Reflections on Twelve Years as Fletcher Dean
Stephen W. Bosworth
Stephen W. Bosworth is Dean Emeritus of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In these remarks, he reflects on his time at Fletcher and the evolution of the school over the past twelve years.
Fletcher at 80
Admiral James Stavridis
In this address, Dean Stavridis applauds the school’s 80th year and identifies key areas for Fletcher to focus on in the future.
Burma’s Challenge
Derek J. Mitchell
Following the normalization of relations between the United States and Burma, Derek Mitchell was appointed by President Obama to serve as the first U.S. Ambassador to Burma in more than twenty years. In this exclusive article, Ambassador Mitchell discusses the evolving relationship between the two countries and lingering challenges facing the Burmese leadership.
The Importance of Diaspora Investors in International Development
Mimi Alemayehou
In an interview with The Fletcher Forum, Mimi Alemayehou, Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), reflects on the African diaspora community’s important contributions to development and the role of OPIC in supporting investment in community member’s countries of birth.
An Imperative for Preventing Deadly Conflict
Abiodun Williams
Reflecting on a career which spans the UN, academia, and the think tank community, Abiodun Williams articulates the need for increased attention on conflict prevention. He draws on lessons learned from his own time as a UN peacekeeper in Macedonia to argue that prevention works, and is key to the promotion and achievement of international peace and stability.
In Pursuit of a “Thorough and Nuanced” Education: the Importance of Gender and Social Analysis
Mehlika Hoodbhoy
In examining both what students seek and what employers expect out of a Fletcher education, Mehlika Hoodbhoy calls for increased focus on social and gender analysis. Highlighting examples from the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development and others, she illustrates the centrality of these analytic frames to the development challenges Fletcher students seek to solve in order to argue for their broader inclusion across the Fletcher curriculum.
Perspectives on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Hans Binnendijk
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization remains an essential component of American and European security, having evolved considerably from its initial Cold War-era mandate. In this article, Hans Binnendijk discusses the challenges currently facing the alliance, and prospects for NATO’s future viability.
The Guantánamo Bay Naval Base: The United States and Cuba – Dealing with A Historic Anomaly
Michael Parmly
Lending his perspective as former Chief of Mission in Havana, Cuba, Michael Parmly discusses the complex relationship between Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the United States. He challenges the status quo, arguing for a major shift in relationship and employing the Panama Canal treaties as a comparison and possible precedent for Guantánamo Bay’s future.
Reinventing The World Peace Foundation
Alex De Waal
The World Peace Foundation’s Executive Director, Alex de Waal, describes the Foundation’s establishment in 1910 by Edwin Ginn and its evolution over the past 103 years. De Waal remarks on the evolving meaning of ‘world peace,’ and the dangers of failing to question both unchecked U.S. military spending, and new technologies that remove Americans’ exposure to the consequences of U.S. foreign policy.
International Security Studies: Looking Back and Moving Ahead
Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. and Richard H. Shultz, Jr.
Founded in 1971, The Fletcher School’s International Security Studies Program has been at the cutting edge of analysis and scholarship in strategic studies and international security affairs ever since. In this article, Professors Robert Pfaltzgraff and Richard Shultz discuss the evolution of the security studies curriculum at Fletcher over the past several decades, and how the field of security studies can adjust to meet new challenges and changing geopolitical realities in the world at large.
Sovereignty, Diplomacy, and Democracy: The Changing Character of “International” Representation from State to Self?
Alan K. Henrikson
Alan Henrikson reflects philosophically and historically upon a shift in diplomacy that may be occurring from the sovereign State, with ambassadors serving as formal representatives of entire nations, to the autonomous Self, with individual persons, employing social media, able to represent themselves and their concerns to the world. Will the Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes be replaced by the Facebook social graph as the pattern for the next world order?
Beyond the Terracentric: Maritime Ruminations
John Curtis Perry
With his meditation on maritime studies, John Curtis Perry aims to shift our perspective from land to sea through an appreciation for the role the ocean has played in international history. Perry depicts the sea as an avenue for global trade and transport, an arena for conflict, and a source for human vitality certain to be a major actor in future global politics.
Obama’s Policy Towards Syria
William A. Rugh
Ambassador William A. Rugh, Edward R. Murrow Visiting Professor of Public Diplomacy at The Fletcher School and a veteran of American diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, discusses the reluctance on the part of the United States to become more deeply involved in ongoing conflict in Syria and the various pressures on Washington to adjust its policy and to aid the rebels.
Rethinking the Puerto Rican Commonwealth Model through a Lens of Internationalization
Juan Clar
This study examines the role of Puerto Rico in international affairs, and its impact on the island’s economy, society and relationship with the United States. Its findings show that Puerto Rico’s economy and society have been severely harmed by a lack of participation in international affairs. Without attempting to solve the Puerto Rican political status question, this paper presents concrete policy suggestions for different areas that are impeding Puerto Rico’s internationalization.
How Are Multinational NATO Operations Responsible for International Humanitarian Law Violations?
Nachama Rosen
Nachama Rosen explores NATO’s legal and political status with respect to its constituent member states, and assesses NATO’s responsibilities under international humanitarian law (IHL) from two perspectives. She finds that no effective mechanism exists to assign responsibility for NATO violations of IHL, and proposes possibly ways forward to correct this problematic ambiguity.