Policy Advocacy: Tools and Techniques

Our first event of the semester is coming up! Read more below:

February 17th, 2009, 7:00-8:30PM
Paul O’Neill Classroom, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Speakers:
• Conan Smith- Commissioner, Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and Executive Director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance
• Luke Forrest- Public Policy Director, Michigan Suburbs Alliance

Description: This event will be an inside look at advocating for policies on a local level. Speakers will present tools and techniques that can be used in building coalitions to advocate for policies. In addition, they will discuss the importance of framing policy issues for key stakeholders.

Interesting move by Ahmadinejad

In case you guys haven't seen yet, President Ahmadinejad of Iran in a major address to the Iranian people on the 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran seemed to reposition his language and wording and overall stance towards the United States.

From the BBC:

"The new US administration has announced that they want to produce change and pursue the course of dialogue," Mr Ahmadinejad said at a rally in central Tehran attended by tens of thousands of people.

"It is quite clear that real change must be fundamental and not tactical. It is clear the Iranian nation welcomes real changes and is ready for dialogue in a climate of equality and mutual respect."

This follows just a couple of weeks ago where it seemed that Obama and Ahmadinejad were going to continue to struggle and work against each other for the next four years.

Here is the link to the BBC article covering the story.

My question is: what is really going on? Is it possible that Ahmadinejad is looking for a new era in relations with the west and the US specifically? Or, is this more empty political rhetoric that should be viewed skeptically?

Blogging for Roosevelt

Hi everyone, I've been thinking about what my vision is for the IR blog, and how we, as center members, can best execute this vision. My thoughts are as following: in creating a blog, we are creating a space to further our center's discussions, open ourselves up for more critical academic discourse, and creating a space to publish our policy ideas. Our blog should be both an academic and professional space—something that we would be proud to list on our resume.

That being said, I am going to lay out some guidelines for what is, and conversely what is not, appropriate for the IR blog. These guidelines are meant to ensure that we respect ourselves and our readership by creating a quality and thought-provoking product. While blogs are inherently more personal and spontaneous than other forms of writing, we need to approach this space as a representation of both ourselves and Roosevelt as a whole, and not just the convergence of the wayward opinions of an uninformed person. Here are the guidelines:

1. Posts should be based on policy. This means that they are either direct compositions of your well thought out policies, or a well-informed critique of someone else.

2. Posts should cite sources, and provide hyperlinks to these sources when necessary and relevant.

3. Posts should be respectful.

These guidelines are simple, but they should help inform any posts you make. Thank you—Stephanie