Current Events Convo 3/4, Academic Event – Smith Steeb Glass Classroom

The academic event I chose to attend this semester was the Current Events Convo hosted by Sam Stelnicki on March 4th, 2019 at 8:oo PM in Smith Steeb’s glass classroom. This event was focusing on international affairs and their current status, events that Sam chose to present on. The first event she spoke on was the Pakistan and India conflict. This is a conflict dating back to 1947 regarding Pakistani/Indian rule/Independent rule and religions tensions between Hindu/Muslim. Recently, tensions have flared with a new Indian rule in 2014, and in the month of February various attacks and counter attacks have been launched. Full scale conflict is anticipated to ensue. In the Nigerian presidential election, only 1/3 of the population voted, and the election was delayed because of logistical issues. There are speculations of a rigged election from the opposition. The country continues to struggle with achieving democracy due to widespread violence and poverty. Current president Buhari made promises to deal with these issues, but since gaining power has failed to make action towards his claims. In news regarding the United States and North Korea, a conference was held to lift North Korean Trade bans and for North Korea to denuclearize, but neither side seems to want to budge. The Labour Party is willing to support a second referendum on Brexit. Their options are revoke article 50, or extend article 50 to leave more room for a decision.  Venezuela is facing a mass exodus and Latin American Countries are dealing with a mass influx of Venezuelan immigrants. Tensions arise between cultures in Latin American countries, particularly Colombia.

I feel like these type of events and conversations need to happen more often. It is a great way to touch base with what is going on in the world, and it is at the heart of what International Affairs is all about. We, as international affairs scholars, should be concerned with what is going on around us in the world, and informed on decisions that are being made by leaders and policy makers world wide.

I would love to gear more events towards this kind of style, perhaps even an open discussion across IA members so that we can get a developed perspective of world events. I feel as though we were able to do this more so in our seminar class, but as we are no longer in this structured environment, these conversations are much more difficult to foster.

Another suggestion I offer up is that we involve other scholar groups in our discussions. A general sentiment I get from International Affairs Scholars is that we all generally come from a similar political background and mindset, and it might behoove us to engage in conversations with PSL, for example, or perhaps open panels for international students to speak on events happening in their home countries. This would bring a sense of personal connection to these conversations and place a face and a person with these issues instead of just talking about them blindly without regard to the feelings of the people involved, which we often times do.