Reuters reports that an Iranian court has sentenced Kian Tajbakhsh, a U.S.-Iranian scholar, to more than 12 years in prison due to alleged espionage and acts against national security.  Tajbakhsh was taken into custody in July after the disputed June election triggered mass chaos and civilian uprising in Iran.  As Reuters explains, “The verdict looked certain to anger the United States, which is seeking to engage the Islamic Republic in direct talks to resolve a long-running row over Tehran’s disputed nuclear ambitions.”

The scholarly community’s loss is also our loss, as Tajbakhsh intended to teach at Columbia this semester.  In September, PrezBo joined the U.S. Department of State in calling for his release.  PrezBo declared,  “We concur in urging his release from detention and express our heartfelt support for his family, friends, and colleagues who are anxious over his wellbeing.”

 Tajbakhsh graduated from Columbia in 1993 with a PhD in Urban Planning.  He taught at the New School from 1994 to 2001, and has long sought to bridge East and West in his scholarly work.  He has worked for many international organizations, such as the Social Science Research Council, the World Bank, the Open Society Institute and the Dutch Association of Municipalities, as well as for government bureaus within Iran.  He was previously imprisoned in 2007 on false charges of endangering national security, but was released after four months.

Tonight at 8 PM in Havemeyer 309, Rebiya Kadeer, the woman dubbed the “Uyghur Dalai Lama” and the famed advocate for minority rights in China, will speak at an event sponsored by Columbia International Relations Council and Association in conjunction with Columbia Political Union and Amnesty International.  She’s the President of the World Uyghur Congress, the President of the Uyghur American Association, and one of the Chinese government’s least favorite people; Bwog also hears that free food will be served.

Kadeer was imprisoned for five and a half years in northwestern China after she allegedly provided “secret information to foreigners.”  She was only released after the US government, members of Congress, and groups like Amnesty International campaigned for her freedom.  She currently advocates for the rights of the Uyghur ethnic group in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, a group which is oppressed and marginalized by the Chinese government.  If you’ve never heard of the Uyghurs, here’s another reason to go see Kadeer; the Chinese government claims that she masterminded the race riots this summer in Xinjiang, a charge which she denies. 

If global affairs don’t tempt you, remember that the freshmen aren’t disenchanted with CCSC quite yet — there are multiple parties running for election!  The CCSC 2013 Debate is happening tonight at 9 PM in the Roone Arledge Auditorium.  We’re guessing that the freshmen student council hopefuls may not be quite as articulate as Ms. Kadeer, but head to Lerner to see if good Karma can beat out those who just want to Party. 

 Cofer Black came to Columbia Wednesday evening with the Columbia University International Relations Forum. Bwog correspondent David Iscoe was in attendance.

Guest speakers at Columbia are rarely what you’d expect. My first year here, I watched students grill John Ashcroft, and, for the most part, saw him dismantle stock liberal rhetoric. Students coming to see Jim Gilchrist ended up watching a riot, while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to give a speech on the value of scholars. So when Cofer Black, former CIA official and current vice chairman of Blackwater, came to Lerner today for the Columbia University International Relations Forum, I wasn’t sure what would happen

“I want you to relax,” he said, “I’m not going to preach. I’m going to share a story with you.”    

Black looks a little like Alfred Hitchcock, and delivered his whole “story” in a disarmingly conversational tone. For the most part, he talked about his experiences in the CIA’s counterterrorism center, from 1999 until 2002. He did mention controversial issues like waterboarding (“we used to take our guys and waterboard them just for the experience. I’m not condoning anything, I’m just saying what people do. How many high-value detainees had been waterboarded when I left?…how about zero? None, zero, bing, zip. Zero”), and torture, and he got into some of his more pointed, and defensive, rhetoric when he was talking about interrogation. Overall, though, he focused on the organizational problems the terrorism unit faced: delays getting the attention of both the Clinton and Bush administrations, funding that went up only when bodies were produced, an inability to launch pre-emptive special ops strikes against the terrorists, a lack of cooperation from allies overseas. Besides the focus on fighting terrorism, his take-away message was to always impress upon your bosses the importance of something you believe, lest they miss the opportunity to act on it. Read more…

With so many politicians debating America’s foreign policy, others may be wondering what they can do for international relations. For its part, Columbia’s music department has come up with a cool event to interact more with friends across the Atlantic. It is partnering with the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris and the two Berlin Academies of Music to put together a series of concerts that will be held in Berlin, Paris, and New York this fall.

In each city, students and professors will work with graduate student composers on their original works, which will premier at the concerts. Professors will also travel between the various institutions to give lectures in the run-up to the concerts.

Maybe it’s just Friday optimism, but Bwog finds the cross-continental collaboration inspiring. The New York concert is scheduled for Saturday, November 1st (Election Day weekend), at Merkin Hall on West 67th. Admission will be free.

On this cold fall night, Bwogger Anish Bramhandkar was lucky enough to make the trek over to East Campus to sit in on the most recent incarnation of President Bollinger’s Fireside Chat.  While the mood was decidely somber in the President’s Mansion because of the state of the economy, it seems that PrezBo was also in a hurry to go watch tonight’s Presidential debate.

Tonight was PrezBo’s own “Big Block of Cheese Day,” in which he took in tens of Columbia students into his palacial party space to listen to them chirp about the same things as last time, and to give them a long-needed lesson in economics.  Upon leaving his dusty jacket in the dimly lit foyer and ascending the magnificent marble staircase in his battered sneakers, Bwog happened upon a lacy table set out with bits of dead animal.  Meat on a stick, meat on a bun, cleverly disguised cubed meat, and deep-fried meat with meat-based sauce.  Oh, and some dry vegetable skewers and classy PB&J finger sandwiches. Read more…

Bwog editor Pierce Stanley weighs in from the Egyptian Ambassador’s visit to the Law School.

While the Egyptian nation-state has been a sleeping giant in the game of international relations as of late, choosing to remain remarkably low-key in a region known for its instability, the Egyptian ambassador to the United Nations, Maged Abdelfattah Abdelaziz, has always exhibited a fiery charisma quite unlike that of the general malaise that has characterized Egyptian politics in recent days. An official who is known to speak his mind and act as he pleases, just months ago, Ambassador Abdelaziz was arrested by secret service agents outside of the UN for jumping a barricade without identifying himself and allegedly spitting on an agent as he resisted arrest. Indeed, the ambassador’s diplomatic career has been defined by such moments of candor, charisma, and awkwardness. Read more…

Last night, panelists held a discussion at the Law School regarding what may be an emerging political and cultural alliance between India and Israel. Bwog dispatched not one but two correspondants to the event in order to give readers as well-rounded a perspective as possible. Below, in the second and last part of our series, Josh Mathew presents his take:

Bwoggers, lend me your ears.

I write to you in between classes so brevity must be the soul of wit. What brings India and Israel together? According to last night’s discussion lecture “India, America, Israel: Emerging Relations,” it’s the terrorists…and the post-lecture free kosher Indian buffet…but…but mainly the terrorists.

United Nations Development Program specialist Ms. Mandakini Sud began the series by emphasizing the importance of connections amongst common men and the necessity of philanthropy. Her message of good will deteriorated, however, when she later suggested that the Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence has become obsolete in an age of terror when the enemy utilizes fear and violence without any desire for dialogue. I guess the Mahatma had it easy with British colonial armies.

Former Indian Army major and current SIPA student Probal DasGupta was the most blunt of the speakers when discussing the nature of the Indo-Israeli relations. He celebrated the military assistance Israel has presented to India, whether it be counter-insurgency training, intelligence, or Galil sniper rifles. While it seemed easy to get lost in his long list of arms transactions, he concluded his speech with a series of poignant yet disturbingly false analogies comparing Israel’s conflicts with Palestine, the Arab states, and Iran with India’s own clashes with Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia. His suggested justification for a close military partnership between the two countries wasn’t lost on the audience as a close friend wondered aloud afterwards whether he was actually missing MSA’s sponsored event on Islamophobia.

Read more…

Last night, panelists held a discussion at the Law School regarding what may be an emerging political and cultural alliance between India and Israel. Bwog dispatched not one but two correspondants to the event in order to give readers as well-rounded a perspective as possible. Below, in the first part of our series, Armin Rosen presents his take:

Monday is the dreariest day of the week, and Israel is generally on the drearier end of frustrating geopolitical issues. Imagine the dual misfortune of another spiritually dehydrating Monday and another discouraging panel discussion on how Israel and the greater Middle East is completely FUBAR, and it would look nothing like last night’s forum on the “emerging” relationship between Israel and India. The discussion, which included representatives from Jewish and Indian organizations as well as the former Indian ambassador to Israel (and current ambassador to the United States), ended with a surfeit of popadoms and potato curry.

For those who haven’t tried it yet, veggie Indian food is the shit. But no foodstuff, no matter how delicious, can allay the piercing skepticism of one who has just been subjected to two mind-erasing hours of Asian Hum. It can only give him the taste for meat…or, in this case, curry powder.

Some explanation: the event, entitled “India, America, Israel: Emerging Relations” explored the strong and somewhat counterintuitive bilateral relationship between India and Israel. According to the evening’s panelists, Israel and India conduct almost $3 billion worth of trade with one another, and cooperate in virtually all areas of security and defense. Ambassador Raminder Singh Jassal provided interesting reason for this: both countries are democracies that face unique social and economic challenges, they share similar strategic interests, particularly regarding security, and they have followed similar historical trajectories.

Read more…

This morning, an anonymous tipster weighed in on the origins of the “cHiNA?” graffiti that can be spotted in every other campus elevator:

I thought you should know I have a theory that could possible solve the “CHINA?” elevator riddle. That is, what started it before the ignorant copy cats took over.

It’s dorky and obvious and asks the question on every poli-sci international relations major nerd’s mind.

Is China rising?

Get it!? Get it!? China + ? + on an elevator going up and down all the time!

Though the mystery remains unsolved until the founder of the “cHiNA?” movement is identified, the Bwog thinks this might be the start of what will hopefully be a fruitful investigation.