New poll: What determines citizenship?

Diego Tiziani, a loyal blog reader, has taken up the challenge and proposed a new poll for our followers.

Diego is interested in citizenship, what he calls "the state of being vested with the rights, privileges and duties of a citizen."

His interest has been fanned by studying, living and working abroad -- playing a part in the global economy. Many of our students have done the same.

Diego also cites important debates in France and Italy over immigration.

So Diego's question is this: What should be required to obtain citizenship of a country?

Here are the possible answers he proposes (one can choose more than one):

- Be born in the country;
- Have at least one parent with citizenship in the country;
- Be married to a citizen of the country for a minimum period of time;
- Live for a minimum period in the country;
- Live for a minimum period in the country and prove fluency in the main language;
- None of the above.

The poll is anonymous. To participate, all you need to do is to click on one or more of the answers in the top right-hand part of the blog. We'll close the poll on Friday, December 16, noon Italy time.

If you are reading this on email, to go to the blog, click here.

Nelson Graves

Former senior IMF official joins SAIS

John Lipsky, who until recently served as the number two at the International Monetary Fund, is joining SAIS.

Lipsky will start teaching at SAIS from January 1 as a distinguished visiting scholar with the school’s International Economics program.

Lipsky served for five years as the IMF’s first deputy managing director. Most recently, he was a special adviser to Managing Director Christine Lagarde, helping to direct the fund’s preparations for last month’s G20 Leaders Summit in Cannes, France.

"John’s service at the IMF coincided with the most challenging era for the international economy in the past 70 years," SAIS Dean Jessica Einhorn said. "During this historic time, he was a dedicated and effective advocate for international cooperation and coordination to heal and restore the global economy."

Before rejoining the IMF in 2006, Lipsky had spent more than 20 years in the private sector, including serving as JPMorgan’s chief economist and Chase Manhattan Bank’s chief economist and director of research. Earlier he had spent a decade at the IMF, where he helped manage the Fund’s exchange rate surveillance procedure and analyzed developments in the international capital market.

Lipsky's appointment underscores SAIS's strong stable of academics and practitioners who know their way around academia and global policy making.

For a copy of the Johns Hopkins press release of Lipsky's appointment, click here. For the IMF's profile of him, click here.

Nelson Graves

Professor calls SAIS Bologna students "a breed apart"

What do SAIS, economics and global warming have in common? Charles Pearson's expertise.

Pearson studied at SAIS. Later he taught at SAIS and headed the International Economics department for 17 years. He taught at SAIS DC, SAIS Bologna and Hopkins-Nanjing.

We spoke to Prof. Pearson while he was in Bologna this week teaching a three-part seminar on economics and the challenge of global warming. The seminar is one of several "mini courses" that are longer than the traditional 90-minute lecture but more compact than a semester course. His most recent book is "Economics and the Challenge of Global Warming".

In our interview below, Prof. Pearson, who now lives in Thailand and teaches at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, discusses changes at SAIS, his mini course and the connection between economics and climate change.

What has changed most at SAIS since he was a student? A SAIS education now costs more, he says, and students want to make sure it can lead to a good job. Solid training in economics helps land such jobs, he says.

Asked about SAIS Bologna, Prof. Pearson says he has always been envious of Bologna Center students, calling them "a breed apart".

No disagreement there from us in Bologna.



If you are reading this on email, you can view the video here.

Nelson Graves

What are the next steps in your application?

It may be tomorrow or it may be weeks away, but one day you'll finish your application.

What happens after you click the "submit" button?

Here are key steps in the admissions process for non-U.S. candidates who apply to SAIS Bologna:

This is the broad picture for non-U.S. candidates. (U.S. candidates face a slightly different schedule which you can find on the SAIS DC site.)

You'll be forgiven if you ask why at this point you can mark only two dates (May 3 & 4) on your calendar.

We know we'll be interviewing all of our applicants -- in person, on the phone or via Skype -- but we don't have the exact dates yet. We need to review the pool of applications and determine where to travel to connect with the greatest number of candidates. (We had applications from 72 countries last year.) We'll establish a schedule in early February.

Remember: Although we try to interview as many candidates as possible in person, there is no advantage or disadvantage whether you interview face-to-face, on the phone or via Skype. Each interview is a chance to put your best foot forward and to impress on the interviewer why SAIS Bologna is right for you -- and for SAIS.

When it comes to phone/Skype interviews, we take into account time zones to find something suitable. (If the time does not suit you, please speak up. Sometimes we assume a time zone and it is not quite right.)

The Admissions Committee -- made up of faculty and staff -- will gather at the end of March. The Committee will communicate its decisions by email in early April, and admitted students will then receive an official letter via email shortly after. If you are asking for financial aid, you'll learn the outcome of your request then.

We encourage admitted students to come to Open House in May. Like Open Day this Friday, Open House gives candidates an inside look at SAIS Bologna. It can help them make up their minds. Admitted candidates who are living in the United States will be invited to the SAIS DC Open House in April.

Non-U.S. candidates whose applications are handled by SAIS Bologna will have a mid-May deadline for taking a decision. We'll set the exact date after the coming Christmas break.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post or email us at admissions@jhubc.it. In the meantime, we look forward to your applications.

Amina Abdiuahab

What's new? A blog and a catalog

Here are two sources of information on SAIS that you may find useful and even entertaining.

A new blog

First, our colleagues at SAIS DC have launched a blog. You will find theirs a bit different from ours -- here's to diversity -- but similar because it, too, gives voice to students' views and provides practical information, in a friendly way, on applying.

We would encourage prospective applicants to keep tabs on both blogs. Almost all SAIS Bologna students end up spending time studying in Washington before graduating from SAIS, and so it's important for applicants to the Bologna Center to know what goes on in DC.

Permit me to remind our readers that the SAIS Bologna and SAIS DC Admissions offices handle different pools of applications:

• All U.S. citizens, as well as non-U.S.citizens wishing to start their studies in Washington, have their applications managed by SAIS DC.
• Non-U.S. citizens who want to start in Bologna have their application managed by SAIS Bologna.

We broached the complicated issue of one program/two Admissions offices in a recent post. If you have questions on the different procedures, you can always drop us a line at admissions@jhubc.it.

A new catalog

The second new source of information is SAIS Bologna's  academic catalog. If you are considering applying to SAIS Bologna, you might want to download the catalog so you can refer to it from time to time.

The catalog includes information on a range of subjects:

• SAIS Bologna life
• SAIS Bologna services
• Admissions
• Degrees
• Curriculum
• Faculty

Academic catalogs have come a long way from my days as a student (OK -- keep your comments to yourselves). Back in those days, the catalog was a hefty and colorless tome that included fine print on the courses, a word or two on intellectual honesty and, if you were lucky, an academic calendar.

We think the new SAIS Bologna catalog tackles a greater range of issues and gives a more rounded picture of our institution than the run-of-the mill brochure.

(I can hear your question: Why are you publishing the 2011-12 academic catalog now? Here's the short answer: It takes time to edit, synthesize, cut down the number of pages and save trees!)

Last thing: Some of you may have noticed that we have launched a Twitter feed called @SAISBolognaBlog. To follow it, click on this icon in the upper right-hand section of the blog:

Nelson Graves

The euro zone will survive, according to our poll

The euro zone may lose some members in the next year but will survive its current crisis.

That was the predominant view of respondents to our most recent poll.

Three-quarters of those who participated said the euro zone will be intact one year from now. Just over one half of those optimists said that one year from now there would be as many members as today (17) or more. Thirty-five percent said there would be fewer members.

Here are the results:

Will the euro zone be intact one year from now?

  Yes, with the same number of members = 30%
  Yes, with fewer members = 35%
  Yes, with more members = 10%
  No = 25%

We think these polls are fun and hope you do, too.

If you have any suggestions for a subsequent poll, we are all ears. You can send us a comment in response to this post or an email to admissions@jhubc.it.

We'll be happy to send a SAIS Bologna tee shirt to anyone who proposes a poll that we end up publishing.

Nelson Graves

"La Rivista": Another glimpse into SAIS Bologna

Here's another window on life at SAIS Bologna: La Rivista magazine.

The latest edition -- available online here -- is a special issue that explores the 150 years of Italian unity. If you're interested in learning more about Italy and what goes on at the Bologna Center, it's worth a look.

The four pieces on Italy's 150th anniversary as a nation-state include three by SAIS Bologna professors (Adrian Lyttelton, Vera Negri Zamagni, Gianfranco Pasquino) and a fourth by Federiga Bindi, who is a senior fellow at SAIS's Center for Transatlantic Relations.

Here is Lyttelton on Italy's ambivalence towards its own birthday: "Why is the existence of Italy as a nation-state more subject to criticism than it was at the time of the 50th or 100th anniversaries?"

(Remember the photo of Garibaldi that we featured in last week's quiz? It came from Lyttleton's article.)

Negri Zamagni explores Italy's economic history and concludes: "Italy is now at a crossroads. What is badly needed is a government that has the courage to launch new infrastructure projects, make critical changes in public administration, revitalize innovation and improve the labor market."

Of course the jury is out as to whether the new prime minister, Mario Monti, will be able to do as much.

Last May we published a post on Alumni Weekend that included a video with Prof. John Harper discussing his 30 years at SAIS Bologna. La Rivista prints an abridged version of that talk in which Harper said: "The Center is a bit like the legendary Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. Someone said that if you sat in the lobby long enough you'd see all the famous people of the age."

Vera Negri Zamagni

Other articles include reflections by second-year SAIS student Lu Zhang, a feature on Bologna's cuisine by second-year student Elizabeth Hegedus-Berthold and an interview with Prof. Winrich Kühne, whom we featured in a recent Dewar's profile.

A list of books and other publications by faculty take up an entire page (page 23) and include new titles written by a half dozen professors teaching at SAIS Bologna this term: Harper, Pasquino, Erik Jones, Stefano Zamagni, Richard Pomfret and David Unger.

(Disclosure: Lyttleton, Harper, Pasquino and Pomfret all taught me when I was a student at SAIS Bologna three decades ago. Seems like yesterday.)

Nelson Graves