Public Affairs Discussion Group

The Obama Presidency (Year 3)

Douglas Brattebo Ph.D., J.D. - Visiting Professor and Interim Director, Center for the Study of Ethics and Values Hiram College


Friday January 14, 2011
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Crawford Hall - Room 9
Inamori Center
Case Western Reserve University

President Obama had a memorable first two years in office. He was able to enact a major economic stimulus package, financial services reform and expansion of government support for medical care. Yet the economy performed miserably, his administration was viewed as siding more with Wall Street than with Main Street, and the health care reform did not convince voters who had insurance that it would protect them by controlling costs. The result was a massive electoral reverse. Now a budget showdown looms as this year's appropriations still are not complete, and the ceiling on the national debt has to be raised.

So what comes next? Presidency scholar Doug Brattebo previewed the first and second years of the Obama Presidency for us, and we are very pleased to welcome him back for year three.

On Fridays a few spaces are available for visitors with mobility concerns. Parking options for visitors from beyond campus include the Severance Hall parking garage on East Boulevard, the small lot on Adelbert Road just uphill from Euclid Ave, and other lots on campus.

More About Our Guest....

Doug Brattebo is Visiting Professor and Interim Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics and Values at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. The Center guides an across-the-college effort that encourages the academic, athletics, and student life divisions to bring the insights of a liberal education to bear on ethical concerns. Brattebo teaches courses on Presidential Leadership and Ethics, Ethics in U.S. Foreign Policy, and Service Learning. In addition to establishing formal relationships with other higher education ethics centers, he is developing a system of programming and recruitment for high school students interested in studying ethics at Hiram College. He currently is working on his next book, Presidential Ethics.

Brattebo is a 1990 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Iowa with majors in Political Science and History and a minor in Journalism. He earned an M.A. in American Politics from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1992, and went on to earn a Ph.D., with a special emphasis on the American presidency, from the same institution in 1998. In addition, Brattebo earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1999 and is a member of the Maryland Bar.

From 1999 to 2005, Brattebo served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he taught Honors Introduction to American Government, The American Presidency and the Executive Branch, and a Seminar on the Democratic Peace. In May of 2002 he was the winner of the Naval Academy's prestigious Apgar Award for Teaching Excellence, for demonstrating "effectiveness in teaching the qualities of leadership, with special emphasis on character, responsibility, and integrity, through the academic environment, curriculum, and mentoring roles outside the classroom." Brattebo served as American Government Course Coordinator at the Naval Academy and continues to be a mentor of undergraduates and graduate students. His most recent book, co-edited with Tom Lansford and Robert Maranto, is The Second Term of George W. Bush: Prospects and Perils.

In September of 2005, Brattebo became the Director of the Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP) at the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) in Washington, DC, and set about transforming the program through modernization and growth. Brattebo managed all aspects of EPFP: program development, innovation, and expansion; relationship building with program stakeholders; and program implementation and assessment. He oversaw the Lumina Foundation for Education's two-year study of EPFP, worked to extend EPFP into additional states, and brought a global subject matter focus to EPFP's two annual national conferences. As EPFP Director, Brattebo traveled to India and China to meet with educators in those countries and examine the links between education, globalization, and economic development.

In 2008-2009, Brattebo served as President of the Corporate College in Cleveland, Ohio. In this capacity, he provided county-wide strategic leadership to Corporate College, guiding the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs designed to help businesses build the skills of their employees in order to operate more profitably. Brattebo led Corporate College's outreach efforts to businesses, other types of public and private organizations, and individuals in order to promote program growth, the delivery of quality services, and increased revenues.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

January 21: Elliot Posner, Associate Professor of Political Science: Europe, the EU, and the Euro

January 28: Martha Woodmansee, Professor of English and Law: Intellectual Property and the Commerce in Ideas.

February 4: Marixa Lasso, Associate Professor of History: Bicentennials in Latin America and the History of Political Modernity.

February 11: Special Inamori Center Event

February 18: Iwan Alexander, Faculty Director, Great Lakes Energy Institute: News from the Great Lakes Energy Institute

February 25: Gene Matthews, Director of Facilities Services, CWRU: "Case Recycles," and How That Works.

March 4: Shirley M. Moore, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing: Even After a Heart Attack - The Challenge of Encouraging Healthy Behavior

March 11: No Session, Spring Break

March 18: Special Inamori Center Event

March 25: Mark Votruba, Associate Professor of Economics: The Social Effects of Economic Dislocation

April 1: Jacqueline Lipton, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Law, Technology and the Arts: Privacy and Online Social Networks.

April 8: Special Inamori Center Event

April 15: Mark Naymik, Reporter, Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio's Budget Battle

April 22: Jon Groetzinger, Visiting Professor of Law and Director, China Legal Programs: Developing the Legal Profession in China.

The Friday Lunch discussions are held on the lower (ground) level of Crawford Hall. Visitors with mobility issues may find it easiest to take advantage of special arrangements we have made. On most Fridays, a few parking spaces in the V.I.P. lot in between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel are held for participants in the lunch discussion. Overflow parking is also available in the Severance Hall parking garage on East Boulevard.

Visitors then can avoid walking up the hill to the first floor of Crawford by entering the building on the ground level, through the garage area under the building. The further door on the left in that garage will be left unlocked during the period before the Friday lunch. On occasion, parking will be unavailable because of other university events.

For more information about these and other Center for Policy Studies programs, please see http://policy.case.edu.

January 10, 2011

Exploring the Current Debate over Patenting Life

January 28, 2011, 8:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m., Moot Court Room, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, 11075 East Blvd., Cleveland, Ohio> Sponsored by the Center for Law, Technology & the Arts at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and JOLTI (Journal of Law, Technology & the Internet)

The symposium will address the ongoing legal debate that surrounds patents on potentially therapeutic biomedical technologies, including gene patents. The symposium will consider how other disciplines, including bioethics and economics, might help to inform the development of novel laws addressing the unique issues arising from the debate. The symposium will include a lecture discussing the role patents have played in spurring the innovation of adult stem cell-based therapies, as well as a presentation on genetic testing and the impact patents have had on patient access to new biomedical technologies.

Syposium panel guests will include Craig Allen Nard, Tom J.E. and Bette Lou Walker Professor of Law and Founding Director, Center for Law, Technology, and the Arts, Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Bratislov Stankovic, Robert and Barbara Luciano Professor of Law, Loyola University, Chicago School of Law; Joseph Jankowski, PhD, Associate Vice President, Technology Management, Technology Transfer Office, Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Arthur I. Caplan, Professor of Biology and Director, Skeletal Research Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Robert Cook-Deegan, MD, Center for Genome Ethics, Law & Policy, Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy; Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University; and Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Robert and Barbara Luciano Professorof Law, University of Michigan Law School.

Katyn: Justice Delayed or Justice Denied?

February 4, 2011, 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Moot Court Room, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, 11075 East Blvd., Cleveland, Ohio, Sponsored by the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law

The Katyn massacre of 1940 involved murders at the Katyn forest and in other locations throughout the Soviet Union of over 22,000 Polish officers, prisoners of war, and members of the Polish leading elite, by a single shot to the back of each of their heads. For 50 years, this massacre was subject to a massive cover up. Initially the Soviet Union blamed the Nazis for the murders, saying that the killings took place in 1941 when the territory was in German hands. It was not until 1990 that the Russian government admitted that the executions actually took place in 1940 and were carried out by the Soviet secret police. In 1990, Russian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into the massacre, but the case was terminated in 2004, its findings were classified as top secret, and it appeared that the tragedy would once again be subject to "historical amnesia."

The objective of the Katyn Symposium is to bring together leading international experts in jurisprudence, international criminal law, and the Katyn crime, as well as representatives from Poland and Russia, to discuss the events in a neutral setting. A diverse group of highly qualified scholars will present Polish, Russian and third party expert views on the Katyñ murders in four panel sessions, followed by a round-table discussion.

Syposium panel guests will include Wesley Adamczyk, son of a Polish officer imprisoned in Starobielsk and murdered in Kharkov; John Q. Barrett, St. John University School of Law; Hon. David Crane, Founding Chief Prosecutor Special Court for Sierra Leone; Alexander Guryanov, PhD, Polish Program Coordinator, Memorial Group Moscow, Russia; Teresa Kaczorowska, PhD, Polish journalist and writer; Mark Kramer, PhD, Director, Cold War Studies Program Harvard University; Jerzy Krzyzanowski, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University; Kenneth Ledford, Professor of History and Law Case Western Reserve University; Krzysztof Persak, PhD, Institute of National Remembrance Warsaw, Poland; Hon. Stephen Rapp Ambassador at Large for War Crimes; William Schabas, Director, Irish Center for Human Rights; Michael P. Scharf John Deaver Drinko-Baker and Hostetler Professor Director, Frederick K. Cox International Law Center; Milena Sterio, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University; Maria Szonert-Binienda, Esq., President, Libra Institute, Inc.; Stefan Wisniowski, President, Kresy-Siberia Foundation