A prism on SAIS Bologna

A new book on Libya offers a window on intellectual life at SAIS Bologna.

The book, Libia: Fine o rinascita di una nazione? (Libya: End or rebirth of a nation?), was co-authored by Prof. Karim Mezran, who teaches Middle East Studies at SAIS.

Alice Alunni, who attended SAIS Bologna in 2008-09 and graduated from SAIS in 2010, wrote a chapter of the book and moderated the unveiling of the volume at a recent event in Bologna.

The book launch was part of a series organized by the Bologna Institute for Policy Research (BIPR), the research division of Johns Hopkins University in Bologna.

Varvelli, Alunni and Cremonesi

This confluence of research and writing on a current topic, teaching, teamwork and outreach is part of SAIS's mission and consistent with the mix of theory and practice that prepares students for challenges in the work place.

The book on Libya was a joint effort by SAIS professors, researchers and professors from Italian universities. It is one of the first in Italian that provides an analytical perspective on the oil-rich North African country. SAIS alumna Saskia Van Genugten, who is writing her Ph.D thesis on Libya, contributed a chapter on ties linking Libya, France and the United Kingdom.

I talked with Alice after the book launch, which was attended by co-author Arturo Varvelli of the IPSI research institute and Lorenzo Cremonesi of leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Since graduating from SAIS, Alice has worked at the International Labor Organization and at the Center for American Studies headed by Prof. Mezran. (You may remember our chat with Prof. Mezran at the outset of the Arab Spring). She is currently a junior associate fellow at SAIS Bologna.

Q: In a few words, what is the book about?
Alunni: The book analyzes the main social, political and economic aspects of the history of the country from the Ottoman domination till the present. Therefore, it allows the reader to understand the driving forces of current events.

Q: I understand you wrote a chapter of the book. What’s your chapter about?
Alunni: It’s about the relationship between Qaddafi's Libya and Middle Eastern and African countries. In particular, it analyzes the switch from pan-Arabism to pan-Africanism in Qaddafi's foreign policy and the socio-economic and political drivers that determined this process.

Q: Who would read the book?
Alunni: Anyone interested in learning more about what brought Libya to the situation it is in today. Many historical, social, political as well as economic factors have materialized into today’s events. The lack of a Libyan national identity, for instance, is discussed in the book, and this can help understand the centrifugal forces at work in Libya in 2012.

Q: What role has SAIS played?
Alunni: I finished my studies at SAIS a couple of years ago. Through SAIS I was able to nurture my interest for North Africa. And BIPR gives me the opportunity to carry out the research.

Q: What will your next work be?
Alunni: I’m finishing an article for the BC Journal of International Affairs. The topic this year is power shifts, and I’m co-authoring the article on power shifts in the North African region with Prof. Mezran. I’m also working with him on the case study on Libya for a project conducted by the Clingendael Institute and directed by SAIS Prof. William Zartman called “Negotiations in Transition”, which focuses on the role of negotiations among local actors during the Arab Spring.

Amina Abdiuahab

Books by SAIS Bologna professors: Perspectives on the world

In an earlier post, Kathryn Knowles of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research mentioned a series of faculty book presentations in the Spring semester.

Yesterday, Mark Gilbert, a history professor at SAIS Bologna, kicked off the presentations by launching his new book, European Integration: A Concise History, at Feltrinelli International, Bologna's top international bookshop.

Prof. Gilbert's was the first of six book presentations by SAIS professors from now through October. The other professors releasing books are John Harper, Karim Mezran, Richard Pomfret, David Unger and David Ellwood. Stay tuned for more details on their presentations.

Before his book launch, I sat down with Prof. Gilbert and asked a few questions.

Professor Gilbert discusses his book

Q: In a few words, what is your book about?
Gilbert: It's the story of how European countries pooled their national sovereignty first in the European Community, and since 1992, in the European Union. It is an attempt to look at the complexities of this historical process as far as possible objectively.

Q: How did the book come about? What inspired you? 
Gilbert: I was curious. This book is a revised and updated edition of an earlier work I published in 2003. At the time I was living in two countries, Italy and the UK, which had very contrasting views on the European Union. Italy was very positive about European unity whereas the UK was not. I wanted to research in more detail to understand what could lead the two nations to have such different views on the European Union.

Q: How does this book differ from your earlier works?
Gilbert: It's more complex and it has a broader scope than my previous books, which concentrated on specific moments of Italian history and politics. This edition of the book is also very different from the first edition. It is more dubious about the European Union's prospects and to some extent can be read as a "revisionist" account of the EU's history.

Q: Who would read your book?
Gilbert: This book will mostly interest students of European politics and contemporary European history. That said, I think it's a book for anyone who wants to learn about the European Union and the policies of integration. I would like school teachers to read it.

Q: Why school teachers?

Gilbert: Too often school teachers come to a halt in 1945 and treat more recent times as current events.

Q: In your introduction you thank a SAIS Bologna alumna. What role did she play?
Gilbert: Marijn Hoijitink, was my research assistant last year. Her diligence and competency were a great contribution to the book. She helped me improve a couple of chapters by finding published sources I hadn't used in the first edition and by updating the chronology at the beginning. She proof-read several chapters.

Q: And finally, what will your next book be?
Gilbert: The next book will be about "Europe in the Cold War." The idea is to give an overview of the main phases of the Cold War as it affected European countries, but to concentrate on the intellectual debates generated by the conflict. It is still in its early stages, however. I have about 60,000 words, and a detailed road map, but have a tendency to go off the route set for me. Still, I usually get to my destination in the end!

Amina Abdiuahab

Academics and practitioners

SAIS faculty and alumni are thinkers, movers and shakers in their fields. You've already seen the guide detailing the faculty's expertise.

Here is some recent activity:

SAIS graduate Abdul Ilah Khatib, former foreign minister of Jordan, was recently named the UN special envoy for humanitarian affairs in Libya.

Abdul Ilah Khatib (r)
 with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
(UN photo)

Prof. Karim Mezran discussed Libya on Italy's leading national talk show Otto e Mezzo.

Prof. Erik Jones and Saskia van Genugten, both SAIS graduates, authored an editorial on Italy in de Volkskrant, in the Netherlands.

Prof. Michael Plummer was noted in Johns Hopkins Gazette for his coming role as a speaker at the Singapore Economic Review Conference to be held in August in Singapore.

Fouad Ajami

In the past two months, Prof. Fouad Ajami has published pieces in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the New York Times and  Foreign Policy magazine.

Prof. Eliot Cohen published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

SAIS Foreign Policy Institute Fellow Josh Muravchik had pieces in both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

Prof. Michael Mandelbaum wrote an editorial for Project Syndicate.

For more information on our faculty, click here.

Nelson Graves

A humbling experience

SAIS has experts in a great many fields. They are leading academics and policymakers. They help set the agenda.

Experts you can know

Events that have swept recently through the Arab world have brought to the fore some of the expertise inside of SAIS. Our Middle East Studies faculty have helped make sense of the developments in articles and interviews. The developments are of keen interest to many other areas, from economics to development.

I thought it was a good time to tap the knowledge of Karim Mezran, who is an adjunct professor of Middle East Studies at SAIS Bologna.

Prof. Mezran also teaches at John Cabot University in Rome and  is director of the Center for American Studies in the Italian capital. His two courses at SAIS Bologna this year are "Political Islam and Change in the Mediterranean Area" and "North African Political Development" -- surely relevant to current events.

I caught up with Prof. Mezran in his office in the Bologna Center. Here are his reactions to the recent events, which he called "a humbling experience" for all those who have studied North Africa and the Middle East.



Nelson Graves