Message from The Director
Professor William R. Moomaw,
Program Director
Center for International Environment and Resource Policy
The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP) has evolved significantly over the past four years. Aided by a large grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, we have been able to provide Fellowship support for many of our students and to support nearly 60 internships in 30 countries. We have also added new courses to the curriculum, developed new research and outreach programs, added a faculty member, an associate director, and host several research associates. A copy of our final report to the Luce Foundation [PDF] is available here on our website.
During this time, we developed our educational program around the concept of “New Diplomacy” [PDF] with an emphasis on understanding the multiple state, non-state actors, international organizations, and the increased role of the private sector in shaping international environment and resource issues. Our courses and research now explore the evolving system of global environmental governance, the multifaceted dimensions of economic, social and political globalization, security, and sustainability.
Professor Matt Kahn continues to publish a range of articles in which he finds fascinating correlations among economic, environmental, and social barriers. Professor Adil Najam continues his work on global environmental governance, consensus building and sustainability. He and I continue our roles with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report.
This year, we plan to add several useful features to our website. In addition to being able to access the many environmental, trade and human rights treaties through the Fletcher Multilaterals Project, we will be hosting several new resource sites including one on biodiversity and one on climate change, as well as direct links to Tufts University’s new water program, Water Systems Science and Society (WSSS). Additional links to resources will be provided as they are developed.
This year, we will launch our new on-line publication IDEAS Journal: International Development, Environment and Sustainability. Our new Associate Director, Mieke van der Wansem, will edit it. We hope to attract articles from our students, alumni, faculty, and staff that provide insights and point out important new concepts in all aspects of development, environment and sustainability. In addition we are adding copies of recent papers and reports that have been published by our faculty and students. I had the opportunity to be guest editor of a special issue on the environment for the journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, which contains articles by four Fletcher students plus an overview by me on the prospects for cooperation for sustainable development in the region.
CIERP is engaging in several new efforts. For example, Prof. Najam has chaired an international task force on Global Environmental Governance [PDF]; the report is co-authored by Fletcher students Nadaa Tayib and Mihaela Papa. This past 18 months, several Fletcher students, our former Assistant Director, Melissa Bailey, and the Director of the WSSS program, Dr. Paul Kirshen, spent substantial time in Central America working with the MesoAmerican Barrier Reef System on a project funded by the Global Environmental Facility and NOAA to ascertain the socioeconomic determinants of water pollution from rivers that is damaging the world’s second largest coral reef system. In the months ahead, we will be working with the Dutch government on the development of several training programs.
We will continue to make information available about jobs and internships on our website, and thank our graduates who continue to send in notices of opportunities and urge others to join in as well.
We are also about to begin the Fletcher capital campaign, and I am pleased to report that funds are being raised to endow a chair for the Center and to provide financial support for students who choose to concentrate in the field. The good news is that some funds have already been raised, and the School is supporting more of the Center’s work directly.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank Melissa Bailey who served as Assistant Director to CIERP during the past four years and did a tremendous job in developing internship opportunities, and managing the many dimensions of the Center’s activities. She is off to Tufts’ Friedman School of Nutrition to complete a PhD on the environmental implications of managing livestock. I also wish to welcome Mieke van der Wansem, who is the new Associate Director of CIERP. Mieke is a Fletcher MALD graduate, who has worked at the World Resources Institute, spent time in Cambodia, and comes to us from many years at the Consensus Building Institute. She will add considerable capacity for developing new opportunities and programs.
We look forward to a full new academic year where we will meet new students, support speakers and conferences, conduct new research, facilitate student opportunities, and remain engaged with our many alumni.
William R. Moomaw
Professor of International Environmental Policy
CIERP Program Director