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Conferences Archive: 2008/09

01.30.2009 - 01.31.2009
Location: Davidson Conference Center, USC
Topic: Governance and Metropolitan Inequality: A Global Analysis
Abstract:

In the twenty-first century, extended metropolitan regions have emerged as the dominant form of human settlement worldwide. From economic to social policy to climate change policy, formal and informal governance within these settings is crucial to addressing the greatest collective challenges of our time. Increasingly, in the developing world as well as in developed countries, social and spatial inequalities have become a fact of life in metropolitan regions. This project undertakes the first global inquiry into the ways that public policies and institutions contribute to or mitigate these metropolitan inequalities. This will be one of the first systematic comparative analyses of metropolitan inequality and governance across the developed world, and the first ever study of parallel problems in the rapidly growing metropolitan regions of developing countries.

The project comprises the third phase of a collaborative research program under way since 2003, the International Metropolitan Observatory (IMO). Through two previous phases, IMO has become the largest systematic study of local governance in metropolitan regions worldwide. The project utilizes a standardized research protocol and datasets of social, economic and political data that have already been assembled on metropolitan regions in developed countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) as well as in several representative developing or transitional countries (Brazil, the Czech Republic, India, Israel, Poland, and South Africa).

There are two main objectives of this workshop. First, project participants will analyze metropolitan inequalities and how government services and other policies at the national, regional and local levels have either mitigated or aggravated these. The resulting papers will be prepared for publication, in book form and where possible as additional articles. Second, the workshop will develop an agenda for a major grant proposal to extend the inquiry into the relation between metropolitan governance, economic growth and inequality.

10.18.2008
Location: Taper Hall of Humanities (THH), Room 201
Topic: Will There Be A War Between Iran and the U.S.?

A symposium tackles the standoff between Iran and the U.S. over the Islamic Republic's determination to enrich uranium.

The symposium will be moderated by Ian Masters.

PANELISTS

"Who Runs Iran?"
Robert Baer is a former CIA officer who analyzed Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah. His exploits became the basis for the character George Clooney portrayed in the movie Syriana, for which Clooney won an Academy Award. Baer's latest book is The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.

"Iran, the IAEA and the United Nations Security Council"
Muhammad Sahimi is the NIOC Chair in petroleum engineering and professor of chemical engineering and materials science at USC. He will discuss Iran's nuclear program, concentrating on the legal and technical aspects of the dispute between Iran and the Western powers regarding Iran's nuclear energy program. He is a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"The Status of Iran's Enrichment Program"
Michael Levi is one of the few Western specialists to have visited Iran's uranium conversion facility in Esfahan. He is the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at The Council on Foreign Relations, where he was previously Fellow for Science and Technology. He is the author of the books On Nuclear Terrorism and The Future of Arms Control.

"The Possibility of Deep Changes within Iran"
Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions. He is a fellow at USC's Center on Public Diplomacy and an assistant professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside. A Middle East analyst for CBS News, he is the author of the best-seller No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam.

"The Need for Dialogue Between Iran and the U.S."
Ali Shakeri was one of the four Iranian Americans detained last year in Iran. He is a well known political activist, and a community advisory board member of the Center for Citizens Peace Building of UC Irvine.

This event is co-sponsored by the USC School of International Relations, the USC Middle East Studies Program, the USC Center for International Studies, the Viterbi School of Engineering, and the Study Group for Iranian Affairs (SUGIA).