As the spring semester draws to a close, the MacMillan Center family is able to look back on four months of substantial accomplishment. Our new Jackson Institute for Global Affairs announced the appointment of Rakesh Mohan as Senior Fellow. Mohan is one of India’s preeminent economists and he will provide a wealth of knowledge and experience of the Indian banking and financial system to colleagues and students.
Our councils and programs continue to provide compelling events for the Yale community, as you will see in the pages of this newsletter – the proposal for the Health Impact Fund to expand access to essential medicines; a lecture on luxury commodities in Late Ming China; a conference that explored social conflict and environmental change; and David Brooks’s view of the current state of U.S.-Mexican relations.
Several international luminaries have spoken at the MacMillan Center. Judge Richard Goldstone, known most recently for his examination of war crimes committed on both sides during Israel’s three-week invasion of Gaza in the winter of 2009, gave his perspective on accountability for war crimes. Somini Sengupta, former Delhi Bureau Chief of The New York Times, gave a moving speech on the paradox of childhood today in India, and the threat it poses to India’s future. The recent past president of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, spoke on the role of education in post-Soviet development.
Looking ahead, we are all eagerly anticipating the official opening of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs this coming fall under the leadership of James Levinsohn, the Charles W. Goodyear Professor in Global Affairs. The Institute will assume responsibility for the University’s core teaching programs in the area of contemporary global affairs, expanding the undergraduate International Studies major and elevating the master’s program in International Relations. I hope and expect that the Institute will quickly become a major center for analysis and discussion of global affairs through active programs of public lectures, conferences, and workshops.
My best wishes to you for an enjoyable summer.
— Ian Shapiro, Henry R. Luce Director