Patricia DeGennaro
Patricia "Tricia" DeGennaro is an Associate Professor of International Affairs at New York University's Center for Global Affairs.
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Articles by Patricia DeGennaro
September 24, 2007
Although Americans grow up hearing about democracy, many have only a rudimentary understanding of how democracy functions, and few take responsibility for helping to foster change when they’re dissatisfied with either the current system or their leaders.
Despite this, the U.S. government is on a ...
August 27, 2007
Here we go again.
Some Americans are beating the tattered war drums. This time, the well-worn tom-toms are being pounded by Senator Joseph Lieberman, who stridently argues for an attack on Iran. Apparently, the distinguished Senator from Connecticut doesn’t think the Middle East is messy enough...
August 27, 2007
“U.S. foreign policy lacks vision and strategy,” said former JCS Gen. Meyers at an event in New York right after he left his post. With a military budget of $600 billion and counting, and a “no contest” ranking as the largest weapons seller in the world, the United States has also become one of the ...
June 06, 2007
Kurds are implicated in the bombing of a Turkish city. Taking too many lives, they want “freedom” through combat. The Prime Minister of Turkey vows to run for election on a pro-war platform to “pursue militant Kurds.”
A Hamas leader says: “our ceasefire is over.” Israeli cabinet ministers bac...
April 24, 2007
There’s a name for people like 23-year-old Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui – killer. On April 16, 2007, after killing 32 people in a shooting rampage, he turned the gun on himself. As we try to put the pieces together, we search for a reason, but there is no rhyme or reason. It’s not about relig...
April 03, 2007
Photos of smiling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are splashed across newspapers everywhere as she, like her predecessors, sets out to bring peace to the Middle East.
I admire her effort.
I can’t help thinking, however, that this is just another exercise in “same old, same old.” Here we g...
February 20, 2007
I finally looked at the cornucopia of candidates running for President – you know, the people sucking up the scarce airtime allotted for international news. To date, I’ve devoted most of my time to reviewing the messages of Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, since they’ve already been crown...
January 09, 2007
“I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
This mon...
December 21, 2006
As a teacher of National Security Policy, I anxiously awaited the release of the Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq – to use as a policy example for my students. The night before its release, ’twas not visions of sugarplums that danced in my head, but these thoughts: “Will the group’s recommendations fi...
November 06, 2006
The Bush Administration’s spin masters have struck again. Right before Americans go to the polls, Senator John Kerry has been used to distract us from the real issues – as if our obsession with Madonna’s adopting an African baby wasn’t distraction enough.
The latest news doesn’t involve nuclear ...
October 09, 2006
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be. — Khalil Gibran
A conflict begins and ends in the hearts and minds of people, not in the hilltops. — Amos Oz
After a brutal six-week war, the Lebanese are trudging back to their burned-out cities to begin sifti...
October 08, 2006
“But the tube says 5oz.”
--anonymous TSA official while confiscating a rolled up tube of toothpaste after the passenger squeezed out all but the last 3ounces as required by the airlines after the latest terrorism scare.
Time may be of the essence, but so is timing. Hence, it was my misfort...
October 08, 2006
“As I walked through countries at war from the Indian Ocean to the shores of the Mediterranean over the last 25 years, I often asked myself whether there are leaders who can lead without an enemy.”
—Giandomenico Picco, former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs
“It has always...
July 18, 2006
Israel vs. Lebanon. It’s like the Terminator against Nacho Libre: no contest there, just devastation.
After five days of destructive bombardment by Israeli forces in Lebanon, only two world leaders have called for some type of stabilization measure in the Middle East. I am astonished that neith...
July 14, 2006
The Dark Side, a Frontline documentary recently broadcast on PBS, is the latest exposé to shed light on how the Bush Administration, led by “Lord Cheney,” duped the American public into supporting the invasion of Iraq – a war that has now cost the lives of 2,500 U.S. soldiers and approximately 40,00...
June 05, 2006
Thomas Jefferson once said, “If the members are to know nothing but what is important enough to be put into a public message and indifferent enough to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all other information to himself and the House to plunge on in the dark, it becomes a gov...
May 05, 2006
?History reveals that when humanity is faced with new challenges that cannot be solved with old thinking, new capacities at mental and biological levels will evolve. We are now living at a point in history when changing life conditions are of such a magnitude that a new worldview with a transformati...
April 07, 2006
As a professor of international affairs and a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, I felt obliged to actually read “The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” which was posted on a Harvard website. I’ve also read much of the negative press about this academic paper and its authors, ...
March 14, 2006
For many Baby Boomers, the words ?nuclear weapons? conjure memories of air raid drills, during which sirens boomed over intercoms as teachers shooed their pupils underneath desks. Duck and cover! At any moment, Russian bombers might seed the land with mushroom clouds!
Of course, Soviet bombers n...
March 13, 2006
Immediately after Congress nixed the Dubai ports deal, House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced that he would push through legislation to block any company with Dubai interests from running US ports. This legislation would stop DP World from “encroaching on American security,” was the reason.
I f...