The Scholars' Circle

The Armenians living in their indigenous lands in a region known as Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, have long experienced existential insecurity. The fighting today between Azerbaijan, which is backed by Turkey, against Armenia over who belongs in those lands is threatening to escalate into a much bigger regional war and another round of ethnic cleansing.

We spend the hour exploring the causes of this conflict, the human rights implications of the aggression, whether the international legal principles apply, the importance of advancing democracy in the region, and potential resolutions to the war. Hosted by Doug Becker.[ dur: 58mins. ]

* Steve Swerdlow is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has co-authored reports on violations of freedom of expression and the crackdown of media freedom in Azerbaijan and has conducted human rights field research in the region.

* Anna Ohanyan, Richard B. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Stonehill College. She is the editor of Russia Abroad: Driving Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia and Beyond and author of Networked Regionalism as Conflict Management.

* Hurst Hannum, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is the author of, Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination: The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights, and co-author of, International Human Rights: Problems of Law, Policy, and Practice and Negotiating Self-Determination.

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

Who gets to vote? What are the laws that help or hinder the vote? How are those changing and how might that effect the results of the 2020 election? And how are the misinformation and disinformation campaigns through the use of social media misleading the voters? Followed by discusson on How much does the president truly matter for the direction of the United States and for the rest of the world

What are the parts of the US political system that will most affect the election outcome? Followed by insight on, the search for minerals is leading some corporations to begin mining the ocean floor but scientists warn that this could devastate fragile ecosystems that will have repercussions that we still don’t understand. What is going on in the deep sea? What precautions should be taken to prevent devastating fragile ecosystems?

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the Republican promise to replace her has profound implications for American politics and policy. In our first segment we examine the potential legal impacts on the Court’s decisions themselves. In our second segment, we explore the impact of this decision on public policy, on the checks and balances of the branches of American government, and the 2020 election. [ dur: 58mins. ]

First Panel: [ dur: 28mins. ]

Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.

Erwin Chemerinsky is Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean at University of California Berkeley School of Law. His many publications include Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century.

Second Panel: [ dur: 28mins. ]

John Vile is Dean and Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee University. He is the author of Essential Supreme Court Decisions: Summaries of Leading Cases in U.S. Constitutional Law, 17th Edition, The United States Constitution: One Document, Many Choices and The Bible in American Law and Politics: A Reference Guide.

Mark Peterson is Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Legislating Together: The White House and Capital Hill from Eisenhower to Reagan and the editor of Healthy Markets? The New Competition in Medical Care and co-editor of the volume Institutions of American Democracy: The Executive Branch.

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

Western US is ablaze with intense and widespread fires. What role does climate change, forest management, overpopulation, and resource management play in the increasingly devastating fire seasons worldwide? How can climate mitigation and adaptation complicate forest management? [dur: 58mins. ]

* George Perry is a Professor at the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. He studies the effects of humans on forest ecosystems. He is the co-author of many publications including, Positive Feedbacks to Fire-Driven Deforestation Following Human Colonization of the South Island of New Zealand, Pyrodiversity is the coupling of biodiversity and fire regimes in food webs, and Green firebreaks as a management tool for wildfires: Lessons from China.

* Peter Ward is Professor of Biology and Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. He is the co-author of the best-selling Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, the author of many books including, Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere, Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future, and The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive? which was listed by the New York Times as one of the “100 most important ideas of 2009.”

* Beverly Elizabeth Law is Emeritus Professor and was previously Professor of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. She is an American Geophysical Union Fellow and Aldo Leopold Fellow. She is an author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed publications including Drivers of Future Ecosystem Change in the US Pacific Northwest: The Role of Climate, Fire, and Nitrogen and Tree biomass mortality from fires, bark beetles, and timber harvest during a hot, dry decade in the western United States.

* William Moomaw is Emeritus Professor of international environmental policy and founding director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at The Fletcher School. He is the co-founder and current co-director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts. Professor Moomaw has been a lead author of five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports. He is the author of Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good and

The Eastern Mediterranean has long been a powder keg for potential conflict, particularly between Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus. A more aggressive Turkish push in the region to drill for oil and natural gas has raised the stakes. On today’s show we explore the potential for conflict and the impact of this drilling has on climate change initiatives in Europe. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Aristotle Tziampiris is Professor of International Relations and Director of the MSc Program in Energy: Strategy, Law & Economics at the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus. He is also the President of the Council for International Relations-Greece. He is the author of Greece, European Political Cooperation and the Macedonian Question and co-editor of The New Eastern Mediterranean: Theory, Politics and States in Volatile Era.

* Nukhet Sandal is Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science at Ohio University. She is the author of the book Religious Leaders and Conflict Transformation.

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

What are the mindsets, trends, and changes of a globally connected right-wing movement? What are the solutions to the growing animosity between identity groups?

Belarus has been rocked by protests and police crackdown following the contested presidential election in Belarus. We examine the history of Belarus and the likelihood of the continuation of the Lukashenko dictatorship.

Covid 19, assisting with Psychological First Aid during time of this pandemic. Then we look at analysis done due to misinformation during this pandemic.

What’s so important about the vice presidency and what are the implications of Kamala Harris, the first woman of color on a major party ticket? hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 24mins.]

* Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy

* Arthur Auerbach is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California . He is the author of the research publication The Dividing Line on Capital Punishment.

How does social media influence political campaigns and communication in contemporary America? hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 32mins. ]

* Glenn W. Richardson Jr. is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. He is the editor of Social Media and Politics: A New Way to Participate in the Political Process and the author of Pulp Politics: How Political Advertising Tells the Stories of American Politics.

* Jennifer Petersen is Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Science & Technology Studies at Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Murder, the Media, and the Politics of Public Feelings: Remembering Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.

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