http://www.oercommons.org/browse/keyword/international-policy daily 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.oercommons.org/courses/conversations-with-history-reporting-the-story-of-genocide-with-philip-gourevitch Writer Philip Gourevitch talks with host Harry Kreisler about writing and shares his perspective on moral courage and the failure to prevent the Rwanda genocide. (59 min) Humanities Social Sciences 2012-06-24T10:58:08 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/overview-of-world-human-cloning-policies This module gives a general background of the different international stem cell policies including the policies of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union. Kirstin Matthews Science and Technology 2009-04-14T01:03:16 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/nikos-valence-on-organizing-against-the-north-american-free-trade-agreement During the 1980's and 1990's international free trade agreements encouraged by the United States government increased the power and global reach of multinational corporations. The most controversial of these agreements, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), made it easier for U.S. companies to buy low cost goods from Mexico, which were often produced by U.S. subsidiaries that migrated to take advantage of low-cost labor. Organized labor and most liberal Democrats opposed NAFTA because they feared the loss of American jobs and the increased bargaining power of corporations who could easily transfer production overseas. As Nikos Valence, head of the Fair Trade Campaign, explained, these agreements also stimulated international labor solidarity, as workers in different countries struggled against the free reign of capital and in many cases against the same corporations. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T20:00:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/it-couldn-t-go-on-like-this-jim-vacarella-describes-events-leading-up-to-the-kent-state-shootings Jim Vacarella was a student at Kent State University when the National Guard arrived on campus in 1970. Like hundreds of other campuses across the country, Kent State witnessed an upsurge in student activism following the American invasion of Cambodia in 1970. The Guardsmen arrived when students burned down the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) building, and Vacarella remembered that their arrival was met with hostility – along with thrown rocks and bottles – from angered students. Two days later, four students were killed when Guardsmen opened fire during an anti-war demonstration. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:59:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/jim-vacarella-describes-avoiding-the-draft-during-the-vietnam-war For young men like Jim Vacarella, the draft stood as the prime symbol of the war in Vietnam. Millions of young men tried to evade the draft: some fled to Canada; many feigned physical or mental illness, others used family connections to gain safe positions in the National Guard. For some, resisting the draft became an important way of protesting the war, and a few thousand men took public stands as draft resistors, burning their draft cards and challenging the government to imprison them. Jim Vacarella was one of those who burned his draft card, although he was lucky enough to avoid prison. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:59:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/labor-has-to-be-international-david-abdulah-describes-workers-strategies-for-organizing-transnational-corporations The power, global reach, and flexibility of multi-national corporations increased dramatically during the 1980's and 1990's as a revolution in communications technology and the increasing adoption of free trade agreements between countries allowed companies to shift production easily from one part of the globe to another. Many companies could now pressure labor unions by negotiating favorable contracts wherever labor costs and local tax laws suited them. However, the increasingly interwoven global economy, along with the technology that facilitated it, also gave rise to international labor organizing. As David Abdulah, education director of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union of Trinidad and Tobago, relates, union organizing and activism has become global, as workers in different countries develop networks across borders to keep up with and combat the unfair labor practices of the multi-nationals. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:59:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/we-no-longer-control-our-resources-donna-koons-kingsley-describes-the-struggle-of-trinidad-s-oilfield-workers A slew of international financial crises in the early 1990's, including collapses in Mexico, Southeast Asia, and Russia, highlighted the important influence international lending organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank had over economic decisions in the developing world. Often in cooperation with local elites, these bodies have forced countries to respond to debt crises by privatizing public industries and utilities, in many cases selling these public resources to foreign companies. Workers and citizens of developing countries often view these policies as a new form of colonialism. In this excerpt, Donna Koons Kingsley, a public relations officer of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union, describes workers' reactions to the process of privatization in Trinidad and Tobago. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:59:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/it-s-our-sons-and-daughters-voices-of-the-new-york-city-labor-movement-in-opposition-to-the-gulf-war When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, President Bush, whose popularity at home was flagging, opted to respond with massive military force even though many Americans, including Congressional leaders, believed economic sanctions would be effective. Bush initiated a massive, deadly air assault on January 15, 1991, and a brief ground assault followed four weeks later. The Gulf War killed thousands of Iraqi civilians and devastated most of the country's infrastructure, including hospitals and water systems. Many Americans who had previously questioned military action supported the war effort once it began, but many did not. In a break with their stance during previous wars, including World War II and Vietnam, many unions opposed military action in Kuwait. The union members recorded here articulated their reasons for opposing the war at an anti-war protest. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:59:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/human-rights-are-women-s-rights-and-workers-rights-are-women-s-rights-may-chen-on-the-united-nations-fourth-conference-on-women The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, China during September 1995. The conference, which called for gender equality, development, and peace, grew out of the international women's movement and marked the end of the official United Nations decade of Women. For women like May Chen, Vice President of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE), the conference was an opportunity to share their activist experiences and learn about issues confronting women around the world, including political and domestic violence against women and families, economic and cultural marginalization, and unfair labor practices. Chen, a long-time activist in the Asian-American community, relished the opportunity to meet and learn from well-prepared women who insisted that women's rights – and worker's rights – were human rights. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:59:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/this-is-not-what-it-sounds-like-on-tv-carol-mirman-on-the-1970-kent-state-shootings When the United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, college campuses around the country erupted in the most violent, disruptive set of antiwar demonstrations of the entire Vietnam period. The FBI listed 1,785 student demonstrations and 313 building occupations during the 1969-1970 school year. At Kent State University in Ohio, four undergraduates were killed on May 4, 1970 when the National Guard opened fire at an antiwar rally. Carol Mirman was a senior at Kent State in 1970, preparing to graduate with a degree in Fine Arts. Like other students, she was outraged that National Guard troops were stationed on campus. She took part in the rally on May 4, and witnessed, to her horror, the shooting deaths of her fellow students. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:58:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/it-was-like-a-weed-carl-oglesby-on-the-1960s-student-movement Inspired by the Civil Rights movement, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was formed in 1962 to address issues of poverty, as well as feelings of helplessness, alienation, and indifference in African-American and working class communities. The group, which focused initially on community organizing, quickly became a leader of the anti-war movement when President Johnson escalated the war in Vietnam in 1965. A graduate student in 1965 at the University of Michigan, Carl Oglesby worked as a writer for a defense contractor. He was horrified at what he began to learn about Vietnam, and when SDS members found him he quickly joined the group. Oglesby quit his job, spoke at the first teach-in against the Vietnam War at Michigan, and was elected president of SDS in 1965. He then spent years traveling around the country speaking against the war. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:58:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/the-women-s-movement-and-women-in-sds-cathy-wilkerson-recalls-the-tensions The New Left facilitated the emergence of a new women's movement in the late 1960's. The rebirth of American feminism emerged in part from the New Left's probing of the political dimension of personal life, but also from the discrimination many young women faced within the movement itself. While thousands of young women joined political groups with fervor and dedication, many were dismayed to find that their male comrades did not view them as equals. As SDS activist Cathy Wilkerson remembered, poor treatment from men within the movement sparked heated debates among women as to whether they should create a separate women's movement. Such a movement appeared, with tremendous impact, in the late 1960's and early 1970's. [The material in brackets was added to the transcript shortly after the recorded interview.] Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:58:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/it-was-vital-not-to-lose-vietnam-by-force-to-communism-leslie-gelb-analyzes-the-roots-of-u-s-involvement-in-vietnam During World War II, the U.S. collaborated with the resistance group the Vietminh and their leader, Ho Chi Minh, in their fight against Japan. In the postwar period, however, the U.S. feared Communist expansion into Southeast Asia. In 1954, as France withdrew its forces in defeat, the Geneva Accords established the countries of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Vietnam was partitioned into north and south sectors until elections to be held by 1956. Fearing a victory by Ho Chi Minh, the Eisenhower administration collaborated with the South Vietnam leadership to prevent elections and subsequently sent military aid and advisors. Under President John F. Kennedy, the number of "advisors" increased to more than 16,000, some of whom engaged in counterinsurgency efforts and actual combat. Although Kennedy opposed large scale U.S. involvement, his successor, Lyndon Johnson, began regular bombings and escalated troops to more than 500,000 by 1967. Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon, scaled back to 39,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam by September 1972, but initiated bombing raids into Cambodia in 1969 and sent ground troops there in 1970. The U.S. and North Vietnam reached a cease-fire agreement in January 1973, and the South Vietnamese regime fell in April 1975. More than one million people died during the war, including an estimated 925,000 North Vietnamese, 184,000 South Vietnamese, and 57,000 American soldiers. In the following excerpt, Leslie Gelb, a State Department official during the Vietnam War and Defense Department official afterward, offered an insider's appraisal to a Senate committee of the reasons for the U.S. involvement. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:58:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/sometime-soon-the-free-nations-must-make-their-choice-a-foreign-correspondent-analyzes-u-s-cold-war-failures The Truman Administration's Cold War policy of containment advocated confronting the Soviet Union, in the words of diplomat George F. Kennan, "with unalterable counterforce at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world." In 1952, during the Korean War stalemate, John Foster Dulles authored the Republican Party platform's foreign policy plank condemning containment. Dulles instead supported the "liberation" of countries within the communist sphere using any means "short of war." When Republican nominee General Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidency and Dulles became his secretary of state, however, containment remained the official U.S. policy. In 1954, as France was losing its battle to regain control of its prewar colony of Indochina--a war funded substantially with U.S. dollars--Congressional leaders refused to support an Eisenhower-Dulles resolution to intervene militarily. In the following opinion piece published just after the French defeat, correspondent Edgar Ansel Mowrer, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1933 for reporting on the rise of Hitler, offered a critique of containment and an analysis of U.S. options for fighting the Cold War. A great admirer of Dulles, Mowrer believed hopes for peaceful coexistence to be "the opium of the West." Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:58:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/achieving-an-atmosphere-of-mutual-trust-and-confidence-henry-a-wallace-offers-an-alternative-to-cold-war-containment Allies during World War II, the U.S. and the Soviet Union disagreed over a number of issues after the war. These included control of Eastern Europe, division of Germany, atomic energy, international loans, and the Middle East. On February 9, 1946, Soviet premier Josef Stalin asserted that the continued existence of capitalism in the West would inevitably lead to war. Foreign Service senior diplomat George Kennan sent President Harry Truman, still forming a Soviet policy, a lengthy telegram advocating containment. Commerce Secretary Henry A. Wallace--Secretary of Agriculture (1933-1941) and Vice-President from (1941-1945)--was one of the few liberal idealists in Truman's cabinet. Wallace envisioned a "century of the common man" marked by global peace and prosperity. In the following excerpt from a letter dated July 23, 1946, Wallace urged Truman to build "mutual trust and confidence" in order to achieve "an enduring international order." Truman asked Wallace to resign. In March 1947, Truman asked Congress for money "to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Thus articulated, the "Truman Doctrine" of containment served as the rationale for future American Cold War foreign policy initiatives. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:58:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/the-colonies-reduced This 1767 engraving, published in Great Britain and attributed to Benjamin Franklin, warned of the consequences of alienating the colonies through enforcement of the Stamp Act. The act was a 1765 attempt by Parliament to increase revenue from the colonies to pay for troops and colonial administration, and it required colonists to purchase stamps for many documents and printed items, such as land titles, contracts, playing cards, books, newspapers, and advertisements. Because it affected almost everyone, the act provoked widespread hostility. The cartoon depicts Britannia, surrounded by her amputated limbs marked Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England as she contemplates the decline of her empire. Franklin, who was in England representing the colonists' claims, arranged to have the image printed on cards that he distributed to members of Parliament. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:57:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/depicting-the-enemy This cover of the December, 1942, issue of Collier''s magazine commemorated the first anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The vampire-bat portrayal of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo indicates one way in which American popular media and war propaganda presented the Japanese. Unlike images of the European enemy, the Japanese were depicted as vicious animals, most often taking the form of apes or parasitic insects. The same racial stereotypes were also applied to Japanese living in America. Suspecting their loyalty, the U.S. government rounded up all Japanese Americans living on the west coast citizens and non-citizens alike and transported them to detention centers in the West. Forced to abandon their homes, jobs, and businesses, Japanese Americans remained detained in camps for the duration of the war. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:57:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/william-walker-s-filibusters-relax-after-the-battle-of-granada Slaveholders went to great extremes to expand slavery, turning to Mexico, western territories, and even Central America. Supported by fifty-eight mercenaries, the Tennessee-born William Walker "invaded" Nicaragua in May 1855. Within six months he succeeded in exploiting civil unrest in the country and declared himself president. Walker's government, which opened the country to slavery, was recognized by the United States in 1856. But he was overthrown a year later by forces financed by his former sponsor, the railroad entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt. Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:56:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/diplomacy From its inception, the Confederacy sought international recognition from European nations. Support from Europe would help persuade the North to accept Southern independence, and, more immediately, secure a source of manufactured goods needed for the war effort. Southern efforts to gain recognition focused on England, the largest purchaser of southern cotton. This 1862 cartoon from the northern satirical weekly, Vanity Fair, presented the Confederacy's president trying to gain diplomatic recognition from a skeptical Great Britain. I hardly think it will wash Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:56:00 Course Related Materials http://www.oercommons.org/courses/won-t-they-be-edified World War I introduced the world to killing and destruction on a scale never seen before. During the battle of the Somme, 19,000 men died on the first day alone. By the end of the campaign the British had gained only 125 miles of territory at a terrible cost: casualties on both sides exceeded one million. For many, the senseless slaughter represented the worst expression of European imperialism, militarism, and nationalism. A 1914 cartoon published in the Chicago Daily News uses racial chauvinism to condemn the European war for undermining the moral supremacy of Western Civilization."" Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project Humanities 2006-11-06T19:55:00 Course Related Materials