The International Affairs Association

After a long hiatus from the blog, I hope to be far more regular over the course of this summer and fall. Today I wish to blog on the recent events concerning the European economy and the Euro. The decline of the Euro has dominated the news for much of the past couple of weeks. Some believe that the Euro is currently at a level of equilibrium with the US Dollar but rumors have been rife that the Eurozone may be disintegrating and that the Euro may soon reach parity with the US Dollar. The decline of the Euro comes in the wake of the debt crisis in Greece and the growing fear that countries within the Eurozone such as Spain and Portugal may also meet the same fate as Greece. The immediate future of the Euro does indeed look bleak.

[Read more →]

My fellow members of the IAA,

This year, without a doubt, was the best in IAA history. From recruiting a record number of new members back in September to staying up all night at the Poconos, and from rocking out to “Ole Ole Ole” all across the United States and the world to running the best and largest UPMUNC and ILMUNC we have ever seen, the IAA juggernaut has been rolling.

We started this year with a few simple goals: transparency, camaraderie, and excellence. It was important for the rest of the Board and myself to exercise principled leadership, and to strive to create a friendly environment in which members don’t fall through the cracks, and can feel ownership of what is a large but great club. I feel like this translated itself in the num ber of innovations and bustling schedule we had this year. Our Intercol teams rocked it on the circuit, taking home victories at BU and Berkeley with teams primarily comprised of novices. Our Special Events secretariat was the pinnacle of innovation this year, bringing us events like Pong and March Madness, really bringing the club together. Our inaugural Speaker’s Committee made strides in identifying and executing more IAA-sponsored academic events than ever before, including nailing a 45-minute segment on MTV! And finally, the UPMUNC and ILMUNC Secretariats took excellent conferences and made them world-class, unbeatable, and two of the best in the world.

The result is that from starting out as a large group of 300 semi-strangers at the first GBM, we became an active group of good people who love Model UN, international affairs, and each other. And that, my fellow IAA members, has just been a pleasure to be a part of. That I was called your President this year is truly humbling as I stand back in awe at what all of you have achieved. I think we made great strides in the last 4 years. I cannot wait to see what this amazing club achieves.

A few weeks ago, I found Ambassador articles written in 1991 (when some of us were born). What struck me is how similar (or exact) the language used back then was to how we speak in the IAA today. It goes to show you that from 1963 to 2010, IAA members around the world share the bond of having been part of the greatest club at Penn (and the world). The experiences repeat, and the experiences are unifying. How ever long you have left in the IAA, enjoy it to the fullest!

My sincerest thanks for a wonderful year,

Jay Raghavan

2009/2010 IAA President

For those of you that believe I clap my hands slightly too much at the GBMs, let me assure you that I mean every one of them. Right now, I want give a round of applause to Maria, Florian, and the rest of the ILMUNC Secretariat for a fantastic job, because last week’s conference was seriously amazing! Every little detail was planned out for us, as a Senior for whom ILMUNC 2010 was his 8th home conference, I am extremely grateful to the Secretariat for making my last one so great!

“Jay, how can we tell that you are genuinely enthusiastic about the time you had,” you ask. Well, let me tell you that on Friday night of conference, amidst the games of Marco Polo and the chicken fights at the pool party, I realized that I still had my phone in my pocket at the pool. Despite attempts by Poorvi to revive my phone while blow drying it in the girls’ bathroom, my phone was gone. Yet I realized right then that it didn’t matter. All the people I love were under one roof at the Sheraton City Center for the next two days. And I think that’s what struck me the most during this wonderful conference- our club has such great carmarderie. I rarely freak out in your presence. So ILMUNC, let me reiterate- thank you for the xbox and the cookies, the pens and the USBs, the pool and the hotel room, and for the good times and memories.

I hope you are all pumped about the rest of what should be a fun-filled semester! Our speaker event went off really well on Thursday, with Dr. Tierney invoking a lot of thought in the audience that attended. You can find a DP article about it here: http://thedp.com/article/tierney-explains-why-america-has-no-stomach-fighting-afghanistan. Over the next months, we’re off to Harvard, paintballing, Berkeley, Princeton, UVA, Chicago, the Poconos, while experiencing Human Rights Week, Spring Fling brunch, the Speaker Series, and a Model UN Summit on campus. And more. We’re wrapping it all up with a kick-ass Formal at the end of the year.

Get pumped!

Love,

Jay Raghavan, your IAA President

I have taken a writing seminar on terrorism and civil liberties this semester and today we discussed the issue of racial profiling. Many of us thought that it did make sense to focus special screening on a section of the global population that come from regions involved in exporting terrorism. Since most terrorist suspects trace their ethnicity to the Middle East and South Asia, it is only logical that investigation is focused on populations from these regions. However, the tags of Middle Eastern and [Read more →]

What a weekend for the IAA!  UPMUNC 2009 was absolutely spectacular, and I want to thank and congratulate each and every IAA member that took part for their dedication and enthusiasm.  I also want to pay tribute to the UPMUNC Secretariat and ASGs, who ensured that everything went flawlessly and that we all had a great time.

I think it’s hard for people sometimes to understand the magnitude of our accomplishment whenever we finish putting together UPMUNC and ILMUNC.  These conferences are some of the largest in the world, and both conferences have widespread recognition for being fun and high-quality.  This could not happen without the time that all of you put in leading up to both conferences.  And of course, we have the Secretariat- particularly Secretary-General Poorvi and Director-General Catherine- to thank for their leadership and for raising the bar even higher. Undoubtedly one of the best conferences on the college circuit.

I’m now getting excited for ILMUNC!  It was amazing spending 4 days with all of you downtown, and I can’t wait to do it again.  There aren’t too many school weeks till ILMUNC, so be sure to attend all the GBMs and listen to the upcoming announcements.  Get pumped!

Congratulations to all of you,

Your President,

Jay Raghavan

Countdown to UPMUNC (PPT)

NEWS FROM THE IAA

1. UPMUNC Updates

2. Conference Excuse Letters, Hotel Rooms, Schedule, Logistics

3. IAA Mentorship Program

4. Alumni Homecoming event

—————

1. UPMUNC Updates

UPMUNC is one week away! This weekend has a lot going on, the important upcoming dates at listed below. Make sure to also go over the UPMUNC presentation attached in this email. It contains all the important logistical details you need to know leading up to, and during conference!

Saturday, November 7th: Pre- UPMUNC Party!! 4015 Baltimore Ave, 10 pm- 2 am

Sunday, November 8th: MANDATORY Staff Training, 2-3 pm (GA + ECOSOC/Specialized: JMHH 240; Crisis: JMHH 245) S

unday, November 8: Mandatory Chair/CD Meeting, 3-4 pm. JMHH 250

—————

2. Conference I can’t stress it enough: take a couple minutes and go through the attached powerpoint. It contains ALL the information you need to you. It has the links to the Excuse Letter Form sign up. It tells you how to register for hotel rooms. It tells you when to be where during the conference.You know you want to know all this stuff!

—————

3. IAA Mentorship Program If you are interested in getting in touch with alumni to learn how to pursue career/grad school interests, sign up for the mentorship program. Our alumni have gone on to do things as wide-ranging as medical school, law school, banking, finance, consulting, military, and government.

—————

4. Alumni Homecoming Event This year we are hosting a cocktail event for returning IAA Alumni during homecoming. It will take place after the football game from 6-8PM at 3926 Delancey Street (Shout out to Fernanda, Abbey, and Adam who live at 3926!). If you want to meet some pretty cool alums, enjoy some good food, or catch up with IAA members you haven’t seen in a while, be sure to stop by.

I love the IAA.

What a few weeks it has been for our amazing club.  Having attended three more Intercol trips and having a healthy mix of newcomers and old-timers winning awards, the IAA has also been active on campus.  From the wonderfully educational and relaxing Senior Wine tour to the Halloween Hayride special event we had last week, there has been a lot going on for our club.  And I’ve loved every minute of it.

I wanted to take this time to particularly highlight the Conference on International Affairs (CIA) that took place a short while ago.  This was a monumental effort taken on by Payal, JoAnna, Brittany and the rest of the Special Events team.  The question that the IAA always philosophically struggles with every year is, “How do we have an impact?”  That Saturday morning, when we managed to entice a big group of local High School students to turn out to listen to lectures and presentations on international affairs, we had our straight, direct answer.  We have an impact by doing what we are good at.  We have a strong understanding of international affairs.  We have significant conference-planning experience when we put on 2 of the most prominent Model UN conferences in the world.  The CIA was the result of the IAA’s quest to have a sizable community service impact that both related to the mission of the club and actually added value for those that we were serving.

The CIA will grow into another one of our prominent conferences- I have no doubt about this.  With the amazing start we’ve had in our first year, I can’t see anything but growth for that conference.  The potential for growth is so high, and we really have all the efforts of the Special Events team to thank for putting this together.  It will definitely be one of the highlights of the year.

Now, we’ve got a big one coming up.  UPMUNC is next week!  GET PUMPED!  It’s going to be an amazingly exciting weekend!  More on that in a bit…

Love,

Jay Raghavan

IAA President

Yet again, the United States is battling the UN over human rights issues. This time, the concern is the use of drones on the Afghan border.

Human rights watchdog Phillip Alston has been investigating drone attacks and has found evidence that the United States is not taking proper precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Although the drone attacks themselves are legal, Alston says that the actual deployment of the drones needs to be examined further.

Alston writes “…you have the really problematic bottom line, which is that the CIA is running a program that is killing significant numbers of people and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws.

[Read more →]

A few days ago the UN voted to condemn the continued US embargo on Cuba that has been in effect for almost half a century.  This is by no means the first condemnation of the US embargo by the international community, and like the many before it, it will not deter the current US government from lifting the embargo.  However, with the current president promising to smooth other US relations abroad, this vote may be a signal by other nations to have President Obama to deliver on this promise in regards to Cuba.  And it may be finally time to lift the embargo.  While the regime of Castro has been a dictatorship responsible for a number of human rights abuses in the name of socialism, our reason for continuing the embargo on human rights reasons is null and void.  Since the start of the embargo, the US government has backed the dictatorships like that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile whose policies were far more hazardous to his own people than Castro’s policies.

Even without these historical comparisons, the embargo should have been ended as it prevents the people of Cuba from getting many of the valuable resources and products the US has to offer.  Depriving Cuba of this trade and access to US goods has only compounded to the problems of Cuba’s citizenry rather than deteriorate the power of its government.  Politically, if we wanted to promote democratization in Cuba, the embargo was not the way to do it.  Reduced relations with America has not caused the Cuban government to cave in but only made it more resilient and given it a role as a figurehead in Latin America as opposing the “mighty imperialist United States.”  Economically and politically, the embargo has only entrenched the Castro regime, kept our two nations from engaging in any fruitful relations, and has received little support among other nations.

            However, these reasons for ending the embargo set aside, the chances of it being ended before Raul or Fidel Castro’s death is slim in my opinion.  Despite his commitment to improving US relations around the world, President Obama like presidents before him seems content to free some relations with Cuba as a conciliatory gesture, but still wait for the ever aging Castro brothers to die or finally democratize.  By ending the embargo without Cuba first implementing the kind of reform the US, the Obama administration would be heavily criticized at home for kowtowing.  These sorts of constraints prevent the Obama administration from ending the embargo and maintaining the status quo even if there is a desire among administration officials to end the embargo.  However, the wait and see game the US has been playing may be a false hope.  Castro and his brothers have continued to live and rule despite the idea that they would soon die or end their rule.  Even if and when they die, it is not a sure thing that Cuba will transition to democracy or that the communist party will end their complete control over the country.  In this wait and see approach, many fail to see that there will be political elites left over even after the end of the Castro brothers who stand to benefit from a continued communist Cuba and that while there may be dissatisfaction with the government, only a unbearable living situation will cause the people to overthrow their government.  Until then the embargo will continue to exist as it has so many years before unaffected by brief glimmers of reconciliation.

Hope you guys are all having a great halloween and feel free to comment on this article or e-mail me at fuchsy@sas.upenn.edu.

-Yuri

This week, Angela Merkel was sworn in for her second term as chancellor of Germany. There is a bit of hype around what she has set to accomplish over the next few years. She and her team claim that they will have tax cuts, more investment on education, health care reform, and a reform of business and income taxes.

… That sounds like a lot to handle.

And it is. Tax cuts sound great to stimulate an economy, but they also don’t help a budget deficit - something Germany is trying to reduce. People will undoubtedly also argue that most of the money obtained by families in this climate via tax cuts will not be spent. It will be saved, and the fiscal stimulus will be ineffective. Also, as the US is so clearly demonstrating right now, reforming health care is no joke. Add on investment one education (where is that money going to come from?), a bunch of other issues that inadvertently arise during any term, and one can see a rather jumbled picture.

It’s great that the German people approved of their Chancellor enough to re - elect her. But I can’t help but wonder whether getting excited too quickly will just set people up for disappointment. It’s what happened to President Obama after “change” ended up being naturally gradual, and not fast enough for some peoples’ tastes.