room

November 9^th from 2 – 3 pm in the CCE Conference Room

Taking an unpaid or low-paying internship in a field you love doesn't have to break the bank.  Attend this presentation to learn about how to find and apply for funding for unpaid opportunities, and about other strategies to make ends meet.  The Summer Interns Living and Learning Program (SILLP), the Alumni & Parent Internship Fund (APIF) and the Work Exemption Program (WEP) will also be discussed.  The Fellowships Office will join us to share helpful tips and resources.

To learn more about how to fund an unpaid internship, please visit our website.

Casual Attire.

Registration suggested in advance, but not required. To register, click here.

Resume not required.

Eligibility: This event is open to all Undergraduate and Graduate students at the following schools: Columbia College, School of General Studies, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning, School of Continuing Education and School of the Arts.

Additional Questions? Contact Liz Wang at ew2261@columbia.edu.

Geng Xiao on China's Next 20 Years

Executive Director of the East Asia Global Center and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Geng Xiao, was recently featured in a number of international media venues (CCTV, China Daily, “China: The Next Twenty Years of Reform and Development”, etc.) discussing his views on the economic challenges and likely policy responses for China in upcoming years.

According to Professor Xiao, in the broadest sense the macroeconomic challenge facing China today revolves around managing its exchange, interest and inflation rates to facilitate the stable and “harmonious” growth that has been so heavily emphasized by Chinese leadership, as Western economies shrink in size relative to emerging markets.

He points to prices in Chinese non-tradable goods— unskilled labor wages, property values, etc.— rising in comparison to tradable goods, whose price are dictated by the global market. Following this trend, he predicts that over the next few decades Chinese price levels will converge toward those of the US through structural inflation or structural revaluation of the yuan— or both.

Here Professor Xiao takes a stand: that structural inflation is the better of the two avenues, and that China must in fact permit a reasonable degree of structural inflation.

As a positive claim, this approach prioritizes employment, productivity gains, wage growth and price liberalization, while preserving the benefits of a stable exchange rate in curbing speculative capital inflows and the short-term shocks that they often carry.

In a more negative sense, Professor Xiao calls on the troubled experience of Japan in prematurely appreciating its currency during the Plaza Accord of 1985, and indicates that currency appreciation as a means of adjusting trade imbalances— a common stance among US policy-makers— is a misguided notion. The huge potential for cross-border investment and debt financing between the US and China, and the potentially larger size of cross-border capital flows as compared to trade flows between the two countries over time, encourage a stable exchange rate as being in both countries’ longer-term interests. Moreover, structural inflation will ultimately lead to a real revaluation of the RMB, which will then facilitate the shift to a flexible exchange regime along the way.

Of course, tolerating structural inflation will necessitate policymaking that will mitigate distortions and shocks that will occur during the adjustment process. Chinese policymakers must deal with property and stock-market bubbles currently being formed. As Professor Xiao makes clear, this will require raising Chinese interest rates (which currently lie at dangerously low, and even negative rates in real terms), and improving capital-control mechanisms as greater capital inflows ensue.

Read more on this discussion at:

http://epress.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/China%3A+The+Next+Twenty+Years+of+Reform+and+Development/311/ch08.xhtml

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-09/08/content_11271502.htm

Review of “The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Reshaping the World” (Princeton University Press, 2010)

In The Great Brain Race, Ben Wildavsky, senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and former US News & World Report education editor, delivers a comprehensive overview of the globalization of academia.

Beginning with an introduction of the phenomenon and an outline of his basic project, Wildavsky dives into an examination of international student movement, the expansion of universities into a transnational context, and the development of competitive, world-class universities around the world. Key factors at work in this examination are the sheer number of students studying abroad, the dynamic globalization models of universities such as NYU and regions such as Qatar’s Education City, and the impressive rise of top-notch universities in non-traditional locales ranging from China, to India, South Korea, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia.

Wildavsky then turns to the global spread of university ranking systems, from the well-known US News & World Report, to up-and-comers like the Academic Ranking of World Universities, a research-focused publication by Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the arguably UK-centric Times Higher Education. Following the exploration of these metrics, he then assesses the rise of for-profit and online education facilities, which carry the benefits of providing readily accessible, career-oriented learning options, but suffer from questions regarding the quality of their educational services and their positive or negative impacts on the education systems around them.

While The Great Brain Race does an excellent job of examining the various angles at work in academic globalization, and while it provides many interesting facts regarding this ongoing movement, readers may find the book to be lacking as far as a core argument or motivational purpose. The introduction and final chapter of the book take a stab at establishing this sort of motivating theme, where Wildavsky discusses his worries about the obstacles facing academic globalization, and his support of its many benefits, which he stylizes as being part of a positive-sum “free trade in minds”. Despite this attempt, and in large part due to the dynamic nature and incredible breadth of his project, the book falls somewhat short of introducing a unique premise, and may instead be highlighted for its strengths as a broad-based survey and referential resource to better understand the globalization of the academic field.

Opportunities with the Global Centers in New York

Are you interested in getting more involved with international events and activities on campus? The Global Centers is hiring two workstudy-eligible students for administrative and communications support positions.  We are also looking for new bloggers to help develop the content on the blog. For all of the new students coming to campus, this is a great opportunity to learn about international studies opportunities, meet new people, and make Columbia a better place.

Contact Monique Smith at mds2180@gmail.com

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships

Global Centers Wins NRC/FLAS Grant

Columbia Global Centers is pleased to announce that it has recently been awarded a major grant by the United States Department of Education to establish a National Resource Center for Global Studies at the university. This is a significant step toward strengthening Columbia’s already robust set of international courses, events, and outreach activities. In the next four-year grant cycle, the Office of Global Centers will be implementing an array of programs including a major initiative to bring the World Leadership Forum to local K-16 schools via webcast. Funding will also be directed to the libraries, language teaching, several conferences on global topics, and course development grants.

Next month, as a part of this new program and in coordination with the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, the Harriman Institute, the Committee on Global Thought and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, the Global Centers will launch the International Network to Expand Regional and Collaborative Teaching (INTERACT), which will bring 5 postdoctoral fellows to campus to create innovative courses on global topics for undergraduates.

For the 2010-11 Academic Year, Columbia Global Centers has awarded Foreign Language and Area Studies  (FLAS) Fellowships to 2 undergraduate and 3 graduate students. Please contact mds2180@gmail.com for more information on Summer FLAS opportunities