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Director’s Note: Start of spring quarter

April 8, 2016

Each year, as we move into spring, we start to see the fruits of our yearlong efforts in the Jackson School. We welcome the new majors into the School, current students complete their programs of study, and our seniors get ready for Convocation and for life beyond the Jackson School.

Reşat Kasaba, Director - Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies

Reşat Kasaba
Director – Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies

Task Force Day at the end of the winter quarter constitutes one of the most important milestones in this journey. Every year in March, we invite a group of distinguished practitioners who spend a day with us to evaluate the Task Force Reports the students prepare.

This year we welcomed eight distinguished experts who helped our Task Force Program. I was proud to hear from these visitors that the reports that were researched, written and presented by our students were exceptionally rich and deeply insightful.

Our newly established International Policy Institute, known as the IPI, has been active in organizing workshops and conferences that bridge the divide between the academic and the policy world. We are especially excited about the expanding cooperation between our school and the globally minded corporations and non-governmental agencies in Seattle, which is one of the core missions of the IPI.

The Jackson School faculty continues to be involved in high quality research that leads to reports, articles, and books, that are full of original insights. In this newsletter we highlight Professor Joel Migdal’s notes from Gaza, a discussion with Professor Christian Novetzke about his new book, and a news bulletin from Burma where Professors Mary Callahan and Sara Curran have been involved in a USAID-funded project that aims to enhance digital literacy in that country.

In a typical week the Jackson School hosts hundreds of events that deal with international issues. It is hard to imagine an event that is in the news, or an issue that is germane to understanding our world and not find it addressed at one of the many presentations that are listed on our calendar.

A good example is an upcoming event where Joe Cirincione and Valerie Plame will discuss problems of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East on April 25.

Above all, my colleagues and I are extremely proud of the accomplishments of our alumni and students. Their engagement in all aspects of international affairs and their success in getting some of the most coveted awards and grants remind us why what we are doing in the Jackson School is so important.

With best wishes for a successful end of the 2015-16 academic year!

Reşat Kasaba
Director – Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
Stanley D. Golub Professor of International Studies