IGL Sending 54 Students to 12 Countries over Winter Break

This winter intersession, 54 Institute students will be conducting research in 12 countries on issues, supported by the Javier Macaya Global Research Fund and the Empower Fund.

To prepare for their research, the students have been writing background papers and submitting proposals to the Tufts Institutional Review Board (IRB).  To prepare for being on the ground in a broad range of countries, the Institute invited Andrew Kain, CEO of AKE Ltd., to come and conduct a Safety and Security Briefing in early November.

Kain, who was introduced to the IGL by VII Photojournalist and IGL INSPIRE Fellow Gary Knight, served six years in the British Parachute Regiment and then spent 11 years in the Special Air Service (SAS), during which he served throughout the world. As an instructor in the SAS, he worked with other government and international law enforcement agencies and developed specialist counter-terrorist techniques that are still in use today.  After leaving the SAS, in 1991 Andrew founded AKE Ltd to provide specialist risk services based on SAS principles. In 1993, he designed and delivered the first commercial safety course to prepare journalists for operating in war zones. The course still sets the standard and is recognized internationally.  Andrew is the author of the SAS Security Handbook, published in 1996, and he has received a testimonial from The Royal Humane Society for saving life. Because of his skills, extensive experience, and innovative approach to risk, he is in regular international demand as a speaker and advisor to professional groups working in conflict regions and groups working in a variety of international settings. 

Kain held both an overview meeting for everyone, which was open any Tufts students preparing to conduct research internationally.  He also held country-specific meetings.  His visit was supported by the Office of the Provost.

Almost two-thirds (19) of this year’s EPIIC class is preparing to conduct research over break, looking at such topics as Turkish-Israeli Relations: The Nuclear Component, Non-Proliferation Movements in Pakistan, Unconsidered Political Restraints to Japanese Proliferation, China’s Current and Future Nuclear Strategic Posture, Curbing Proliferation through Control of the High Seas, and US Missile Defense Policy in Congress.  The students will be traveling to China, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey and within the US.

BUILD will be sending out 12 students this break, eight to continue their work in Guatemala and four to follow up on the summer’s pilot trip to India.

Working with the Robert and JoAnn Public Diplomacy Initiative and its Iraq: Moving Forward program, NIMEP will be sending ten students and to Kurdistan for this year’s fact-finding trip.  They are being accompanied by an IGL alumna, Rana Abdul-Aziz, who is also a Lecturer in and the Language Coordinator for the Tufts Arabic Program, and Zahcary Iscol.  Abdul-Aziz is an Iraqi-American whose family left Iraq at the beginning of her teen years.  A combat decorated Marine Infantry Officer, Iscol fought in the November 2004 battle to retake Fallujah. He graduated from Cornell University in 2001 and has written, spoken, and lectured about his experiences in Iraq.  In January 2005, he testified, on active duty, before the U.S. Senate about the need to protect and provide asylum to Iraqi translators who are hunted for serving alongside the US Military.

In Kurdistan, the group is working with Shahla Waliy, a Fletcher alumna and senior adviser to the speaker of the Kurdish Parliament, who has worked extensively with IGL Board Chair Robert Bendetson.  To date, she has arranged meetings for the group with:

• Masror Barzani, head of the intelligence apparatus and Peshmerga offices

• Machirvan Barzani, former prime minister and currently deputy head of the KDP

• Kamal Kirkuki, speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament

• Arsalan Baiz, deputy speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament and deputy head of PUK party

• Barhim Saleh, current prime minister and on of the top leaders of the PUK

On the ground, the students will be researching issues including, The Role of Oil in Iraq’s Federal System, The Relationship between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, The Role of the Peshmerga in Contemporary Iraqi Kurdistan, and Women’s Political Participation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Empower grant recipients will be going to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and India.  Two of the Empower recipients are graduates extending to Cuba a digital storytelling project they began in Colombia under an earlier Empower grant. Ten students will be continuing their Health Horizons work in the Dominican Republic.  And one student will be participating in Tata Jagriti Yatra. "It is an ambitious train journey of discovery and transformation that takes hundreds of India's highly motivated youth on an 18 day national odyssey. The aim is to awaken the spirit of entrepreneurship.The vision of Jagriti is to inspire young Indians living in the middle of the Indian demographic diamond to lead development by taking to enterprise."