In the second semester I had two core classes and two electives:
- “Strategic Aspects of Public Policy Analysis,” with Professor Michael Shires. This course focuses on the basic tasks of public leaders to analyze the political feasibility of alternate policy responses, gain and maintain among affected constituencies a mandate to act, and design and implement strategies for accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization. Attention is given to authorizing bodies, political superiors, interest groups including the press, and matching one’s organizational abilities to leadership demands. The importance of resource allocation and budgeting is also stressed. Entrepreneurship and reengineering in government and in nonprofit agencies will be topics of serious concern. This course will also consider the higher ethical and moral standard expected of leaders and the role of such conduct on strategic leadership. Source: The Academic Catalogue of Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. The professor is also doing a very interesting and useful exercise. Each student gives a presentation in front of the class where he/she is video recorded. After you finish, you receive advice on what to improve, both on the non-verbal behavior and teh content. For this course I bought the following books: Mark H. Moore, Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government, Harvard University Press, 1995 and Fisher, Robert, William Ury, and Bruce Patton, Getting to Yes, Penguin USA, 1992 (paperback 1991).
- “Applied Economic Analysis of Public Policy II,” with Professor Demosthenes Vardiabasis. This is basically a Macroeconomics class.
- “Seminar in International Relations: Islam and Politics,” with Profesorul Daniel Pipes. Islam stands at the center of the U.S. national debate, presenting difficult and delicate questions that all politically aware Americans, from the president to television producers to police superintendents, need to contend with. This seminar examines some of the key issues concerning the unique relationship between the Islamic faith and the public sphere, including the role of Islamic law, the concept of jihad, the Islamist movement, several key countries, Islam in the West, and U.S. government policy. Source, the professor syllabus. For this class I bought the following books:
- Andrew Rippin, Muslims (Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices), Routledge, 3rd edition, June 23, 2005.
- Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power, Yale University Press.
- Efraim Karsh and Inari Karsh, Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923, Harvard University Press.
- David Cook, Understanding Jihad, University of California Press; 1st edition, May 23, 2005.
- Johannes J. G. Jansen, The Dual Nature of Islamic Fundamentalism, Cornell University Press, April 1997.
- Angel M. Rabas, C. Benerd, P. Chalk, C. Fair, T. Karasik, R. Lal, I. Lesser & David Thaler, The Muslim World After 9/11, RAND Corporation, December 2004.
- Heinz Halm, Allison Brown, Shi’a Islam: From Religion to Revolution (Princeton Series on the Middle East) Markus Wiener Publishers, November 1996.
- Yitzhak Nakash, Reaching for Power: The Shi’a in the Modern Arab World, Princeton University Press, January 2006.
- David Horowitz, Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left, Regnery Publishing, Inc., March 25, 2006.
- George Michael, The Enemy of My Enemy: The Alarming Convergence of Militant Islam and the Extreme Right, University Press of Kansas, April 24, 2006.
- Bruce Bawer, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, Doubleday (February 21, 2006).
- Karen Isaksen Leonard, Muslims in the U.S.: The State of Research, Russell Sage Foundation Publications, June 2003.
- “Seminar in State and Local Policy: Managing Politics in Local Government,” with Kelly Martin, Chief of Staff of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. This course examines the practical skills and strategies needed to successfully implement policy at the local level. How do local leaders determine what kind of change is needed? How do local leaders then implement change? How do they use the press, interest groups, budgets, commissions, city councils, and the state and federal government to achieve their goals? Is Mayoral leadership necessary for reform, or can citizens groups lead change? These questions are considered through the study of recent reform efforts in the City of Los Angeles, including education reform, police reform, and charter reform. Other initiatives, such as the development and expansion of the living wage law, are also analyzed. Source, the professor syllabus. I bought the following books: The City at Stake Secession, Reform, and the Battle for Los Angeles, Raphael J. Sonenshein and Official Negligence: How the Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD, Lou Cannon.
The semester began with a small incident by the campus. As a result of an explosion, apparently, a fire broke out that was contained the same day. The effort made by firefighters and police was remarkable. The photos below are made from the staircase of my apartment building. Fires occur very often in California, so you should get used to them.
The class of “Managing Politics in Local Government” included a walking tour of Downtown Los Angeles. Kelly Martin also arranged a meeting with Richard Riordan, Mayor of Los Angeles during 1993 – 2003, at the public library. He taught us something very very interesting: it is easier to ask for foriveness than for permission to do something! The Mayor is also playing chess, which was very exciting for me as I am also a pretty good player. However, a match did not occur. Here are photos from an interesting day:
In one of the weekends I had time to go hiking with some new friends, including a Romanian. We went to a waterfall using a track that passes by some “Malibu style” houses!
In February I celebrated my 27th birthday in Malibu. I invited my classmates to a pub by the ocean, called “The Sunset.” Bryan, my apartment mate and the “social director” of the class sent out emails to all of our classmates. Many of them showed up, so that it was for the first time when I had so many friends at my birthday!
Towards the end of the semester we celebrated Erica’s birthday, one of our classamtes. The party was in her apartemnt on campus, so we served many hispanic goodies.
In April, 2007 the semester was over and also my first year of experience in the U.S. Once the final exam was taken, I went to Vegas for a “guys weekend.” You gotto do Vegas if you are in California. I can’t tell much about this as “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
