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“Woodrow Wilson School”

(source: wws.princeton.edu)

(source: wws.princeton.edu)

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke of a friendlier foreign policy and a more trusting “new global order” in a wide-ranging speech at Princeton’s Richardson Auditorium on Sept. 23, sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The Prime Minister also touched on regional topics including Turkey’s tense relationship with Armenia, saying that a possible agreement between the two countries could be ratified by Parliament by October 10th or 11th. He said that a relationship between the two countries “can be conducted with mutual respect.”

Erdoğan also clearly expressed a sense of frustration at the continued obstacles to Turkey’s EU accession.

“We have, in that process, something quite peculiar,” he said. “1959 was when we started our discussions with Europe. We are in 2009. Fifty years have passed and there is no other country that has had to wait for that long.”

For the whole story, see the Woodrow Wilson School News.

Kavya Shivashankar, she ain’t.

Christina Paxson, the somewhat recently crowned Queen of the Tools, is off to a rough start, spelling wise.

Granted, as Dean of Woody Woo, you’re probably called upon to spell and pronounce some tricky words: obscure central Asian nations, the names of Russian diplomats, etc. So normally we’d be willing to give her a pass – Word, to our knowledge, is not currently packing a foreign affairs spell check suite.

But she spelled her own name wrong. Her first day on the job. In a letter to the WWS alumni, probably not the world’s most laid-back listserv.

To quote:

“Sincerely,
Christian Paxson
Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs”

Important? Not really.

Embarrasing Embarrassing? Yup.

Are we being petty? Probably. But c’mon! What else are we going to do? It’s summer!

ban-ki-moon

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at McCarter Theatre

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed the urgent need for a new multilateralism during his address on Friday morning to an audience of nearly 1,000 people in McCarter Theatre.

”We need a new vision, a new paradigm and a new multilateralism,” Mr. Ban said. He defined this multilateralism as one that delivers “a set of global goods,” recognizes intercollaboration and has necessary authority and resources.

Mr. Ban traced this idea of multilateralism to former President Woodrow Wilson’s mission to create a League of Nations after World War I.

”He called for the nations to come together to ‘make it safe for every peace-loving nation,’ “ Mr. Ban said, quoting President Wilson. “Justice can be maintained to promote social programs and better standards of life with larger freedoms,” Mr. Ban added.

Read entire article at the Princeton Packet here.

(image source: princeton.edu)

US-ISRAEL-ANNIVERSARY-BEINISCHDorit Beinisch, the equivalent of the Chief Justice on the Israeli Supreme Court, talked about balancing security and human rights in the age of terror.

And while the topic was no doubt fascinating, we found ourselves more distracted by some of the differences between the American Supreme Court and the Israeli model. For example:

  • The US court hears 60-80 cases in a given year. The Israeli Supreme Court hears 5000 (!)
  • US justices serve for life, while Israel has a max age (we kind of like this idea, having spent time with people in the 70 and over demographic. Good for half-moon cookies, bad for precedent augmenting legal decisions)

Full article here