EPS US and UK affiliates, Izmir University of Economics, Middle East Technical University (METU), and University of the West of England, Bristol are pleased to announce the call for papers for the 14th Annual International Conference on Economics and Security. The conference will take place June 17 and 18, 2010 in Izmir, Turkey.

The conference aims to provide an opportunity for defense and peace economists from around the world to share ideas and discuss the future developments in the following areas:

• Security in the Balkan Region
• European security
• Economics of security
• Globalization and the restructuring of the MIC
• Militarism and development
• Security sector reform
• Economics of conflict and war
• Economics of post-conflict reconstruction
• Economics of arms procurement, trade and offsets
• Arms races and alliances
• Peace science
• Conversion and demilitarization
• Economics of terrorism

You are cordially invited to submit abstracts and papers on these topics. Offers of papers on other related topics are also welcome. If you are interested in presenting a paper or organizing a session at the 2010 Conference, please send a title and an abstract of 300 words or less to: defence2010@ieu.edu.tr. The deadline for submission of abstracts is March 22, 2010.

More information on the conference is at http://ekolider.ieu.edu.tr/eab/DEFENCE2010/.

EPS Fellow Bill Hartung's recent letter to the editor of the New York Times, concerning why military spending should not be exempted from the budget freeze, was printeded February 9 and posted online the following day:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/opinion/lweb10military.html?ref=opinion

February 10, 2010
Letter
Cutting Defense Spending

To the Editor:

Re "Mr. Obama's New Budget" (editorial, Feb. 2):

The details of President Obama's budget underscore the fact that military spending should not be exempted from his cap on discretionary spending. At $738 billion, spending for military purposes is in a virtual tie with Social Security for the largest single item in the federal budget. Less than one-quarter of that amount is devoted to financing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving plenty of places to cut without slowing the flow of resources to troops in the field.

Given the Pentagon's history of inefficient operations, vast cost overruns and financing for weapons systems that have no possible application to current or future conflicts, it is simply unacceptable to give it a free pass in efforts to slow the growth of federal spending.

William D. Hartung
New York, Feb. 2, 2010

The writer is director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation.

Volume 5, No. 1 of the Economics of Peace and Security Journal is now available online. Non-subscribers can access the abstracts and contents pages. This issue contains symposia on defense innovation and the economics of conflict:

• Scott A. Kjar and William A. Anderson on war and the Austrian School
• Peter M. Li on military alliances
• Alexandre Debs on economic theories of dictatorship
• Joel Potter and John L. Scott on issues in third-party intervention and the role of destruction in conflict
• Yang-Ming Chang, Shane Sanders, and Bhavneet Walia on conflict persistence and third-party intervention'
• C. Jill Stowe, Kate Krause, and Janie M. Chermak on preferences for privacy and security
• Neil Cooper on voluntarism, regulation, and supervision

EPS members receive a 25% discount on the annual subscription to the Economics of Peace and Security Journal. A regular one-year subscriptions is $40; for EPS members, it's only $30!

The Journal is a peer-reviewed online publication hosted by EPS-UK. Published twice yearly, it raises and debates all issues related to the political economy of personal, communal, national, international, and global peace and security. Joseph Stiglitz, James Galbraith, and Lawrence Klein have been previous contributors. The Journal’s website also includes book reviews submitted by members and subscribers.

For more information about the Journal or to subscribe, see http://www.epsjournal.org.uk/.

To become a member of EPS (and to qualify for the subscription discount) visit http://www.epsusa.org/membership/membership.htm.

The Project on Defense Alternatives has recently released two reports on US defense budget and strategy issues . You can find both documents as well as an Executive Summary and a press release here: http://www.comw.org/pda/budgetreview2010.html.

1. An Undisciplined Defense: Understanding the $2 Trillion Surge in US Defense Spending
The allocation of Pentagon funds has changed fundamentally over the past decade. And with it, the contours (and price) of American military power have changed. This report analyzes the unprecedented post-1998 rise in US defense spending, the return to Cold War budget levels, and likely future trends in Pentagon spending. It asks," Why should defense be as expensive today as during the Cold War?" and also, "Why are today's wars so comparatively expensive?" Among the 'cost drivers' that it finds are overly ambitious US military strategies; a shortfall in efforts to streamline the Pentagon and achieve military transformation; a failure to set strong priorities and make hard choices in military acquisition; and, the conduct of wars ill-suited to the US military. Also assessed are the surge in military construction and the dramatically expanded role of private contractors. 75 pages including short Executive Summary and 21 charts and tables.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "The United Nations received today the thirtieth instrument of ratification for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.  With this step, the Convention will enter into force on 1 August 2010, in keeping with the Convention’s provisions.

"The Secretary-General welcomes this major advance on the global disarmament agenda, and notes that the Convention’s entry into force just two years after its adoption demonstrates the world’s collective revulsion at the impact of these terrible weapons.

"Cluster munitions are unreliable and inaccurate.  During conflict and long after it has ended, they maim and kill scores of civilians, including many children.  They impair post-conflict recovery by
making roads and land inaccessible to farmers and aid workers.

" The United Nations is firmly committed to ending the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions and mitigating the suffering they cause.  The Secretary-General calls on all States to become a party to the Convention without delay."

The newly formed World Peace Academy (WPA) in Basel, Switzerland announces a program leading to a Master of Advanced Studies in Peace and Conflict Transformation. Students from all over the world, from any discipline interested in peace and conflict resolution, including young diplomats, government officials, NGO members, teachers, journalists, lawyers, social workers, officers, psychologists, artists, and anyone interested in solving conflicts by peaceful means are invited to attend.

Complete details are at http://www.world-peace-academy.ch/?lang=en&pid=43

Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, a journal from the Berkeley Electronic Press edited by EPS members Walter Isard and Raul Caruso, announces its latest issue. Articles include:

• Labor Market Conditions, Political Events, and Palestinian Suicide Bombings
  Edward A. Sayre
• Politics of Defense Spending and Endogenous Inequality
  Partha Gangopadhyay and Nasser Elkanj
• Atoms for Peace, Redux: Energy Codependency for Sustained Cooperation on the Korean Peninsula
  Kyle Beardsley and Jamus J. Lim
• Beyond Moral Hazard: The Effect of Firm-Level Compensation Strategies on Economic Conflict
  Veneta Andonova and Hernando Zuleta
• Warfare, Civil Conflict and the Spatial Impacts on Domestic Investment:
  Evidence from South America, 1950-2000
  Michael J. Hicks and Jeff Smith
• Impact of War on Country per Capita GDP: A Descriptive Analysis13
  Daria Sevastianova

http://www.bepress.com/peps/

Call for Papers: The Network of European Peace Scientists (NEPS) invites the submission of papers for the 10th Jan Tinbergen European Peace Science Conference to take place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June 28 — 30, 2010.

Proposals received after February 15, 2010 will be considered if any presentation slots are still available. The complete call for papers is at http://www.europeanpeacescientists.org/jantinbergen_call.pdf.

Those who are interested in participating should submit their proposal (abstract, tentative title, author name(s) and affiliation(s)) either in a word document or in a plain text e-mail to the following address: conference@europeanpeacescientists.org. Participation fee will be 80 euros for senior researchers and 50 euros for PhD students. Fees also include annual membership in NEPS.

Request for submissions: The book series Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development now totals 15 volumes. The series, published by Emerald Publishing, UK, presents theoretical and empirical papers on conflict and peace related to economic, social and political development, primarily of the developing countries. For information about the series, visit http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/books/series.htm?id=1572-8323.

EPS Fellow Manas Chatterji is General Editor. Colleagues interested in submitting a manuscript for possible publication are requested to contact him at mchatter@binghamton.edu.

Call for Papers and Sessions: Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics 22nd Annual Conference, June 24 — 26, 2010 in Philadelphia, PA.
This year’s conference, Governance Across Borders: Coordination, Regulation, and Contestation in the Global Economy, focuses on the development, dynamics, impact, and implications of emerging forms of transnational governance in the global economy – public, private, and hybrid. SASE offers special reduced rates to students for both membership and conference fees.

http://www.allacademic.com/one/sase/sase10/files/2010_Call_for_Papers.pdf.

For more information, please visit www.bepress.com/peps.

Budgets Reveal What We Value, a letter to the editor published February 8 in the Albany (NY) Times Union:
"The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. warned that a nation that spends more on war than on meeting human needs is approaching spiritual death. On February 1, the Obama administration requested $708 billion for the Defense Department next year, including $549 billion for its base budget and $159 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Factoring in outlays for veterans' health and other benefits, the replenishment of military hardware and the interest on debt incurred by the wars, the total cost of the two wars will be 'significantly more' than $3 trillion, says Linda Bilmes, a Harvard University economist. She and her co-author, Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University economist and Nobel Prize laureate, estimated this in their 2008 best-seller, 'The Three Trillion Dollar War.' Adding in some social costs, they put a moderately realistic price tag on the two wars of $5 trillion.

"It seems that we always find money to keep the machinery of war oiled at the expense of programs for social uplift, health care, education and housing. Budgets are moral documents; they reveal what we truly value. It is obvious we value funding perpetual war more than enhancing programs for life."

THE REV. RICH BRODERICK
Cambridge

See the article online: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?newsdate=2/7/2010&navigation=nextprior&
category=OPINION&storyID=898231

Christopher Preble and Heather Hurlburt also wrote about excepting the defense budget from the government spending freeze. They contend, "The media and politicians have made an expanding military budget into a manhood test for civilian leaders. But a real test of a leader’s wisdom and strength would recognize that more spending does not equal greater security."

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=957830F1-18FE-70B2-A8FFCEC7E0CB1A22

How to keep the momentum going with press attention and donations to Haiti? Barry Lando has a modest proposal to solve the problem: "We close down our regular programs, our school lunches, and mango seed development and well-drilling and free dental clinics. Instead we launch Al Qaeda in Haiti.

"We get a couple of hundred of the millions of young Haitians desperate for any way out of their poverty; we import a couple of fire-breathing radical Muslims to give appropriate cover to the operation; we give our Haitians a few weeks of clandestine training, and then we’re ready. Indeed, we may already have fertile fodder in-country, saving us the expense of importing talent: Haiti already has 3250 Muslims...

"There results are obvious: The US media descend again en masse. The original skeptical reports give way to shock, alarums, and calls for the American president to act. We’re no longer talking about the threat from radical Islam in far-off Afghanistan. It’s here, at our doorstep!

"Thousands of American troops [have] found a new front in the War against Terror. They’ll be pouring billions into Haiti— training and equipping a brand new Haitian army and police force, educating civil servants,  building new roads and bridges, and power stations, working with every local community organization they can lay their hands on."

http://blogs.alternet.org/barrylando/2010/02/01/haiti-and-al-qaeda-a-modest-proposal/

The Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, the first US school created in this field, welcomes applications for a faculty position in HUMAN SECURITY AND PEACEBUILDING to begin September 2010. The opening in human security and peacebuilding is a full-time tenure track position at the rank of Assistant, Associate or Full Professor.

In addition to a commitment to teaching, the successful candidate will have a PhD in hand at the time of appointment and will be expected to have a well-articulated research agenda, advise students and serve as part of a team developing the new School of Peace Studies. Application reviews will begin on March 1, 2010 and continue until the position is filled.

For more information: http://api.ning.com/files/idbqfRXAr1Lf-AnpewTC8xlGIz3ggkBa6hXy-mBmuk0c*sVO8UXQO6ewznkl1EF5zMKM9ZOAaeZFFtVJPpEkNFX0kc9Xs66a/HumanSecurity.pdf

The Partnership for Democratic Governance (PDG), a division of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is seeking a Technical Advisor — Post-Conflict and Fragility. Job duties include service delivery and contracting-out in post-conflict and fragile countries; intellectual leadership into the PDG’s research agenda; and documenting and synthesizing findings and developing best practices on collaboration among donor countries and organizations in improving core government functions in emerging democracies and fragile states.

More information at http://erecruit1.oecd.org/psc/ERECRUIT/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL.

Research Funding: The Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy at Georgia Tech, in conjunction with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, is seeking applications from junior faculty, post-doctoral and doctoral candidates working on maintenance of strategic stability under reduced or eliminated nuclear arsenals for its Program on Strategic Stability Evaluation (POSSE). At this time, expertise on the issue as it relates to Chinese, Russian, or American arsenals is particular desirable. This project is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to forge an interdisciplinary network of young scholars on the subject, and to facilitate related research.

More complete information is at http://cns.miis.edu/activities/pdfs/pr090912_posse_applications.pdf.

A conference entitled The Financial Crisis, the US Economy, and International Security in the New Administration was held at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, New School University, New York, New York on Friday, November 14, 2008. The conference was organized by Economists for Peace and Security, the Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation Initiative for Rethinking the Economy, and the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. See video or read transcripts from the conference by visiting http://www.epsusa.org/events/08conf/program.htm.

The Initiative for Rethinking the Economy also has a webpage devoted the conference at http://www.i-r-e.org/article50.html.

Space, Security and the Economy, a report on the Bush administration’s outer space policy, warns that the present policy of space dominance could transform outer space into a military battleground.

Official US policy asserts the right to deny any nation access to space if its actions are “perceived” as hostile. This policy, together with other US actions such as withdrawal from the ABM treaty and the ongoing development of weapons intended to attack objects in space, could lead to the deployment of weapons in space. If the US were to deploy such weapons in space, other nations would likely follow, leading to an arms race in space.

Consequences would include negative effects on the growing scientific and commercial uses of space, and on the economy. In particular, private investors would be unlikely to place additional resources at risk in a vulnerable area of potential military conflict. The report concludes that no one can prevail, and all stand to lose, in an arms race in space.

The report calls for changes in the policy of space dominance, greater transparency in military space spending, and detailed information about government and commercial space activities.

To view a PDF of the report, visit http://www.epsusa.org/publications/papers/spacesecurity.pdf.

To request a hard copy, please email Thea Harvey theaharvey@epsusa.org.

Read YubaNet’s blog about the report: http://yubanet.com/usa/Report-Economic-Impact-of-Arms-Race-in-Space.php.

“Arms, War and Terrorism in the Global Economy Today: Economic Analyses and Civilian Alternatives” is a volume published by Bremer Schriften zur Konversion. It presents papers of two joint seminars of EPS and the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE), which took place in Rethymon, Crete, Greece, as well as papers from the 2004 Second International Conference on Defense, Security, and Economic Development held in Larissa, Greece.

Contributing authors include Michael Intriligator, Fannie Coulomb, Jacques Fontanel, Jurgen Brauer, Gulay Gunluk-Senesen, J. Paul Dunne, Luc Mampaey, Claude Serfati, Christos Kollias, Clark Abt, and Lucy Law Webster, as well as many other notable economists.

The book is available from the publishers, LIT Verlag, for €24.90 at http://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/3-8258-0045-1.

Fact Sheets: Periodically, EPS releases two-sided fact sheets designed to give an accessible, graphic look at one specific issue of concern to our members and constituency.

Global Arms Trade 2004 examines the world’s supplies of conventional weapons and small arms. http://www.epsusa.org/publications/factsheets/globalarmstrade.pdf.

Military vs. Social Spending: Warfare or Human Welfare compares US and global military spending with the costs of achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.epsusa.org/publications/factsheets/milexMDG.pdf.

Conflict or Development? This book has a regional focus on Africa, site of most of the world’s current armed conflicts. 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. Conflict or Development features country studies, sections on business and conflict, and trends in world military expenditure. Written in a general-interest style, with informative maps, tables, and graphs, the series is designed to inform the debate among policymakers, activists, journalists, academics, students, and citizens worldwide. To order, email Thea Harvey at theaharvey@epsusa.org.

Conflict or Development is also a valuable resource in teaching economics, political science, and international relations courses. To review a copy for use in your syllabus, email Thea Harvey at theaharvey@epsusa.org.

Data Resource webpage offers links to data sources for:

• International military expenditure and conflict indicators
• US military expenditure and capabilities
• Western Europe
• Russia

These sources are available at http://www.epsusa.org/network/data.htm.
If there is a data source you would like to see included, contact Thea Harvey at theaharvey@epsusa.org.

Want to get the word out on the topic that matters most to you? With a letter to your local paper, you can help bring your message not only to your neighbors but directly to the offices of your Members of Congress, where staffers and our lawmakers themselves follow opinions from home with an especially watchful eye.

The ACLU has a tool that helps write and send letters to local papers. They offer a list of media outlets by state, with tips on how to write a letter in your own words, plus talking points for the listed topics.

http://action.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=LTE_SOTU_2007&JServSessionIdr001=3bu4 9o8t91.app20a

Do you have a foreign policy alternative that should be heard in the halls of government? Citizens for Global Solutions provides an easy-to-use tool to find the foreign policy staffer for your Member of Congress. To access the Foreign Policy Staffer Locator, go to http://globalsolutions.org/hill/fpstaff.

March 23, 2010. EPS Bernard Schwartz Symposium Jobs, Investment and Energy:  Meeting President Obama’s Challenge at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, 9:00am - 2:00pm. For more information, visit our website. Please contact Thea Harvey to register.

June 3 — 5, 2010. The International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE) 3rd International Conference: “Failing Economies, Failing Economics: Rebooting Economics after the Crash” at Western New England College, Springfield, Massachusetts. More information at http://www.icape.org/.

June 24 — 26, 2010. The Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) 22nd Annual Meeting will take place at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. The theme is Governance Across Borders: Coordination, Regulation, and Contestation in the Global Economy.   Submissions for papers or organized sessions are now open at http://convention3.allacademic.com/one/sase/sase10/. Deadline for submissions is February 28, 2010.

If you have enjoyed this issue of EPS NewsNotes and wish to support our mission, please consider donating to EPS. You can do so securely online through our website or by sending a check to:

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