Rotary Centers for International Studies
              The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International   

Peace Net

May 2009
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Dear Rotary Centers Community,
Exciting technological advances provide us with increasing opportunities to connect
with one another. Not long ago, sending a letter to a friend in another country
required several postage stamps and involved days, if not weeks, of waiting for
a reply. Today our messages speed around the globe, reaching their recipients almost
instantaneously.
Just as technology helps us communicate with each other faster and more easily,
it also helps us find friends and colleagues who have fallen out of touch. In the
last couple of years, the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and
LinkedIn have mushroomed. Classmates and colleagues we may not have seen for years
are just a click away on our computer screens.
Your Rotary Centers classmates and colleagues are a click away too, and The Rotary
Foundation wants to make it easy for you to find one another. We have created a
group specifically for Rotary World Peace Fellows on the Peace and Collaborative
 Development Network
 http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/group/rotaryworldpeacefellows,
a free professional networking site for people interested in international development,
conflict resolution, and related issues. You can find lots of information relevant
to peace fellows on this group page, including job opportunities, conferences, and
news articles. Most important, you can find your peace fellow friends and reconnect with them.
Please join this group. Please encourage your classmates to join. If we all reach
out to each other, the world will become a little bit smaller.

Take care, and please keep in touch.
Mike
Mike Pfriem
Alumni Relations Coordinator - Peace Studies
The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International
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News

USAID internship winners announced
Congratulations to Audra Degesys (Bradford 2007-09) and John Balonze (Sciences Po
2003-05), who were each awarded a one-year internship to help promote peace. Although
they are still awaiting their official assignments, they will be working either
with USAID or the U.S. Department of State, depending on these agencies' needs.
Through a cooperative agreement with USAID, the Foundation is able to offer two,
 one-year paid internships with USAID or the U.S. Department of State in areas that
promote peace and conflict resolution. The internships will begin on or around 1 June.
Audra and John were selected from many qualified candidates based on the strength
of their applications, work experience, and essays. John says he is excited to get
started. He told us recently, "For years I have studied the theory of development
- why poor countries remain poor and how they can be sufficiently developed such
 that their people may access food, water, shelter, education, and medicine. For
 me, this fellowship is a transition from theory to action. I will learn what has
worked on the ground and how to replicate success stories."

Life after the fellowship
Kristin Post (Queensland 2006-08) recently accepted a position as a civilian social
science researcher for the U.S. Army. She wrote to describe her first days in training
at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas:
It's true, I'm in Kansas now. Why? I've gotten a job! I'm training near Fort Leavenworth,
which is a U.S. Army post. I've been hired as a social science researcher. After
 I learn what that means, and if all the medical exams and endless paperwork go
well, then in five or so months, I will be deployed to Afghanistan as a civilian
 with an Army unit.
I'm really enjoying the acronyms and military lingo I encounter. You see, this training
is preparing me for when I'm "downrange," and one important function I have as a
 social science researcher is to interact with the local population, ideally giving
my Army commander "visibility" into what the issues are, with the primary goal of
solving problems before "going kinetic." So, I guess you could say that if I'm doing
my job well, then all the soldiers can return "uprange" sooner rather than later,
because they won't have anything left to fight about.
This past week, our class has been learning about counterinsurgency, or COIN, the
strategic label the Army uses to define what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Insofar as we (the Americans) are going to succeed in countering the insurgency,
 our campaign to win hearts and minds must successfully address individual and group
grievances. From the vignettes we've been given thus far, the kinds of grievances
my team will address are the kinds that the military created, usually through a
series of misunderstandings. Some are simple, like when young soldiers do something
that they think is funny that isn't funny to the local population. Some are more
 complicated, like when an old man was arrested because he possessed "terrorist
literature" that, when translated, turned out to be a child's homework. The second
incident was handled with a culturally appropriate apology (rather than the way
the military would have normally done, which was to set the man free unceremoniously).
Following that apology, the women of the village came by the Army barracks to report
incidents. Eventually, the town sheikh offered his support, which was what the Army
had desired in the first place.
I just finished taking a walk wearing an IBA. (That's the heavy, metal-plated camouflage
vest that we'll be issued and have to wear when we are "outside the wire.") We've
been advised that we should get used to walking with the IBA now, and I agree because
I can tell how I could detest this vest very quickly, despite its intended lifesaving
function. My group will arrive in Afghanistan in September and be there primarily
for the winter and maybe part of the Afghan springtime too. I hope I make it to
pomegranate season. I want to see how they grow on the trees. Maybe they'll look
 like the redbuds I saw blooming today in the Kansas City neighborhood while taking
an afternoon stroll with my bullet-proof camouflage vest.
Kristin Post shares a smile with Vice Chair of the Rotary Centers Committee, Ken
 Morgan.

Trustees phase out Rotary Center at University of California, Berkeley
At its April meeting, The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees decided to phase out
the program at the University of California, Berkeley, after the graduation of the
incoming class of 2009-11 Rotary World Peace Fellows. Read more
http://www.rotary.org/en/StudentsAndYouth/EducationalPrograms/Pages/090504_trusteesphaseoutUCBerkeley.aspx

Chulalongkorn University welcomes the next class of peace fellows
The seventh class of peace fellows (June-August 2009) to study at Chulalongkorn
University will travel to Bangkok, Thailand, in June. This is the first session
in which the university will hold permanent status as a Rotary Center; the pilot
 phase of the certificate program in peace and conflict studies successfully ended
after the sixth class finished in April. It has now been completely integrated into
the Rotary Centers program.
Seventeen new Rotary World Peace Fellows from 10 countries on five continents will
meet for the first time at their orientation session on 11 June. Classes begin on
15 June. The group comes from a wide variety of backgrounds, including law, academia,
international nongovernmental organizations, and governments.

New graduates
Congratulations to the graduating fellows at Duke University and University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Queensland, and University of California,
Berkeley. They join a network of more than 400 alumni working around the globe on
issues related to peace and conflict resolution. Fellows interested in networking
with alumni in specific organizations or geographical locations are encouraged to
e-mail the Rotary Centers alumni relations coordinator, Mike Pfriem [mailto:michael.pfriem@rotary.org].

University of Queensland graduate Ryan Moore speaks to Rotarians at the District
 9680 Conference in Newcastle, Australia.

Call for applicants
The deadline for applications to the Rotary Centers for International Studies in
 peace and conflict resolution is 1 July. Districts must submit completed applications
to the Foundation. Find forms and information on the Rotary Centers webpage:
http://www.rotary.org/en/StudentsAndYouth/EducationalPrograms/RotaryCentersForInternationalStudies/Pages/ridefault.aspx

The May edition of Reconnections, the Foundation's alumni newsletter, is now available.
The issue features articles about Rotary World Peace Fellows and alumni from other
Foundation programs. Read it online
http://www.rotary.org/en/StudentsAndYouth/Alumni/ReconnectionsNewsletter/Pages/ridefault.aspx

Subscribe to Reconnections by updating your information
http://www.rotary.org/en/StudentsAndYouth/Alumni/GetInvolved/Pages/Telluswhatyouaredoing.aspx

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On the Move

We encourage all our alumni and friends to stay connected, especially those who
are in the same line of work or geographical area. By sharing your successes, we
 can update Rotarians on Rotary World Peace Fellows' activities and inspire current
students and alumni. Please contact the alumni relations coordinator, Mike Pfriem
[mailto:michael.pfriem@rotary.org], with news of your recent work.
Here are some recent alumni updates:
Mary Therese Soundarie David (Berkeley 2007-09) is an attorney in Sri Lanka.
Gina Donoso (Chula January 2008) assists the Truth Commission of Ecuador in the
writing of its final recommendations, specifically regarding psychosocial issues
 among victims as well as reparations. She is in charge of conducting psychosocial
research, collecting victims' testimonies, organizing workshops and group interviews
with victims and families, and analyzing the quantitative and qualitative data from
these interviews.
Maria Effendi (Bradford 2006-08) is an assistant professor in the Department of
Peace and Conflict Management at National Defence University in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Margarita Gonzalez (Queensland 2006-08) is a research associate at the Georgia Tech
Research Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She is working on a civil-military
project with the U.S. Army, with the goal of providing key decision makers with
sociocultural knowledge to reduce lethal courses of action and help identify nonlethal
forms of conflict resolution.
James Griffin (Bradford 2006-08) works for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a financial/management
consultant in Washington, D.C.
Rajib Handique (Chula July 2006) is an associate professor in the Department of
History at Dibrugarh University in Assam, India.
Ximena Valente Hervier (Bradford 2002-04) is a coordinator for Global Call to Action
Against Poverty Europe at the organization's secretariat in Madrid, Spain.
Janie Hulse Najenson (USAL 2003-05) published the first issue of her quarterly newsletter
on economic and security issues in Latin America called Insights from the Field.
 The newsletter combines two subject areas - economics and security - that tend
to get covered separately in other publications and rarely from within the region.
This new resource will help U.S. executives, policymakers, and other professionals
working with Latin America to better understand the region as it understands itself.
Read the first issue
http://www.researchfromthefield.com/newsletter/insights_1.pdf

and subscribe
http://www.researchfromthefield.com/newsletter/index.html

Raymond Hyma (USAL 2006-08) is a research officer, focusing on public access impact
assessment of information and communications technologies for the International
Development Research Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Margaret Carolla Maes (USAL 2002-04) is a political officer at the U.S. Embassy
in Lima, Peru.
Vadim Ostrovsky (Queensland 2005-07) is studying for his MBA at the Fuqua School
 of Business at Duke University.
Ville-Veikko Pitkänen (Queensland 2006-08) works for Crisis Management Centre Finland,
which is responsible for the training and recruitment of all Finnish civilian crisis
management experts.
Kristin Post (Queensland 2006-08) is a civilian social science researcher for the
U.S. Army, in training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA.
Nancy Ross (Chula January 2008) is a PhD candidate at the University of Bradford.
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Resources

Alliance for Conflict Transformation
http://www.conflicttransformation.org/

ReliefWeb: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm

Idealist.org: http://www.idealist.org/

 
Foreign Policy Association Job Board: http://www.fpa.org/jobs_contact2423/jobs_contact.htm

International Jobs Center: http://www.internationaljobs.org/

 
Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace:  http://www.peace.ca/

 
World Bank job page: http://www.worldbank.org/  (click about)

 

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