The Scholars' Circle

We spend the hour on good food politics, the food revolution, and the movements to build equitable and sustainable food systems. First, we're joined by Will Allen author of Good Food Revolution. Followed by our guests who studied the food system and what it means to have an equitable and sustainable system. What are the problems in the system and what are the solutions?

Last month a nearly three decade cease fire in Western Sahara broke and the war raged once again. The United Nations is taking up the Western Sahara issue despite opposition from powerful countries. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration proposed a change the long standing US position on Western Sahara. What does this mean for the conflict? What is the likelihood of peaceful resolution?

Promise in a new Covid-19 Vaccine is tempered by the huge spike in cases in the United States. What lessons will nations learn from the virus response and when can we expect to control the pandemic? Then, Arms Control discourses are centered around western notions of modernity and civilization. What does it mean to decolonize the language around arms control? We discuss with author Ritu Mathur her book Civilizational Discourses in Weapons Control.

President Elected Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to return to normalcy. He has promised to return to the Iran Nuclear Deal. But what complications does he face to fulfill this promise? [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Ervand Abrahamian is Distinguished Professor at Baruch College at City University of New York. He is the author of A History of Modern Iran and Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth About North Korea, Iran and Syria.

* Nader Hashemi is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor in Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Colorado. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies and the co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and Iran’s Struggle for Democracy.

* Wayne Glass is Professor Emeritus in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the former Senior Defense Policy Advisor to Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He has worked extensively with nuclear weapons policies.

* Joseph Cirincione is the Director for Non-Proliferation at the Carnegie Institute and the past president of the Ploughsharers Fund. He is the co-author of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats and co-author of Repairing the Regime: Preventing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

The popular media narrative is that countries led by women are performing better with Covid. But is this really true? And if so, what are the reasons? Is it the nature of leadership or is it the values of society that determine the successes or failures of governments confronting Covid?

Was the election conducted properly? Will mail in ballots be counted and will that count be allowed to stand? Will the US Supreme Court decide the final outcome? And what, in any case, will become of American democracy? In this urgent and timely event, University of Auckland lecturers will use the lenses of law, political science, and psychology to explain this contested election and discuss the implications of the final outcome. This is a recording of the panel gathered at University of Auckland Law School on November 18th, 2020.

* Associate Professor Timothy Kuhner from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland. Professor Kuhner is known for his critical approaches to the law of democracy. His teaching and research focus on comparative constitutional law, corruption, political finance, and law & society. He is the author of Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution (Stanford University Press, 2014)

* Dr Maria Armoudian from the Faculty of Arts at University of Auckland. Dr. Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the host and producer of the radio program, The Scholars’ Circle, and the author of two books, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future.

* Associate Professor Danny Osborne from the Faculty of Science at University of Auckland. Danny Osborne is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Danny received his PhD from UCLA in 2011, where he studied social psychology with an emphasis in political psychology and quantitative methods. Danny’s research seeks to understand the causes and consequences of inequality, with a particular emphasis on ideology and collective action. His publications include Ideology and Post-Colonial Society and Opposing Paths to Ideology: Group-Based Relative Deprivation Predicts Conservatism Through Warmth Toward Ingroup and Outgroup Members.

* Associate Professor Scott Optican from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland.He specializes in evidence, criminal procedure, and comparative criminal procedure, and has written widely on criminal justice and policing issues arising under the New Zealand Bill of Rights. Scott is also a co-author of The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press: 2003), the first comprehensive treatise on the protection of rights and freedoms under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

A peace agreement brokered by Russia was signed this week by Azerbaijan and Armenia to end the fighting in the Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, region. What are the details of the agreement and why did both sides agree? Followed by How much did the Electoral College matter in this election? Should it be reformed? Is it anti-democratic? And if should be reformed, what should be done?

How does the US election look to people outside the US. Will its ability to navigate the process show observers abroad the strength of US democracy or will it show its weaknesses.

2020 US elections : how has Donald Trump reshaped the Federal Judiciary and the Supreme Court and how does that shape the election? Followed by insights into the role of class and identity politics in the midst of American politics are shaping elections

We explore the media's role in this election and the journalists' experience of this campaign season. Followed by discussion on what are the key foreign policy issues on the ballot in the 2020 Presidential Elections? How different are the visions of Biden and Trump of the American role in the world?