December 2004 NewsNotes

NewsNotes is a monthly email update of goings-on at ECAAR. In it you will find information on current projects, announcements of upcoming events and publications, and an action corner. We would like to include information on what our members are doing. If you would like to submit information about an event or publication that you are involved with, please send an email to theaharvey@ecaar.org. (The fine print - we reserve the right to edit submissions for space or content.)

* As those of you who have received your newsletters will know by now, there are big changes going on at ECAAR. As of the first of the year, we will be changing our name to Economists for Peace and Security. We feel that the new name more adequately, and succinctly, expresses our mission. Along with our new name comes a new logo, a stylized dove forms a falling line on graph paper. We have kept the dove as a hopeful symbol of the lasting peace toward which we work. The graph indicates our reliance on scientific analysis to further our cause. Also, as of the first of the year, we will have a new website, with a new look and easier navigation, at http://www.epsusa.org.

Kate Cell is stepping down as Director as of the middle of January, and moving to a more advisorial role, primarily in the areas of our publications and website. Thea Harvey will be moving from Development Manager, a role she has held for over two years, to Director when Kate leaves. And, we will be moving our office to the Levy Economic Institute at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

All of these changes, while creating a bit of whirlwind in the short term, we expect to be good for the organization. The new name, look and location will make communicating the mission of Economists for Peace and Security easier and more efficient. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call (845-620-1542) or email us (thea@epsusa.org; kate@epsusa.org), stop by our exhibit booth at the ASSA/AEA meetings, or come to our annual membership meeting, Saturday, January 8th, at 5:30pm - 6:30pm at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel Room 307.

* Housekeeping note: next month's NewsNotes will come from newsnotes@epsusa.org. If you need to change your permissions so that it gets past your spam filter, please don't forget to do so.

In addition to our two regular session, we are cosponsoring a session with URPE and the AEA:

Panel Session 1 - The Abuse of Power Friday, January 7, 10:15am. Marriott Grand Ballroom-Salon K

Panel Session 2 - Economics of Space Weapons Friday, January 7, 2:30pm. Marriott Room 402

Panel Session 3 - The Political Economy of Military Spending, Joint session sponsored by AEA/URPE/ECAAR. January 8th, 2005, 2:30pm. Lowes Hotel, Room Washington C

For the past two years ECAAR has had an "association table" near the registration booths. This year we are adding a booth in the exhibit hall. Please stop by to find out more about our activities, to renew your membership, to find information about our sessions, or just to say hi. We will be in Booth B125

The ECAAR annual dinner this year honors Trustee Robert M. Solow. A stellar host committee chaired by Allen Sinai, and including: George Akerlof, Karen Arenson, Martin Baily, Olivier Blanchard, Alan Blinder, Peter Diamond, Ray C. Fair, Stanley Fischer, Barney Frank, Robert J. Gordon, Robert E. Hall, Paul Krugman, Cathy Minehan, Sylvia Nasar, George Perry, Paul Samuelson, and Paul Sarbanes,invite you to join us on Saturday, January 8, 2005 in the Philadelphia Marriott, Liberty A Ballroom. The evening will begin with a reception at 7:00pm, followed by dinner at 7:30pm. Dr. Solow will speak on, "Last Thoughts on Investment and Growth."

* The Fall issue of ECAAR NewsNetwork is now in the mail, and available on our website. This issue includes the following articles, as well as announcements about our sessions and events at the ASSA meetings in January. You can read individual articles at the links below.

* ECAAR-South Africa announced in a press release December 7th, that the Constitutional Court has dismissed ECAAR-SA's application that offsets fail the section 217 requirement that government procurements must be conducted in a manner that is "fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective". The Court has done so without explanation, also declining to investigate the complaint that the Minister of Finance committed perjury when he affirmed under oath that the foreign loan agreements are independent of the arms deal. These loan agreements extend until the year 2019, and give effect to the arms deal.

While the Court's ducking of this politically controversial matter is disappointing, it confirms Archbishop Desmond Tutu's recent comments. The judiciary now joins parliamentarians and chapter nine institutions in failing their obligations to protect and enhance South Africa's constitutional democracy. Yet in having led civil opposition to the arms deal, ECAAR-SA is already fully vindicated by:

* ECAAR Board of Directors member, Amartya Sen, gave a lecture on two contrasting concepts of India entitled `India: Large and Small' with passion and panache in New Dehli recently. During the lecture, organised by the Planning Commission and Delhi School of Economics, Sen spoke about the two contrapuntal ideas of India -- the "broader integrationist idea of India celebrating argument, plurality and heterodoxy opposed to the small exclusivist idea of India promoted by a narrowly Hindu view of India" as espoused by Hindutva activists. He went so far as to say that a narrow view can lead to violence. "The Godhra riots in 2004 showed the neglect of secularism by the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)," Sen said referring to the violence in Gujarat two years ago. http://www.eians.net/2004/12/17/17sen.html

*LINKS*

* War has killed two million children in the last decade alone. Four million children have become disabled and hundreds of thousands serve as child soldiers. Nearly half of all refugees worldwide are under 18, and across the globe, an estimated 25 million children have been uprooted from their homes as a result of war. http://www.itvs.org/beyondthefire

* The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (http://www.child-soldiers.org) works to prevent the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, to secure their demobilization and to ensure their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. The Coalition recently released its Child Soldiers Global Report 2004. While the US is party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the report reveals that at least 62 Americans of 17 years of age have been used in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during 2003 and 2004. http://www.child-soldiers.org/resources/global-reports.html

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* The White House kicked off a campaign to promote proposals to overhaul Social Security, extend tax cuts and overhaul the tax code at a two-day economic conference at the White House beginning Dec. 15. Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials plan to discuss an agenda that include taxes, Social Security, class-action lawsuits, education and health care. "The conference will be an opportunity to discuss what we must do to keep our economy growing and to make sure America remains the most competitive economy in the world," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. See http://www.c-span.org/executive/ec_future.asp for more information.

* Eight soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait are suing the Army over its stop loss policy. Last spring, the Army instituted the policy for all troops headed to Iraq and Afghanistan, calling it a way to promote continuity within deployed units and to avoid bringing new soldiers in to fill gaps left in units by those who would otherwise have gone home when their enlistments ran out. If a soldier's unit is still in Iraq or Afghanistan, that soldier cannot leave even when his or her enlistment time runs out. David Qualls, the only one of the eight to release his name, says, "This is a matter of fairness. My job was to go over and perform my duties under the contract I signed. But my year is up and it's been up. Now I believe that they should honor their end of the contract." However, Gary Solis, who teaches law at the US Military Academy at West Point, says, "The courts have traditionally ceded to the military. Even if the gents win at the trial level, the government is not going to quit. They cannot afford to. There is a potential cascade effect here." http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120704B.shtml

* The Liberian authorities have run out of money to provide education and training for over 100,000 people who have registered as former combatants in the country's 14-year civil war, a spokesman for the country's disarmament commission said recently. "Presently, the Trust Funds for the reintegration and rehabilitation of fighters have run out. There is need for additional funding...because the disarmed fighters have exceeded the target mark of 100,000," Molley Passaway, the official spokesman of the National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration, told IRIN. "Out of those disarmed, only 26,000 are now benefiting from skills training and formal education, but the rest are of serious concern to the commission", he added. Gyude Bryant, the Chairman of Liberia's transitional government, said in September that US$44 million was still needed to pay for the rehabilitation of former combatants. Full story at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44494

* A recent report by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., takes the Bush administration to task on the issue of secrecy. Yet this report should not be construed as a narrow partisan attack but rather as the latest salvo in a debate where advocates of open government span the ideological spectrum. And there's a good reason. Inordinate secrecy hampers the nonpartisan values of both national security and democracy. Critics left, right and nonaligned have all argued that government secrecy is escalating at a fever pitch. OpentheGovernment.org's "Secrecy Report Card'' (http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/secrecy_reportcard.pdf) notes that 14 million new classification decisions were made in 2003, up 60 percent from 2001.

* In a related story, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has filed a suit against John Ashcroft for retroactively classifying missile defense criticisms, and other federal whistleblowers as secret. http://www.pogo.org/p/government/pogovashcroft.html

* Each year, the Managing the Atom Project (MTA) invites applications for MTA Research Fellowships. The deadline for fellowships for the 2005-2006 academic year is February 1st, 2005. Additional information and an application form can be found at http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/fellowships.cfm?program=CORE&pb_id=57&gma=3.

MTA offers both pre- and post-doctoral fellowships to graduate students, scholars, and government and other professionals interested in questions pertaining to civilian and/or military applications of nuclear technology.
Fellowships are for one academic year, but are sometimes renewable for a second year.

* ECAAR is pleased to announce the release of the first in a series of Fact Sheets. This first issue presents an overview of Military vs. Social Spending: Warfare or Human Welfare. The fact sheet compares US and global military spending with the costs of achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals in an accessible, graphic format. The fact sheet, which was compiled and designed by ECAAR's Project Manager, Paul Burkholder, is available in PDF format at http://www.ecaar.org/factsheets/milexMDG.pdf

* The ECAAR Review 2003. Titled "Conflict or Development?" this edition 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 lifecycle cost for a layered missile defense system could reach $1.2 trillion through 2035. You can order a copy of the report from the cosponsor of the study, http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/nmd/fullcost.html, or download the PDF file from http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/nmd/fullcost.pdf.

* Looking for Holiday gifts with meaning? This year, consider giving your loved ones a gift that will help create a better world – changing poverty into prosperity, despondency into hope, strangers into neighbors – and even war into peace:

* Up to 100,000 children are estimated to be involved in armed conflict in Africa. Some 85 states have already ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OP-CRC-CAC), a key legal instrument to stop the use of children as soldiers. However, some members of the United Nations Security Council have not signed, ratified or acceded to it. To maintain the credibility and effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council's resolutions against the use of children as soldiers, it is essential that its members express an unequivocal commitment to end this practice in the world. To join the campaign to call on four members of the Security Council to ratify or accede to the Optional Protocol go to:

* The Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) is the nation's premier good government statute designed to protect federal workers who responsibly protect the public from government abuse, waste and fraud, but risk their jobs and sometimes their lives to do so. Congress passed the legislation unanimously in 1989 and strengthened it in 1994. However, a series of judicial decisions have undermined the effectiveness of the WPA, and the Act is in desperate need of reinforcement. If you would like to support this legislation, please take a moment to send a letter to your Members of Congress (http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/pogo/action/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=197) or to the Editor of your local paper (http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/pogo/action/pickMedia.jsp?letter_KEY=52).

* 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.

* December 17-19, 2004. The Global Reconciliation Network hosts Towards Harmony: Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, a meeting to address issues concerning the sources of conflict that arise out of the action of global processes, such the operation of the World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum, in New Delhi, India. Themes to be addressed at the meeting will include the following: local conditions of conflict and possibilities for cross-cultural dialogues within specific communities; local rights to the use of resources versus the conditions imposed by the globalized economy; community rights to environmental self determination as opposed to the sovereign rights of states; the concept of, and the possibilities for, “multiculturalism” in Western and non-Western societies; perceptions of the West from non-Western societies, and vice versa; the ethics of terrorism and responses to it; and the possibilities for civil society based movements for global cooperation and conflict resolution. Participants will address a range of issues relating to regional and international conflicts, and strategies based on action within local communities to promote reconciliation. Participants will include people working in India itself in this field, including representatives of academic institutions and community based organizations, and international contributors with experience in both theoretical and practical aspects of these issues. For more information visit http://globalreconciliationnetwork.org, or register online at http://www.idealist.org/en/events/102917:48/87161:202

* January 7-9, 2005. The annual meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Associations (ASSA) and the American Economics Association (AEA) in Philadelphia, PA. For more information, see http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/anmt.htm See above for information about ECAAR activities at the meetings.

* January 11- 21, 2005. Economists for Peace and Security-Spain have organized the First Virtual International Meeting on Economia de la Paz y la Seguridad. The meeting will be conducted via the internet, entirely in Spanish. Additional information and call for papers are at http://www.eumed.net/eve/.

* January 21, 2005. The Study Group on the Economics of Security in the Post-9/11 World at 66 W 12th Street, Room 510, New York City at 2:00pm. Study Group co-chairs Bill Hartung and David Gold will speak on the prospects for the defense budget in a second Bush Administration.

* February 25, 2005. January 21, 2005. The Study Group on the Economics of Security in the Post-9/11 World at 66 W 12th Street, Room 510, New York City at 2:00pm.

* March 4-6, 2005. The 31st annual Eastern Economic Association Conference will be held in New York, NY, at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. ECAAR is will be hosting a session Saturday, March 5th, at 11:00am, on The Costs of War. The presenters will be:

* March 18, 2005. The Study Group on the Economics of Security in the Post-9/11 World at 66 W 12th Street, Room 510, New York City at 2:00pm.

* April 22, 2005. The Study Group on the Economics of Security in the Post-9/11 World at 66 W 12th Street, Room 510, New York City at 2:00pm.

* May 20, 2005. The Study Group on the Economics of Security in the Post-9/11 World at 66 W 12th Street, Room 510, New York City at 2:00pm.

* June 9-14, 2005. Women In International Security 2005 Summer Symposium for Graduate Students in International Affairs, Washington, District of Columbia United States http://www.idealist.org/en/events/74966:78/87995:116

June 27 - July 1, 2005. Week I of the Peacebuilding and Development Summer Institute 2005 at American University, Washington, DC. The Peacebuilding and Development Institute provides knowledge, practical experience and skills for scholars and practitioners involved in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and development. http://www.american.edu/sis/peace/summer/

July 5 - July 9, 2005. Week II of the Peacebuilding and Development Summer Institute 2005 at American University, Washington, DC. The Peacebuilding and Development Institute provides knowledge, practical experience and skills for scholars and practitioners involved in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and development. http://www.american.edu/sis/peace/summer/

July 11 - July 15, 2005. Week III of the Peacebuilding and Development Summer Institute 2005 at American University, Washington, DC. The Peacebuilding and Development Institute provides knowledge, practical experience and skills for scholars and practitioners involved in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and development. http://www.american.edu/sis/peace/summer/

* If you are considering buying a book online, please take a look at WhatWeGive.com (http://www.whatwegive.com/). They have tens of thousands of titles available at a discount to you, and ECAAR receives twenty percent of your purchase price. After you check out, a pop up window will ask for information about the organization to which you wish your donation to go. Enter Organizational Account # 32 and "Economists Allied for Arms Reduction" in the organization field, and your purchase will be credited to our account.

* Please consider becoming a member of ECAAR. Your annual membership entitles you to discounts on publications, invitations to events, our informative newsletters, and more. Most importantly, by joining us you help to ensure that reasoned perspectives on essential economic issues will continue to be heard. Membership dues and other donations are fully tax-deductible. Visit http://www.ecaar.org/Membership.htm for more information.

* If you have enjoyed this issue of ECAAR NewsNotes, or if you wish to support our mission, please consider making a donation to ECAAR. You can do so securely online through our website at https://www.chi-cash-advance.com/sforms/appeal196/contribute.asp or by sending a check to ECAAR, 39 E. Central Ave., Suite One, Pearl River, NY 10965. If you have any questions call (845) 620-1542, or email ecaar@ecaar.org.