A book for the younger generations

You've heard this before: SAIS Bologna students learn inside and outside the classroom. This year the Bologna Institute for Policy Research (BIPR) is teaming up with city's best known international book store to spread the word outside the four walls of via Belmeloro 11.

Earlier this month, SAIS Bologna Prof. John Harper launched his latest book, The Cold War, at an event organized by BIPR and hosted by Feltrinelli International at their teeming book store in the center of Bologna. It followed on the footsteps of the recent launch of Prof. Mark Gilbert's book, European Integration: A Concise History.

Prof. John Harper

A pillar of SAIS Bologna's faculty, Prof. Harper has taught American foreign policy to several generations of students (including my colleague Nelson Graves).

We took the opportunity to ask Prof. Harper some questions.

Q: What is your book about?
Harper: It's a narrative history of the East-West conflict known as the Cold War. That is, it covers the period 1945-90 approximately but includes historical background on the two major protagonists of the story, Russia and the United States.

Q: How did the book come about? 
Harper: The book was commissioned by Oxford University Press in the UK to be part of their new "Oxford Histories" series. I was happy to accept their offer since I have been teaching the subject for many years.

Q: Who would enjoy reading the book?
Harper: The book is mainly designed for students and other young people (like my daughters, aged 19 and 26) for whom the subject is something they heard their parents and grandparents talking about but didn't live first-hand. It tries to explain, among other things, why the world lived on nuclear tenterhooks for much of the 45-50 year period in question, but also why the Cold War remained "cold" at least as far as Europe was concerned.

Q: What role has SAIS played in your book?
Harper: SAIS played a role in that some of the material in the book is based on lectures given in my classes on U.S. foreign policy, and there were a number of students who assisted with the research along the way.

Q: Your next work?
Harper: My next book will be a study focusing on a crucial moment in the Cold War, early 1950, something I did not have sufficient time and space (the book is a compact history) to explore.

Amina Abdiuahab

Books by SAIS Bologna professors: Perspectives on the world

In an earlier post, Kathryn Knowles of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research mentioned a series of faculty book presentations in the Spring semester.

Yesterday, Mark Gilbert, a history professor at SAIS Bologna, kicked off the presentations by launching his new book, European Integration: A Concise History, at Feltrinelli International, Bologna's top international bookshop.

Prof. Gilbert's was the first of six book presentations by SAIS professors from now through October. The other professors releasing books are John Harper, Karim Mezran, Richard Pomfret, David Unger and David Ellwood. Stay tuned for more details on their presentations.

Before his book launch, I sat down with Prof. Gilbert and asked a few questions.

Professor Gilbert discusses his book

Q: In a few words, what is your book about?
Gilbert: It's the story of how European countries pooled their national sovereignty first in the European Community, and since 1992, in the European Union. It is an attempt to look at the complexities of this historical process as far as possible objectively.

Q: How did the book come about? What inspired you? 
Gilbert: I was curious. This book is a revised and updated edition of an earlier work I published in 2003. At the time I was living in two countries, Italy and the UK, which had very contrasting views on the European Union. Italy was very positive about European unity whereas the UK was not. I wanted to research in more detail to understand what could lead the two nations to have such different views on the European Union.

Q: How does this book differ from your earlier works?
Gilbert: It's more complex and it has a broader scope than my previous books, which concentrated on specific moments of Italian history and politics. This edition of the book is also very different from the first edition. It is more dubious about the European Union's prospects and to some extent can be read as a "revisionist" account of the EU's history.

Q: Who would read your book?
Gilbert: This book will mostly interest students of European politics and contemporary European history. That said, I think it's a book for anyone who wants to learn about the European Union and the policies of integration. I would like school teachers to read it.

Q: Why school teachers?

Gilbert: Too often school teachers come to a halt in 1945 and treat more recent times as current events.

Q: In your introduction you thank a SAIS Bologna alumna. What role did she play?
Gilbert: Marijn Hoijitink, was my research assistant last year. Her diligence and competency were a great contribution to the book. She helped me improve a couple of chapters by finding published sources I hadn't used in the first edition and by updating the chronology at the beginning. She proof-read several chapters.

Q: And finally, what will your next book be?
Gilbert: The next book will be about "Europe in the Cold War." The idea is to give an overview of the main phases of the Cold War as it affected European countries, but to concentrate on the intellectual debates generated by the conflict. It is still in its early stages, however. I have about 60,000 words, and a detailed road map, but have a tendency to go off the route set for me. Still, I usually get to my destination in the end!

Amina Abdiuahab

Meet Prof. Mark Gilbert

History. How old fashioned, right?

Well, no.

Just try to make sense of what is happening in the euro zone without knowing some history. How many of you are convinced you have a firm understanding of how the Arab Spring came about without some knowledge of history?

As SAIS, there is no history concentration per se. History is intertwined with just about everything that is studied. It is a thread that stretches through every concentration.

Prof. Mark Gilbert grew up near Lincoln in England. He teaches intellectual and political history at SAIS Bologna. He is the latest professor to be profiled in this blog.

What courses are you teaching?
"Intellectuals & Politics" and "The End of European Imperialism" in the Fall Semester; "Peace & War" and "Europe in the Cold War" in the Spring Semester

Your degrees?
BA in Politics from Durham University; Ph.D in contemporary history from the University of Wales

Where have you taught?
Dickinson College (Pennsylvania), University of Bath (UK), University of Trento (Italy)

How long have you been teaching at SAIS Bologna?
Since 1999 as an adjunct at varous times; since September 2010 as a full-time member of staff

A link to a recent publication/oped/academic work by you?
http://www.amazon.com/European-Integration-Mark-F-Gilbert/dp/0742566641

Anything special about SAIS Bologna?
The sense of community, definitely. And not just between current faculty and students. The alumni really care about the Center's future and are a pleasure to meet.

Anything special about Bologna?
The warmth and generosity of the Bolognesi, which belongs to another age. The reds and ochres of the walls at sunset. Mind you, it is less clean and tidy than it used to be.

Your favorite book?
"War and Peace" or "Homage to Catalonia". I can never decide between the two. Anything by Tom Wolfe. Jane Austen, C.P. Snow, Tolkien, Leonardo Sciascia's "Candido", Vaclav Havel. Biographies. The first volume of Robert Skidelsky's biography of Keynes is a marvel. So is Michael Ignatieff's biography of Isaiah Berlin, which is a book I should have loved to have written myself.  

Hobbies?
Mountain walking, snowshoeing, listening to jazz, theatre, squash before my knees caved in, cycling since. Travelling, of course.

A quote?
I'm doing this from memory, but Giovanni Guareschi, the author of the Don Camillo stories, says somewhere that "people in the city rush everywhere, hastening to save every single second and don't realize they are throwing a lifetime away." I think this is true and it is worse now than when he was writing (the 1950s).

Letters of recommendation: an expert's view

Today: letters of recommendation

Like the statement of purpose, letters of recommendation are a chance to have your special qualities and motivations shine through. Even though you do not control the content to the same extent, you can have a major influence on what your "referees" write.

SAIS requires two letters. Many candidates, particularly those graduating this year or who finished their undergraduate studies recently, will tap two professors. Candidates who have been out of university for some time will want to ask for a professional reference.

(Can you submit a third reference? Yes, you can.)

Under our new online application system, the "referees" (ie, the authors of the letters) can submit them online or via mail. If they come through mail, they should be in a sealed, official envelope with the author's signature across the seal. This ensures confidentiality.

Prof. Mark Gilbert

Prof. Mark Gilbert has written loads of letters of reference. We turned to him for his thoughts on the do's and don't's.

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Q: You have written letters of recommendation for many students. How does a student know if it is appropriate to approach you for a letter of recommendation? How well do you have to know a student before you will write a letter?

Gilbert: I will normally write a long letter of reference for a student who has completed a course with me. I like to be able to comment on a person's writing skills and character before I write anything on his or her behalf. I have made a handful of exceptions to this rule, but only for students whose contribution to a class has been out of the ordinary and who really needed, as opposed to wanted, an early reference. Note, too, I talk of letters of reference, not recommendation. I think a letter that shows a full knowledge of the person you are talking about, even if it may contain some criticism, is more "authentic" in the eyes of the people who read them.

Q: What do you like to know about the student and their plans before you write a letter?

Gilbert: I always ask students to give me a short CV and explain to me the nature of the internship or job that they are applying for. When looking over candidates for admission to SAIS, I greatly preferred to read letters from professors who clearly knew the person they were recommending well and who also could relate the student to SAIS and its programme. A generic note saying "Ms X is a very nice person who works hard and got good grades in my class" is helpful, but hardly convincing. I think letters to be effective need to be crafted individually for a given student. Professors at German universities, in my experience, are very good at this. They seem really to care about their students' future and are stern yet just about their personalities and abilities.

Q: Do you share the letter with the student or is it confidential? If it is confidential, why so?

Gilbert: I have never shared the contents of a letter with a student except once by necessity -- the would-be employer (the Danish government) remarkably wanted the candidate, rather than me, to send the letters as .pdf files in her dossier. Since it was a prestigious opportunity for this student, for whom I have a very high regard, I acquiesced, but I wasn't happy about it. I think letters of reference should be confidential.

Q: How much time in advance of a deadline do you like a request for a letter of recommendation to come to you? Are you annoyed if students check up on the status of the letter?

Gilbert: I would certainly not be irritated if a student checked up on me, while I certainly like students to give me ample warning that they would like a letter to be written on their behalf. The reason in both cases is the same: I have a lot to do and letters have to be fitted into everything else I'm doing. I normally write letters quickly once I've agreed to do them, but when you are doing a lot of things, it can happen that you forget one. So stay on my case.

Q: Do you prefer to mail your letters or to download them online?

Gilbert: Download. I am normally technophobic, but  I find that the online systems are very well done and persuade you to write the reference quickly. It seems like less hassle. Like writing an email.

Q: Any pitfalls or fatal errors you would warn applicants against when it comes to letters of reference?

Gilbert: Avoid letters from people who talk about themselves and how important their institution is and who then add in the final paragraph, sometimes in these very words, "This person has studied with me, therefore you should take her." What does this imply? It implies that students should judge the character of their letter writers carefully and avoid the pompous, the megalomaniac, and the vainglorious. I'm tempted to add that in academia at least this implies that the pool of potential letter writers is a small one....

Nelson Graves

Enthusiasm and thoughtfulness: a winning combination

Meet Christina Politi.

Christina recently graduated from SAIS Bologna and, like most Bologna Center students, will be spending the second year of her master's program at SAIS Washington starting in August.

Consider Christina's background. She was born in Athens and outside her native Greece has lived in Australia, Brussels, Tokyo and the United States. She received a B.S. from Georgetown with a GPA of 3.9 and also a Certificate in International Business Diplomacy.

In the summer of 2009, she interned in Athens for the National Center for Scientific Research “DEMOKRITOS”. She was on the Board of the Georgetown International Relations Club and was also active in the school’s Hellenic Association. She speaks Greek, English, French and Spanish, and received a fellowship from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to attend SAIS.

The range of Christina's experiences and her accomplishments speak volumes about the kind of student who decides to come to SAIS. We are looking for individuals who want to make a difference on the international stage and who are equipping themselves with the tools to do so.

Christina won one of three C. Grove Haines awards for academic excellence that were given out last month at SAIS Bologna graduation. I thought you might be interested in reading the work that won Christina the prize.

Christina Politi receives her
C. Grove Haines award from
Prof. Mark Gilbert

Before showing you the winning essay, a word of background. Christina wrote the paper in a course taught by Prof. Mark Gilbert entitled, "Europe in the Cold War". Here is a thumbnail description of the course, which is part of the European Studies concentration:

Beginning with the outcome and consequences of World War II, this course will examine the major trends and developments in the politics of Western Europe during the Cold War (1945–1991). Topics treated include the Stalinization of Eastern Europe, European integration, decolonization, the events of 1968, democratization in the Mediterranean, the transatlantic relationship and Europe’s role in the shaping of East-West relations. The course concludes with the great events of 1989-1992 in Central (and Western) Europe. The course is taught partly by illustrated lectures, partly by discussion of articles, books, original documents and films.

Christina reaches a sobering conclusion in her 14-page essay, entitled, "American Intervention in Greece 1946-64".

: "...[T]he United States had without a doubt, through passive and active involvement, a profound impact on the political, economic, and military development of Greece."

How is this relevant today?  "In fact, the roots of the current crisis [in Greece] are to be found in the immediate postwar history of the country.... Patronage and corruption have continued to plague the country, inhibiting economic growth as well as deeply needed structural reform of the socio-economic and political system."

In the words of Prof. Gilbert: "Christina Politi's essay was the work of a student who was able to research and write dispassionately on a subject she deeply cared about. I hope that future students will show the same enthusiasm and comparable thoughtfulness."

Here is Christina's paper as she submitted it to Prof. Gilbert.

Enjoy. Feel free to send in your comments.

Nelson Graves