*************************************************************
*The latest issues of ECAAR Newsnetwork, our twice-yearly print newsletter is now available. It includes articles by James K. Galbraith, "What Economic Price this War?"; William Hartung, "Rebuilding Iraq"; Marcel Arsenault, "Choices for Economists and Business Leaders"; Phillip Nauwelaerts, "Companies and Conflict"; Edward Nell and Willi Semmler, "Oil and the 2003 War in Iraq"; Richard F. Kaufman, "Missile Defense: Can Anything Be Done?"; Matt Martin, "Deploying a Campaign Promise"; Dorrie Weiss, "Report-UN Disarmament Commission"; Clark C. Abt, "Who Speaks for Bio-Defense?"; John Burroughs, "North Korea, the US and the NPT"; Nicole Deller, "The US and the Security Treaty System"; Greg Speeter, "The US Military Budget as a Local Issue"; Estelle Ellis, "ECAAR Wins Arms Skirmish"; and Lucy Webster, "To Put an End to War". You can order hard copies from the office at catcohen@ecaar.org, or read any article or the entire newsletter on our website at http://www.ecaar.org/

*Announcing: "The People, the United Nations and World Law" Conference for NGOs and World Media at the United Nations, Wednesday 28th May 10.00 am - 4.30 pm in the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, presented by the UN NGO Committee on Disarmament. Opening remarks will be by Dr. Kennedy Graham, editor of The Planetary Interest, by videoconference from the UN University in Belgium. The morning session, "World Opinion: A New Superpower" will be introduced by Ambassador David Malone, President of the International Peace Academy. The afternoon session will be introduced by US presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich by videoconference from Washington, D.C. discussing his bill to establish a United Nations Department of Peace. There will be panels on "World Media and the War" and "Force without Firepower: Protecting the Peace." Among the presenters will be Lucy Webster, ECAAR's Program Director, Felicity Hill from UNDP, international lawyer Peter Weiss and the economist/author Hazel Henderson. Videoconference contributions have been invited from New Zealand Prime Minster Helen Clarke and President Nelson Mandela. The moderator will be Kevin Sanders of Oneworld Radio and the program will be videotaped for TV and broadcast worldwide on Oneworld Radio and Radio for Peace International.

For more information you can contact Lucy Webster at lucywebster@ecaar.org or call the UN at the following numbers: Call (718) 422-0526 or (212) 687-5340 or email wfa@nycmail.com or disarmtimes@igc.org. Guests without UN passes wishing to attend this event in the UN Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium must be on the list by Friday 23rd of May.

*CALL FOR PAPERS: An International Conference on Conflict, Peace and Development in South Asia will be held at Colombo, Sri Lanka on January 8-10,2004. Although the focus of the meeting will be on political, ethnic, religious and regional conflicts within and between countries in South Asia, theoretical papers related to Peace Economics and Peace Science; environmental, resource and conflicting issues in health care; and development in general are also welcome. For details and registration contact Professor Manas Chatterji, Binghamton University, tel: (607) 777-2475, mchatter@binghamton.edu

*On May 14th, the ECAAR Business Council hosted "The US Budget Deficit Game: The Stakes, the Bet, the Speculators." The panel was composed of Bill Dudley, Chief US Economist for Goldman Sachs, Ethan Harris, Chief US Economist and Managing Director for Lehman Brothers, Chuck Lieberman, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Economist for Advisors Financial Center, LLC, and Richard Rippe, Managing Director and Chief Economist of the Equity Group at Prudential Securities Inc., and was moderated by Stan Collender, Head of Federal Budget Consulting Group for Fleishman Hillard. There was a lively debate and exchange with audience members on the US budget including the proposed tax cuts and their effects.

*For several years, Oxfam and other organizations have been leading a campaign to stop the trade in 'conflict diamonds'- gems whose profits are used to fund groups committing terrible human rights abuses in Africa (see article in the ECAAR Review 2003). Just recently, the Senate and the House overwhelmingly passed the Clean Diamond Act. This bill will help ensure that American consumers, who purchase 65% of the world's diamonds, are not inadvertently funding war, poverty and injustice.

*More than three million Congolese dead, and no one notices, says IRC. Earlier this month, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said that its studies had found that at least 3.3 million people have died in the war that has gripped the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998, making it the deadliest documented conflict since World War II. Michael Despines, now senior policy and program adviser for IRC in New York, worked in eastern Congo for six years, and challenges humanitarians to influence humanitarian policies that would result in real change. Read the story at: http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/IRCDRCview.htm

In a related story, The Economist (5/15/03) reports on the situation in the northeast of the Republic of Congo. The war is intensifying and Kofi Annan is calling for more UN intervention. France has agreed to send troops to help the few UN troops already on the ground, but may not have the resources to effect a peace. The US has refused to get involved.
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1781263

*Food security, for both rural and urban populations, is key for post-conflict Angola as it transitions from humanitarian aid to a development agenda. IRIN, UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, spoke to CARE Country Director Douglas Steinberg on the new challenges confronting the government, development agencies and the donor community. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33721&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa. See the ECAAR Review 2003 for more information on the Angolan Civil War and its aftermath.

* Ranking the Rich: In a groundbreaking new ranking, FOREIGN POLICY magazine teamed up with Center for Global Development to create the first annual CGD/FP Commitment to Development Index, which grades 21 rich nations on whether their aid, trade, migration, investment, peacekeeping, and environmental policies help or hurt poor nations. Find out why the Netherlands ranks first and why the world's two largest aid givers-the United States and Japan-finish last. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/Ning/test_page.php?storyID=13656

************************************************************************
*REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS*
*The Social Science Research Council ( http://www.ssrc.org/ ) Program in Applied Economics
(PAE) has announced a new funding opportunity for graduate students working in the area of Development and Risk in the context of economic development. The grant program is designed to support new research into questions of risk and uncertainty in economic contexts. The program encourages both interdisciplinary and international perspectives, with an aim to create a better understanding of the way that individuals, institutions, and policymakers perceive and respond to situations of uncertainty.

*The Foundation Center has a section of their website that lists grant opportunities, separated into 17 categories. Foundations interested in funding international affairs and development projects can be found at http://www.fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_international.jhtml, which includes several listings that ECAAR members might find apropos.
http://www.fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_soc_science.jhtml has listings for social science projects.

************************************************************************
*PUBLICATIONS COMING SOON*

*May 21st, 2003, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m: The Council on International and Public Affairs and the Global Policy Forum are sponsoring a book party for the release of "Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties," from the Apex Press (ISBN 1-891843-17-6) at Church Center for the United Nations, 777 UN Plaza (corner of 1st Avenue and 44th Street) Dag Hammarskjöld Lounge - 12th floor, New York, NY. Editors Nicole Deller and John Burroughs (who both have articles in the May issue of the ECAAR Newsnetwork), along with co-editor Arjun Makhijani, will discuss their book, which assesses U.S. compliance with nine treaties addressing urgent global security threats, from WMD proliferation to global climate change. The study affirms the value of these treaties, concluding that the United States is undermining them and eroding the system of international law.

*"Arms Trade Offsets: Theory, Policy, and Case Studies", edited by Jurgen Brauer and J. Paul Dunne, has been accepted by Routledge Publishing. The book is to be published as part of its Studies in Defense Economics series. It should be available in mid-2004. The book contains papers given at the conference on "Defense Offsets and Economic Development" in Cape Town, South Africa, September 25-27, 2002. The event was co-sponsored by ECAAR-US with funding from the Ford Foundation, ECAAR-South Africa, National Research Foundation South Africa, Institute for Social and Systemic Change, Port Elizabeth, SA, Centre for Conflict Resolution, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, and the Middlesex University Business School. More information about the conference is available at http://www.ecaar.org/Articles/offsets.htm

*"Teaching Peace: Nonviolence and the Liberal Arts" has been accepted by Rowman & Littlefield publishers, Inc.http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/ . The book should be available later this summer. This is a collective volume by Bluffton College (Ohio) faculty in various liberal arts to share the ways that their discipline can be used to teach peace and to speak to current peace and war issues. ECAAR member Ron Freisen has contributed a paper entitled "Applications of Economic Analysis to Issues of War and Peace."

************************************************************************
*CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ECAAR PUBLICATIONS*

* The ECAAR Review 2003. This year's edition is titled, "Conflict or Development?" and has a regional focus on Africa, the site of most of the world's current armed conflicts. In its pages some of the leading economists of the day analyze and reflect on the relationships among military spending, domestic and foreign policy, security, and human welfare. Features include country studies and sections on business and conflict and "Trends in World Military Expenditure." Written in clear English, with informative maps, tables, and graphs, the series is designed to inform the debate among policymakers, activists, journalists, academics, students, and citizens worldwide.

*You can order the Review at http://www.ecaar.org/Review_files/order.htm

*We believe the Review can be a valuable teaching tool in economics, political science, and international relations courses. If you are interested in teaching this book, please contact Kate Cell (Katecell@ecaar.org) for a copy to review.

* "The Full Cost of Ballistic Missile Defense." The study estimates that the total life-cycle cost for a layered missile defense system could reach $1.2 trillion through 2035.
*You can order a copy of the report from the http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/nmd/fullcost.html co-sponsor of the study, or download a PDF file from http://www.ecaar.org/index.htm.

************************************************************************
*ACTION CORNER*

*ECAAR seeks members interested in responding to one of a series of surveys. The results will be used to prepare a concise communicators' handbook for promoting responsible, effective US global leadership. Questionnaires on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Energy Policy, Global Development, and the US Global Role are available at http://www.ecaar.org/RBF/survey.htm. For more information, contact Kate Cell at katecell@ecaar.org.

*Anyone who would be willing to put an ECAAR flyer up on a departmental bulletin board or similar venue, please contact Thea Harvey, Development Manager at theaharvey@ecaar.org.

*US-subsidized cotton is forcing hundreds of thousands of African people into a life of desperate poverty. World cotton prices are at an all-time low as a result of US cotton subsidies. Millions of cotton farmers face poverty because they simply can't compete in the world market any more. This means they can't make a living, or send their children to school, or afford basic medicines. Today, four African countries- Benin, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali- are hitting back against unfair US cotton subsidies that threaten their economies. Get more information about helping them make their case to the World Trade Organization from Oxfam at http://www.maketradefair.com/spage/english/action_contents.asp?subcat=1&cat=1&select=1&special=yes. This page also contains information about other Fair Trade issues, like coffee and medicinal drugs.

************************************************************************
We would like News Notes to be a way for ECAAR members and our community to keep in touch. In future issues we will include, if you send them to us, notices on events and publications that you are involved with.
************************************************************************
*?UPCOMING EVENTS*

*27 May 2003, at 7:30pm: "The Systemic Nature of the Poverty Problem and the Need for a Systemic Solution" by Professor Sampie Terreblanche in Cape Town, South Africa. Sponsored by SANE, the South African New Economics network, an autonomous network for the creation of a more humane, just, sustainable and culturally appropriate economic system in South Africa. More info at http://www.sane.org.za/

*28th May 10.00 am - 4.30pm: "The People, the United Nations and World Law" Conference for NGOs and World Media at the United Nations, in the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, presented by the UN NGO Committee on Disarmament. See item above for more information.

*5 - 7 June 2003: International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE) conference on "The Future of Heterodox Economics" at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
http://www.econ.tcu.edu/econ/icare/main.html

*June 5-10, 2003: "The Changing Nature of Peace and War" Summer Symposium, hosted by Women in International Security. Washington, DC. http://www.idealist.org/events/74966/82617

*June 26th to 28, 2003: the Seventh Annual International Conference on Economics and Security, sponsored by ECAAR-UK at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. http://carecon.org.uk/Conferences/Conf2003/CONF2003.html.

************************************************************************
*For more information about ECAAR, please visit our website www.ecaar.org
*To become a member of ECAAR, please click http://www.ecaar.org/Membership.htm
*To contribute to News Notes, please send an email to newsnotes@ecaar.org
*To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to newsnotes@ecaar.org with "unsubscribe" in the subject line