RC37 - Rethinking Political Development

On the agenda: WC2023 results, new board election, future plans

Dear Participants of Dhaka IPSA Regional Workshop/Conference, Please accept my belated appreciation for making the IPSA Regional Conference in Bangladesh, Feb. 1-2, 2014, a success. It could not have happened without your commitment to take active part in the Workshop and engaging in thoughtful deliberations. I applaud Drs. Zaidi Sattar, Sadiq Ahmed and Ahsan Mansur of Policy Research Institute, and Ambassadors Farooq Sobhan and Humayun Kabir of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, for jointly hosting the Workshop on behalf of their Institutes. And I deeply appreciate the warmth and hospitality of Ambassador Rashed Ahmed and Mrs. Nilufer Ahmed for a sumptuous Dinner in their home for all participants after a demanding 7 hr. Workshop from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm on February 1, 2014. I give a special vote of thanks to paper presenters from abroad: Professor and Dr. Theodore Wright, Professor Emeritus of SUNY and his physician wife; Professor Mark Farha of Georgetown University; Professor Yan Vaslavskiy of Moscow State University (Institute of International Relations); Professor C.P. Barthwal, Former Vice Chancellor, Kumaun University, India; Dr. Tazeen Murshid, Center for Development Research and Cooperation, Belgium; Ms. Rana Tiwari of Rana Tiwari Law Offices, USA; Professor Upendra Choudhury of Aligarh Muslim University, India; Mr. Hassan Mneimneh of German Marshall Fund, USA, and Doctoral Candidate Abdul Gaffar of JN University, India. I thank the IPSA Travel Grants Committee for supporting Inter-World Congress Workshops/Conferences organized by my Research Committee in 2007 (Bangladesh), 2010(Bangladesh), 2011(USA) and 2014(Bangladesh). Thank you Ms. Claude Berlinguette (Asst. to the Secretary General, IPSA) for easing the partial travel grants process for the last Workshop/Regional Conference in Dhaka.

I heartily thank a number of current and former public policy makers/implementers of Bangladesh who made time to participate in the inaugural and concluding sessions of the Workshop. I am particularly thankful to Professor Rehman Sobhan, founder of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and former Economic Adviser of Interim Government of Bangladesh, and Honorable Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, who respectively inaugurated the 1st and 2nd Day of Dhaka IPSA Workshop. Thanks to Ambassador Rashed Ahmed, former UN Chief of Mission in Kosovo, for an insightful review of my keynote paper. My special thanks to Ambassador Farooq Sobhan for chairing the inaugural session of the Dhaka IPSA Workshop, and my former student, Ambassador Humayun Kabir, who made me proud about the way he chaired the concluding panel of the two-day IPSA Workshop. I am thankful to Dr. Mizanur Rahman Shelley, Chairman, Center for Development Research-Bangladesh (CDRB), who has been a Cabinet Member in charge of Information of the Government of Bangladesh, for chairing a panel on Political-Territorial Identity and Political Development at the Two-Day Dhaka IPSA Regional Workshop/Conference. I am particularly thankful to my old friend, Mr. Enam Ahmed Choudhury, Advisor to the former Leader of Opposition (former Chair of Privatization Commission with the rank of cabinet member), to serve on the Roundtable titled Social Evaluation of Democracy: The Consensus Building Process, so ably moderated by Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta, Executive Director of Research Initiative-Bangladesh (RIB). Dr. Tazeen Murshid of Center for Development Research and Cooperation, Belgium, and Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar of SHUJON enriched the Roundtable with their thought provoking ideas.

Finally, papers and commentaries presented by local participants, such as Dr. Ameena Mohsin, Ms. Maneeza Hossain, Mr. Masud Khan and Barrister Anita Ghazi provided a sound base of the IPSA Workshop/Regional Conference in Dhaka during February 1-2, 2014. Last but not the least; I thank Faiz Sobhan for helping international participants with the VISA process. Nazim, Zeenat, Shantila, Mijan and Tahera, I do appreciate your help with logistics for the Workshop.

Dr. Zillur R. Khan Chair, RC 37, IPSA (http://rc37.ipsa.org) Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin and Adjunct Professor, Rollins College, USA Distinguished Fellow, Policy Research Institute (PRI), Bangladesh President, Bangladesh Foundation, USA (www.bangladesh-foundation.org)

Announcement__ International Political Science Association (IPSA) Joint Workshop on Rethinking Political Development: Multifaceted Role of Elites and Transforming Leadership to be held on November 7-8, 2011 in Winter Park (near Orlando), Florida, USA__ Workshop Organizers: Professor Dr. Zillur R. Khan and Dr. Yan Vaslavskiy, respectively Chair and Member, IPSA/RC 37: Rethinking Political Development. Zillur R. Khan is Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin and Adjunct Professor, Rollins College, U.S.A. and Dr.Yan Vaslavskiy is Deputy Head of Events at Global Policy Forum, Russian Federation and Board member, Russian Political Science Association. Co-organizers from IPSA/RC 2: Political Elites are Professor Dr. Oxana Gaman-Golutvina, Chair of the Department of Comparative Politics, MGIMO-University, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia; Chairman of Scientific Council; President of Russian Political Science Association, and Professor J. Higley, Professor of Political Science, University of Texas, respectively Member and Chair of IPSA/RC 2 Local Host and Organizer is Professor Robert Moore, Chair, International Affairs, Rollins College, Florida, USA __Title: Rethinking Political Development: Multifaceted Role of Elites and Transforming Leadership

Proposed Dates:   November 7-8, 2011

Deadline for Submission of Panel/Paper Proposal with Abstracts: April 1, 2011 Rationale for the Workshop: The workshop will bring together international scholars to explore myriad roles of leaders and elites in enhancing the capacity for effective governance by rethinking political development from different perspectives. In constructing or reconstructing theories of leadership, elites and institutions for political development participants will examine, analyze and critique various issues of policy making and implementation facing the rapidly changing and adjusting political communities, particularly in emerging BRIC and Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Turkey, among others. Reorienting the whole concept of development to better the quality of life in an uncertain world should be a challenge-intellectual, political, socio-economic and ideological-for both scholars and practitioners of Political Science and related fields participating in this workshop.

Panels will range from rethinking theories of leadership and elites in political development, to strategies and tactics for providing a common ground for negotiated settlement of controversial public policy goals and methods of their implementation, to resolving issues of identity, diversity and national security in evolving processes of globalization with widening gaps in benefits, particularly for the emerging countries from the Middle East to South-South East Asia to Far East, to dilemmas of freedom and security, to securing justice as basic fairness in inter-ethnic, inter-ideological and inter-state relations, to finally pushing the limits of political development to create a new MAP, i.e., Mutually Assured Peace, replacing MAD, i.e., Mutually Assured Destruction with SANE, i.e., Serve Appropriate Needs Effectively at whatever level. Could the unresolved legacies of local and regional conflicts in the globalizing process redefine sovereignty itself as seemingly happening in politico-economic experimentation in America, Europe, India and Russia? Following are some suggested panels: 1. How elites and leaders could strike a balance between localism and nationalism to alleviate poverty. 2. Regional cooperation as a socio-political-economic strategy to transform the state-society relations to a new model of a positive national sovereignty---the sovereignty of the citizen and the service-provider character of state institutions. 3. The extent to which a pragmatic approach to ideological controversies over detached vis-à-vis inclusive secularism with a special emphasis on religious tolerance can shape the relationships between Western and Islamic World. 4. Defining the multifaceted role of elites and leaders in raising the consciousness of stake holders to a level at which coordinated action to resolve burning problems can happen, replacing counteractive rhetoric, against the backdrop of demographic, ecological and energy crises being faced by mostly developing countries 5. A possible fifth panel may take up terrorism and how elites and leaders in Western and non-Western countries, particularly countries with Muslim majority or large minority like India should define and confront it at different levels. 6. Could elites and leaders of Muslim majority countries meet their development needs by co-operative and progressive openness? 7. Could they engage in fruitful cooperation with the West in developing green energy, including nuclear based ones without posing a threat to the West? 8. Another panel may concentrate on socio-politico-economic Justice in the context of rethinking political development focusing on the emerging world.

Expected Format, Content, and Output: The expected format is a two-day workshop to be held at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. The workshop will consist of six to eight panels (6/8 x 3 paper-givers), with one discussant and one chair per panel. Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus has been invited to inaugurate the Workshop as Chief Guest. Dr. Zillur R. Khan, Chair of RC 37 of International Political Science Association and Professor Dr. Oxana Gaman-Golutvina, President of Russian Political Science Association and Member RC 2/IPSA will serve as Keynote Speakers addressing the need of rethinking the role of leadership in transforming development into a continuous search for Justice and freedom for common good. Hosting the Workshop will be Dr. Robert Moore, Chairman of International Affairs of Rollins College, who will preside over the inaugural session The results of the workshop will be communicated within the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and wider academic communities (as well as outside it to practitioners and policy-makers) via the subsequent publication of an edited book. Following the workshop, an edited book prospectus will be sent to leading academic publishers that have published books either focusing on a similar topic or employing a compatible theoretical approach, such as Cambridge University Press, Cornell University Press, Duke University Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press. Commercial peer-reviewed presses, such as Oxford, Routledge, Lynne Rienner, and Palgrave Macmillan, will also be considered.

Logistics and Funding: Local costs of the meeting will be covered by the local host: providing space for the workshop, and food and accommodation for participants. Travel expenses of participants may be partially reimbursed on need basis. It is understood that in accordance with established IPSA rules, IPSA funds may only be used for contributing to the travel expenses of paper-givers on a “fair” basis taking into account special needs, not for paying honorarium.

Scholars from Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, and USA are expected to participate in the workshop. Abstract of paper/panel submission deadline is April 1, 2011.