Quo Vadis?

Welcome

Update! (Extracted and modified from a recent email to enrollees 9/27/03.)

We are looking forward to our first face-to-face session at 2:30 pm, Friday, October 3, 2003 in Room 209 at 139 South Main Street, Fall River. This is the second floor computer lab - not the computer lab on the third floor, nor the classroom on the third floor.

We are starting in the computer lab in order to introduce everyone to the "Quo Vadis?" Web site - although we hope many of you have already become familiar with it. (Since you're reading this here, that's a good start ;-)

In our first 50-minutes we'll deal with the mechanics of the Study Group and how to take advantage of the Web site to get the most from this activity. Then we will take a short break and move to the third floor classroom where we'll explore the role of the media in influencing us and our foreign policy decisions. We'll put particular emphasis on dissecting propaganda and the importance of visual literacy as foundational tools we need for this study.

To get a head start we recommend you do the assignment for this preliminary week and study the list of topics we'll be covering this fall so you can choose one that will be your special focus. To do this click here.

You will be asked during our first session to make a choice of three topics and list them in priority order. We'll use these choices to assign you to specific topic teams. To learn more about each topic, click on it's link found in the right hand column of this and other pages. That will bring you to one or more links about the topic. The one you want is the one that begins "Definition." Read the definitions and you will have a pretty good idea what the topic covers.

Hint: You could also type in "Definition: " in the "search" box in the right-hand column. This will give you a single page with all topic definitions, though in abreviated form with a link to the complete defintion.

Hope this is all clear. If not, feel free to ask us a question by email, Just send it to:

Greg Stone - gstone@umassd.edu Or Don Douglas - dkdouglas1@comcast.net

We look forward to meeting you in person next Friday! We can't think of a more exciting time to be studying foreign relations.

American Foreign Policy – “Quo Vadis?” - is part of "The Second Half: Lifelong Learning @ 50+" program at UMass Dartmouth. Although all are welcome to follow along on this Web site, only members of "The Second Half: Lifelong Learning @ 50+" can participate in the face-to-face sessions. To learn more about this program and it's many study groups, contact the office at 159 South Main Street, Fall River, MA by calling 508-677-4694. This particular study group will hold 10 weekly sessions from October 3 to Decembe 12, 2003 focusing on broad issues of American foreign policy, among which are:

1. ‘Alone or Together: The US and the World,”
2. “Afghanistan: a fragile peace,”
3. “The uneasy US Saudi alliance,”
4. “The US and Nigeria: thinking beyond oil,”
5. “International food wars: growing controversies,”
6. “China in transition: Is real change imminent?”
7. “Europe: state of the union,” and
8. “The global struggle for women’s rights.”

These are topics suggested by the Foreign Policy Association whose "Briefing Book: Great Decisions 2003," will be the point of departure for our study. (Second Half members enrolling in this study should purchase the book from the Second Half office for $15. It can also be purchased at the group's first meeting. Assignments in it won't be pursued until the second meeting.) You'll find links to summaries of several topics, relevant questions - and eventually comments - in the column at right under the heading "Entries by Topic." (We'll add more summaries before study sessions begin.)

Each session will be held on a Friday from 2:30 - 4:30 pm in the UMass Dartmouth facility at 139 South Main Street, Fall River, MA. (We will not meet the week of Thanksgiving. )

Under the heading "News and Views" at right you'll find links to recent news and opinion articles we feel shed some additional light on the various topics. News entries are organized by date posted (most recent at the top) and topics.

Although this site was created for a "Second Half" study group at UMass Dartmouth, all are welcome to read. If you are not part of the "Second Half" program, but would like to "audit" this study online, you can purchase the book, "Great Decisions 2003," directly from the Foreign Policy Association. [Go here.} (As noted, members of "Second Half" should get their copies from the Second Half office. ) If you wish to seriously follow along, please contact Greg Stone. You will be added to the email notification list and encouraged to participate fully in the online portion of this study. This is an ad hoc arrangement for the Web portion of this course and participation is at the discretion of the group facilitators.

If in the course of our study there arises another issue of strong interest, we are prepared for change. We hope to make group participation the core of this learning experience. Although we will NOT require the use of Internet resources, we will encourage it.

The course includes this interactive Web site where comments are encouraged on any item that is posted. Such a web site can be used to better prepare for the face-to-face session which will be held every Friday from 2:30-4:30 at the Fall River campus of UMass Dartmouth. It also can be used to follow through on discussions and activities begun in the face-to-face session. While the Study Group will officially end with the face-to-face session on December 12, 2003, there's no reason why the Web site discussions can't continue indeifnitely.

Greg and Don are latter day incarnations of the “odd couple.” One of us is a college drop-out, the other a PhD (fud). The drop-out went on to a career in journalism, public relations, free-lance writing, video production, computers and teaching on-line. The “fud” taught biology, conducted research in the physiology of marine birds (including a stint in Antarctica), and wandered for years in the arid fields of academic administration. One of us is real left-brained, the other right-brained. We both like things that fly, like birds and planes, and are avid amateur observers of the foreign policy scene.

We are very cognizant of our role as facilitators and look forward to learning from and with those who sign up for this group. The topics are all very much alive and current. The Foreign Policy Association provides a wonderful starting point with great resource materials. But we know all participants bring much to the table and we're eager to get started and see where all this leads.