Jennifer Dugan Abbassi Associate Professor of Political Science B

Chair, Global Studies Program
B.A., California State University; Ph.D., University of California

As an international law specialist, I am fascinated by the argument that, in the unprecedented circumstances of a post-9/11 world, the old rules of waging war no longer apply. My work gets back to the human security framework and looks at what the future holds in a world that is not governed carefully by even the most basic laws on which states have historically agreed.

I encourage my students to consider globalization within a human security framework. How are we made more or less secure as the globalization process unfolds? In my courses, when we study war we consider the ways international law is both manipulated by states and increasingly used to hold states accountable for certain violations. When we study the global food system, we compare the rules of free trade and export orientations to the practices of fair trade and local economies and draw conclusions based on case studies across the Global South. Globalization is a complex process involving its own dialectics, and much of our time is spent dissecting it to identify and evaluate evolving conditions. In the process, we expose shifting relations of power that are fundamental to human security.

Sometimes I am like a two-year old in class, asking students why? Why? WHY? as a way to lead them to the root causes of global problems. Approaching our analysis this way, we are better able to identify longer-term solutions. This approach was developed in part from being the parent to two curious girls, whose WHY questions rarely go unanswered!