The 21st Century World

Hi. I will be out today, and I figure it doesn’t make sense to have a sub. Some of you have turned in all your work, so you’re done. Others can use this time to finish up blog entries and/or Essay Exam #2. (You can put paper copies of the exam in my mailbox, or you can submit them to me as an email attachment. The latter seems more 21st Century…)

Ideally, I’d get all your work by the end of the day. Realistically, I know that is unlikely. I’ll accept work the early part of next week, through Wednesday at least. (Expect a slight penalty on the exams – like 10%.) If, for some reason, you can’t be completed with your work by that point, you’ll need to see/contact me early next week.

We've got a very appropriate guest for today. Professor Himadeep Muppidi, in addition to being the father of twins in the MPA PreK program, teaches Political Science and advises programs in International Studies and Asian Studies at Vassar College.

Here's a link to his faculty bio if you are interested in more information.

Professor Muppidi is the author of The Politics of the Global and he also has used Friedman's The World Is Flat with college students. Hopefully, you can see why it is appropriate we have him visit with us today.

Welcome back.

As you have probably noticed, all remaining blog entries and Take Home Essay Exam #2 are all posted. I'd like everything in by the end of Friday, January 11th. I'll get the blog entries that came in over break updated here in the next day or so.

I think we have guests arranged for our last two sessions, so I'll expect everyone to be courteous and helpful toward those folks.

Today, in addition to touching base on class requirements and whatever else has happened in the world over the last two and a half weeks. I have one thing for us to take a look at. The "National Opinion Ballot Report" is a part of the "Great Decisions" program. Basically, more that 20,000 people responded to surveys based on their particiaption in Great Decisions study and/or discussion groups. You will get a summary of the data for "your" topic. We'll give you ten minutes or so to look it over, and then we'll hear from each of the groups as to what they found, etc.

If you are interested, here are the 2008 edition of the "Great Decisions" topics:
Iraq endgame
European Union
Engaging the enemy
Russia
Defense and security
Latin America
China
Philanthropy

By the end of the course, you are supposed to have read Chapters 16, “The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention” and 17, "11/9 Versus 9/11."

I’ll expect a comment of one good paragraph or more. (To me, that means 5-6 sentences at a minimum.) You do not need to worry about perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation, but they should be understandable. Remember that this is a public site, and you are responsible for the content of your postings. Assume that each comment is worth 5 points.

YOUR COMMENT SHOULD BE POSTED BEFORE CLASS TIME ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 11th IN ORDER TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT.

Page references are from the paperback edition of the book...

1. "The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention" and "The Golden Arches Theory" (page 586) - Is there anything to these ideas? Is it simply Friedman being Friedman? Assess the validity of one or both of these ideas he has advanced.

2. How frightened should we be on the stuff Friedman starts talking about in the "Infosys versus al-Qaeda" section? (page 595) Do you agree with his conclusion that, "Hell hath no fury like a terrorist with a satellite dish and an interactive Web site?" Explain.

3. (Page 609) "In early 1999, two men started airlines from scratch, just a few weeks apart." What lessons should we take away from the comparison that begins with this line?

4. "When memories exceed dreams, the end is near." (page 617) Where is the balance currently for America? Are we in danger of having memories exceed dreams? Have they already? What is your prognosis for the future?

By the end of the course, you are supposed to have read Chapter 15, “The Unflat World.” Answer one of the following questions. I’ll expect a comment of one good paragraph or more. (To me, that means 5-6 sentences at a minimum.) You do not need to worry about perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation, but they should be understandable. Remember that this is a public site, and you are responsible for the content of your postings. Assume that each comment is worth 5 points.

YOUR COMMENT SHOULD BE POSTED BEFORE FRIDAY, JANUARY 11th IN ORDER TO GET FULL CREDIT.

There's an awful lot of "good" stuff in this chapter. There are shocking statistics, great quotations, dire predictions, and a lot of material in which to sink your teeth. Choose the section that most interests you:

Too Sick
Too Disempowered
Too Frustrated
Too Many Toyotas

Your comment should react to some of the information and conclusions presented in that section. You can deal with specific examples, statistics and/or quotations, or you can deal with the topic at a more "holistic" level. You can be analytical, emotional, predictive or whatever combination of these that suits your fancy...

By the end of the course, you are supposed to have read Chapter 14, “What Happens When We All Have Dog's Hearing?"

I’ll expect a comment of one good paragraph or more. (To me, that means 5-6 sentences at a minimum.) You do not need to worry about perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation, but they should be understandable. Remember that this is a public site, and you are responsible for the content of your postings. Assume that each comment is worth 5 points.

YOUR COMMENT SHOULD BE POSTED BEFORE CLASS TIME ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 11th IN ORDER TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT.

Page references are from the paperback edition of the book...

1. Refer to the Paris taxi anecdote Friedman relates on pages 514-516. I want to know two things. What lessons should we take from this sort of anecdote? Have you had a similar experience? If so, share.

2. (Page 523) "What happens when we can all not only rant or whisper anything we want in our MySpace blog or podcast, but also hear everything ranted or whispered about us?" In other words, "How thick is your skin?"

3. Dov Seidman, a business ethicist, wrote (pp. 529-530) that "your reputation will follow you and precede you on your next stop. It gets there before you do. You don't get to spend four years of college getting drunk. Your reputation is getting set much earlier in life." Your thoughts? (No, I'm not asking about college drinking, but rather about the whole phenomenon Seidman discusses.)

4. Are you "net worried?" (Page 530) Why or why not?

Since we're almost done with our time together (sniff), I suppose it's time for one more of these. You do NOT need to use any resources outside of what we've referenced in class. (You can do outside research if you'd like, and you would, of course, cite any of them appropriately.) I'm again thinking somewhere between 500-750 words on each. If you go beyond two single-spaced pages on a question, you're doing too much (or using a huge font...)

Let's have these due by FRIDAY, JANUARY 11th.

I should say that I really enjoyed reading what you had to say on the last set of these. The "fixing" MPA question that most of you answered was particularly enlightening for me. I look forward to sharing some of those recommendations with colleagues.

No choice in the questions you pick from, but plenty of wiggle room in terms of where you take them...

1. For most (if not all) of you, college will occupy the majority of the next five years of your life. I want you to project yourself ahead to your own college graduation day. Identify the three issue we covered this course that you feel will be most significant to your life at that time. In each case, please explain how you believe that issue will have changed during the intervening time between now and then. (Note that I am NOT requiring that the issue affect you DIRECTLY. For example, nuclear terrorism may well be very significant in your world without directly impacting you...)

To conclude this essay, please comment on whether you believe the 21st Century will be a more or less safe/desirable place from the perspective of the College Class of 2012 as opposed to the MPA Class of 2008...

2. We will have had seven "Great Decisions" presentations during the last weeks of the course. (Again, to spur your memory: Children, War Crimes, South Africa, Migrations, Mexico, Climate, Central Asia.) I want you to choose one of the topics THAT WAS NOT YOUR OWN. I'm not asking you to do outside research, but you might find the "Great Decisions" website useful.

Assume that you have been made "The Great Decider." I want you to make policy recommendations for the United States on the issue that you chose. Your recommendations need not be consistent with the views of the current administration. Tell me what you believe "we" should do on this issue. You can certainly draw upon Friedman or other sources we consulted for this. (In several cases, you can make recommendations for other agents as well. For example, we should encourage the UN to do A, B, C.)

Again, this is intended to be very open, and your answer need not cover every possible aspect of the problem. You can take a broad, "policy" type of approach, or you can lay out very specific actions. I'm more interested in "What should be done?" as opposed to "What is going on?" We've already heard about the latter in the presentations.

Again, please ask me if you have any questions...

By the end of the course, you are supposed to have read Chapter 13, “If It's Not Happening, It's Because You're Not Doing It."

I’ll expect a comment of one good paragraph or more. (To me, that means 5-6 sentences at a minimum.) You do not need to worry about perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation, but they should be understandable. Remember that this is a public site, and you are responsible for the content of your postings. Assume that each comment is worth 5 points.

YOUR COMMENT SHOULD BE POSTED BEFORE CLASS TIME ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 11th IN ORDER TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT.

1. Perhaps you already consider yourself to be one, but I want you to "become" a social entrepreneur-activist for this blog entry. What would you do? How would you do it? Why?

2. After reading this chapter, I'm assuming you've developed some opinions about the efficacy and/or desirability of the sorts of efforts Friedman describes. This is your chance to "editorialize" about the whole phenomenon. Make reference to specific events as you see fit.

REMINDERS: I'm in the process of posting all future blog entries and the second take-home exam before break, so people can get them taken care of earlier if they'd like.

We've got a couple of guests lined up for the week after break, and we'll make class time on Friday, January 11th the due date for all future work - exams, blog entries, etc.

Tuesday, December 18th
Central Asia - Kiley, Roz

REMINDERS: Please take care of Blog Entry #12 ASAP. Reading Chapter 13 would be a good idea as well, since I'll post that blog entry. I'll plan on posting all future blog entries before break, so people can get them taken care of earlier if they'd like.

Up Today:
Climate - Lindsey, Nicholas

Tuesday, December 18th
Central Asia - Kiley, Roz