Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies

06/15/2023

01/18/2023

On International Horizons, Jason Stearns, assistant professor of international studies at Simon Fraser University, discusses how the Congolese government is invested in conflict on its territory. Stearns traces the current conflict back to the Belgian colonial heritage that created an ethnic disbalance in the population that was then exploited by the authoritarian leader, Mobutu Sese Seko, to maintain power. It later triggered the regional invasion of Congo in which the territory was divided between neighboring countries until the country was finally reunified in 2003. When former rebels lost power in a democratic process and tried to regain it through military means, neighboring countries scrambled to profit from extraction and influence. This left little incentive to put an end to the conflict, and forced the incumbent president to side with the military establishing a system of clientelistic networks in order to stay in power.

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, located at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

01/18/2023

How did the pandemic transform workers and work? This week on International Horizons, Professor John Torpey talks to Jamie McCallum from sociology at Middlebury College about the shift in conditions for essential workers across the globe during the pandemic and how that affected the whole world’s labor movement. McCallum discusses the variations of these effects in different regions and how exceptionally the US behaved during the pandemic in terms of labor protection. Finally, the author discusses whether labor unrest can be pushed for larger systemic change.

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, located at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

10/31/2022

Our 100th episode of International Horizons is appropriately a discussion of the history of aging with Professor David Troyansky, Brooklyn College/GC. How do we take care of older generations, and is this a new challenge in a growing and aging world?

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, located at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

10/25/2022

This week on International Horizons, Edit Zgut-Przybylska from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, and vice president of Amnesty International Hungary, shares her insights about Hungarian and Polish authoritarianism. Zgut-Przybylska presents Orban's definition of Illiberal democracy and how it is intended to disseminate an image of a decaying West. She explains how Russia’s war on Ukraine is framed differently in Poland and Hungary. Moreover, she discusses the Polish and Hungarian leadership’s efforts to portray the EU and Germany as the perpetrators of economic deterioration. Finally, she discusses how Poland and Hungary are getting around Brussels’ laws and its consequences, which include freezing EU funds. bit.ly/3MWUo6H

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, located at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

10/18/2022

In this episode of International Horizons, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Minority Issues Fernand de Varennes discusses the job of special rapporteurs on the field, the conceptual evolution of the word minority, how the existence of minority groups in a state can provoke both political turmoil and peaceful coexistence. De Varennes also explains the role of international organizations in the protection of minorities and the new surge in populist nationalism in which minorities are targeted as the enemies of the society. He presents cases of countries that have embraced diversity and became stable and just societies.

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, located at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

10/18/2022

On International Horizons, Marcus Stanley from Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses the attitudes of Americans towards the war on Ukraine and how they seem to be more concerned with inflation than the war. Stanley delves into the challenges of reaching an agreement between Russia and Ukraine and the possible solutions where mediation seems the only way out. He also warns about the need for intervention before an escalation with devastating consequences for Ukrainians and effects on the US and NATO, the prospects of winter without gas in Europe, and the consequences for Russia of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline.

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, located at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

09/28/2022

Italy has just held an election in which it appears that a far-right candidate from a post-fascist Party has won, and its leader will become the next prime minister of the country. What's happening in Italy? What does this election tell us about wider developments in Europe today?

In this episode of International Horizons, Andrea Mammone of La Sapienza University in Rome explains the linkages of Giorgia Meloni's party, the Brothers of Italy, with historical fascism and the dynamics of 2022 elections, which were marked by a generational shift from Berlusconi's leadership. Moreover, Mammone discusses how the victory for the far-right reflects the failure of the center and center-left parties to consolidate durable coalitions, and the paradox that a more forward-thinking left has not been able to present a woman for elections. Finally, Mammone discusses the implications of this election for Europe, how the EU and the political mainstream have legitimized the extreme-right movements in Europe, and the challenges Meloni will face in the economic realm where immigrants can no longer be used as a scapegoat for the problems of Italy.

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, located at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

06/27/2022

The US women's soccer team recently reached a deal with the owners of American Professional Soccer for pay equity with the men. What's going on out on the soccer pitch? Andrei Markovits, Professor of comparative politics and German studies at the University of Michigan, talks with Professor John Torpey about the comparative history of sports in Europe and the United States and how soccer was crowded out from the hegemonic sports space in the U.S. https://bit.ly/3NUZAar