Students represented Belgium, Hungary, and Poland at Midwest Model EU

Posted on March 30, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

The Indiana University student delegation to the 2023 Midwest Model EU with keynote speaker, Ingrid Ask, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Swedish Embassy to the U.S.

Indiana University (IU) and Hamilton Lugar School students gained a realistic experience of how the European Union operates by competing in the 2023 Midwest Model EU (MMEU) Conference March 23-25. The event, hosted by the Hamilton Lugar School Institute for European Studies (EURO), was attended by more than 120 students across the country, including IU student delegations. Ingrid Ask, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Swedish Embassy to the U.S., was the keynote speaker.

“MMEU has been bringing students together from across the country for nearly 30 years now,” said Colton Ames, associate director for the Institute for European Studies and coordinator for MMEU. “It has become a centerpiece of EURO’s mission to provide students with opportunities to network with peers from other institutions and learn about the EU. As the head of MMEU, I have to remain fair and impartial, but I can’t deny how proud I am of the IU delegation’s strong performance this year.”

Nineteen IU students, who represented three countries – Belgium, Hungary, and Poland – were coached by International Studies and Political Science Professor Justyna Zając.

Eden Zaborowski, who is pursuing degrees in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and International Studies, was awarded third place as the best delegate in the European Council.

“You are competing, but you won’t be successful unless you genuinely work together with everyone,” she said.

“The European Council is made up of the heads of state,” she explained. “They are responsible for laying out the most important issues facing the EU. To prepare, everyone had to do a ton of research about the person on the Council they were representing. I was portraying Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister of Poland.”

Spending some time living in Poland, Zaborowski said, helped her in the conference.

“It made it more fun to know a little bit about the country and understand the politics. I was there right after they passed punitive abortion laws, so I experienced the protesting and the public sentiment, which made it a lot easier to represent the sentiments of Polish people,” she explained.

Zaborowski said the MMEU helped her practice developing sound arguments.

“In the MMEU, you really have to know a lot about the world to be successful because you’re sitting in a room with 20 other people who have been researching for the last three months,” she said. “Being an engaged global citizen is one of the biggest things that helps you succeed in this. That has been the running theme of Hamilton Lugar, is knowing what’s going on in the world and being able to talk about that in a clear way.”

Christian Ayers, who represented the Prime Minister of the Belgium delegation, also served as the President of the European Council.

Ayers is interested in working in the legislative field in Europe — preferably Belgium or Luxembourg — after he graduates next year.

“The legislative process is how you get things done. The EU is very complicated, so the simulation helped me understand it more,” he said. “I think there are a lot of flaws in our country and around the world. You can do nonprofit work and you can do things on your own, but doing things on a national level will just help out more.”

Ayers, who is majoring in Political Science and Economics, said meeting like-minded students was one of the best parts of the experience.

“Meeting different kids from different schools who have the same interest as you, from Notre Dame, New York, Texas, and being able to talk with them just about your views was super fun,” he said.

Sydney Kokinis, a member of the Hungary delegation, was named best delegate in environmental issues. She is majoring in International Studies with a minor in East Asian Studies.

“We had a directive we had to go over that had to do with recycling plans within the EU,” said Kokinis. “One of the big partnerships we wanted to lean toward was with South Korea. I just studied abroad in South Korea, so it is relative to what I’m studying with East Asian Studies. For our directive, we ended up paralleling and taking in the influence of South Korea, which was a full circle moment for me.”

Kokinis said the MMEU experience gave her a real experience of how legislation gets passed in the EU. She said another benefit was just meeting other students.

“With the connections that I made, we all had this general profound interest in knowing the logistics of the EU but also having fun with it as well,” she said.

The Midwest Model EU conference has proven to offer valuable networking opportunities for students.

Sara Couch, a graduate assistant and M.A. student in the Institute for European Studies, helped organize the 2022 MMEU conference, where she met a representative from the European Parliament Liaison Office (EPLO) in Washington, D.C.

“A chance meeting at MMEU led me to land my dream internship — I was selected to serve as an intern and now work in EPLO’s Washington, D.C. office in the Communications and Outreach portfolio,” said Couch. “The paid internship is an opportunity to be in the center of action between the EU and US.”

EPLO works to strengthen cooperation between the US and the EU and provide information to the public in the United States.

Sara Couch (second from right) at the European Parliament Liaison Office (EPLO) in Washington, D.C.

In her role, Couch creates social media and website content and assists at EPLO-hosted events for embassy representatives and congress members. She is also co-writing an explainer article on EU-US AI policy positions.

This year, Couch was invited to speak at the MMEU conference to students about the EPLO internship program. She encourages students to apply for the program, as well as to participate in the MMEU.

“It is easy to feel disconnected from European Union politics when you attend school in the Midwest,” said Couch. “During MMEU, you quickly get swept up in all of the processes taking place around you. Concepts that you have learned in EU classes begin to come together. Everyone takes their role very seriously; it’s like you are transported to an actual plenary session! I have heard many students say that this event was the highlight of their coursework. Until you can go to Brussels or Strasbourg, go to MMEU.”

“The MMEU allows students to experience the spirit of cooperation, communication, and compromise, which are essential features of politics and diplomacy nowadays. It is amazing to observe how many students engaged in negotiations, displayed a collaborative attitude along the way, and how professionally they behaved,” Professor Zając added.

The Institute for European Studies promotes knowledge of Europe and the European Union through education, scholarship, and public outreach. The Institute offers an M.A. in European Studies, an undergraduate minor, and many dual degrees.

Hamilton on Foreign Policy #215: Decline in US-China student exchange is troubling

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

By Lee H. Hamilton

The relationship between the United States and China is the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world, and it is growing increasingly contentious. It will take a lot of knowledge and understanding — on both sides — to manage it without slipping into a new Cold War.

That’s why it’s especially worrisome to see reports of sharp declines in the number of Chinese college students studying in the U.S. and the number of Americans studying in and learning about China.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a big factor in this trend; it disrupted travel and fueled worries about China’s trustworthiness. Also, China under Xi Jinping has been increasingly repressive to its citizens and hostile to its neighbors. It has become less a country that intellectually curious young people want to visit. Many Americans have grown more suspicious of China.

But that’s all the more reason for engaging with China, through diplomacy, people-to-people meetings, and, especially, the exchange of knowledge and experience by college students. The future of U.S.-China relations will depend on a rising generation that can speak to each other and work out differences.

I’m a very strong supporter of student exchanges, as well as foreign language studies. I think they’re terribly important. They need to be expanded, not curtailed.

Working on a university campus, I see the vibrancy and diversity that international students, many of them from China, contribute. I’ve also been impressed that Americans who have lived abroad, whether for work or to study, seem to come home with a much more tolerant attitude toward other countries and their governments.

When I was a college student, studying overseas wasn’t something that many people did. But, after graduation, I had an opportunity to spend time in Europe. I had never been abroad; I don’t think anyone in my family had been abroad. It proved to be a very enlightening experience. I support overseas study and travel because I know what it did in my life and in the lives of others I know.

It was gratifying to see a virtual explosion in the number of American students studying abroad in recent decades. In the 1990s, the number more than tripled, according to the Institute for International Education. Then it plummeted with the pandemic. The number of international students in the U.S. saw a similar trajectory: It peaked before the pandemic, then declined.

When Barack Obama took office, many Americans were optimistic about our relationship with China. Obama launched the “100,000 Strong” program, aimed at growing the number of Americans studying in China and the instruction in Chinese languages at U.S. schools.

At the same time, the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. increased, topping 300,000 for several years. But a combination of factors – including Chinese parents’ worries about anti-Asian bias in the U.S., and the rise of competitive universities in other countries – halted the trend. China still produces about 30% of international students in the United States, more than any other country, but the number has declined. Meanwhile, fewer U.S. students are studying in China or learning Mandarin and other Chinese languages.

There are reasons for Americans to be cautious about how we engage with Xi’s China, including concerns about espionage and intellectual property theft. There’s also a long tradition in the United States of using China as a whipping boy. Standing up to China is one of the few themes that unite Republicans and Democrats.

But so much depends on the relationship between China and the United States, not just for the two countries but for the entire world. Anything that impacts that relationship adversely will have wide-ranging consequences. We need to learn about China, and the Chinese people need to learn about us.

Stephanie Kane’s book explores climate change via river-city flooding

Posted on March 23, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

HLS Professor of International Studies Stephanie Kane

In her recently published book, Just One Rain Away: The Ethnography of River-City Flood Control (2022), Hamilton Lugar School Professor of International Studies Stephanie Kane explores the issue of climate change via river-city flooding and pushes her readers to think outside the box when seeking solutions to the climate crisis. In announcing the book’s release, McGill-Queen’s University Press referred to the work as “Demystifying water governance and opening new ways to sense the ground beneath our feet.”

Kane studied port cities in Brazil, Argentina, and Singapore, as well as the Canadian arctic and subarctic. She researches the political ecology of water, exploring how political, economic, and social factors affect waterways. Kane examines the way the river and coastal city inhabitants embed themselves into the planetary crust and negotiate water disasters such as flooding, pollution, and dispossession.

As an anthropologist, Kane uses an ethnographic approach, immersing herself in the location, observing the environment with a rich qualitative analysis. She describes her new book as “non-fiction creative writing bringing together geoscience, engineering, law, social life, and art into conversation to highlight social justice and environmental justice.”

Kane argues that although climate change research often focuses on carbon, water deserves attention too. She says, “We’ve been out of kilter with water on our planet for a long time. We’ve been polluting it. We’ve been diverting it. We’ve been changing the surface of the planet by manipulating water flows.” She continues, “That may not be causing climate change in the way that carbon in the atmosphere is causing climate change. But it certainly is part of the anthropogenic (human-caused changes on the planet) that are unpredictable and causing extremes – and may trigger a whole, radically different climate that we’re not ready for.”

This work evolved from Kane’s prior study of port cities’ infrastructure, which led her to examine how flooding is related to climate change. Her newest work is based on her 2014 field study of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers in Winnipeg, Canada. She says after the great flood of 1950, the modern water management system in the province of Manitoba was designed to mitigate flooding that typically occurs in the spring when melting ice combines with snowmelt and rain.

Kane says that this system may not work much longer, explaining, “In the spring 1997 Flood of the Century, the design limits of the monumental floodway, built to move excess Red River waters northward around the city, held, but barely. Then in 2011 and 2014, the worst flooding came in the summers from the west along the Assiniboine, not the spring along the Red. So, the Floodway was little help. These flood events could well be symptoms of climate change, because not only have storms become more extreme, but they are also more unpredictable in space and time. And so, like river cities everywhere, Winnipeg’s flood control system needs to be rethought, not just tinkered with.”

When she shifted her focus to flooding, Kane says that she became interested in the way the media – and people in general – think of solutions for climate change. She says, “People think, ‘Well, we need to build another dam,’ or ‘We need to build an embankment, and block the river there.’” Kane continues, “People think, ‘We just have to give the engineers money, and they can do more of the same.’”

From the beginning of the book, Kane invites the reader to a new way of thinking. She opens with two scenes. She explains, “One scene visualizes the planet’s last climate change. It’s a geoscience story that tells how the glaciers moved down over North America, then melted and left a big lake in the middle which eventually exploded in four big outbursts. Today we’re left with the sculpted surface that resulted from these events.”

In the second scene, Kane enacts the embodied experience of the Assiniboine River as contemporary landscape. She says, “Then I describe a visit to the Portage Diversion, where the Assiniboine River is diverted into Lake Manitoba. I just stand there, the ethnographer, the anthropologist, realizing that I’m not just in this physical space…but I’m also in a time, right?” She continues, “The scene where I’m standing at this big engineering monument is inside the last climate change with the outbursts. And that’s how I want to think about how humans are geological actors – by stretching the way we think about time to the geological.”

Another way Kane wants us to shift our thinking is to consider our collective impact on the environment and remove ourselves from the focus. She says, “We all divide each other up, fight with each other, and think in terms of stakeholders. But the river doesn’t really care what ethnicity you are, what language you speak, or what sexuality you have.”

Kane continues, “To understand humans as geological actors who are reshaping the planet, we can also think of historically-changing cities as human collectives. I want to decenter human intention so we can see cities from the river’s point of view.”

Rather than thinking of a river as a natural resource – an object for us to exploit – Kane says, “We need to realize that the river is alive, and it is probably going to be around long after we are. The river is a character, and the river is communicating climate change to us.”

Kane channels the message that she imagines the river might want to send to humans. An excerpt:

“Can we protect the soil on top to replenish but not destroy the pastures, habitats, and crops? … you’ve got sensors making data all over my basin … here, there, everywhere … tracking my flow, feeling my pulse … And you’ve got enough savvy to think hydro-geo-eco-logically … Now, I know you’re going to talk politics, and money … but look where that’s got us …” (Kane, Just one Rain Away, p. 194).

In this work, Kane coins the term “sphere of unintended agencies” which she says describes “all those things that we don’t realize we’re doing, or that we don’t want to realize that we’re doing. Such things work as touchstones, reminders to appreciate the impressive capabilities of flood control alongside a critical analysis of its assumptions, limits, sacrifices, and colonial erasures.”

Kane says the sphere of unintended agencies can result in people blaming the river. She explains, “If we look at the first piece of flood control that was put in place at the end of the nineteenth century, we discover that it was designed to protect settler farmers. It was not an accident that it dumped water into Indigenous communities. Development always creates infrastructural outsiders.”

Even though current laws no longer allow engineers or provinces to create that type of system, Kane says, the problem is already there. She continues, “That’s the kind of truth that underlies so many domains, even slavery reparations. The structure is already there, it happened a long time ago. It wasn’t the people who are alive now who may believe that they would never intentionally do such a thing, and yet, we’re all still privileged or harmed by what came before. All of those in the protected zones like to say, ‘This isn’t we who cause these problems, this is the river that flooded. We’ve got problems with the river.’”

As a result, Kane says we need to move beyond blaming the river. In addition, she says we can’t just do the same things that we’ve been doing. She explains, “In a changing climate, technical traditions for measuring, managing, and understanding river flow are probably out of sync with the new geophysical realities. So, once we open it up, how do we look at it? Who do we include in those understandings? Well, along with engineers and urban planners, along with inhabitants who are affected by virtue of being outsiders to the infrastructured protected zones, artists, writers, water activists and Indigenous legal scholars could all take part. Let’s just blow open the black boxes of technical expertise to look for possible alternatives.”

To learn more about Just One Rain Away: The Ethnography of River-City Flood Control (2022), listen to Kane’s interview on the January 25, 2023 New Books Network podcast.

Kane earned a B.A. in Biology from Cornell University, then completed an M.A. in Zoology and a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. After several years of research, including a Fulbright to Belize, Kane joined the Indiana University faculty in 1993. She says that she has been fortunate to teach courses she loves, focusing on topics such as environmental justice and global activist arts.

As Kane wraps up her 30^th and final year of teaching at Indiana University, her intellectual curiosity is as strong as ever. In addition to her recent book publication, Kane has two new ethnographic projects about water and cities on the horizon. Fulbright has awarded her funding for a project entitled “Port Cities as Avian Habitat” to be carried out in Lisbon, Portugal on the Tagus Estuary in fall 2023. This spring, she will carry out preliminary research entitled “Development of Climate-Change-Adaptive Water Infrastructure in the Great Lake and Post-Industrial Port City of Erie,” with partial funding from IU’s Tobias Center for Innovation in International Development.

The Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies is part of Indiana University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Land is Life: Alicia Gonzalez examines Brazilian Indigenous land sovereignty

Posted on March 22, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

The Brazilian indigenous population is one of the most vulnerable populations globally. Through foundational research at Indiana University, Alicia Lorena Gonzalez aims to influence policymakers who can protect indigenous communities by underscoring the importance of land sovereignty.

“Brazilian indigenous populations have no automatic land sovereignty. The process for land to be approved by the state is more like a lease,” said Gonzalez, who is an alumna and International Studies M.A. student at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Her research analyzes the socio-environmental effects of policy dismantling under former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, in which environmental policies were used to purposefully erode land rights of indigenous populations.

“I examined forest fires, COVID-19, and illegal land grabbing as case studies in my research,” said Gonzalez.

The lack of government protection of indigenous land has led to forced migration and previously isolated indigenous communities encountering diseases to which they have no immunity.

“I look at health policies that were undermined in Bolsonaro’s administration and severely limited resources to properly combat the spread of COVID-19. The state was negligent to the higher rates of contamination in indigenous communities,” said Gonzalez.

She is also examining the international law component.

“I’m connecting how the dismantling of government policies are being regarded by the International Criminal Court and regional courts,” she said. “Bolsonaro’s actions in allowing Indigenous land to be farmed or developed has led to disease being spread more easily to isolated communities who have no immunity. These could be looked at as crimes against humanity.”

Gonzalez says Indigenous people are using the word ‘genocide’ to describe Bolsonaro’s policy dismantling.

“He allowed people to invade indigenous lands and did not punish them. It is state law to punish people who are invading illegally, land grabbing illegally, and mining illegally,” said Gonzalez. “The state has a constitutional obligation to protect indigenous communities. I think they are very right to use the word genocide since that has been such a big part of history for indigenous people.”

Not having enough land to sustain their livelihoods is one of the biggest issues with weak government protections on indigenous land. Gonzalez explains that ample space is required for the necessities of everyday life: growing food, fishing and hunting.

“Indigenous communities are under the Brazilian government’s tutelage,” said Gonzalez. “Although the government has given them demarcated land, native people do not ‘own’ their land. It’s basically a loophole where the government can hold power over the land. After the government issues them demarcated land, then no other communities or illegal invasions can take place, but it still happens all the time.”

Gonzalez says that because Indigenous people have a stronger connection to the environment, they see atrocities against nature as deeply personal.

“There is a very big difference of how they view everything as one component, and how they view animals,” said Gonzalez. “Indigenous cultures integrate animals into their lifestyle and I would say ‘adopt’ them into their families. They don’t separate themselves from nature. We have to understand that.”

Gonzalez says the indigenous people who decide to maintain contact with Brazilian society advocate for the communities who don’t want to be contacted.

“They are very aware and keeping up with government policies. They organize protests and work with transnational organizations like Survival International to put out reports sharing the history of national resource extractivism,” she said. “They have the view that they’re not just fighting for themselves. They’re fighting for their families, their kids.”

With new Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva now in office, Gonzalez says indigenous people are hopeful that he prioritizes indigenous issues.

“After Bolsonaro spent four years terrorizing indigenous rights by policy dismantling and defunding, Lula can hopefully ease the tensions within the Amazon,” said Gonzalez. “Under Lula, a Ministry of Indigenous People has been created for the first time in history and Joênia Wapichana is the first elected indigenous person to serve in Congress. Lula has a lot to prove over the next four years to improve the situation with indigenous communities, reinstate the prior protections that existed to maintain the Amazon, and allocate resources to Amazonian indigenous people.”

Because Gonzalez has proficiency in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, she can read source materials that are informing her research. She received a prestigious Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship that funded her study of Portuguese at IU. She is also a Graduate Fellow of the Tobias Center for Innovation in International Development, which supports research related to development and helps prepare IU students for careers in international development.

After she completes her thesis and graduates, Gonzalez says her career goal is to be a research analyst to influence policymakers through advocacy for vulnerable populations throughout Latin America, including Brazilian indigenous communities.

As a first-generation Mexican American student, Gonzalez says that representation in academia and in Latin American research is important.

“Being Latino as just a presence is inviting,” she said. “I understand the issues of immigration from being part of this community and remembering the struggles that came before. Not only at the personal level, but at the academic level.”

Hamilton on Foreign Policy #214: Democracy should improve lives

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

By Lee H. Hamilton

Lee H. Hamilton

We Americans tend to think it’s self-evident that our system of government is superior. We value the freedom, independence and individual rights that are part of our democratic system. We take for granted that we should elect our leaders and hold them accountable.

But we should not assume everyone will see democracy the way we do. Yes, the desire for freedom and self-determination is universal, and rights are essential. But if people don’t see that democracy will improve their day-to-day lives, they may be susceptible to the appeal of authoritarianism.

Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, points this out in a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, titled “Democracy Can Win.” For several decades, she argues, we have focused the promotion of democracy too narrowly on rights and freedoms and given short shrift to economic hardship and inequality. She calls for a new approach, “one that addresses the economic grievances that populists have so effectively exploited.”

Not long ago, it seemed that democracy could take root and grow naturally. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly independent democratic states emerged in Eastern Europe. China became an enthusiastic participant in global markets, mixing capitalism with state control and opening itself to the world.

But those trends didn’t hold. Russia turned aggressive and hostile, and its imperious president, Vladimir Putin, all but eliminated dissent and democratic opposition. Something similar happened in China, where Xi Jinping cemented Communist Party rule and has threatened Taiwan and other neighbors. Elsewhere, populist and far-right parties gained sway. Even American democracy wavered when Donald Trump refused to accept the 2020 election results and his supporters invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But Congress certified the election, Joe Biden became president, and U.S. democracy endured. Meanwhile, Putin and Xi overplayed their hands. Putin miscalculated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be quick and easy, but Ukraine’s brave resistance has inspired the world and left Russia isolated. International surveys find most people in multiple countries have a negative opinion of Russia, often very negative. China angered its citizens with its harsh zero COVID policy, which interfered with trade and weakened the economy. When China lifted the policy late last year, infections and deaths spiraled.

As Power writes, these developments should create an opening for the United States and its allies to promote democracy and share its benefits. But Russia and China still have friends. In a recent U.N. Security Council vote, 35 nations, including important democracies like India and South Africa, abstained from denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calling for it to withdraw.

China, once one of the largest recipients of foreign aid, is now a major source of development assistance, which it uses to wield influence, especially in Africa. Much of the aid is in the form of loans – the World Bank estimates that China holds 40% of the debt owed by the world’s poorest countries – making developing nations dependent on China.

Power writes that USAID is trying to “break down the wall the separates democratic advocacy from economic development.” It is targeting assistance to emerging, fragile democracies. It is taking steps to address the root causes of corruption; promote civil society, the rule of law and a free press; and counter digital authoritarianism and misinformation. This month, the U.S. will co-host, with Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia, a global Summit on Democracy.

President Ronald Reagan said 40 years ago that democracy is not “a fragile flower” but that it still “needs cultivating.” That’s a good description of the state of democracy today. It’s up to us to promote democracy – to cultivate it – in ways that benefit all people.

Critical culture lessons: Jessica Storey-Nagy prepares Green Berets for global missions

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

Jessica Storey-Nagy met her husband, who is Hungarian, while living in Denver. She said her first trip to Hungary to meet his family influenced her decision to pursue an education in Hungarian Studies. She ultimately chose the Central Eurasian Studies M.A. and Ph.D. programs at the Indiana University (IU) Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies with a Ph.D. minor in anthropology and a Hungarian regional specialization.

“While at IU, I met faculty who inspired me to pursue study of nationalism and of political discourse,” she said. “Gardner Bovingdon and Kate Graber helped me to dig deeper into theory while I was in the Ph.D. program.”

Storey-Nagy is now a visiting faculty member in the IU Language Training Center, which provides language and cultural instruction to the U.S. armed forces. She teaches on site at Fort Carson in Colorado as a Regional Expertise and Culture Instructor for the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), SFG (A), widely known as the Green Berets (GBs).

The Green Berets Storey-Nagy works with primarily deploy to Europe, and she was hired to teach them European politics and culture.

“I have a broad knowledge of Central and East European politics and a deep knowledge of Hungarian politics. Because I’m also an anthropologist who conducts ethnographic fieldwork, I know how to thrive on the ground and as I understand it, those who hired me were hoping I could pass that knowledge on to the Green Berets,” she said.

Storey-Nagy teaches cultural lessons tailored to the different battalions that rotate into her classroom. She could teach a battalion for three months, three weeks, or less, depending on the mission, which she isn’t briefed on other than knowing the regions to which they’re traveling.

“After they do language training in the morning, I provide a cultural lecture in the afternoon,” she explained. “My teaching schedule is dependent on a battalion’s schedule, and there are all kinds of random issues that pop up right before a lesson which I have to teach around, for instance, ‘jumping schedules,’ which are days the GBs are scheduled to jump out of plane – something you don’t contend with in academia.”

As far as topics go, Storey-Nagy prepares lectures based on need.

“I‘m often asked to give geopolitical talks, or ‘briefs’ as they’re called here” she said. “For instance, I was asked to talk about how the Polish government interacts with EU leaders and with Russia. I’ve also given talks on Vladimir Putin and disinformation campaigns that stem from the Kremlin and travel throughout Eastern Europe.”

Jessica Storey-Nagy gives a cultural brief on Latvia to members of the Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB).

Storey-Nagy also works with other military units as needed, like the Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) at Fort Carson in Colorado and the Special Forces at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. All the units she teaches are focused on building relationships with allied forces, to work together on joint operations. The soldiers’ work requires building rapport, negotiation, and other skills Storey-Nagy helps them develop.

“Their job is to work with our partner forces—basically, to make friends. They trade tactical information, run training exercises, and so forth,” said Storey-Nagy. “I’ll teach them a bit of history, modern politics, and social norms concerning the places they’re headed before they are deployed. One of my goals is to help make their transition a little bit easier.”

One of the most important things Storey-Nagy teaches are strategies to build trust.

“The most successful soldiers focus deeply on developing personal relationships before they focus on anything else,” said Storey-Nagy. “While considering their mission objectives, they build relationships with specific people that will help them forward those objectives.”

When Storey-Nagy was a Fulbright-Hays Fellow in Hungary, she learned first-hand that official institutions are not always trusted.

“It helps to go grab a drink with a colleague or go to someone’s house for dinner to get to know them in an informal context to build trust – to learn about what life is like in that place. That’s a crucial step one must take in a lot of post-socialist spaces, and it goes both ways,” she said. “I met a group of soldiers who had a difficult time building trust with partner forces in Romania only to find out that they were, daily, declining invitations to go out for drinks with their Romanian colleagues after work. I explained to them that making a connection outside of the workspace was necessary because in Romania, the sociopolitical system before 1989 fostered distrust in formal institutions, especially in government institutions. And so, people have to get to know you outside of work, or you won’t be able to build the trust you need to build in the workplace itself, or on the battlefield.”

Storey-Nagy also ensures soldiers understand how Americans are perceived in different countries.

“I talk about how not to forward perceptions of American exceptionalism, because that is a problem,” she said.

One of the challenges of preparing lectures for a military audience is that battalions can’t provide Storey-Nagy with much information about their missions.

“I get little information from them because I don’t have a security clearance,” she explained. “For example, I was recently told a battalion was going to ‘Eastern Europe’ and asked to provide ‘cultural lessons.’ I had to ask where they were going. Estonia? Finland? Hungary? There is no such thing as ‘Eastern European culture’ and all states and regions within those states are different, with different social norms. This whole process has made me a much more resilient instructor because I am constantly forced to develop new syllabi, adapt to new situations, and work with soldiers with highly varied educational backgrounds.”

She is able to customize her lessons because of her deep regional knowledge, paired with her background as a political and linguistic anthropologist. She has studied Hungarian, Estonian, French, German, Spanish, Latin, and (Mandarin) Chinese.

“The Central Eurasian Studies department teaches you how to look deeply at a place,” she said. “That’s why I’m able to do this job. Although I’m a Hungarianist, the CEUS program also introduced me to Central Asia. I have a good friend who studies Mongolia. One of my Ph. D. advisors worked in Xinjiang and now works in Kazakhstan. I don’t think there is any other place where someone can study Hungary and European Union politics and have in her cohort a historian studying Mongolia and a linguist specializing in Persian. CEUS has allowed me to make connections in my work I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to make. And today, when I’m asked to give a talk on Latvia, for instance, I know how to gather the necessary materials and mine them for relevant knowledge.”

In regard to the broader impact of her work, Storey-Nagy says cultural instruction can indirectly affect foreign policy and how the U.S. is perceived abroad.

“Our special forces are soldier diplomats,” she said. “Those informal relationships they develop with our partner forces are perhaps just as important as the formal relationships the U.S. develops with other states through our elected officials.”

Helping her soldier-students become better communicators is her goal.

“If I can help the U.S. promote democratic governance, especially right now when democratic systems, values, and norms in Europe are under attack from authoritarian governments…If I can help just a few of our special forces to leave a good taste in the mouth of our allies, that’s worth it,” she said.

The Language Training Centers Program provides language and culture training for Department of Defense (DoD) personnel, is sponsored by the Defense Language and National Security Education Office and is administered by the Institute of International Education. Indiana University’s Language Training Center is hosted by the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies for its historical legacy in language instruction, regional expertise, and unparalleled service to the nation.

Camille Kuru reconnects with heritage through East European studies certificate

Posted on March 10, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

Camille Kuru’s first language was Polish, and she grew up in a multicultural household where several languages were spoken, and cultural education was valued.

“My mom’s side of the family came to the U.S. from Poland and my dad immigrated from the Czech Republic, so I grew up with both cultures,” she said. “I first learned English at school when I was five, and at home I tried to integrate the languages.”

A first-year student at IU, Kuru is pursuing the Russian & East European Area Studies Certificate from the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies while studying management at the Kelley School of Business. Through the certificate, Kuru is gaining Polish language skills and cultural knowledge to increase her career prospects for international business.

Growing up in a Chicago suburb, Kuru and her brother both attended Polish school on Saturdays for lessons in culture, history, and language. However, Kuru said she and her brother both stopped going when they were young, which she now regrets.

Camille Kuru performs a traditional Polish dance at the 2022 Winter Concert hosted by Wici Song and Dance in Chicago, IL.

“When we got older, in our teen years, our family started having more conversations in English at home, and that’s when we started losing our Polish language skills,” said Kuru. “It became difficult for us because we knew Polish through listening only. That’s when we wanted to speak more Polish.”

Kuru’s brother is an IU alum who also took Polish language classes at IU. Kuru says she and her brother are both invested in maintaining close ties to their heritage.

“I love learning about my culture and I love embracing it,” said Kuru. “I did Polish and Czech dance growing up, so I was able to learn culture through that. Our family also celebrated Wigilia, a Polish Christmas Eve tradition. My brother and I’s favorite part of Wigilia is Borscht, a beet soup, which is full of nutrients. It’s so tasty, and you have dumplings with it too, cabbage, and some other vegetables.”

Originally, Kuru planned to minor in Polish. When she discovered the Russian & East European Area Studies Certificate, she realized she could gain an in-depth knowledge of both Polish and Czech culture. She feels she had less exposure to Czech language and culture growing up, and she wanted to reconnect with that side of her heritage.

One of the things Kuru likes about the certificate is its flexibility and the breadth of courses that fit the requirements. One of her current classes examines Czech literature and history post World War II — subjects close to Kuru’s heart, as she has great grandparents on both sides of her family who were Holocaust survivors.

“I am so intrigued by World War II,” she said. “It’s interesting to me because I can relate to my ancestors.”

One story Kuru knows was shared by her father.

“My great grandpa on my dad’s side was in the concentration camps for being Romani and he was able to live through it and survive,” she said. “He later told his granddaughter that ‘America saved us — not the Soviets.’ At the time, under Soviet rule, you were forced to say ‘the Soviets saved us.’ His granddaughter then accidentally told people at her school what he had said, which could have gotten him jailed or executed, so he had to say he was joking.”

After hearing her father’s story, Kuru said she was in shock, and she knows there are more stories that she hasn’t heard yet. In the meantime, she is enjoying learning about the social and cultural environment that affected her great grandparents’ generation.

While she grew up speaking and hearing Polish, Kuru said her Polish language classes are helping her strengthen her grammar and written language skills for professional use.

“I want to have the credentials to do something with the Polish culture and use my language in business,” said Kuru. “I know there are companies that are looking for Polish speakers and I want to be able to showcase that I can speak Polish and I know the Polish culture, and also have the certificate to show for it.”

Kuru said her family is proud that she and her brother are both interested in keeping their cultural traditions alive.

“My parents are both super proud we’re not just an American family, but we’re an American family with culture, and we still embrace that culture and try to visit Poland and the Czech Republic whenever we can,” Kuru said. “My mom is happy that I want to pursue something in Polish. She thinks it’s a useful skill. She’s happy that I’m using the language and that after she spent all these years trying to teach me, she didn’t have to force me to do this.”

Kuru said she doesn’t think her family in Poland and the Czech Republic knows she is pursuing East European studies, but if they knew, they would be proud.

“Polish is something I definitely want to integrate into my own family and children in the future,” she said. “I would say it’s something worth doing.”

The Russian and Eastern European Area Studies Undergraduate Certificate is offered through the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute. The certificate prepares students for graduate school and careers in a wide variety of fields relating to Eastern Europe in academia, government, NGOs, international development, and the private sector.

How some in Indiana are working to address climate and emissions

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

Republished from The Herald-Times
by Norm Crampton
Special to The Herald-Times

Global warming was a hot topic at the conference “America’s Role in the World,” last week at the Hamilton-Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University.

How much global warming can be charged to Indiana, and what are we doing about it? Attendees heard some answers during the session titled “Indiana and the World: Environmentalism Begins at Home.”

The challenge, moderator Bob Zaltsberg reminded the audience, is that Indiana is one of the leading greenhouse gas producers among U.S. states. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports Indiana is the eighth biggest state producer of carbon dioxide by human activity.

By comparison, New York ranks ninth and Illinois seventh. Texas ranks first, producing four times as much carbon dioxide as Indiana.

Zaltsberg, special projects editor of WFIU news, invited a panel of Indiana environmental experts to address the greenhouse gas problem.

Greg Ronczka, vice president of environment and sustainability at Heidelberg Materials, a major U.S. producer of concrete, said the company soon will have “industrial-scale carbon capture” at its plant in Mitchell, the Lawrence County town about 35 miles south of Bloomington.

The company plans to permanently store carbon byproducts of manufacturing in a 7,250-foot deep well at the Mitchell site.

Kristina Lund, president and CEO of AES Indiana, formerly known as Indianapolis Power & Light Company, said her company is “moving completely out of coal-fired generation. We’ll be out of coal and into renewable energy within 5 years.”

Carey Hamilton, an IU graduate and Democratic Caucus Chair in the Indiana House of Representatives, has sponsored Indiana Senate Bill 390, which takes effect July 1, 2023, and will promote commercial solar and wind-energy-ready communities throughout Indiana. And as an avid hiker, Hamilton noted her interest in getting Hoosiers out of their cars and onto the state’s growing miles of trails.

Andrea Richter-Garry, senior vice president for global strategy and engagement at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, noted that Indiana is home to one of the largest solar farms in North America. A near-term objective, she said, is to reduce to 50% the state’s present 70% to 80% dependence on coal-fired generation of electricity.

The keynote speaker at the IU conference, Sen. John Kerry, former U.S. Secretary of State, called the climate crisis “literally the test of our own times. It’s not about one country or two countries or some bilateral agreement. It requires every single country in the world to be involved.”

Kerry spoke by recorded video from Panama, where he was attending an international conference on the state of the world’s oceans. But he knows the IU campus and the Hamilton-Lugar School.

“I really enjoyed the chance to come to Bloomington a few years back and visit with you for the school’s groundbreaking and to participate as a speaker in the first-ever conference,” he said.

“It’s young people around the world who are calling on adults to behave like adults and exercise their basic responsibilities,” Kerry said in his address broadcast Thursday at the IU conference.

Young people, he said, “know that the world is not responding fast enough to an existential threat. It’s one that they didn’t create but for which they risk bearing the ultimate burden — uninhabitable communities on an increasingly unlivable planet.”

“So … have a great conference,” Kerry said. “Let’s win this battle that is still winnable.”

New photo installation honors “Gentle Giants” Hamilton and Lugar

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

A new photo installation in the Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies gives viewers a glimpse into the careers of the school’s namesakes – Senator Richard G. Lugar and Representative Lee H. Hamilton. The installation is in the East wing of the building, in the stairway between the first floor and lower level.

In January 2022, IU President Pamela Whitten unveiled and dedicated large photographic portraits of Representative Lee Hamilton and the late Senator Richard G. Lugar. A year later, these photographs are now the anchor of a display representing a variety of scenes from the decades-long careers of these “gentle giants” of foreign policy.

In addition to the photos, the display includes a placard with the HLS Founding Spirit, and a brief biography of each of the school’s namesakes. The Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies is part of IU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

ARW8 conference centers on student voices

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Hamilton Lugar School

Hamilton Lugar School students speak with Amb. (ret.) Lee A. Feinstein, Founding Dean, Hamilton Lugar School and U.S. Ambassador to Poland (2009-2012), at the 7th annual America’s Role in the World conference.

What does Cassidy Phillips, a second-year student at the IU Hamilton Lugar School, recommend to students attending the 8^th annual America’s Role in the World conference (ARW8) for the first time? “Pack a quiet snack that you can bust out. Don’t be like us… don’t pack chips!”

Phillips says students shouldn’t be intimidated by the school’s annual ARW foreign policy conference, which convenes high-ranking diplomats, leading academics, journalists, regional experts, activists, and government leaders.

“At first I had a hard time getting people to answer my questions during the panels,” Phillips shared. “That was fine. I just got up and followed the speakers out and got my questions answered, which they were really receptive to.”

As a Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures major, Phillips says students should focus on developing good questions for panelists, and not be overly concerned with traditional ‘professional’ appearances.

“Last year I had a bright purple mohawk, I had tattoos visible, but the speakers … were not fazed by my appearance at all, which was so cool,” said Phillips. “I felt like I was being spoken to by high-caliber people like an adult. I think part of that was I had well formulated questions. There were very specific things I wanted to know about [panelists], about their field, about their experiences, and they recognized that.”

Abby Potter, who is minoring in Global Media, attended the UN COP27 climate talks in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where she spoke with and learned from journalists covering the event.

The ARW8 conference will be held March 2-3 at the Hamilton Lugar School, offering students the opportunity to connect with diplomats and experts on global issues and foreign policy. Students who attend in person can ask questions to be answered live by panelists on stage.

Fourth-year Hamilton Lugar School student Abby Potter says students should ‘do their homework’ on ARW panelists but shouldn’t worry about knowing everything.

“They know we’re students and they know we have questions,” said Potter. “As long as you show genuine interest. Don’t be afraid to go up to people and introduce yourself. Stick your hand out, shake their hand. They really are wanting to get to know you.”

“ARW is not some elite conference that students are on the outskirts of — we’re encouraged to be in the middle,” explains Potter who is double majoring in International Studies and Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures.

Several aspects of the ARW8 conference are of interest to Potter: the climate crisis, and media in Iran. Last year, she attended the United Nations COP27 climate talks in Egypt with the IU student delegation, where she studied climate change communication and spoke extensively with journalists covering the conference.

The ARW8 Iran in Transition panel is one of particular interest to Potter, because it will feature leading journalists and scholars on Iran.

“I’m excited to talk to them, especially about TikTok which has been a huge thing with the anti-regime protesters so I’m hoping to see if they have some perspective on that,” she says.

Michael Leverett introduces President Whitten and Former U.S. Ambassador William Taylor at the 7th annual America’s Role in the World conference

Michael Leverett participated in the ARW conference for the first time last year by introducing IU President Pamela Whitten and Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William B. Taylor.

“I was nervous, but Taylor gave me confidence through a handshake and some positive words. His humility and kindness gave me confidence to deliver the introduction and I will not forget that,” says Leverett.

Leverett is a student in the Master of International Affairs program, a joint program between the Hamilton Lugar School and the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Michael Leverett speaks with IU President Pamela Whitten

He says that panelists’ interest in students is one thing that makes the ARW conference unique.

“The dignitaries that come are really interested in the student experience,” says Leverett. “A lot of the informal conversations I have had were not me going up to different professionals, but in fact, the professionals were coming up to me and asking about my experience or asking about the things I was interested in. The interest that they have in students is something that I haven’t seen in a conference before.”

Leverett emphasizes that the networking opportunities are one of the strongest reasons for students to attend ARW.

“Being able to have informal conversations is something that is relaxing about the [ARW] environment,” he says. “Engaging with people across coffee tables, I have gained a lot of insight in where I need to be in this career field.”

Leverett describes ARW8 as a student led conference, which he hopes will encourage students to attend from all areas of study.

Hamilton Lugar School student James Romano asks a question to panelists at ARW7

Abby Potter especially encourages first year students to attend ARW and wants them to know it’s not for juniors or seniors only.

“It’s super important for younger students to go to help home in on their research,” she explains. “We all have certain passions within international studies so I think networking with panelists and asking them questions can help you find your certain interests.”

“ARW is also a ‘check in’ moment,” she says. “When I went last year, I realized this is what I’m meant to do. This major is right for me.”

Cassidy Phillips says one of the most important things students can do at ARW is to make their voices heard. “This year climate change is a big part of the docket, and that affects everyone on this campus, even if it’s not your major. Ask the questions that you have. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to break something down further, and don’t be afraid to whip out Google – I did that a lot and no one batted an eye.”

The annual conference on America’s Role in the World® at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies addresses the major foreign policy challenges we face, with an eye toward a deeper understanding of how they affect and are affected by domestic developments. The non-partisan conference honors the people for whom the school is named, Rep. Lee H. Hamilton and Sen. Richard G. Lugar, gentle giants of U.S. foreign and their commitment to principled U.S. global engagement.

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