School News AGS

AGS Ph.D. Candidate Fatimaah Menefee will present her doctoral research on soft power and international relations of Asian and African countries at four academic conferences in the coming months: in France, Poland, Ghana, and Singapore.

Fatimaah joined the American Graduate School in Paris in September 2018 after engaging in an already very international career that spanned the US and South Korea. She first worked for ten years with the US Department of Health and Human Services, with the State of Texas, City of Houston and Municipality of Anchorage, where her missions focused on community engagement, public health education, and child abuse and neglect investigations. She then founded ESE & SEGYE, a start up consulting firm based in Seoul, which focuses on the cultural diplomacy and branding of African countries in Asia.

Fatimaah joined AGS with the ambition to make ESE & SEGYE the bridge that connects Africa and Asia through what she calls ‘Cassava Diplomacy’. Her graduate research at AGS concentrates on Non-Western Middle Power States and Soft Power. Her dissertation explores Soft Power Foreign Policies of South Korea and South Africa, and the lessons that South Africa can learn from South Korea.

“One of the great things that I appreciate with attending AGS is the diversity in thought and perceptions in the way the faculty and students understand international relations and diplomacy. It challenges me as a student and as a professional that wants to contribute to non-Western international relations.”

Fatimaah was encouraged by Professor Ruchi Anand to submit papers to international relations conferences focusing on themes to which her research would be relevant. All of her submissions were met with interest, so she will be “on tour” all Spring and summer!

On March 15th, Fatimaah will travel to Le Havre, Normandy to present her paper entitled “Ubuntu Diplomacy Meet Kimchi Diplomacy: Soft Power Lessons from South Korea to South Africa” at the conference “The Rise of Asia in Global History and Perspective” (Paris and Le Havre, March 13-15). This international multidisciplinary conference is co-organized by Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Le Havre, and research centers CHAC (Centre d’Histoire de l’Asie Contemporaine) and GRIC (Groupe de Recherches Identités et Cultures). Fatimaah will be part of a panel on Asia and Africa, which will also feature presenters from George Washington University and Frostburg University in the US. Her paper explores how economic reform, technology transformation and cultural assets (soft power) transformed South Korea into a successful influential middle power state, and questions the possibility of the South Korean model to work for South Africa.

Fatimaah will present this paper at two other conferences with the International Studies Association (ISA), of which she became a member : in July, at the ISA Asia-Pacific Conference, on the theme: “Asia-Pacific and World Order: Security, Economics, Identity and Beyond.”, which will be held at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (July 4-6, 2019); and in August, at the ISA International Conference, which will take place at the University of Ghana’s Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy, in Accra, Ghana.

Additionally, in June, Fatimaah will present her paper “Is the State as Actor Losing Its Primacy in International System?” at the Twelfth Global Studies Conference, at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (June 27-28). The 2019 edition’s special focus on “The ‘End of History’ 30 Years On: Globalization Then and Now” will cover themes ranging from political to economic to societal, cultural and environmental. Fatimaah’s paper looks at the withering of the State as a chief social actor in the international system. It is unable to provide for its own best interest, so it must share custody with non-state actors, technology and mass communications (read Fatimaah Menefee’s paper abstract).

“While completing my dissertation and working on these various papers, I am able to receive feedback from my classmates that have real-life experience in international relations,” says Fatimaah Menefee. “One of my classmates is an active US military officer who works in global health. Having the opportunity to confront my view with her, who has a different take on the appeal and application of soft power, makes me sharper in my argument. With my dissertation research, I hope to be able to start a conversation on what international relations theory looks like for non-Western States and how they understand the importance of soft tools in diplomacy.”

In December, the American Graduate School in Paris hosted an official delegation of media and publishing executives from Vietnam for a two-week professional development program focusing on the media and publishing industry in France.

The ten-day intensive curriculum involved seminars by specialized faculty and guest speakers as well as site visits and meetings at key media outlets and government institutions in France.

Some highlights of the program included a visit to the French Ministry of Culture and a tour of the French Senate along with meeting with an administrator of the Senate Commission for Culture, Education and Communication. The delegation also visited the headquarters of global broadcasters France Télévisions and TV5 Monde and those of the national daily newspapers Libération and L’Humanité.

The program was specially developed by AGS for the Vietnamese government at the request of Institute of Executive Training, which regularly works with Asian governments. It was designed and led by AGS Director Larry Kilman, who has specific expertise in the media and publishing industry as he was a journalist for twenty years in the the US, Asia and Europe, and served as the Secretary General of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

“Being a small specialized school with passionate faculty and staff, we were able to build this successful program ad hoc around the needs of the Vietnamese delegation, drawing from our experience and contacts to make the most of the rich resources that Paris offers,” says Larry Kilman. "Through such initiatives, we seek to foster exchange of knowledge and dialog between nations through education."

AGS is currently working on several projects for similar short-term, intensive Paris-based certificate programs with other partner institutions, on such topics as diplomacy and communications.

Some highlights of the program:

AGS Ph.D. Candidate Khalid Al Jufairi was invited for the second year by his alma mater Georgetown University to give a guest lecture about his doctoral research as part of the university's Executive Master in Emergency Disaster Management. Khalid's doctoral research investigates and explores why the rise of fear-related xenophobia is endangering liberal democracy and its institutions, examining the peculiar relationship between liberal democracy and the increasing complexity in dealing with fear and ‘otherness’ in the case of France. "I am very honored that Georgetown School of Continuing Studies offered me the opportunity to give a guest lecture for a second year," said Khalid Al Jufairi. "It is a testimony that reflects the relevance of my doctoral research, and how I could contribute to the larger question of policy and policymaking when we talk about Islamophobia, marginalization of Muslims, and importantly the forces of radicalization that twist and distort Islam as a religion to fit the radical narrative."

Khalid's presentation took place on January 30th during the program's residency week in Paris, before a group of 23 students from various professional and academic backgrounds. The lecture was entitled "The Rise of Fear and the Polarizing Shifts in Left and Right Politics: Jihadism à la française" and focused more particularly on Muslim identity in France, the engagement of France's Right and Left politics with dealing with Islam as a religion and its Muslim community at large and with the rise of islamophobia in the aftermath of the 2015 attacks, namely Charlie Hebdo and November 13 shootings. "As my research has evolved since last year's discussion, the students this year were very interested in understanding how France's ideological spectrum views and deals with Islam and Muslim identity, underpinning in my analysis key intellectuals, namely Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy."

Khalid Al Jufairi graduated in 2009 from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service with an Bachelor’s degree in International Politics along with a Certificate in Regional and Arabic studies. After earning his M.A. in Cross-Cultural and Sustainability Management from the American University of Paris in 2016, he joined the American Graduate School in Paris to conduct his Ph.D. in International Relations and Diplomacy.

The American Graduate School in Paris is hosting a series of professional development and capacity building programs in diplomacy, in partnership with the Académie des Métiers de la Diplomatie, led by former director of programming at Academic Diplomatique Internationale, Mbarka Zineddine. These programs are aimed at current and aspiring diplomats, government officials, journalists, and other professionals involved in international relations.

Similarly to AGS’s graduate degree programs in International Relations and Diplomacy, the faculty teaching in those programs includes former ambassadors and other high-level diplomats and practitioners: Ambassador Jean-Claude Cousseran (former French Ambassador to Syria, Turkey, and Egypt), Ambassador Christian Connan (former French Ambassador to Mali, Haiti and Cambodia), and Ambassador Daniel Jouanneau (former French Ambassador to Canada, Lebanon, Mozambique, and Pakistan), as well as German diplomat Ambassador Wilfried Bolewski (former Chief of Protocol under Chancellor Angela Merkel), Marie-Claire Faye (who was in charge of French diplomatic protocol under Presidents Mitterrand and Chirac), and Middle East geopolitics specialist Agnès Levallois.

This collaboration was inaugurated on October 18 with a two-week intensive program on Diplomatic Protocol and Diplomatic Practices offered to top officials from the Ministry of Defense of Ivory Coast.

“AGS’ academic expertise complements AMD’s professional approach, and provides faculty drawn from the international community to work alongside those from French government and foreign affairs," says AGS Director Larry Kilman. "This makes for a fertile and exciting area of collaboration. We are happy to be contributing to AMD’s development and looking forward to developing new programs together.”

From September 10-21, the American Graduate School in Paris is hosting a governmental delegation from Vietnam for a professional development program entitled “Justice and Ethics in Financial Oversight: the French Experience.” A group of twenty senior officials from the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice travelled to Paris as part of a long-term initiative to send civil servants around the world to learn best practices in Western public administration so as to apply this knowledge in the reform of Vietnam's socio-political and economic systems.

AGS collaborated with specialists of Asian educational exchanges Dr Maire O'Brien and Peter Nguyen from the Institute of Executive Training to tailor a dedicated two-week program with the expertise of its professors and local connections. The program includes seminars about various aspects of the French political and legal systems, taught by AGS professors Douglas Yates and Patrick Clairzier with the contribution of external scholars and practitioners, as well as site visits to Paris-based institutions such as the National Financial Services Tribunal (Parquet National Financier) and the International Court of Arbitration.

"Sharing knowledge with delegates from the Vietnamese government about public governance is not only an opportunity for the American Graduate School in Paris to provide educational resources on topics related to international relations," says AGS Director Professor Larry Kilman, "it also allows us actually take part in international and transnational relations and fulfill our mission of fostering dialogue between cultures.”

AGS's specialist of African politics Professor Douglas Yates was invited to participate in the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) "Africa Convening" international conference in Harare, Zimbabwe from 16-18 August 2018. The Young Scholars Initiative is an international research network gathering 5,000 scholars, students, and young professionals in 125 countries working on finding a new economic paradigm besides the hegemonic neoliberal model. It is one of the affiliate programs of the New York-based think tank Institute for New Economic Thinking, founded in 2009, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, to support research on the relationship between finance and the broader economy as well as areas such as environment, inequality, and the economics of innovation.

The conference was held at the University of Zimbabwe, the oldest university in Zimbabwe, founded in 1952 through a relationship with the University of London. Professor Yates was invited to be a "mentor" in the Economic History group, one of the several topical and geographical working groups around which the conference was organized. This working group covered three large themes: agriculture and industrialization, labor and enterprise, and politics and identity.

"This kind of conference provides scholars from sub-Saharan Africa with funding to get involved in a global movement in international finance and economics that might otherwise marginalize their voices because of a lack of funding." said Professor Yates. "INET’s Young Scholars Initiative in particular gives graduate students a voice, a platform for their research, and a continent-wide network to promote new economic thinking. This is especially important, as AGS has always believed that graduate students are the future of research and higher education.”

Professor Yates heads the African concentration in the Master of International Relations and Diplomacy program at the American Graduate School in Paris. He is the author of several books on the topic, including The Scramble for African Oil: Oppression, Corruption and War for Control of Africa's Natural Resources (London: Pluto Press, 2012).

Professors Anton Koslov and Douglas Yates were invited to speak at the 13th Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity on Jeju Island in South Korea (June 26-28). This three-day event brought together 5,500 people from 70 countries to discuss this year’s theme: “Reengineering Peace for Asia”, with the objective of exploring new approaches to peace through innovative methods.

Launched in 2001, the Jeju Forum is a regional multilateral dialogue for promoting peace and prosperity in Asia. It is hosted by the Government of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea.

The 2018 edition came on the heels of two inter-Korean summits in April and May and the first-ever summit between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader. Among the participants were the Secretary General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay, the former Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki Moon, the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate José Ramos-Horta, the former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who introduced NAFTA as well as the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie, and other peacebuilding and peacebuilding figures.

Professors Koslov and Yates spoke at a multinational panel of scholar activists about promoting healing through peacebuilding through multilateral talks involving six party-States: North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia. Yates focused on the potential role of the United States, while Professor Koslov focused on that of Russia.

The two AGS professors also travelled to Gangjeong Village, where a United States Naval Base has recently been constructed over the opposition of local activists, and participated in a grassroots peacebuilding exercise to transform this military base into a Peace Port that will launch several peace education cruises to surrounding ports of the six-party States.

Professor Yates met with Brian Mulroney and the two spoke briefly about the need for bold leadership to produce new international initiatives like NAFTA and La Francophonie.

UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay spoke about the World Heritage sites on Jeju Island. “One of the most innovative peacebuilding ideas coming out of Jeju,” said Professor Yates, “has been to use a traditional form of community building inspired by the famous Jeju Haenyeo women divers, who were included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. This form of community building, known at the bultoek, consists of forming a circle with the women around the fire on the beach at the end of the day to share concerns and settle disputes. This traditional conflict resolution model can be used to promote dialogue between Northeast Asian peoples in a spirit of equality and community, a beautiful symbol of Jeju’s ambitions to become the region’s “Peace Island,” taking advantage of its central location as a hub between the six party-States involved in peacemaking on the Korean peninsula.

The participation of AGS professors in this international forum is a continuation of a long-term collaboration with Jeju National University’s Peace Studies initiatives. Professor Yates has been presenting about conflict resolution at various conferences hosted by JNU every year for the past 12 years, and AGS Ph.D. candidate Olivier Sempiga joined him last summer to talk about peace-building in post-conflict Rwanda.

Next summer, Jeju National University Professor Ko Changoon will be leading a delegation to Paris to promote the registration of the tragic Jeju 4.3 massacre of 20,000 innocent civilians during the Korean War onto the UNESCO memory of the World registry. Professor Ko and his delegation should present a series of papers on the topic at AGS on June 23-25 2019. AGS is proud to promote this peace education exercise and looks forward to further collaboration with Professor Ko’s new Peace Academy at Jeju National University.

The American Graduate School in Paris Class of 2018 Commencement was held on June 1^st in the French Senate, under the sponsorship of Senator Catherine Morin-Desailly, President of the Senate’s Commission on Culture, Education and Communication. Graduates from numerous parts of the globe, including the United States, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, the Philippines, Liberia, and Ghana gathered with their professors, families and friends in this landmark of French democracy to celebrate the successful completion of their two years of studies in Paris. They were awarded AGS’s Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy, accredited in the United States in partnership with Arcadia University. Dual degree graduates additionally received a Europe-accredited Master in Diplomacy and Strategic Negotiation from AGS’s partner Université Paris Sud.

“Both our students and our faculty come from all over the world, and tonight’s graduates alone represent four continents," said AGS Director, Professor Larry Kilman in his introductory speech, "but the international profile of our students is not the only thing that’s impressive about them,  “They are remarkable individuals. (…) They come to Paris from all walks of life and for a variety of reasons, but they all share a commitment to helping others and contributing to both their societies and the international community.”

The Commencement speaker this year was AGS’s Professor of Diplomacy Ambassador Michael Einik. Ambassador Einik has had a long diplomatic career including assignments in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe, and served as US Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia from 1999-2002. As a diplomat who has witnessed and been part of historic events, he gave an inspiring address to the students. “Many of you who have taken my classes have often heard me urge you to find your own voice. To mark out a path for yourselves different than the herd. Our job here at AGS has been to give you the tools, both theoretic and practical, to do so.”

Building on Henry Kissinger's remarks about the Internet causing “human cognition (to lose) its personal character” by having its users “ emphasize retrieving and manipulating information over contextualizing or conceptualizing its meaning”, Ambassador Einik added: “Let me (…) urge you to once in a while put down the phones, get off the Internet and think, embrace the quiet, reflect and ponder, not just search. If you can find one, go to a bookstore and read a real book, better yet open up an untouched new book and smell it, that smell is the ink, feel the paper, that’s five hundred years of knowledge. Think of Adam Smith writing the 1000 pages of Wealth of Nations in long hand and without a search engine. When faced with a decision don't have your first impulse be to google the question, but take a moment and think about it, savor the question, roll it around in your head, turn it inside out, and create something of your own.”

Following the conferring of degrees, one of the graduates, Chloe Bingham (M.A. 2018, Summa Cum Laude, Candidate in the LL.M. dual program), shared a few words capturing her AGS experience, which she recalled recently exchanging with a potential student seeking insider’s advice: “Like most schools and most opportunities in life, AGS is what you make of it. If you are looking for a rubber stamp on a diploma from a big name school with instant recognition, maybe look somewhere else. But if you are willing to put in work, to listen, to think, to learn, to take opportunities, to talk to the professors - you will be very welcome here. (…) At AGS, we get to not only hear, but converse with ambassadors, practitioners, journalists, lawyers, academics, economists, and more I’m sure. We get to meet people.” 

The AGS graduation ceremony has taken place in the premises of the French Senate every year since 2004, under the sponsorship of a member of the French Senate. Commencement speakers in the previous years have included French former Prime Ministers Michel Rocard and Alain Juppé, Lebanese Ambassador to UNESCO Samira Hanna El Daher, democracy activist Jeremy Kinsman, New York Times writer and journalist Alan Riding, and Canada's current Ambassador to France Lawrence Cannon.

See photo album of the AGS Commencement 2018 on Facebook

A link to the video of the ceremony will be posted here soon.

By Emma Linsenmayer
M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy Candidate, 2019

Dr Elizabeth Milovidov, who teaches the International Public Law (IPL) course at AGS, brought her course to life by organizing a day-trip to Strasbourg for her students to experience IPL first hand in the host city of the Council of Europe. The itinerary included participation in a Council of Europe Conference, as well as visits to several European institutions and international organizations.

The students participated in the Launching Conference on “Building Inclusive Societies through Enriching Plurilingual and Pluricultural Education”, held by the Education Policy Division in the Palace of Europe. The Conference focused on the implications, opportunities and challenges involved in language learning, teaching and assessment. Comprehensively incorporating stakeholders, the Conference discussed updates for the current European framework of reference for languages.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to have gone to Strasbourg with the International Law class! This is one of the reasons why I came to AGS- to not only enhance my knowledge in the classroom but to also experience it! I love the fact that we were able to see policy making in person and were able to meet and speak with policy makers about the process itself. Thanks again to Dr. Milovidov and the administration at AGS for making this trip happen!” –Taylor Kelly, Master’s Candidate at AGS Class of 2019

The students were then taken on an exclusive tour of the European institutions by the Programme Manager of the Education Policy Division, Christopher Reynolds. The tour began at the Palace of Europe where Mr Reynolds described the duties of the Committee of Ministers and showed them the Hemicycle debating chamber -- where the Congress of the Council of Europe holds its plenary sessions. The tour continued to the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights. Along the way, Mr Reynolds talked about the Council of Europe’s history. One fun fact is the twelve gold stars that make a circle on the Council of Europe flag represent the unity of Europe and the number twelve is the symbol of completeness and perfection! These twelve stars can also be found lining the streets of the several European institutions in Strasbourg.

The tour continued into the city center with Dr Milovidov, who continued to speak to the history and importance of these European and international bodies in international public law. They also had the chance to visit the historic Strasbourg Cathedral and enjoy some traditional Alsatian cuisine.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to see several European institutions, while spending the day with classmates and our professor. While the conference we attended was interesting, my favorite part was walking the streets with them and having Dr Milovidov give us life advice tailored to our own goals and interests. It was a great day!” –Chloe Bingham, Master’s Graduate at AGS Class of 2018

Thanks to Dr Milovidov’s work as a digital children’s rights expert for the Council of Europe since 2013, her students were also graciously welcomed to sit in on a Digital Citizen Education Expert Group meeting in Paris. The Digital Citizen Education is an intergovernmental project launched by the Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice (CDPPE) of the Council of Europe in 2016.

The students would like to thank their professor, Dr. Milovidov and the Council of Europe’s Education Policy Division for such a meaningful experience, as well as the AGS Administration.

“As graduate students studying international relations, these are the experiences that will be engrained in us forever. The opportunity to visit the very organizations that we study everyday was very powerful. But above all, it is the professors like Dr Milovidov, who inspire us through their professional careers and passions – so thank you for this incredible experience.” –Emma Linsenmayer, Master’s Candidate at AGS Class of 2019

On 11 April 2018, the American Graduate School in Paris signed a partnership with the University of New England (UNE, Maine, USA) to launch a “UNE in Paris” study-abroad program.

This program was tailored by AGS to host undergraduate students from the University of New England for a semester in the heart of Paris, experiencing French and European culture while gaining credits toward their degree at UNE. It will combine coursework in international relations with French classes at the Alliance Française and using the city of Paris and its many institutions as an expanded classroom. Students will stay with Parisian families to make the most of this immersive experience.

This project was initiated by Anouar Majid, UNE’s Vice President for Global Affairs, who founded the University’s Center for Global Humanities (Maine, USA) and Tangier Global Forum (Morocco).

AGS Director Larry Kilman says: “Being a ‘boutique’ institution, we were able to design a custom-made program based on the specific needs and goals presented by UNE. We are very proud for this opportunity to support UNE’s mission of providing international education to students, which very much converges with our own mission.”

The first session of the program will start in January 2019.

Majid added: “The president of UNE, James Herbert, and I are tremendously excited by this unique opportunity to offer our students a first-rate American education in English while learning French and living in Paris. AGS, with its visionary and flexible attitude, as well as with its excellent faculty and staff, is the ideal partner for us. We will do our best to recruit students and grow the program.”

Parallel to its graduate degree programs in International Relations and Diplomacy, AGS provides study abroad programs to partner universities wishing to develop their international offering. The University of New England is an American, private university located in the state of Maine, with a campus in Tangier, Morocco.