On December 3, the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing (CRCW) co-sponsored a seminar entitled “Household Allocation of EITC Funds” by Professor Kathy Edin of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. It was co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology. The Fragile Families Study was the subject of a plenary panel at November’s National Council on Family Relations conference in Pittsburgh. CRCW Director Sara McLanahan and Kathy Edin of Harvard University discussed the findings of the study in its first five years. As part of the nine-year follow-up, the study earlier this year started collecting saliva samples from mothers and children. The DNA retrieved from these samples will be used to examine the effects of genes and gene-environment interactions on the health and wellbeing of mothers and children. WWS’s McLanahan and Christina Paxson, along with Dan Notterman of the University Department of Molecular Biology, assembled a panel of DNA experts from a variety of fields (pediatrics, genetics, psychology, and biology) to help them identify target genes and keep abreast of this rapidly changing field. The first meeting of the advisory group was held in June.

The Center for the Study of Democratic Politics (CSDP) welcomed its 2007-2008 class of visiting scholars. Dinissa Duvanova, assistant professor of political science at the State University of New York at Buffalo, will expand her research on corruption and regulation of business associations in post-Communist countries; Rodney Hero, Packey J. Dee III Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame, will continue his work on the importance of Latinos in understanding American politics and political development using data from the Latino National Survey; Thomas Sattler, who completed his Ph.D. at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, will examine the potential trade-off between economic efficiency and political accountability with an independent central bank, developing and implementing a game-theoretic model applied to data from the past 50 years in Germany; Ismail White, assistant professor, Department of Political Science at Ohio State University, will extend his work on how racial cues shape Black Americans’ thinking about politics, including conducting a set of laboratory experiments on the role race plays in Blacks’ political decision making; and Cesar Zucco, who recently completed his Ph.D. at UCLA, will focus on executive-legislative relations in multiparty presidential systems, with emphases in Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay. CSDP also recently sponsored the “Conference on the Changing Media and Political Accountability,” focusing on how recent and ongoing changes in the media environment affect political accountability by looking at the interrelationships among media organizations, political actors, and the public. Organized by Martin Gilens, Markus Prior, and Paul Starr, the two-day conference featured presentations by scholars and practitioners from across the country. Discussions among presenters, faculty, and graduate students explored issues of how new media technologies (including cable and satellite television, the Internet, and mobile platforms such as cell phones and iPods), and new media formats (including blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, and electronic town halls) affect newspapers and other traditional media. Papers also addressed questions about how traditional media are adapting to new competition—such as shifting content in the face of user-supplied content—and the blurring of news and entertainment. The conference offered an opportunity to tackle unique questions, and expanded the research agenda to include the link between media and political accountability in economic, technological, and regulatory contexts.

The Future of Children has released its latest publication, The Next Generation of Antipoverty Policies (Vol. 17, No. 2). The volume focuses on eight policy proposals for reducing poverty in the U.S. Accompanying the journal are an executive summary and a policy brief. The volume concludes that a combination of work requirements and social welfare policies are the best approach to reducing poverty. According to the 11 leading scholars who contributed to the journal, these strategies should focus on both long- and shortterm poverty alleviation. In October, authors of an upcoming Future of Children volume on “Juvenile Justice” gathered at Princeton for a rough-draft conference. The authors, editors, and discussants talked about papers on how the juvenile justice system impacts children and youth. The volume, to be published next fall, will cover current trends in juvenile justice policy and practice, and contemporary challenges facing policymakers and practitioners.

The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) is in the second year of a research project on Afghanistan and the region, funded in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The project is co-directed by Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, LISD director and lecturer in public and international affairs, and Robert P. Finn *78, LISD senior research associate and lecturer in Near Eastern Studies. In July, LISD convened a project conference in Triesenburg, Liechtenstein, focusing on Iran and its role in regional security, and in November hosted an international colloquium in Brussels, Belgium, focusing on the present and future of security and state building in Afghanistan. The Iran meeting brought together participants from the U.S., E.U., Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Iran, while participants in the Brussels meeting included over 40 senior policymakers, academics, governmental representatives, as well as representatives of the public and private sectors, key institutions and non-governmental organizations active in Afghanistan and the region. As part of the project on Afghanistan and the region, Danspeckgruber and Finn co-edited the book, Building State and Security in Afghanistan. Contributing authors to the volume are globally recognized scholars and policy specialists whose chapters and conclusions are based on their hands-on work and research in Afghanistan, especially since 2001. The book includes a foreword by Hamid Karzai, president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and a preface by H.S.H. Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein. LISD also welcomed new visiting scholars and staff to the Institute at the start of the fall semester. Salman Ahmed is a visiting research scholar with WWS and LISD, on leave from his position as chief of office and special assistant in the Office of the U.N. Undersecretary- General for Peacekeeping Operations. Uriel Abulof is a post-doctoral fellow with the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, and will be a visitor-in-residence at LISD for the 2007-2008 academic year. Carol Wang joined the LISD staff as special assistant to the LISD director.

The Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance (NCGG) has welcomed eight talented scholars into the Center’s Fellowship Program. These awards are designed to promote basic research in the broad areas of international and comparative political economy, international organization and global governance, and globalization. Xun Cao received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington, and is a lecturer in the Department of Government, University of Essex. His research focuses on networks of international political economy—such as trade, transnational capital flows, intergovernmental organizational connections, and migration—and how network dynamics at the international level can be used to explain behaviors of embedded national economies. Songying Fang is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. Her research areas are international relations, political economy, applied game theory, and quantitative methodology. Gerald DiGiusto is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College. He received a Ph.D. in political science from Duke University. His research and teaching focus on international organization, the power and influence of private actors in international cooperation and world politics, the domestic politics of interstate bargaining, United States foreign policy, and the foreign policy behavior of non-democracies. Daniel Kono is an assistant professor of political science at the University of California at Davis. His research focuses on the effects of international and domestic institutions on trade policy. Kevin Morrison is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Duke University. His dissertation focuses on political regime stability and explores the effect of a variety of different revenue sources derived without taxation of society. Ralph Ossa received his Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a joint fellow of NCGG and the International Economics Section. His research focuses on international trade and economic development. Currently, he is working on a new theory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that helps in evaluating some core WTO principles from an economic perspective. Sonal Pandya completed her Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University. Following her fellowship, she will join the faculty of the University of Virginia. Sonal’s research examines the intersection of international economic integration and economic development. Joseph Wright received his Ph.D. in political science at UCLA. He also holds an M.A. in political economy from Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.). His research interests lie in comparative political economy and international development. More information about the fellows and the Fellows Program can be found on the NCGG website www.princeton.edu/~pcglobal/.

On November 9, the Policy Research Institute for the Region (PRIOR) and the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research co-hosted the conference “Land and Power: The Impact of Eminent Domain in Urban Communities.” New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald Chen served as keynote speaker for the program that focused on the far-reaching influences of the Kelo v. City of New London decision across New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The event featured research presentations and panel discussions on how eminent domain has shaped and been shaped by advocacy strategies, government policy, and the media. On December 14, PRIOR sponsored a forum in which former New Jersey governors Brendan T. Byrne ‘49, James J. Florio, Donald T. DiFrancesco, and James E. McGreevey discussed the effects of the Abbott v. Burke decision and the attendant impact on the matter of school funding. Each governor lent his insights during a panel conversation that was followed by an open dialogue with the audience. PRIOR recently released The Economic Geography of Megaregions, the latest addition to a growing list of publications. The work, an outgrowth of a conference held in February, examines the economic, social, and political questions that arise from the intermingling of exchanges, networks, and patterns among proximate metropolitan locations. The content includes a comparative analysis of 10 megaregions by Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University, as well as a critique of framing policy decisions within the context of megaregions by Saskia Sassen, professor of sociology at Columbia University. The publication also contains summaries of commentary provided by Princeton University’s Paul Krugman, and Kip Bergstrom, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council.

The Program on Science & Global Security (PSGS) has been awarded a new grant of $272,000 from the Carnegie Corporation to be used, in part, for an ongoing seminar series bringing together domestic and international experts in biotechnology, biosecurity, and global health issues. The program also published the Global Fissile Material Report 2007 for the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) in October; a story can be found on page 2 of this issue. The report was featured by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists as its lead item on its website. Harold Feiveson, Alexander Glaser, and Frank von Hippel of the Program on Science & Global Security represented the IPFM and spoke at the United Nations in October on the topic “Toward a Global Cleanout of Nuclear Weapon Materials.” This event was sponsored by the United Nations Non- Governmental Organizational Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, with the cooperation of the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs.