http://irps.ucsd.edu IR/PS News Japanese troops will converge on California's southern coast in the next two weeks as part of a military exercise with U.S. troops aimed at improving that country's amphibious attack abilities. U.S. and Japanese military officials said the unprecedented training, led by U.S. Marines and sailors, will help Japan's Self-Defense Force operate in stronger coordination with the United States, its main ally, and better respond to crises such as natural disasters. China may see it differently, however, given the tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over a long-running dispute concerning islands claimed by both in the East China Sea. Click here to read the full article. Sun, 09 Jun 2013 11:40:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130611109698.htm /media-center/news/news_20130611109698.htm 中美兩國元首在加州莊園會晤，聖地牙哥加州大學(UCSD)的「國際關係與太平洋研究院」(IR/PS)7日舉辦別開生面的對話，東道主方面是該校教授謝淑麗 (Susan Shirk)，訪客則是曾任美國副助理國務卿、現任私人機構「亞洲智庫」(Asia Group)執行長的坎伯 (Kurt M Campbell)。 坎伯指出，「歐習莊園會」雖然不拘形式，但實際上，兩位元首面對面接觸的時間，比正式的國事訪問更長，所談的問題也更廣泛。坎伯認為，如何敦促北韓「棄核」、共同維護網路安全，一定會成為兩國元首會晤的重要內容。 Click here to read the full article (Chinese). Sun, 09 Jun 2013 11:16:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130611109689.htm /media-center/news/news_20130611109689.htm With meetings between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping underway on a private estate in California, the world is waiting to see if the relationship between the world’s preeminent power and fast growing rival will be Sunnylands or Badlands. To help make sense of what’s at stake, China Real Time enlisted the help of four leading China watchers. Cheng Li is an authority on China’s politics at the Brookings Institution. Susan Shirk served in the Clinton administration with responsibility for China and is now a professor at UC San Diego. Jin Canrong is associate dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing. And Nick Lardy is a leading expert on China’s economy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Click here to read the full article. Sat, 08 Jun 2013 11:33:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130611109692.htm /media-center/news/news_20130611109692.htm The June CCST Council meeting focused on the impact that China's quest to become a global science, technology and innovation leader will have on California, and the global community as a whole. The dinner speaker, Tai Ming Cheung, is the director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) at UC San Diego. IGCC studies a wide range of topics involving the security, environmental, and economic policies that shape our ability to prevent conflict and promote cooperation, including through nontraditional connections between and across disciplines and institutions. The Council dinner was paired with an international forum co-hosted by CCST and the California Chamber of Commerce. Click here to read the full article. Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:02:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130611.htm /media-center/news/news_20130611.htm Brazil’s greenhouse-gas emissions fell nearly 39% between 2005 and 2010, according to an inventory released today by the country's government. Years in production, the document shows that the country has made dramatic progress in reducing deforestation, but it underscores significant future challenges. The analysis reports a 76% drop in cumulative emissions from deforestation between 2005 and 2010, with decreases not only in the Amazon but also in the surrounding savannahs. Brazil produced the equivalent of roughly 1.25 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2010, more than 10% below the 1990 level. But the 2010 emission total is slightly higher than that recorded for 2009 — an increase that Brazil’s government attributes mostly to rising emissions from the energy sector. Click here to read the full article. Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:46:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130605109432.htm /media-center/news/news_20130605109432.htm By 2015, global cloud computing traffic will have increased twelve-fold compared to 2010, according to a study by Cisco. As you might assume, that growth is occurring in tech-savvy metropolises like Silicon Valley, New York and London, but it’s also being driven by the developing world. Businesses in developed nations have embraced cloud computing for the boost in speed, efficiency and flexibility it provides, but in the developing world, it provides a different set of advantages to young businesses. In lands where the electrical grid is unreliable at best, a combination of cheap, battery-powered smartphones and inexpensive cloud computing servers based in the United States or Europe allow businesses to circumvent the electrical grid all together. Click here to read the full article. Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:07:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604109342.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604109342.htm The two top executives of a British investment fund in Cuba are scheduled to go on trial in Havana on Thursday, according to sources close to the accused men, as part of an unprecedented government crackdown on corruption involving foreign businessmen. In the second trial of foreign executives on the Communist-run island in a week, Amado Fakhre, a Lebanese-born British citizen and chief executive officer of Coral Capital Group Ltd, faces various bribery charges related mainly to the fund's import business. Click here to read the full article. Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:53:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604109183.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604109183.htm In April 2006, President George W. Bush rearranged the name cards at a White House lunch with Hu Jintao, seating the Chinese president next to him instead of across a table so they could talk privately. Bush wanted to talk about North Korea. Days later, a Chinese diplomat visited Pyongyang to push dictator Kim Jong Il to return to nuclear talks. Within a year, the North agreed to shut down a reactor that made weapons-grade plutonium, recalled Paul Haenle, executive assistant to U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley at the time. Click here to read the full article. Tue, 04 Jun 2013 08:49:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604.htm U.S. President Barack Obama is set to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Jun. 7-8 for their first bilateral meeting as heads of state. Figuring on their agenda is how to address a precarious North Korea, which is armed with a small nuclear arsenal and vying for a bigger one. In the past seven years, North Korea has suffered a spate of U.N. Security Council sanctions, the most recent of which was co-drafted by the U.S. and China in March under resolution 2094. The resolution prohibits the transfer of any materials and financial assets into North Korea that may contribute its nuclear programme. The resolution also prevents some luxury goods from entering the country. Click here to read the full article. Mon, 03 Jun 2013 10:03:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604109192.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604109192.htm What programmes do you offer? You can study BA in international studies and master of international affairs, MA in advanced studies in international affairs, MA in Pacific international affairs, PhD in political science and international affairs and executive education in global leadership.    What is the USP of your school? We have become one of the top schools of international affairs and public policy in the United States. IR/PS is the only school of its kind that focuses on the Pacific (Asia and the Americas), a dynamic region of growing importance. Click here to read the full article. Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:24:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604109176.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604109176.htm When discussing economic and population growth in the developing world, a cellphone metaphor is often invoked: usage has expanded faster than emerging nations have been able to build out landline networks.  Leapfrogging legacy technology is a theme that resonates across many sectors in the developing world, as improvement in the quality of life worldwide is enabled by the latest innovations. China now hopes to embrace this thinking in the realm of energy. As demand rises commensurate with its higher living standards, the "end of the landline" paradigm is being extended to unconventional oil and gas drilling. Click here to read the full article. Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:14:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604109170.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604109170.htm Professor Robert Hooper, a professor at UC San Diego who has taught journalism in Fiji, has just published an academic paper called "When the Barking Stopped: Censorship, Self-censorship and Spin in Fiji". He says if the press can't do its job by bringing serious issues to light, all of society suffers in the long run. Although the coup installed military government insists Fiji's media are completely free to report what they want, Professor Hooper tells Bruce Hill that's not the case at all. Click here to listen to the interview. Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:10:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604109167.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604109167.htm Everybody knows that Japan has an energy crisis. We also know that the yen has greatly depreciated, by some 20 percent in just a few weeks. It’s time to put these two facts together. “Abenomics,” the shorthand for the aggressive economic strategies being pursued by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is the hot thing in Asia. What wonders will the weak yen work for Japan’s export machine? Is a recovery just around the corner? Despite its volatility, Japan’s stock market says so, and foreign investors, in particular, like the prospects. Click here to read the full article. Sun, 02 Jun 2013 09:08:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130604109164.htm /media-center/news/news_20130604109164.htm Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cannot regain full control of his battered country and his rebel foes are not strong enough to overthrow him, dooming Syria to months or even years of sectarian civil war. Bolstered by his Iranian and Russian backers, Assad has chalked up some military successes in recent weeks, defying his many critics, who have been confidently predicting his imminent downfall since the start of the uprising in March 2011. But any suggestion his government might secure the total defeat of its disparate opponents shows little understanding of the nature of the war or the multitude of forces involved. Click here to read the full article. Fri, 31 May 2013 11:17:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130531109022.htm /media-center/news/news_20130531109022.htm Susan Shirk: It’s an excellent idea for President Obama and President Xi to spend two days of quality time together at a private retreat in Southern California. Past meetings between Chinese and American presidents have been too short, formal and scripted for them to develop a genuine personal relationship and understand one another’s real intentions. Vice President Joe Biden and then-Vice-President Xi connected well when they spent almost two weeks traveling together and meeting the public first in China and then in the U.S. Now Obama and Xi will have the same opportunity to develop the rapport that can help them solve problems and manage crises during their terms. Especially in a non-democratic country like China, the leader’s personal investment in good relations with the U.S. is one of the greatest diplomatic assets we can have. Click here to read the full article. Wed, 29 May 2013 11:10:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130531.htm /media-center/news/news_20130531.htm Immigrants have contributed billions of dollars more to Medicare in recent years than the program has paid out on their behalf, according to a new study, a pattern that goes against the notion that immigrants are a drain on federal health care spending. The study, led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, measured immigrants’ contributions to the part of Medicare that pays for hospital care, a trust fund that accounts for nearly half of the federal program’s revenue. It found that immigrants generated surpluses totaling $115 billion from 2002 to 2009. In comparison, the American-born population incurred a deficit of $28 billion over the same period. Click here to read the full article. Wed, 29 May 2013 09:43:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130530.htm /media-center/news/news_20130530.htm The Chinese government is planning for private businesses and market forces to play a larger role in its economy, in a major policy shift intended to improve living conditions for the middle class and to make China an even stronger competitor on the global stage. In a speech to party cadres containing some of the boldest pro-market rhetoric they have heard in more than a decade, the country’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang, said this month that the central government would reduce the state’s role in economic matters in the hope of unleashing the creative energies of a nation with the world’s second-largest economy after that of the United States. Click here to read the full article. Fri, 24 May 2013 09:39:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130528.htm /media-center/news/news_20130528.htm A total of $341,250 has been awarded to ten junior faculty members who have been named the 2013-2014 Hellman Faculty Fellows at the University of California, San Diego. The award will support the recipients’ research and scholarly work as they strive for tenure with the university. “We deeply appreciate the Hellmans’ generosity and confidence in UC San Diego’s exceptional young faculty,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Their legacy of support has a profound impact on the scholarship of our fellows, and their contributions to many fields of study.” Click here to read the full article. Thu, 23 May 2013 12:11:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130605.htm /media-center/news/news_20130605.htm Host Peter Cowhey of UC San Diego leads an enlightening discussion with Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, Vizio CEO Willliam Wang, former Gateway CEO Ted Waitt and journalist James Fallows on strategies to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States while keeping their companies competitive in the global marketplace. The program is presented by The Atlantic Meets the Pacific, CONNECT and the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego. Click here to watch a video of the event. Wed, 22 May 2013 12:16:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130522.htm /media-center/news/news_20130522.htm Participating in insurgency is physically risky. Why do people do so? Using new data on 3,799 payments to insurgent fighters by Al Qa'ida Iraq, we find that: (i) wages were extremely low relative to outside options, even compared to unskilled labor; (ii) the estimated risk premium is negative; and (iii) the wage schedule favors equalization and provides additional compensation for larger families. These results challenge the notion that fighters are paid their marginal product, or the opportunity cost of their time. They may be consistent with a "lemons" model in which fighters signal commitment by accepting low wages. Click here to read the full article. Tue, 21 May 2013 16:43:00 +0000 /media-center/news/news_20130521108584.htm /media-center/news/news_20130521108584.htm