Twenty-one countries around the world — one-ninth of the United Nations’ roster — do not maintain standing armies. Demilitarized states share some commonalities: (1) the decision to demilitarize, or not to have an army, always follows a pivotal moment in history (e.g. military coup, foreign invasion, reaching independence); (2) they have security arrangements with a regional hegemon and/or alliance; (3) they have not been attacked or invaded; (4) they maintain public safety and border security organizations; (5) they are consolidated democracies; and (6) they are more prosperous and spend more on healthcare, education, and socioeconomic development than their neighbors with armed forces. While “States without Armies” addresses all 21 army-less states, this conversation featuring Zoltan Barany, the Frank C. Erin, Jr., Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Laurie Nathan, professor of the practice of mediation and Mediation Program director at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, focuses on the experiences of Costa Rica, Iceland, Mauritius, Panama, and the Solomon Islands. This event will be recorded and uploaded to the Kroc Institute's YouTube channel. Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

               The Pulte Institute for Global Development invites you to join Paul Perrin, Evidence and Learning Director and Keough School Associate Professor of the Practice, and Rachel Svetanoff (MS'15), Visiting Associate of Policy and Practice, for a discussion centered on the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in American policy—including here in Indiana. Just ahead of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly, Rachel and Paul will share research insights exploring the potential of the SDG framework to support municipal- and state-level development across the Hoosier state, and open a dialogue on the critical importance of global-to-local learnings, cultivating bipartisanship in development, and creating opportunities for vulnerable populations in the U.S. and around the world.About the Presenters Paul Perrin leads the Pulte Institute's Evidence and Learning Division and is an international health, humanitarian, and development research and practice professional with over a decade of work experience in academic, government, and non-governmental settings. To date, his work has largely focused on supporting the conceptualization, design, implementation, analysis, and reporting on monitoring and evaluation and implementation science activities in resource-challenged environments. He has extensive experience in adult education and technical writing, including briefings for senior government officials, peer-reviewed publications, and technical reports. Prior to joining the Pulte Institute, Perrin served as the director for monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning at Catholic Relief Services (CRS). He has also worked as senior technical advisor for health research and evaluation at CRS, and an information officer at the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). During his tenure at USAID, Perrin served as editor-in-chief for two of the office’s annual reports, an information coordinator for the Haiti earthquake response management team, and provided information support to the Europe, Middle East, and Central Asia team. Perrin completed his Ph.D. in international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a certificate in humanitarian assistance. He also holds a master's in public health and a bachelor's of arts in linguistics from Brigham Young University.Rachel Svetanoff is an award-winning activist and social entrepreneur with a history of supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by mobilizing resources for 120 organizations across 37 countries. She currently holds a Visiting Associateship of Policy & Practice at the University of Notre Dame Pulte Institute for Global Development where she is conducting local U.S. policy research on the SDGs in collaboration with the Pulte Institute's Director of Evidence and Learning,  Paul Perrin. This research collaboration aims to broadly inform decisionmakers, civil society actors, and the public about the applicability of the SDGs as a guiding framework for municipal-level development and as a pathway for cultivating bi-partisanship on international and local development.In her entrepreneurial pursuits, Rachel founded the SDG advocacy youth organization Global Futurist Initiative™, the community development consortium Project Energy for Life Cameroon, and her consulting practice where the SDGs are intrinsic to her operations. Through consulting, Rachel worked for institutions such as UNICEF USA, Sesame Street, Johnson & Johnson, Fashion Community Foundation, and Friends U.S. of the Global Fund to foster strategic partnerships for advancing their SDGs objectives. Rachel has held appointments that have also enabled her to promote the SDGs including the United Nations Association of the USA, International Monetary Fund, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Foreign Policy for America, and the AFS Intercultural Programs Youth Assembly. Born and raised in Indiana, Rachel received her BS in Chemistry and MBA from Purdue University and her MS in Global Health from Notre Dame. Originally published at pulte.nd.edu.

Professor Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses joins the Keough-Naughton Institute as a visiting fellow for the fall 2024 semester. As part of his project, Through Foreign Eyes, he will deliver the lecture, "Ireland in 1939: from the anti-partition struggle to the 'Emergency.'" A welcome reception for Prof. Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses will follow the lecture from 5:00 - 6:00 pm in the Institute's main office, 3130 Jenkins Nanovic Halls.  Lecture Abstract A first reflection on the ongoing Through Foreign Eyes project, this lecture will explain the purpose of the ongoing research and its immediate future. It will consider in detail the foreign diplomatic coverage of Irish politics in 1939 from the point of view of Dublin-based foreign diplomats who represented very different regimes, and who interpreted Irish affairs accordingly. Speaker Biography Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses is Professor of History at Maynooth University and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has published extensively on contemporary Portugal and the Portuguese colonial empire, including a biography of dictator António de Oliveira Salazar (2nd edition: Routledge 2023). His latest project, Through Foreign Eyes, attempts to collate, translate, edit and interpret foreign diplomatic documentation about Ireland since its independence. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

Ross Douthat is an American political analyst, blogger, author and New York Times columnist. He was a senior editor of The Atlantic. He is the author of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery,” which was published in October 2021. His other books include “To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism,” published in 2018; “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” (2012); “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class” (2005); “The Decadent Society” (2020); and, with Reihan Salam, “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” (2008). He is the film critic for National Review. Co-sponsors: Democracy Initiative, Department of Political Science, Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy -- Join in Friday afternoons on home football weekends for lectures by national leaders, journalists, and writers on questions of meaning, values, and purpose. Each lecture will take place in the Geddes Hall Andrews Auditorium followed by reception and book signing.Learn more

Faculty organist Kola Owolabi performs works by Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Scott Whiteley, and Louis Vierne. This concert is free and open to the public. Originally published at music.nd.edu.

Author Jan Carson will read from and discuss her new short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses (Scribner, July 2024).Book Description:  A surreal and darkly comic collection of stories that offer a fresh and irreverent look at life in contemporary Northern Ireland from “one of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation” (The Sunday Times, London). Humorous and horrifying, tender and absurd, the stories in Quickly, While They Still Have Horses offer a fresh, irreverent look at life in post-conflict Northern Ireland. From first loves to strained relationships, the thrills and terrors of growing up to the dangers and challenges of parenthood, Carson infuses all her stories with empathy, dark wit, and a surreal edge. In “A Certain Degree of Ownership,” a distracted couple on a beach fail to notice their baby crawl perilously toward the sea. In “Grand So,” the ghost of a car’s previous owner haunts the backseat. In “Troubling the Water,” a rumor of miraculous healing creates chaos at a public swimming pool. Carson never fails to shock and delight as kids go missing in jungle gyms, a baby washes up on a riverbank in a biscuit tin, and a bloody hand appears (and reappears) in a refrigerator. Every so often, these stories travel into alternate versions of our world where pillars of fire are a new treatment for mental illness and animals deemed nonessential are going extinct by legislative orders. While the legacy of the Troubles is never far from Carson’s mind, it is only a backdrop to the worlds she’s woven in these stories, driven by characters who feel real enough to touch. This stunning collection marks the arrival of a “bracingly fresh, darkly funny, [and] unwaveringly compassionate” (The Irish News) writer to North American readers.Speaker Biography Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was recently published by Scribner in July 2024. This event is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program.   Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.