Panel and films focus on global issues
The Global Issues Awareness Campaign at Oakland University kicked off Thursday with two esteemed professors discussing some of the most relevant international issues with the student body.
Political science special instructor Alan Epstein and professor Paul Kubicek spoke in front of an audience of roughly 30 people, mostly OU students, in the Fireside Lounge in the Oakland Center on topics including nuclear development in Iran and North Korea, the use of torture in Guantanamo Bay and President Barack Obama’s aggressive policy toward Afghanistan.
The presentations drew considerable interest from the curious students in attendance. A large number of the questions asked by the students were focused on President Obama’s amendments to the foreign policy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
President Obama has said he plans to significantly draw down the number of American troops in Iraq and redeploy a larger force into Afghanistan. Kubicek said Obama might be speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
“He did critique the surge [in Iraq] when Bush announced it at the end of 2006,” Kubicek said. “It seems to me that he is [advocating] almost the exact same plan for Afghanistan; more troops, change in tactics, changes in strategy will allow us to win hearts and minds better … I do think there is some inconsistency here.”
Kubicek also said that President Obama’s policy toward Iraq might not be strong enough for many liberals who want to see that war concluded as quickly as possible.
“I think he’s conceded in some respects that the current surge and the current trajectory, and I think everyone would concede, that it is better than it was two years ago,” Kubicek said. “His critique of the Iraq policy is much more tempered than it was when he started running.”
Epstein talked about and fielded questions on issues involving the rise of China and nuclear development in Iran and North Korea, to name a couple, before he exited early to teach a class. Epstein said the United States might have trouble gaining credibility when it denounces the proliferation of nuclear technology in Iran and North Korea due to its own refusal to abide by anti-nuclear weapon international law.
“As far as being on the moral high ground, no they can’t really make that claim,” Epstein said. “A lot of other countries talk about the U.S.’s refusal to encourage Israel to become a member of the non-proliferation treaty or to formally acknowledge that they (Israel) have nuclear weaponry as being a double standard.”
The forum marked the first event of the inaugural Global Issues Awareness Campaign put on by OU Student Congress. Saman Waquad, the legislative affairs director of OUSC, said that she hopes the event will alert students that international issues are playing a bigger part in everyday American life than they have in the past.
“We do live in a global village,” Waquad said. “We want to make students more aware of what is going on around the world and not just in their little community. What goes on around the world does have an impact on us at home.”
Waquad noted that, while the campaign tackles salient and controversial issues, none of it is designed to espouse a particular political persuasion.
“Nothing that we do here at student congress is political,” Waquad said. “We try to remain very non-partisan, and as far as the whole campaign goes, it is a human rights awareness campaign. Human rights awareness does not have to be political. You don’t have to be a Democrat or a Republican or part of the Green Party to do that.”
The campaign had other events this week, like the “Language for Rights” poetry contest on Monday, March 30 and showing the documentary “Made In China” on the same day.
There is also an art exhibit called “Through Their Eyes” from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. in Fireside Lounge on Friday, April 3. E-mail [email protected] to submit artwork for a possible $50 or $25 prize.
The campaign concludes April 9 with the Rock4Rights concert at 5 p.m. in the Banquet Rooms of the OC.
For more events coming up this week, read “Coming Up On Campus” on page 10, or visit the Campaign’s Facebook group page called “OUSC’s Global Issues Awareness Campaign.”