After working for three years in New York as a management consultant at the Monitor Group, I returned north to study international law. Like a smattering of my Fletcher classmates, I am enrolled in a joint JD / MALD program. Last year, I studied contracts and torts at Boston College Law School. This year, I am studying international investment law and public international law at Fletcher.

The decision on whether to do a joint degree was a big tricky. Technically speaking, there is nothing that one can do with a joint JD / MALD that one would not be able to do with simply a JD. I had also already done an M.Phil at Cambridge after graduating from Harvard.

A month or so into Fletcher I feel comfortable that I made the right decision. While it may be true that one needs only a JD (and a passing bar exam) to practice law in the U.S., I feel confident that attending Fletcher will help me to clear a path towards my ultimate goal, which is to practice international law, either in private practice or for a U.S. governmental agency.

The students at Fletcher are incredibly diverse and interesting. From a professional standpoint, however, I think I have been most impressed by the faculty and the career services staff. My professors, in particular, have been wonderful about giving me practical advice in terms of how to pursue a career in international law – a field which often tends to be a bit murky.

This has been a pretty “serious” blog. I’ll try and inject a bit more levity down the road…

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My first post with Fletcher Reflections; so, a little background:

Before arriving at Orientation last month and answering “where are you from?” “What were you doing before Fletcher?” and “What will be your areas of study?” nearly 382 times, I was in East Africa ending a six month journey from South Africa to Ethiopia. The trip was almost entirely by bus – one cheater flight from Nairobi to Addis Ababa – and allowed me a variety of experiences in development and research work, and saw me through 10 nations and an incredible exchange of cultures.

In terms of a body of work, I’ve been a chef (well, at McDonald’s…), a painter (as in houses), a teacher (in Ethiopia), a policy analyst (for a pro-choice non-profit), and an investigator (at an anti-spam Internet law firm). Most of these experiences are synthesizing nicely thus far at Fletcher and my classes are giving me a great academic foundation in Communications Policy, International Law, and Economics. It’s amazing how cohesive the learning experience has been so far, in terms of every class, everything I read, every speech I attend, and even social interactions contributing to furthering my knowledge of these topics.

Regarding the speeches: there’s never a shortage of amazing, experienced guests who are here to discuss their life in International Relations at Fletcher. Most recently, I attended a speech by Afif Safieh, the Palestinian Ambassador to the US. Some other students and I met Mr. Safieh outside Carmichael Hall as the sun set on another day of Ramadan. He then joined us for a break-fast dinner organized by Pathways, an inter-faith initiative here at Tufts sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. Though Mr. Safieh and I aren’t Muslim, we enjoyed the food and the spirit of an event that was well-designed in terms of bringing people of many faiths together and educating them on the traditions of Islam’s holy month.

We then brought the ambassador to his spot at the podium in Barnum Hall and settled in for an engaging talk on his history in the Palestinian liberation movement and ways forward amidst the many conflicts in the region. The New Initiative for Middle East Peace organized this event and made sure there was room for a dialogue for students and an informative exchange between Mr. Safieh and other regional-experts. It was an amazing night, characterized by both optimism for progress and a dose of reality regarding the situation in Palestine. When I spoke with him after, Ambassador Safieh even found space for a great joke:

“You know an ambassador has a lot in common with a camel: A camel can work for 10 days without drinking and an Ambassador can drink for ten days without working.”

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I mentioned in my last post that I would be attending a talk by Sarah Chayes on her new book: The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban. Hands down, it’s the best talk I’ve ever been to at Fletcher. She’s a fascinating person with interesting anecdotes and a great world view. Chayes is excited to tell her stories from her reporting days in Kosovo and Afghanistan and she is passionate about her work as a journalist, or rather, former journalist. She is also tremendously excited about her new work–running Arghand, a non-profit organization she helped found in Kandahar, that produces a line of fine soaps.

Last night, Chayes spoke of the myriad of problems plaguing post-conflict Afghanistan, particularly the lack of development of the rule of law. While being critical of actions taken by the U.S. in post-conflict Afghanistan, Chayes argued that all of the international actors involved in Afghanistan today–NATO, the UN, the U.S. government, EU, NGOs and non-profits–need to work together in order to effectively build capacity and help the Afghani people build the kind of democracy they want. She noted there are “different styles of democracy, but we shouldn’t be confused by the process.”

Chayes is making the book tour circuit for another month or two and if this brief description of her talk doesn’t convince you to the buy book, check out the review in The New York Times. It should be a great read and you’d be supporting an amazing woman who is devoting her time and energy to helping others.

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Emails that I have received today:
*An announcement about upcoming study tours in Cuba open to Fletcher students;
*An announcement about a weekend-long international security crisis simulation for Fletcher students;
*Student announcements about human rights, economics and development club activities;
*Four speaking events, including a former NPR correspondent now working in Afghanistan, an ambassador, and the former Israeli National Security Advisor;
*Emails planning a group presentation for my international relations theory class and brainstorming a paper topic for my course on humanitarian aid;
*Links to articles about two Fletcher alums who are candidates to be the next UN Secretary General;
*An announcement of a student panel on summer internship experiences in international organizations; and
*An invitation for twenty students to meet privately with WTO Secretary-General Pascal Lamy.

It is pretty neat to be at Fletcher.

About two months ago, I returned from Phnom Penh, Cambodia where I spent the past year researching labor dispute resolution with a local NGO. Being back in Boston is quite a change, but a really exciting one. Being back in school feels the same, and I’m looking forward to blogging about the experience over the next couple of years.

Among other things, I’m at Fletcher to study the role and impact of UN institutions on the ground in developing countries, and came to Fletcher to learn from professors and fellow students about their experiences and observations in this regard. I’ve been here a month, and feel far from disappointed. Everyone around me has so much of value to say and share, such great insights and such great questions, whether they come in course lectures, public speeches or over a pitcher of beer in a local pub. It’s pretty exciting to find a group of freinds whose idea of a good time is having a late-night debate about Iranian gender politics in a local bar or a discussion about East African pastoral practices on the t. But if that’s your thing, then Fletcher’s your place. I, for one, can’t get enough.

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Hello cyberspace! My name is Carly Fowler, and I am a first year MALD student at the Fletcher School. After just one month, I already introduce myself like a Fletcherite, so that must mean I’m starting to get the hang of things. A little about me: at the age of 24, I skew a bit young on the Fletcher spectrum. I graduated in 2005 from the College of the Holy Cross, where I studied German and History, and my year between higher education experiences was spent in Vienna, Austria, where I had a Fulbright grant to study multi-lateral diplomacy and teach English. I came to Fletcher to study Human Rights and International Organizations and how the former can be improved through the latter.

Anyway, my first month at Fletcher has gone by so quickly that I can’t believe we are already entering the fourth week of classes. It’s been a whirlwind tour thus far; not even the most comprehensive orientation can get a person ready to be bombarded with the most interesting, intelligent, and unique group of people ever to be brought together under one roof (series of connected roofs…?), hundreds of pages of reading, and thousands of emails a day advertising events about topics that you never thought you’d be interested in, but suddenly you need to know more about (especially if said event involves free pizza at lunchtime!)

Fletcher has truly become my 9-5 job. Actually, it has become my 7:45-7:30 job (on Wednesdays anyway.) At first the schedule was a bit overwhelming, but I have already started to love the atmosphere at school. Classes are extremely engaging and fly by, and in the downtime, you can always find an interesting person to talk to. Students are very supportive of each other, and the exchange of ideas and experiences, whether through an outdoor conversation or a debate on the social listserv, is definitely my favorite part of being at Fletcher thus far.

I think that’s enough for a first posting. Future updates/ruminations to come. Thanks for reading!

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A pleasure to join the community of Fletcher bloggers! My name is Matan Chorev, and I am a second-year MALD student with a concentration in International Security Studies and Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilizations. A native of Israel, I join the cadre of Fletcher students with multiple overlapping identities. Like many of peers, I find my intellectual interests intersecting with my interpersonal ones. At our school study is sometimes so intense that we rarely have the chance to sit together and discuss the world’s complex problem in a student only forum. Sometimes we vent our frustrations on the social listserve, other times we engage one another in one-on-one sessions.

This week, some of my classmates launched an impressive effort to create a weekly forum for students to discuss current events. Adopted from a weekly forum they joined during their internship in Lebanon, the students tinkered with the format to suit Fletcher and held their first event this week. I was asked to help introduce the topic – the nuclear standoff with Iran – alongside my friend, Ali Omar. We found ourselves quickly perplexed by the basic questions of international relations – how to balance normative notions of rightness with the continuance of balance of power politics. Although we never reached a moment of reconciliation, I think the participants – numbering around twenty students – came away better informed by their classmates’ insights.

I think this effort will transform the way we engage as students, colleagues, and friends. I look forward to the next session!

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You know the school year is in full swing when the number of lectures and talks start to increase exponentially. There really are so many going on all around you–at Fletcher, KSG (Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government), MIT, Harvard–it’s impossible to attend all of the one’s you’re interested in, so it’s really necessary to be choosy in deciding who you want to see and what you want to hear.

This past Friday, I attended a KSG Forum with President Stejpan Mesic of Croatia and President Boris Tadic of Serbia. The Balkan Mafia was in effect and it was fun for me to be there as I now can catch snippets of conversations in Croatian or Serbian and have a general idea what people are saying. While the lectures themselves weren’t thaaaat interesting (as I often find is the case with senior officials or heads of state), I still believe there is value in attending as it’s important to see what politicians are like in person. Neither Tadic nor Mesic said anything new or astounding during the talk, but slight tensions between the two were visible, despite the fact that they generally have an amicable relationship. Perhaps it just goes to show the tensions that still exist in the Balkans today and how it will still be some years before these dissipate. Notably, Tadic has a great sense of humor and had the audience laughing several times, particularly when he tried to sidestep a question on Kosovo by deferring to Mesic first. Now that I write it, it doesn’t sound so funny, so maybe you just had to be there….

Tonight I’ll be hearing another distinguished diplomat speak for Professor Babbitt’s International Mediation course. Ambassador Alvaro De Soto, UN Under-Secretary General and UN Special Representative to the Middle East will be speaking with us about different international conflict mediation’s he’s been involved with over the years. From Peru, De Soto has worked in El Salvador, Burma, Cyprus and now the Middle East so his talk should give us insight into the role of the UN as mediator, but also the role of the individual in mediation.

Next up: a dinner presentation by Sarah Chayes, a former NPR correspondent who started her own NGO in Kandahar, Afghanistan and has been living there since 2002. She’ll be discussing her new book The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban. Incidentally, Chayes is also the daughter of Fletcher Professor Antonia Chayes, whose course on Conflict Management I took last year. She’s a very proud mother and would often speak about the work her daughter was doing in Afghanistan. Should be another interesting discussion.

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Introductions First: Hi, I’m Saba, a Pakistani-American and recently oriented MALD student at the Fletcher school. I attended New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business where I majored in accounting and economics. After graduating, I took an Audit Associate position at PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. where I was a member of the Investment Management Practice. After about two years there, I did an internship at the United Nations Capital Development Fund in their Special Unit for Microfinance. I am pursuing Development Economics and International Business Relations as my two fields of study while at Fletcher since I am particularly intersted in Microfinance. I am also currently working towards my C.P.A license. I decided against getting an M.B.A. since I knew that at Fletcher, I could get the business background I need with the added bonus of cross registering at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan while also gaining a “global perspective” on international affairs. Beyond the academic, I like to play scrabble, watch foreign films, dance and eat napolean hats from the Danish pastry cafe.
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I’ve only been at Fletcher for three weeks thusfar and have spent about two of those weeks doing homework for Professor Klein’s Quantitative Methods module. I didn’t realize that the quantitative reasoning requirement was only made mandatory starting this academic year which I guess is a mixed blessing; I know the material covered in the course will be useful to me in my other economics and business classes going forward, but it is my most homework intensive class and prevents me from my other noble pursuits such as watching mindless television and alphabetizing my CD’s. Nonetheless, we had our midterm on Friday which went quite well I think and so Friday night after going to PJ Ryan’s for the unofficial/official Fletcher happy hour, Maggie, Sue, Justin, and I migrated to the North End for some serious Italian food followed by dancing at the Living Room. It was an awesome night the effects of which lasted until late Saturday evening. It was also great to get far away from school after a week of intense studying and go into the city and see what Boston has to offer.

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Today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic year. This month has significance for Muslims the world over, as they engage in a monthlong fast to celebrate the first revelation of the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad. It is a month to remember one’s piety, through the medium of fasting and special prayers. The fast begins at dawn, at a certain calculated time that changes from day to day, and ends right at sunset. During the daylight hours, those who participate in the fast are forbidden from eating, drinking and smoking. Before breaking the fast in the evening hours, special prayers are offered. The day after the end of Ramadan is called Eid, and is a special day of festivity.

Students at Fletcher who observe Ramadan celebrate with each other, and with the greater Flethcher/Tufts community. There is an Islamic Center on campus, that has the special iftar dinners and is open to anyone who wishes to attend. In addition, the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Tufts University holds dinners each night during Ramadan. Fletcher students typically attend these events, and also hold potluck dinners at each other’s houses close to campus.

This year, for the first time, I have decided to participate in the Ramadan fast, though I am not a member of the Islamic faith. As a Hindu, I fast during the summer month of Shravan, but the dietary restrictions are different during that fast. This past summer, I was unable to keep the fast of Shravan due to extenuating circumstances. Therefore, I decided to join my Muslim friends and colleagues here at Fletcher to experience what the fast of Ramadan is like. There is a large community of Ramadan observers here (close to 30 according to some casual estimates), so the support network is quite large. Last night, I received coaching on the important 4am meal, tips for passing the day without water (this will undoubtedly be the most challenging aspect ), and advice for massive rehydration once the sun has set. Although this will probably be fairly painful in the beginning, there are millions of people around the world who observe this fast in much more difficult conditions (the heat of an Arabian summer…ouch)

Here’s hoping that I last throughout the month, and manage to maintain focus and determination. I’m looking forward to sharing dinner with the other participating members of the Fletcher comunity, and learning more about the fast, the special prayers that are said during this month, and the social aspect of fasting and breaking the fast together. I will certainly keep you updated!

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I had a minor out-of-body experience today. Through the Fletcher social listserv, I had learned of a pair of seminars that were being held at the Fairbank Center at Harvard on “Visual Culture in Modern China.” And let me tell you, the prospect of learning about the “brief sanctification of mangoes” and, in a separate lecture, an analysis of violence and pain in Chinese art already had me pretty psyched up. But I never expected that Carma Hinton would be in the audience…

Most Westerners who live in or study China at some point learn of the Hinton family. They were in China at a time when hardly any other Westerners were, and they have chronicled their experiences in ways that shed much-needed light on one of the most enigmatic periods of Chinese history. In other words, for a person like me, seeing Carma Hinton in person would be like a student of physics running into Einstein…or a budding economist just happening across Adam Smith. It was surreal; and yet, for all her vitality and fascinating comments, she projected the humility of a person who had known nothing but anonymity her whole life.

And while just seeing Ms. Hinton would have been blog-worthy all by itself, as a new arrival in Boston, I must add that the dynamics of the group overall at the lecture today were stunning. As I mentioned, the subject matter was on the esoteric side, and yet the crowd had no fewer than 30 people – the majority of whom were Chinese-speaking, from every corner of the world and every age group! And if their questions and comments were any indication, they came from specialties ranging from film studies to art history to politics, sociology, and law. It’s not every city that could field a team like that on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

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