Education Department Redesignates Four Pitt Area Studies Programs

The University Center for International Studies (UCIS) at Pitt again has received major national recognition from the U.S. Department of Education, which has redesignated four of the University’s area studies programs as National Resource Centers (NRC).

The programs, which together will receive $4 million over the next four years, include Pitt’s Asian Studies Center, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Russian and East European Studies, and Center for West European Studies.

“The renewal of National Resource Center status for our area studies centers reaffirms the strength of the University of Pittsburgh in international studies,” said UCIS director William Brustein. “I am especially pleased that all four of our area studies NRCs and our International Business Center were refunded, in spite of fierce national competition. This success places Pitt once again among the top schools in the United States in the area of international studies.”

Along with the recently redesignated International Business Center—jointly sponsored by UCIS and the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business—Pitt is home to five Title VI centers.

The NRC program is authorized through Title VI of the Higher Education Act and administered through the U.S. Department of Education’s International Education and Graduate Programs Service.

—Hali Felt

Washington Quarterly Editor to Talk About Nuclear Proliferation

With the prospects of a North Korean ballistic missile test-launch looming and Iranian officials simmering over international calls for them to halt uranium enrichment, the issue of nuclear proliferation has recently been thrust to the forefront of the international stage.

Washington Quarterly editor-in-chief Alexander Lennon will give a talk titled “Iran and North Korea: Unlocking the Proliferation Puzzle,” at 4:30 p.m. today in 3930 Posvar Hall. A discussion will follow the presentation.

The event, hosted by Janne Nolan, professor of international affairs in and deputy director of Pitt’s Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, will address the following questions while considering similarities and differences between the two nations:

• What factors are motivating Iran and North Korea?

• Is it possible to persuade Iran and North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons programs?

• What are the strategic objectives of the major powers involved in negotiations?

• Will these major powers be able to reach an agreement on how to proceed in dealings with Iran and North Korea?

Lennon’s research concentrates on nuclear proliferation prevention strategy as well as the grand strategy and foreign and defense policies of the great contemporary powers, particularly the United States, China, and India. Lennon served at the U.S. Department of State as the political-military officer principally responsible for bilateral security relations with Israel. He has published articles in the Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and Defense News, among other publications.

The Ridgway Center is part of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for International Studies. With a core mission of contributing to policy debates about the use of force and U.S. military intervention, cobating proliferation while fostering great economic cooperation, an encouraging openness and equity in societies around the world, the Ridgway Center is dedicated to addressing the critical security issues of the 21st century.

—Hali Felt

Book Center to Host Author of Book About Roberto Clemente

David Maraniss, winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his Washington Post articles on Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential campaign, will participate in a “Meet and Speak” on his new book, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero (Simon & Shuster, 2006), at noon July 11 in the University of Pittsburgh Book Center.

The free public event will occur in the afternoon before Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, to be played in PNC Park.

Maraniss presents the first full-scale biography of Roberto Clemente, who in 1954 was the No. 1 draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played his entire 18-year Major League Baseball career for the team, until his death in 1972. Clemente was killed in a plane crash while attempting to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Maraniss’ book provides new details of the crash.

The first Latino elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Clemente led the way for the first major wave of Hispanic players coming into baseball.

A writer on the national staff of The Washington Post, Maraniss also is author of First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton (Simon & Shuster, 1995), Tell Newt to Shut Up: Prize-Winning Washington Post Journalists Reveal How Reality Gagged the Gingrich Revolution (Simon & Shuster, 1996), The Clinton Enigma: A Four and A Half Minute Speech Reveals This President’s Entire Life (Simon & Shuster, 1998), When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi (Simon & Shuster, 1999), and They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 (Simon & Shuster, 2003).

Pitt’s Book Center and Simon & Shuster are sponsoring the event. For more information, call 412-648-1453.

—Patricia Lomando White