DOE Internships: Web Site for Streamlined Applications

VOL. INTERNSHIPS AT DOE:
EERE (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy), a sector of DOE, have a streamlined application for volunteer internships offered year-round!

Check it out at the link below:

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/office_eere/volunteer.html

Internship Opportunity: The Israel Project

Professor Scham was kind enough to forward along a new internship opportunity with a pro-Israel organization called "The Israel Project." Find more information on the Web at: http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.hsJPK0PIJpH/b.672581/k.DB67/The_Israel_Project__For_Freedom_Security_and_Peace.htm

The position will involve a serious amount of research and writing (read: excellent experience!).

You can get more information by writing to the Director, Jennifer Mizrahi, at jenniferm@theisraelproject.org. Ms. Mizrachi was in touch about the opportunity last week in a conversation with Dr. Peri, director of the UMD Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies.

Federal Event: Senior Fellow, Arms Control Association Speaks at UMD, 12/10

Federal Event: Please join us on Thursday, December 10th for the next CISSM Forum: "Getting a new START"
Bring your own lunch; chips, cookies, and drinks will be provided.

Time:
12:15 pm - 1:30 pm, Thursday, December 10th
Place:
1107 Van Munching Hall, School of Public Policy
Speaker:
Greg Thielmann, Senior Fellow, Arms Control Association

Greg Thielmann most recently served as a senior professional staffer of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Prior to joining the SSCI in 2005, he was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for 25 years, last serving as Director of the Strategic, Proliferation and Military Affairs Office in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

His foreign posts include Deputy Political Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil; Political-Military Affairs Officer in Moscow, USSR; and Political-Military Affairs Officer in Bonn, Germany.

Thielmann also served as the Deputy Office Director in the State Department’s Office of German, Austrian and Swiss Affairs; Special Assistant to Ambassador Paul Nitze (then Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State on Arms Control Matters); and State Department advisor to the U.S. Delegation at the Geneva INF arms control negotiations.

Greg is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Arms Control Association (2003-2005).

His July 2003 appearance at an ACA press briefing on faulty intelligence assessments on Iraq’s WMD capabilities http://www.armscontrol.org/events/iraq_july03 led to a CBS News “60 Minutes” segment titled “The Man Who Knew”, which won an Emmy Award for reporter Scott Pelley: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/14/60II/main577975.shtml

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About the CISSM Forum
The CISSM Forum is a "brown bag" lunch for those at the University of Maryland community interested in international issues. It is held every Thursday, 12:15 pm - 1:30 pm in room 1107, Van Munching Hall.

The line-up for the CISSM Forum series continues to cover a wide range of topics related to international security, economics, and development. The current list of upcoming speakers is at the bottom of this e-mail and you can find the lists of our past and future speakers on our website: http://www.cissm.umd.edu/projects/forum.php . Please check regularly for updated information.

The CISSM Forum is supported by the Yamamoto-Scheffelin Endowment for Policy Research.

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List of speakers for the spring 2010 semester will be available later. Please check our website for updated information.

More START Internships

START is pleased to announce five for-credit internships for Spring 2010for University of Maryland Students. All internships are available toboth undergraduate and graduate students. Four of the internshipsinvolve research supporting major START projects and the finalinternship involves research in conjunction with the NationalCounterterrorism Center. Click on the project links below for moreinformation on each internship project.

* The Counterterrorism Project (CTP) uses qualitative researchmethods to analyze the effectiveness of countermeasures employed againstfive terrorist organizations that attack or threaten to attack theUnited States.

* The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open source,incident-level database that tracks characteristics of terrorist attacksbetween 1970 and 2007.

* The Terrorism and Ethnic Political Violence Project examinesorganizations that represent ethnic minorities’ use of violent andnon-violent tactics to achieve political goals.

* The Terrorism Research Information Clearing House (T-RICH)project uses metadata analytic techniques to compile and catalog STARTstudies.

* The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) sponsors the WorldIncidents Tracking System (WITS), which is the unclassified, open sourcedatabase of terrorist incidents that serves as a companion to NCTC’sclassified information resources.

Please send general questions about START’s internship program toeducation@start.umd.edu. For project-specific questions, pleasecontact the internship supervisor listed under each project on theinternship website www.start.umd.edu/start/education/internships.

Amber Stoesser Lesniewicz
Educational Programs Associate
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses toTerrorism (START)
University of Maryland
3303 Symons Hall
College Park, MD 20742
Office: 301 405 6721

START Center Internship

The following is a great opportunity at National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), based here on campus. If you haven't already secured an internship, look into this!

The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open source, unclassified database including information on terrorist events around the world since 1970. We are currently seeking students with an interest in terrorism research and public policy for a number of unpaid for-credit internships involving the database. Applicants must also have a minimum of 60 university credits, a record of academic achievement, a strong interest in research, and be willing to sign up for the BSOS internship program. Please see http://www.start.umd.edu/start/announcements/announcement.asp?id=166 for more information on project descriptions and associated qualifications.

Federal Event: Climate Change, Copenhagen, Thurs., 12/3

Federal Event: Climate Change, Copenhagen: UM Nobel Economic Laureate to Preview

On the eve of the UN Copenhagen climate change conference, a panel of international economists will analyze the economic uncertainties surrounding climate change that complicate the work of the delegates. Given the extreme difficulty of predicting social conditions in 50 years and the magnitude of climate change costs, the economists worry that policy-makers may get sticker shock and fail to give adequate weight to climatological risks.

The panelists will offer analysis, drawing on conclusions offered in a new book, a series of analytic papers called “Changing Climate, Changing Economy,” published by the Cournot Centre for Economic Studies (Paris, France).

Panelist Thomas Schelling, a retired economist at the University of Maryland who won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in game theory, describes in the book the underlying challenges faced at meetings such as the one in Copenhagen.

“I know of no peacetime historical precedent for the kind of international cooperation that is going to be required to deal with climate change,” Schelling says. “I also don’t see any chance that we can have enforceable national limits on greenhouse gas emissions.”

Schelling adds that the economic impact of climate change will fall disproportionately on developing nations and that industrialized nations will need to bear much of the cost.

The event is co-sponsored by the Cournot Centre for Economic Studies and the University of Maryland. Panelists will offer brief presentations and answer media questions. Breakfast and free copies of the book will be available.
http://www.centrecournot.org/
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/Microsite/climateUM.cfm

WHEN:

• Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

WHERE:

• Murrow Room, National Press Club, 529 14th Street, NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C.

WHO:

• Thomas Schelling, a Nobel laureate and University of Maryland economist who began studying climate change in the 1970s, will offer his take on the Copenhagen meeting, what is lacking in international negotiations and the role of developing nations.
  http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/facstaff/faculty/SchellingCV.htm
  
• Jean-Philippe Touffut, economist and director of the Cournot Centre for Economic Studies (Paris, France) and editor of the book “Changing Climate, Changing Economy.”
  http://www.e-elgar-environment.com/Bookentry_contents.lasso?id=13743
  
  Touffut argues that policy-makers need to take extreme care in weighing the economic and climatological risks and benefits.
  
  “The highest degree of uncertainty…is found in the economic costs of climate change,” Touffut says in his introduction to the book. Spending a lot in the present to avert future risks, tests the willingness of political leaders to take corrective action. As a result, economists are debating what analytic tools should be used in making projections – including standard risk-benefit analysis.

Federal Event: Enviro Policy Roundtable, Friday, 12/4

Federal Event: Environmental Policy Roundtable--Applying Behavior Change Theory to the Design of Reusable Bag Campaigns and Policies
Friday, December 4th in Room 1113 Van Munching Hall from 12:00 - 1:30pm

Five hundred million plastic bags are used each year in Panama, and many wind up as litter in the streets and sewers of the capital city, along roadsides in the rural countryside, and in the marine environment. Reusable bag initiatives in Panama have attempted to address this problem but have had limited success thus far. Utilizing behavior change theories to design reusable bag campaigns and policies may lead to greater success.

Jenny Kane is a third-year dual degree student in the CONS/Environmental Policy program. She spent seven months in Panama last year where she interned with a Panama City-based sustainable development and conservation organization with the support of the School of Public Policy’s Schaefer Internship Program. During this time she developed and ran a research survey on plastic bag and reusable bag use at grocery stores in Panama with the environmental group Panamá Más Verde. They are currently preparing recommendations to policymakers, environmental groups, and businesses in Panama based on the findings of their study.

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The Ecological Economics Student Group (EESG) is a student-organized forum for the presentation and discussion of ideas and new work within the broad domain of Ecological Economics and interdisciplinaryenvironmental policy. This seminar is also offered for 1 credit as'Ecological Economics and Development' (MEES 608N).

ALL ARE WELCOME. Please join the EESG Seminar Series as we strengthen transdisciplinary education at the University of Maryland. Food provided by the Roy F. Weston Chair of Natural Economics from the Maryland Food Collective.

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Learn more about us at http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/ecolecon/ or via policy.ecolecon@gmail.com

State Dept. Summer Clerical Program

The State Department is now accepting applications for its summer 2010 clerical program.

To qualify for a summer clerical position, you must be:

• a U.S. citizen, age 16 or older at time of appointment.
• enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a degree (diploma, certificate, etc.,) seeking student. taking at least half-time academic/vocational/or technical course load in an accredited high school, technical or vocational school, 2-year or 4 year college or university, graduate or professional school.
• able to complete a background investigation to determine eligibility for a security clearance.

Please read the entire vacancy for qualification requirements and other information. Apply online here: http://careers.state.gov/students/programs.html#SCP)

The deadline to submit completed applications is January 4, 2010.