The International Relations Fellows (IRFs) have had a very full January!  On Saturday, January 5th, Pablo and Dr. Rezelman answered questions about the program (along with representatives from the other CCGL programs) at Norfolk Academy’s annual admissions “Open House.”

Norfolk Academy Open House (January 2013)

Tuesday evening, January 8th, several of the IRFs joined Dr. Rezelman and Mr. McMahon in attending a World Affairs Council dinner and talk at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott.  Professor Tim Naftali’s talk was entitled “From the Cuban Missile Crisis to Iran: Confronting the Nuclear Threat.”  As Thomas observed, “Dr. Naftali drew a striking comparison of Cuba and Iran [regarding] lessons learned from the Cuban Missile Crisis [and how they] can help our situation in Iran today.”  Jessica was struck by the important “role of ‘red lines’ and government secrecy when dealing with nuclear weapons.”

On Thursday, January 10th, each of the IRFs spoke to the entire eighth grade to explain to next year’s possible applicants why they might wish to apply to a CCGL program.  The IRFs are very excited about being joined by a second group of Fellows starting this August, and they were determined to convince “the best of the best” to apply to our program (or to one of our sister CCGL programs).  As Jessica observed, “I was surprised that a whole year had gone by since I was an eighth grader first listening to the introductions to the programs . . .  I hope I can set a good example for Fellows to come and I can’t wait to see who will apply and who will ‘join the gang.’ ”

On Wednesday, January 16th, the IRFs joined the Global Health Fellows (GHFs) to hear a presentation from Ms. Caryn Cobb (’11) about traditional Chinese medicine.  Caryn’s recent travels in China made for some fascinating cultural insights!  (For more information on Caryn’s visit, visit the Global Health Fellows blog.)

Ms. Cobb, Ms. Massey, the GHFs, and the IRFs.

January also saw us make the final preparations for our presentation during the World Affairs Council’s “Great Decisions” talk regarding China in Africa.  Though the event (scheduled for Saturday, January 26th) was canceled due to weather, we look forward to its rescheduling.

Amid all this activity, the vital routine of reading and discussing articles from Foreign Affairs continued.  Though we were unable to complete as many articles as we usually do in a month, we discussed (or will discuss tomorrow)

• Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs, “The Rise of Settler Terrorism”  (Jessica)
• Jonathan Caverley and Ethan B. Kapstein, “Arms Away” (Pablo)
• Aaron L. Friedberg, “Bucking Beijing” (Sophie)
• Colin H. Kahl; Kenneth N. Waltz, “Iran and the Bomb” (Hannah)
• Megan H. MacKenzie, “Let Women Fight” (Jessica)
• Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell, “How China Sees America” (Jessica)

On Tuesday, January 29th, the Fellows were honored to be joined in their discussion of the two articles relating to China by Mr. Beau Walker (’59) and Capt. George B. Powell (’57, USN [ret.]).  Tomorrow many of the IRFs will attend Professor Julie Nelson Davis’s talk on Norfolk Academy’s collection of Japanese art prints.  Dr. Davis’s Powell Family lecture is entitled “Magnificent Impressions: Japanese Prints from the George Powell Collection in Context.”  This will be a delightful conclusion to the process begun in December when the IRFs received a personal introduction to the collection from Dr. Leslie Hennessey.

Professor Davis and Mr. Powell

Let’s hope February is as busy as January . . . but maybe a bit warmer!