Naureen Shah Questions Effectiveness of Drone Warfare QuestionsNaureen Shah ’07 Calls on U.S. Government to Reassess Drone Strikes Policy

 

U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen have not proven effective at ensuring the security of people in those countries or of the United States, said Naureen Shah ’07, an associate director of Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute in remarks during a recent debate at the Oxford Union.

Shah participated in the debate, hosted by the preeminent debating society at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, with five other counterterrorism experts and scholars. She argued against the proposition that “Drone Warfare is Ethical and Effective.”

“There is no evidence that drone warfare is effective for the people who live in the countries where drone strikes take place,” Shah said at the April 25 event, helping defeat the proposition by a vote of 154 to 86.

Shah, a 2007 Law School graduate, is the associate director of the Human Rights Institute’s Counterterrorism and Human Rights Project. She is also acting director of the Law School’sHuman Rights Clinic.

In the debate, she pointed out that terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Yemen have not decreased since U.S. drone strikes began. In Pakistan, she said, terrorists have shifted their focus to major cities where drones cannot target them to carry out attacks that cripple the economy and political system. Shah also warned that current use of drone technology “perpetuates a state of war” without democratic accountability and may undermine U.S. credibility on the world stage.

Shah’s appearance at the Oxford Union follows several contributions by the Human Rights Institute and the Human Rights Clinic to the national debate on the effectiveness of drone warfare, including the Clinic’s submission to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on April 23. In that submission, the Clinic called on the U.S. to assess the strategic and humanitarian costs of drone warfare and to consider non-lethal alternative strategies for addressing imminent threats.

Retired Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was a witness at the Senate hearing and quoted the Human Rights Clinic’s recent report The Civilian Impact of Drones Strikes extensively in his written testimony, calling the report “thoughtful and useable.” He repeated the Clinic’s recommendations, saying they “provided a menu of review actions that would serve to focus on what in our use, authorities and oversight protocols is working and what may require revision or new measures.”

Shah and Tarek Ismail ’11, a fellow at the Human Rights Institute, also recently led nine other human rights groups in producing a statement of shared concerns submitted to President Obama and Congress. The statement, reported in the New York Times and other outlets, urges the government to ensure that U.S. drone strikes do not violate international law or set a dangerous precedent for other countries fast acquiring drone technology. The White House responded in a statement to McClatchy Newspapers expressing the President’s commitment to transparency. In March, on behalf of the Human Rights Institute, Ismail organized a major conference of human rights and civil liberties groups to discuss secrecy and accountability in relation to drone strikes.

In addition, Shah participated in a series of Capitol Hill events on drones this month, including a May 3 congressional briefing organized by the Arab American Institute and a May 8 hearing organized by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The Institute’s and Clinic’s activities are based on two ground-breaking reports on drone strikesand civilian harm published in the fall 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ARk9xD3cBFk&list=PLOAFgXcJkZ2wylFe6-DvegKVh4WEHm0bC

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Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School combines traditional strengths in corporate law and financial regulation, international and comparative law, property, contracts, constitutional law, and administrative law with pioneering work in intellectual property, digital technology, tax law and policy, national security, human rights, sexuality and gender, and environmental law.

ABOUT NAUREEN SHAH:
Naureen Shah is a lecturer in law at the Human Rights Institute at Columbia University School of Law, New York

Taken from  http://www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2013/may2013/naureen-shah-hri-drones

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Drones Are Ethical And Effective Benjamin Wittes

 

Benjamin Wittes is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. He co-founded and is the editor-in-chief of the Lawfare blog, which is devoted to sober and serious discussion of “Hard National Security Choices,” and is a member of the Hoover Institution’s Task Force on National Security and Law. He is the author of Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor After Guantanamo, published in November 2011, co-editor of Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change, published in December 2011, and editor of Campaign 2012: Twelve Independent Ideas for Improving American Public Policy (Brookings Institution Press, May 2012). He is also writing a book on data and technology proliferation and their implications for security. He is the author of Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror, published in June 2008 by The Penguin Press, and the editor of the 2009 Brookings book, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform.

His previous books include Starr: A Reassessment, published in 2002 by Yale University Press, and Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times, published in 2006 by Rowman & Littlefield and the Hoover Institution.

Between 1997 and 2006, he served as an editorial writer for The Washington Post specializing in legal affairs. Before joining the editorial page staff of The Washington Post, Wittes covered the Justice Department and federal regulatory agencies as a reporter and news editor at Legal Times. His writing has also appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines including The Atlantic, Slate, The New Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, and First Things.

Benjamin Wittes was born November 5, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1990, and he has a black belt in taekwondo

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Imbas 2013

Medieval and Early Modern Student Association

 

Imbas is an interdisciplinary postgraduate conference hosted annually by NUI Galway. The theme for this year’s event is Destruction, Renewal…and back again’, and it will run from the 29th November to 1st December at the Moore Institute, NUI Galway.

The committee is very pleased to announce that this year’s keynote speaker will be Professor Fredric Cheyette of Amherst College, Massachusetts. Professor Cheyette is one of the world’s foremost scholars of Medieval European culture, more specifically on the region of Occitania, what is now Southern France. However, his more recent research has focused on the topic of climate, and climate change, during the medieval period. Aspects of this research will addressed in his keynote address, the title of which will be ‘From the Ancient to the Medieval Countryside: Old Answers/ New Questions’.

Imbas accepts papers from all disciplines on any topic from Late Antiquity to the end of the Medieval period…

View original post 48 more words

Françoise Burhenne-Guilmin: In Passing

IntLawGrrls

Sadly, Françoise Burhenne-Guilmin has died. She was a tremendously influential figure in international environmental law, through her work on international agreements, her many years as Head of the IUCN Environmental Law Centre, and her contributions to capacity building in this field. From the IUCN tribute:

Françoise was instrumental in drafting and elaborating a number of international conventions, agreements and instruments, such as the African Convention for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora –CITES; the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals; the World Charter for Nature; the ASEAN Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources; and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Her real passion was the development of technical capacities through access to information on environmental law and policy. That is why already in the 1970s, she initiated the Environmental Law…

View original post 27 more words

Should Your Blog Be on Facebook?: The Nuts and Bolts of Fan Pages

food for thought noam noam noam! 🙂

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PLAYING Shakespeare: Barton 1982

Overview:

A SERIES OF MASTER CLASSES WITH THE GREATEST SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS OF THEIR AGE

SIT IN ON NINE INTENSIVE ACTING WORKSHOPS conducted by the legendary John Barton of the Royal Shakespeare Company. How does this world-renowned troupe make classic plays accessible to modern audiences, without compromising the text’s integrity? How do actors search Shakespeare’s verse for hidden clues to their characters’ motivations? How do they balance intellect and passion to make theatre’s most famous soliloquies seem fresh?

The answers come from Barton and 21 of Britain’s finest actors, including Judi Dench (“Shakespeare in Love,” “Iris”), Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi,” “Schindler’s List”), Peggy Ashcroft (“A Passage to India”), Ian McKellen (“The Lord in the Rings,” “Gods & Monsters”), Patrick Stewart (“X-Men,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation”), and David Suchet (“Agatha Christie’s Poirot).

Also starring Sinéad Cusack up the irish! 🙂 , Susan Fleetwood, Sheila Hancock, Alan Howard, Donald Sinden, Michael Williams, and more.

1. THE TWO TRADITIONS
Shakespeare wrote for a performance style that differs in many respects from modern, “naturalistic” acting. Barton urges the actors to marry both traditions for the richest, most faithful characterizations.

with MIKE GWILYM, SHEILA HANCOCK, LISA HARROW, ALAN HOWARD, BEN KINGSLEY, IAN McKELLEN, and DAVID SUCHET

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP7p-thZxJA&list=PLX8Ax9RoC5kx4p42ss7X6vtCoRJgOEkXh&feature=player_detailpage

2. USING THE VERSE
By varying the stress contained in a line and using other poetic techniques, Shakespeare planted subtle clues for the actors playing a scene.

with SINÉAD CUSACK, SHEILA HANCOCK, LISA HARROW, ALAN HOWARD, JANE LAPOTAIRE, IAN McKELLEN, PATRICK STEWART, DAVID SUCHET, and MICHAEL WILLIAMS

3. LANGUAGE & CHARACTER
Barton and the company search for antitheses in the verse to reveal complexity of character, working to make dialogue seem fresh and spontaneous.

with SINÉAD CUSACK, LISA HARROW, BEN KINGSLEY, MICHAEL PENNINGTON, ROGER REES, PATRICK STEWART, DAVID SUCHET, and MICHAEL WILLIAMS

4. EXPLORING A CHARACTER
Patrick Stewart and David Suchet demonstrate their individual approaches to one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating characters — Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice.”

with PATRICK STEWART and DAVID SUCHET

5. SET SPEECHES & SOLILOQUIES
Understanding the underlying poetic structure of long speeches and soliloquies helps the actor engage the audience in the character’s thought process.

with TONY CHURCH, SINÉAD CUSACK, JUDI DENCH, SUSAN FLEETWOOD, LISA HARROW, ALAN HOWARD, JANE LAPOTAIRE, BARBARA LEIGH-HUNT, RICHARD PASCO, MICHAEL PENNINGTON, DONALD SINDEN, PATRICK STEWART, and DAVOD SUCHET

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OULbjjda_V4&list=PLX8Ax9RoC5kx4p42ss7X6vtCoRJgOEkXh&feature=player_detailpage

6. IRONY & AMBIGUITY
How do actors identify ironic dialogue? How do they use it to reveal character? And how do they communicate it to the audience?

with TONY CHURCH, MIKE GWILYM, ALAN HOWARD, BEN KINGSLEY, JANE LAPOTAIRE, RICHARD PASCO, MICHAEL PENNINGTON, and NORMAN RODWAY

7. PASSION & COOLNESS
In many instances, Shakespeare expressed overflowing emotion and profound thought in the very same speech. How do actors balance the heart and the intellect?

with TONY CHURCH, SUSAN FLEETWOOD, MIKE GWILYM, SHEILA HANCOCK, LISA HARROW, BEN KINGSLEY, BARBARA LEIGH-HUNT, MICHAEL PENNINGTON, DONALD SINDEN, and PATRICK STEWART

8. REHEARSING THE TEXT
Without stage blocking, Barton and four actors explore Shakespeare’s verse as they would in rehearsal, using a scene from “Twelfth Night.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dlZ3P2IRLU&list=PLX8Ax9RoC5kx4p42ss7X6vtCoRJgOEkXh&feature=player_detailpage

with JUDI DENCH, RICHARD PASCO, NORMAN RODWAY, and MICHAEL WILLIAMS

9. POETRY & HIDDEN POETRY
Barton examines three ways in which performance falls short of hopes, and members of the company reflect on changing styles of Shakespearean performance.

with PEGGY ASHCROFT, LISA HARROW, ALAN HOWARD, BEN KINGSLEY, IAN McKELLEN, DONALD SINDEN, and DAVID SUCHET
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX8Ax9RoC5kx4p42ss7X6vtCoRJgOEkXh

Written and Presented by JOHN BARTON
Directed by JOHN CARLAW
Produced by ANDREW SNELL
Executive Producers MELVYN BRAGG ( of present day in our time on BBC Radio 4! 🙂 ) and NICK EVANS
Casting JANE DAVIES
Music GUY WOOLFENDEN
Videotape Editor GRAHAM ROBERTS 

Playing Shakespeare (1982): 4. Exploring a Character:Shylock

Patrick Stewart and David Suchet demonstrate their individual approaches to one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating characters — Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice.”

with PATRICK STEWART and DAVID SUCHET. DAVID SUCHET plays a very good Shylock in frock coat stick and Kippah. Sir PATRICK STEWART uses just the Kippah but He is spot on  crucial subjects about the character: language, appearance, personality. “Suchet out acts Stewart to the point that you can see Stewart getting flustered” (Arun Pillai comment on youtube)

Written and Presented by JOHN BARTON

the sort of Kippah used by PATRICK STEWART and DAVID SUCHET in the workshop

 

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