After a talk by Professor Abu Husayn of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, three students from the previous spring's NIMEP fact-finding mission in Lebanon gave presentations, including a video and audio presentation, on the trip and their research. Nancy Henry outlined the research she conducted on the challenges facing the Lebanese military. NIMEP members Nicki Sobecki and Tim Fitzsimons premiered their audio/visual presentation made up of hundreds of photos from the trip as well as informative narration.

Synopsis: Bilateral peace talks are often not productive. Engaging Syria might be a possible solution, although it might drive a strategic wedge between parties. The reluctance of the US to deal with non-state actors is an important obstacle in the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Students from the El Salvador project team began work to rebuild last year's slow sand filter prototype. The goal of the prototype is to get students acquainted with the technology to prepare them for future trips, as well as to model the filters in order to get data on flow rate and other variables that could be changed in the field to increase effectiveness.

Benjamin Pogrund, Director of the Yakar Centre for Social Concern in Jerusalem and an IGL Scholar/Practitioner-in-Residence, delivered a talk on the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and negotiations, as well as the manner in which the term "apartheid" has colored the debate. He largely built upon his own experiences in South Africa as a mode of comparison.

“For all the words and images we call ‘media’, precious few trained eyes see distant reality up close, and these grow fewer by the year. When reporters do warn us of a crisis, we pay scant attention. We react to effect and ignore the causes. And then, overwhelmed, we cite that old saw as a path of least resistance: You can’t worry about what you can’t change. We must turn this around: You can’t change what you don’t worry about.” -Mort Rosenblum “Escaping Plato’s Cave” www.mortrosenblum.net

Matt Bai writes on national politics for the New York Times Magazine, where he is currently covering the 2008 presidential campaign. His book, “The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics,” was published by the Penguin Press in August 2007. Bai’s coverage of the 2004 campaign included cover stories on the Republican machine in Ohio and the future of Democratic politics, as well as a cover profile of John Kerry. His work was honored in both the 2005 and 2006 editions of “The Best American Political Writing.” Before joining the Times Magazine in 2002, Bai, 38, spent five years as a national correspondent for Newsweek. In 2001, he was a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, where he led a seminar on the next generation of political journalism. He began his career as a city desk reporter for the Boston Globe, and his international experience includes coverage from Iraq and Liberia. Bai is a graduate of Tufts and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, where the faculty awarded him the prestigious Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. Read about the book in the IGL Newsletter Read the article about Matt Bail from the IGL Newsletter

Discussion with New York Times Magazine Political Journalist Matt Bai about his new book "The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics"

Dinner with Benjamin Pogrund, former Deputy Editor of The Daily Rand (South Africa), sub-editor of the Independent (London) and editor of the World Paper (Boston).

Lunch with journalist, author and educator Mort Rosenblum on his latest book "Escaping Plato's Cave: How America's Blindness to the Rest of the World Threatens Our Survival"