She Opened Our Window to the World

WOW is right! The 12th Window on the World, Tennessee Tech’s annual global awareness festival that celebrates, at once, international unity and diversity was center stage on campus this weekend. The Roaden University Center, festooned with scores of country flags that symbolize the origins of many Tech students and faculty, was filled with hundreds of people working and thousands of people visiting the music and dance performances, art displays, shopping kiosks, food courts, children’s activities, and country table displays. The atmosphere, as always, was electric as people moved about to take it all in – to enjoy it all and to learn something about every corner of the world.

Tennessee Pride Runs Deep

As a land-locked state, Tennessee doesn’t strike most people as having a deep Navy tradition. But they would be wrong. Many men and women from the Volunteer State have served as American Bluejackets and many ships have carried the names of Tennessee cities, counties, and the State itself. It was the third ship named USS Tennessee that survived the devastating blow at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to be repaired and serve with great distinction through to the end of the war, participating in most of the greatest naval battles fought.

Foreign Policy and War On The Fly

The tide of revolt that has swept the Arab World in the last two months has been stunning in scope, intensity and importance. From the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf autocratic regimes have been shaken and some have fallen in an historic reformation of how Arab countries will manage their affairs. This transformation, dubbed an “Arab Spring,” has also stunned foreign policy making institutions in the United States as America’s values and interests are increasingly at odds with each other.

At the Tipping Point in the Arab World

The throngs of Egyptians who have taken to the streets in the Arab world’s most populous country are shaking the foundations of regimes across North Africa and the Middle East with scant hope America will emerge from this new crisis with a winning hand, much less breaking even.