Developing democracies, foreign service careers and international technology will be the focus of a series of lectures on Wednesday, Oct. 25 sponsored by Brigham Young University’s David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies:
”Is Democracy Contagious?” will be the topic of a Global Awareness lecture to be presented by Zachary S. Elkins at noon in 238 Herald R. Clark Building. Elkins is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project housed at the Center for the Study of Democratic Governance.
His research interests are democracy, national identity, institutional reform with an emphasis on Latin American cases and political methodology.
The author of “Designed by Diffusion: Constitutional Reform in Developing Democracies,” Elkins received a doctorate in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Career opportunities, living abroad and how it all affects family life are just a few of the subjects that will be addressed at a Foreign Service Workshop at 3 p.m. in 238 Herald R. Clark Building. Jordan Tanner, a retired Foreign Service officer and former Utah state representative, will be the guest speaker.
There is more to the Foreign Service than the Department of State, according to Jordan. Other career areas include Foreign Commercial Service, the Agency for International Development and the FBI or CIA. The Foreign Service also seeks specialists in security, human resources and communications.
Tanner will also address the written and oral Foreign Service assessment exams. Following his presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.
This workshop is co-sponsored by the Foreign Service Student Organization. For more information, see the FSSO Web site at kennedy.byu.edu/student/fsso.
”International Loss of Technology — Can Both Parties Gain?” will be presented by Ronald W. Jones, the Xerox Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester, at 4 p.m. in 251 N. Eldon Tanner Building. Jones’ field is international economics and most of his research has been on the pure theory of international trade. His attention has shifted recently to trade theory, which he discusses in his recent book, “Globalization and the Theory of Input Trade.”
This lecture is co-sponsored by the International Relations major and by the Department of Economics at BYU.
Most lectures are archived online. For more information on David M. Kennedy Center events, see the calendar at kennedy.byu.edu.
Writer: Lee Simons
