Projects
Global Migration & Transnational Politics Project
The Global Migration & Transnational Politics project at CGS was a MacArthur Foundation funded project that investigated how political dynamics around the globe have been transformed by new patterns of human mobility and the development of innovative transnational social networks.
Under the direction of Dr. Peter Mandaville and Dr. Terrence Lyons, the project sponsored a series of research workshops, working papers, and conferences. The resulting research was published in an edited volume “Politics From Afar: Transnational Diaspora and Networks,” by Hurst Publishers, Ltd, and Columbia University Press in the Fall of 2011. Additionally, Lyons and Mandaville also published “Think Locally, Act Globally: Toward a Transnational Comparative Politics” in International Political Sociology.
Globalization Dialogues
The Globalization Dialogues project will enrich and diversify the globalization discussion among policymakers, activists, and the public. The project’s structural backbone is an ongoing dialogue forum, initially programmed for nine workshops over three years, bringing together intellectuals, activists, and policymakers associated with the pro- and anti- sides of the globalization debate. The goal is to develop a ‘knowledge community’ composed of individuals located across the full range of globalization perspectives whose collective experience will inform opinion-shaping, agenda-setting, and policymaking processes at multiple levels. A distinct feature of the Project is its inclusion of significant voices from the developing world, a segment of opinion too often excluded from conversations about the overall trajectories of globalization. In this sense, this initiative is a tangible advance towards the development of a global partnership for development, as envisaged by the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
The Globalization Dialogues project aims not only to enrich policymaking discussion on globalization through crossover between the Dialogues and official/activist channels, but to also create a platform document laying out a new agenda for policymaking, discussion and public education about globalization, develop programs providing a ‘global civics’ curriculum for secondary schools, train international development professions, and provide a range of multilingual and multimedia resources (website, TV, and radio documentary series) widening public access to the new agenda created through the Dialogues.
Human Rights, Global Justice & Democracy Project
The Human Rights, Global Justice & Democracy in Latin America project is initiative funded by the Open Society Institute. The first project phase consisted of a conference series on the trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and other human rights trials in Latin America to reveal the strides the region has made in its efforts to combat impunity and promote the rule of law and democratic governance.
Phase two of the project looks at accountability issues from a cross-regional perspective, focusing on cases from Africa and Latin America. An international symposium will bring together scholars, practitioner, and activists to explore existing and emergent institutions of accountability after mass atrocity. Participants will also examine the variety and varied success of justice initiatives in these contexts, while exploring several key issues from a comparative perspective. The project is under the direction of Dr. Jo-Marie Burt, faculty member of the Department of Public and International Affair at Mason.
Pivotal Powers and the New South-South Relations: Security, Development, and the New Global Order
This project will study the new global relations of pivotal powers (with an emphasis on their role in developing, transitional and post-conflict societies) across several key issue clusters. In addition to assessing the implications of pivotal power engagement in the global south for U.S. interests and equities, this work will also explore some of the mechanisms through which the United States and the international community can harness the dividends associated with the rise of pivotal powers to enhance global peace and security.
This project held a workshop in Spring 2010 that produced a series of papers published in a special issue of the Global Studies Review (Fall 2010). In Spring 2011, a second conference on “Emerging Donors: Shifting Agendas in Development and Security,” was sponsored. Among the themes at this meeting were:
• Emerging donors and development assistance, interests and conditionalities
• Emerging donors and provision of security
• Emerging donors and post conflict reconstruction
The contributions of the second international symposium were published in the Global Studies Review Fall 2011 Issue.
The Center is currently compiling a number of database sets in order to index south-south trade flows, migration, and education, among others. Click here for a list of available resources online with quantitative data on different south-south research angles.