IGL Newsletter: December 2017

In October, the Institute for Global Leadership had the pleasure and privilege of hosting Mac Maharaj on campus. One of the founding fathers of post-apartheid South Africa, Maharaj was a member of Nelson Mandela’s inner circle during the days of resistance in South Africa.

In 1977, after spending 12 years in prison on Robben Island, he was appointed secretary of the Internal Political and Reconstruction Department of the African National Congress (ANC). He served on the Revolutionary Council and National Executive Committee of the ANC, an underground program of armed resistance against the apartheid government. After Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Maharaj was a lead negotiator for the ANC in talks with the National Party government and Joint Secretary of the Transitional Executive Council, overseeing South Africa’s transition to democracy. Mandela appointed Maharaj minister of transport upon becoming president in 1994; Maharaj served in parliament until 1999. Recently, he was also the official spokesperson for South African President Jacob Zuma. Learn more...

The 2017-18 EPIIC topic is “Is the Liberal World Order Ending?”  The IGL’s new Director, Abi Williams, sees this theme as at the heart of the Institute for Global Leadership’s (IGL) mission to prepare new generations of critical thinkers and effective ethical global leaders who can comprehend the world’s most challenging global issues.

As world events confound traditional tools and institutions, it is also a question which demands urgent answers. The faltering of global order can be seen in the realm of international security, where the international community has stood by – largely impotent – as a devastating civil war has ripped apart Syria, unleashing the worst humanitarian crisis in the young 21st century, and as the Rohingya have been violently forced from their homes in Myanmar. The conflict in Ukraine has challenged international norms of territorial integrity and raised the specter of great power conflict in Europe for the first time since the end of the Cold War. Learn more...

The Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) is an undergraduate organization dedicated to improving civilian-military relations. They were founded at Tufts University by students involved in the Institute for Global Leadership’s (IGL) EPIIC program in 2006.  ALLIES has grown to encompass chapters at Tufts, the United States Naval Academy (USNA), and the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, and Wellesley College. They are currently working on expansion and are developing relationships with the University of North Georgia, the Virginia Military Institute, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the George Washington University. Learn more...

The mission of the Institute for Global Leadership is to prepare students to play active roles in their communities, whether at the local, national ouch, the IGL plans to bring alumni back to Tufts regularly to share their experiences as part of the IGL Alumni Careers Series. This Nr global level. As sovember, three alumni – Brad Bernstein (EPIIC’89, A’89), Anne O’Loughlin Bosman (EPIIC’02, A’02), and Stephen Gershman (EPIIC’09, Empower’10, A’11) – inaugurated the series with a focus on the business sector, including start-ups, social entrepreneurship, enterprise technology, financial services, strategic partnerships and international business. The alums shared stories from their respective journeys and offered advice to current students as they consider life after Tufts. Learn more...

On November 13, New Yorker Reporter Evan Osnos delivered a public lecture at Tufts on “The U.S. and North Korea: A View from the Ground Up”, based on his recent visit to the country and his long-term reporting on the region.

Osnos joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008 and covers politics and foreign affairs. His book, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, based on eight years of living in Beijing, won the 2014 the National Book Award in nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. He has also written from East Asia; his article “The Fallout” won a 2012 Overseas Press Club Award. Previously, he worked as Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he was part of a team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Before his assignment to China, he worked in the Middle East, reporting mostly from Iraq. Learn more...

The 33rd Annual Norris and Margery Bendetson EPIIC International Symposium on “Is the Liberal World Order Ending?” will be held March 1-3, 2018 on the Tufts Medford/Somerville campus. The international symposium is an annual public forum designed and enacted by EPIIC students. It will feature international practitioners, academics, public intellectuals, activists and journalists on panels and expert-led, small-group discussions. The EPIIC Symposium page will have updates as they become available.

The Boston Globe made this assessment of past EPIIC Symposium: “At a time when the national discourse seems forever reduced to its lowest common denominator...to sound bites and slogans...EPIIC is a refreshing antidote. Far from looking to simplify the world, the symposium aims to teach students to view life in a way that respects complex human systems.”

This spring, the IGL’s student groups will collaborate on a semester-long lecture series focused on migration, with each group organizing a lecture on the theme from its particular perspective. The dates for the Wednesday series are: January 31, February 7, February 21, March 7, March 14, April 4, and April 18. For more specific information and for more events, please see the IGL Calendar or email igl@tufts.edu to join the IGL Mailing List.

When friends and family ask how I’m enjoying my time in Rwanda, I automatically default to saying that Rwanda is beautiful. If I say this to Rwandan’s who ask how I find their country, however, they often become dismayed. “What about it is beautiful,” some will respond, prompting me to come up with a more original review. Clearly, I’m not the first muzungu (foreigner) to be struck by this nation’s lustrous hills, constant sunshine, and welcoming attitudes. And sure, sometimes a lady will casually sit on me on the bus when we’re squeezed for room. Though I do prefer a handshake, I try to understand this gesture as simply a chummy way of saying, “welcome to our country!” Read more...