This summer ACDIS intern Nakita Pradhan worked at the United States Department of Energy in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office. Her work for ACDIS on the CAGE project and taking ACDIS Energy Security courses inspired her to continue learning about the energy field. She applied for a summer internship position directly on the Department of Energy website and was accepted later in the spring. Her work involved researching and supporting DOE efforts to include correctional facilities in ENERGY STAR Certification.

The experience gave her insight into how diverse and widespread the scope of DOE is. She developed her research and writing skills over the course of the summer. Summer highlights included visiting different energy events in Washington, D.C. including a talk on European energy security by Finland’s Minister of the Environment, Energy, and Housing, Kimmo Tiilikainen and sitting in on a U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee meeting on Space Traffic Management.

Nakita highly recommends students interested in the security field explore multiple disciplines and take advantage of opportunities on and off campus during college; her experiences have inspired her to continue pursuing opportunities in the public and private sector relating to energy.

This past summer, Paisley Meyer was a Policy and Communications intern for the US Department of State’s International Joint Commission (IJC), a binational treaty organization established to regulate water levels and mitigate trans-boundary water issues between the US and Canada. As an intern, she drafted media releases, edited video content, and researched US and Canadian practices for decommissioning nuclear power plants. She was also able to see diplomacy in action when she travelled to Ottawa for the Executive Meeting and to Northern Maine to speak to various stakeholders about the future of the dams along the St. Croix River.

Following her internship, Paisley will continue to be work with the Department of State as the Campus Coordinator for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This position strives to connect the DOS with students on campus. By being at UIUC, she hopes to inform students about various opportunities available to them and increase their understanding about work the DOS does and its importance in shaping global politics.

If students or faculty have interest in potentially holding a State Department event (ie a speaker talk to a class or RSO) or if there are questions regarding the application process for internships, please feel free to reach out to ACDIS, or email the office to get in contact with us!

Photo by Naina Gupta

“Gabriel Wacks has been offered a $20,000 Boren Scholarship to support his academic year intensive Chinese language studies at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in China. Wacks, an East Asian languages and cultures major with a minor in history, has conducted research with the campus Program in Arms Control and Domestic and International Security (ACDIS), as well as for the department of East Asian languages and cultures. He previously spent a semester studying abroad in China.

On campus, Wacks has served as the vice president of the registered student organization ACDIS Security Studies Group and as the senior editor of the Illini Journal of International Security, a peer-reviewed undergraduate journal. He also has received recognition for his contributions in Model United Nations. Wacks’ long-term goal is to work as a political analyst or foreign service officer focused on East Asia.”

To find out more about Gabriel, please visit this link:

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/651522

At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, students simulated several reactions to a Korean Peninsula crisis in the 2020s. In the simulation, the United States and North Korean heads of state had previously agreed to a halt to joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea as long as North Korea froze its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After receiving an intelligence  report about suspected clandestine uranium enrichment in North Korea, the U.S. president issued a demarche demanding prompt elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons materials. The claim of an ongoing clandestine uranium enrichment program was disputed by North Korea, and a summary of the conclusions of the report was not supported by China, Japan, or South Korea. After an initial round of heated statements, the concerned parties in each of the simulations agreed to inspections to verify that North Korea had not been enriching uranium during the agreed upon freeze period. In one simulation, South Korea resorted to announcing its intention to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the United States did not agree to limit the U.S. role to review of a report by a joint inspection team from the Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. Neither the premise nor the outcome of the simulation should be attributed to any individual or group of students, as the simulation exercise was only intended to draw attention to some of the complexities of the security situation in Northeast Asia.

North Korea Simulation

Professor Lesley Wexler Writes on Chlorine Gas Attacks in Syria

During World War I, use of chlorine gas a weapon violated prohibitions of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions on use of poison weapons. Use of chlorine gas as a weapon is banned by the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Syria acceded to the CWC in 2013 but has since been accused of chlorine gas attacks. Has prospect of attacks on their homelands by much smaller smuggled amounts of potent nerve gas agents like sarin led some of the permanent members of the UN Security council to question whether a “red line” against poison gas attacks by Syria also applies to chlorine gas?  In a 20 February 2018 commentary, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign law professor Lesley Wexler asks how seriously the use of chlorine gas as a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention is being taken.

https://verdict.justia.com/2018/02/20/red-lines-chlorine-weapon-use-syria

For more information on the symposium, click here.

On September 29, 2017 ACDIS and the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES) hosted the symposium, “Shifting Iran-US Relations: Return to Status Quo Ante or New Alignments in the Middle East Region?” Speakers included Asef Bayat, Shireen Hunter, Kevan Harris, Frederick Lamb, Matthias Grosse Perdekamp, and Trita Parsi, Founder and President of the National Iranian American Council, who gave the the keynote speech.

Need help researching topics in security? Use the library as a resource!

The Arms Control Collection consists of indexes, yearbooks, handbooks, bibliographies, monographs and serials dealing with arms control, disarmament, and international security. The collection does not represent all of the library’s holdings on these subjects; additional materials on these subjects are available throughout libraries on campus, and the call numbers listed below will help you find materials on the shelves. In addition, the Library has a large number of electronic (e-) books and journals. E-books can be found in the Online Library Catalog and e-journals can be found in the Online Journals & Databases.