ISA Blog

ISA Compendium Project Update

The International Studies Compendium Project will be the most comprehensive reference work of its kind for the field of international studies. Peer reviewed essays of up to ten thousand words will focus on important topics and issues. Each essay will provide a comprehensive review of the development of the literature in a given area, as well as a focused discussion of current themes. Essays are designed to allow readers to be brought quickly up-to-date on the nature of questions asked, past attempts at formulating responses, and the current state of debates in a given issue area. These essays are designed for students, scholars or practitioners who want to understand the development of our thinking on international studies.

Every ISA Section, along with groups in political geography and IR theory, has created a list of topics to be included in the project.  These lists have now been reviewed and in some cases, revised and Section Editors have worked within each section to identify potential authors.  To date, we have authors committed to write on approximately 80% of the over 650 Compendium Project review essays. Both authors and reviewers rely on the Wiley-Blackwell author submission website for the formal peer-review process.  We aim to have all of the review essays into the copyediting stage by the end of March 2009.

To learn more about the review essay topics, visit the ISA website at:
http://www.isanet.org/compendium/

For further details on serving as a reviewer, please visit:
http://www.isacompss.com/info/reviewanessay.asp

The Wiley-Blackwell author submission website (for authors and reviewers) can be found at: http://www.isacompss.com/

Robert Denemark, General Editor
Andrea K. Gerlak, Managing Editor

United Nations University Experts Network

A central part of the mandate at the United Nations University involves building an international database of scholars that can be called upon in the future for their expertise. This expert network aims to provide a service by linking specialists around the world, facilitating the spread of knowledge and expertise on a truly global level. UNU does research and capacity development in governance and sustainable development, with a focus on developing countries. UNU welcomes participation from experts in any fields related to this broad spectrum: from international law, to philosophy, to environmental science, to sociology, to political science and more. For more information, and to volunteer as an expert, please see the UNU website.

University of Trento Offers Masters in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution

The University of Trento announces the activation of the third edition of the Level II Master’s in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution at the School of International Studies. To meet the needs of the high level of competency and professionalism required by the activities of peacebuilding and conflict management, the Master provides advanced training to those wishing to be involved in professional and volunteer activities in international cooperation and humanitarian operations in support of peace and peacebuilding.

Combining an academic and an operative-professional approach, the Masters has a one-year duration, starting January 12, 2009. To enable the both the achievement of the educational goals and the subsequent employment of graduates of the Master’s, the programme is structured in a academic/training period followed by an internship period. The Master’s is taught entirely in English. Applications are accepted from 15 September to 15 October 2008. For more information, please see the program website.

METU-NCC Announces New Masters Program

Middle East Technical University announces a new Masters in Political Science/International Relations for the Northern Cyprus Campus. A 2 year program with a written thesis, the masters affords a broad range of educational opportunities, allowing for proper development of focus and insight into desired topics. Please see the website for more details about the program. METU-NCC has an excellent staff from all over the world and the campus is an incredibly beautiful and invigorating place to engage in study.

California Newsreel

California Newsreel has been added to ISA's list of internet resources. California Newsreel produces and distributes cutting edge, social justice films that inspire, educate and engage audiences. Founded in 1968, Newsreel is the oldest non-profit, social issue documentary film center in the country. They are a leading resource center for the advancement of racial justice and diversity, and the study of African American life and history as well as African culture and politics. In 2006, they launched a new thematic focus on the Global Economy, with an emphasis on the international division of labor. Offering an alternative view to much of the mainstream coverage of global economic issues, their videos serve as analytic educational tools, reminding us that a different trajectory is not only possible but imperative.

ISA Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the expropriation of another author’s published, unpublished, or in progress work and the representation of it as one’s own [1]. It constitutes a serious breech of professional and academic ethics.

A member of the International Studies Association (ISA) who believes his or her work presented at an ISA conference has been plagiarized in any forum, or who believes his or her research has been plagiarized in a paper presented at an ISA conference, may make a formal compliant to the Committee on Professional Rights and Responsibilities (PRRC) of the ISA. Plagiarism in ISA-sponsored journals will be handled by the journals directly under their own procedures.

Upon receipt of a formal compliant, the PRRC will investigate the alleged plagiarism. All proceedings and communications will be held under strict confidentiality. The member who believes his or her work was plagiarized must provide detailed and specific supporting evidence. The alleged plagiarist will be given equal opportunity to present his or her case and countervailing evidence. The PRRC may request additional information, consult other scholars or legal counsel as necessary, or acquire additional evidence on its own initiative.

If after investigation the PRRC concludes the charge is substantiated, it will report its finding of plagiarism and a recommended sanction to the Executive Committee of the ISA for final decision. If the Executive Committee concurs with the finding of plagiarism, it may by simple majority vote impose appropriate sanctions on the plagiarist.

[1] This definition is drawn from the statement of the American Historical Association. In cases of ambiguity, the AHA discussion will be guiding in the deliberations of the PRRC. Complete text available at here (accessed May 16, 2007).

United Nations Intensive Summer Study Program

The United Nations Intensive Summer Study Program will be offered from Monday, July 21 to Friday, July 25, 2008, by the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University and the United Nations Association of the USA. Designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, this unique program immerses participants in the political dynamics of the United Nations. The application materials can be downloaded from the Whitehead School of Diplomacy website under the link for UN Connections. The application deadline is May 1, 2008. Students will be notified of their status by May 15, 2008.

World Public Opinion

WorldPublicOpinion.org  (WPO) launched in January, 2006 as a site that provides a source for understanding public opinion on international policy issues. It offers cutting-edge public opinion research from around the world, as well as U.S. opinion, on issues such as the Iraq War, climate change, globalization, trade, nuclear proliferation, the rise of China, and many other topics affecting all of us. For example, we just released a comprehensive analysis of global attitudes toward Climate Change.

GlobalVote

ISA recently received a promotional announcement for a new internet service called Global Vote, we recommend it as a resource for your research and perhaps it will be of interest to your students as well:

GlobalVote has been launched to contribute to the debate on decision-making processes within major international organizations such as the UN, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. This will be done by collecting the opinions of the international online community, and by disseminating these polling results to International Organizations, universities, the media, and national governments.

Largely unrepresentative, major international organizations have had a decisive impact on world policy over the past 60 years, but their decisions are made in an exceedingly opaque way. By utilizing innovative, transparent polling systems GlobalVote advocates for fairer representation, and collects popular opinion on the most important decisions affecting people around the globe.

Although global communication has been taking place nearly effortlessly for over a decade, the opinions of the online global community have yet to be collected in a systematic way. With developed and underdeveloped countries struggling with democracy on every level of society, and with these countries building their infrastructures more and more around the internet and wireless communication, the future of democracy could very well develop online. GlobalVote aims to be at the beginning of this exciting future.

If you want to be part of the future please go to www.theglobalvote.org and become a member, if you have friends who are interested in global issues please do refer them to the website as well. Yesterday we have closed a resolution on "Sanctions on Iran?" and the results of the vote can be seen on the website, currently a resolution on the emergency state in Pakistan has been posted, if you want to voice your opinion please "become member" and leave a comment in the connected form and vote! As the initiative is in the beginning also all comments and suggestions for improvements are welcome and can be send to info@theglobalvote.org. Your cooperation is highly appreciated!

Let's vote

University Channel

We would like to recommend the new University Channel to ISA Sections. The new technology (that Princeton has helped to pull together) is perfect for our members and also will be a great resource for our  students. It's along the lines that a visionary ISA committee (chaired by Matt Bonham), that was ahead of  its time, explored in the 1990s. The UChannel (also known as the University Channel) makes videos of academic lectures and events from all over the world available to the public. It is a place where academics can air their ideas and present research in a full-length, uncut format.

The University Channel service has been organized with 40+ founding members (Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Council on Foreign Relations, Royal Society, London School of Economics, Beijing University, Brookings Institution, U of CA system, etc.). It is free to users in all countries. It is open to contributions from all colleges and universities, research centers, think tanks and NGOs. There is an open invitation from Princeton  President Shirley Tilghman on the University Channel website:

One of the ways universities can serve the public interest is to make academic discourse on public and international affairs as accessible as possible.  The University Channel enables faculty and others at institutions of higher education around the world to present their ideas  unedited and unfiltered – to a broad and diverse audience.  I invite all academic institutions to participate in the University Channel and thereby to increase the scope and depth of public engagement in a broad range of timely and critical issues.

There's also a YouTube portal that provides a different user interface. It may be more useful for ISA Sections for uploading & tagging to create global virtual colloquia series to build larger-scale collaboration systems and accelerate scientific progress in their areas.

ISA Section members (& students of ISA members) might be interested to know that NSF, UC San Diego Computer Center, and the Public Library of Sciences launched in September another (free) YouTube global video service for technical science. Their project will also offer technical assistance to users, and evolving interfaces to support global virtual colloquia series that bring the best and latest ideas, from all sources, at an earlier stage in the creative process to the desktops of research scientists (in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors), students, and scientifically-trained members of the public in all countries as quickly as possible.