The Ottoman Eichmann: Mustafa Reşat (Mimaroğlu) and The Technocracy of Genocide

Notorious SS officer Adolf Eichmann took the order he was given to send millions of Jews to death camps and applied it to the letter. Eichmann made sure that every single Jew reached the respective concentration and death camps. In his stunning biography of Eichmann, historian David Cesarani describes him as a critical cog in the Nazi mass murder machine, along with Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich. The personal, social, political, and ideological dynamics that shaped the character and mindset of genocide technocrats such as Eichmann, their formation, and acquisitions, play a key role here. Concurrently, these dynamics provide us with important clues and data on how they made decisions and choices at certain stages and episodes of their careers, and how these choices determined the direction of their lives. The historical actor who must be addressed in the context of the Armenian genocide is Mustafa Reşat (Mimaroğlu). As a young bureaucrat, he was the head of the Second Department of General Security (also known as the Department of Political Affairs or Kısmı Siyasi), a section of the Ministry of the Interior. Along with other officers in the same unit, Mustafa Reşat played an active role in the planning, organization, and implementation of the 24 April 1915 mass arrests in Istanbul that sparked the Armenian Genocide. As such, he facilitated the work of political decision-makers. Building on his memoirs published in two volumes titled Gördüklerim ve Geçirdiklerimden, in this talk, I focus on the course of Mustafa Reşat’s life, his actions and ‘jobs’ and explain how he turned into a genocide technocrat. My main goal is to trace the career of the major protagonist and his decisions at critical junctions and to explore him as an outstanding representative of a category of perpetrators who prepare the propitious infrastructure, ground, and climate for such large-scale violence.

About the Speaker- Ümit Kurt is a historian of the modern Middle East, with a research focus on the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He is currently Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities, Creative Industry, and Social Sciences (History) and an affiliate of the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Newcastle, Australia. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is the author of award-winning book, The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province (Harvard University Press, 2021) and the co-author of The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide (Berghahn, 2017). He is now working on his third book manuscript project on the global patterns of mass violence in the Ottoman borderlands in 1860s-1920s.

This event is hosted by Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies with support from the Comparative Muslim Societies Program.

Conventional wisdom holds that cyberspace is borderless. That assertion is wrong. Borders exist everywhere in cyberspace, generated by firewalls, network interconnections, or other control points. However, those borders do not line up with the physical boundaries of nation-states and information often flows across those borders with ease. Yet, as cyberspace has become critical to almost every aspect of modern life, nation-states have begun to try to assert control over this domain. Many countries claim that, like land, water, or air, some portion of cyberspace represents their sovereign territory. The tension between a global Internet and nation-state imperatives generates many of the cybersecurity problems we face today.

Michael Daniel, President & CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA), will explore the implications of nation-state sovereignty in cyberspace, including the potential effects on cybersecurity, crime, and national security.

About the Speaker
Michael serves as the President & CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA), a non-profit organization that improves the cybersecurity of the global digital ecosystem by enabling high-quality cyber threat information sharing among cybersecurity providers. CTA’s mission is to better protect end-users, enable the disruption of cyber adversaries, and elevate overall cybersecurity. CTA’s members include more than 36 cybersecurity firms headquartered in 12 countries around the world.

Prior to CTA, Michael served as Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator on the National Security Council Staff. In this role, he led the development and implementation of national cybersecurity strategy and policy, focusing on improving cyber defenses in the public and private sectors; deterring and disrupting malicious cyber activity aimed at the U.S. or its allies; and, improving the US’s ability to respond to and recover from cyber incidents. Michael also helped craft the government’s response to significant cyber incidents, such the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, the intrusion into the Office of Personnel Management, and the Russian efforts to meddle in our electoral process.

Before joining the National Security Council Staff, Michael served for 17 years in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), including 11 years as the Chief of the Intelligence Branch in the National Security Division, overseeing the Intelligence Community and other classified Department of Defense programs. Originally from Atlanta, Michael holds a Bachelor’s in Public Policy from Princeton University, a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard, and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces. In his free time, he enjoys running and martial arts.

Host
Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies

Film screening and Q&A with Shaunak Sen (Director)

In one of the world’s most populated cities, two brothers — Nadeem and Saud — devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to the ecosystem of New Delhi that has been falling from the sky at alarming rates. Amid environmental toxicity and social unrest, the ‘kite brothers’ spend day and night caring for the creatures in their makeshift avian basement hospital. Director Shaunak Sen (Cities of Sleep and All that Breathes) explores the connection between the kites and the brothers who help them return to the skies, offering a mesmerizing chronicle of inter-species coexistence. All That Breathes was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Academy Award in 2023.

Shaunak Sen is a filmmaker and film scholar based in New Delhi, India. Cities of Sleep (2016), his first feature-length documentary, was shown at various major international film festivals (including DOK Leipzig, DMZ Docs, and the Taiwan International Documentary Festival, among others) and won 6 international awards. Shaunak received the IDFA Bertha Fund (2019), the Sundance Documentary Grant (2019), the Catapult Film Fund (2020), the Charles Wallace Grant, the Sarai CSDS Digital Media fellowship (2014), and the Films Division of India fellowship (2013). He was also a visiting scholar at Cambridge University (2018) and has published academic articles in Bioscope, Widescreen, and other journals.

A Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS) Public Issues Forum funded by the US Department of Education's Title VI UISFL grant.

As the wife of Jamaica's former Prime Minister, Beverley Manley Duncan conversed with global players such as Fidel Castro, Winnie Mandela, and Pierre Trudeau. In this no-stone-unturned documentary, Beverley forces herself to confront her complicated past. What was it like to be a Black woman seated at the table? Does she play a pivotal or supporting role? As a Black nationalist, she wore large Afros and head turbans in corridors of power where they were typically not welcomed. She is controversial in her outspoken views of women's sexuality, infidelity, and domestic abuse. She is a powerful voice with wisdom to teach the ages. She is a critical link to where we have come from and a seer of where we might be going. The film Beverley Manley Uncensored lies at the complex intersection of race, class, gender, politics, and global power in a post-colonial society. Join us for a riveting film screening in McGraw Hall and live discussion with Beverley Manley and the filmmaker Joelle Simone Powe, both of whom will join us virtually.

Beverley Manley Duncan is the former first lady of Jamaica’s most famous Prime Minister, Michael Manley. As a champion for Women’s Rights and Black Nationalism, Mrs. Manley implemented changes that radically transformed Jamaican society in the 1970s by founding the Jamaican Women’s Movement, introducing paid maternity leave and equal pay for equal work statutes. She is a keen eyewitness of the most tumultuous decade in Jamaican political history. In 2012, she published her autobiography, the Manley Memoirs, to great discussion and acclaim. The book created shock waves across the Caribbean and diaspora. The four-part docu-series Beverley Manley Uncensored, on Beverley’s life and work, garnered half a million views and sparked a national debate with its intimate interviews and historical reflections.

"The entire country has been waiting to hear from the former wife of late Prime Minister Michael Manley. Beverley Manley Duncan has much to say about sex, politics, classism, imperialism, and political violence"

-The Jamaica Gleaner 2022

Joelle Simone Powe is an accomplished documentary film director, writer, and researcher from Jamaica. Her work explores controversial personalities and topics in Caribbean history and culture. Her debut documentary, "Out There Without Fear," explores Jamaica’s Dancehall dance. Her subsequent work, "Beverley Manley Uncensored," a four-part docu-series on the former First Lady of Jamaica, created a national storm with its exploration of a very vexing time in Jamaican history. Joelle is the founder of Out There Without Fear Dialogues, an educational platform that illuminates Caribbean stories through film, performance, and discussion with regional voices. Her events showcase diverse points of view and challenge academics and students to participate in a robust discussion on issues of race, culture, gender, politics, and international relations.

Please see the link to RSVP

https://www.outtherewithoutfear.org/event-details-registration/beverley…

In his talk, Derek Penslar, the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University, will compare the emotions and perceptions that the public on three different continents—the Middle East/south Asia, France/Germany, and several Latin American states—brought to the Palestine question and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. He’ll discuss how 1948 marked the beginning of the world‘s abiding interest in the region, for reasons that go beyond events in Palestine in and of themselves

The talk is scheduled for 5 p.m. in Room G10 of the Biotechnology Building. Register here to watch the event on eCornell.

Penslar’s research has engaged with a variety of approaches and methods, including the history of science and technology, economic history, military history, biography, post-colonial theory and the history of emotions. His most recent book is “Zionism: An Emotional State,” and he is currently writing a book about worldwide reactions to the 1948 Palestine War.

Sponsored by: Office of the Provost; College of Arts & Sciences; Department of Near Eastern Studies; Jewish Studies Program; Religious Studies Program; Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures; Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East at the Cornell Law School; Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; Society for the Humanities.

For more information, visit https://as.cornell.edu/public-engagement/antisemitism-and-islamophobia-….

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please email Lori Sonken at ljs269@cornell.edu.

Moustafa Bayoumi, journalist and professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York shares his views on the rise of Islamophobia.

The talk is scheduled for 5 p.m. in 401 Warren Hall. Register here to watch the event on eCornell.

Bayoumi is the author of “How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America” and “This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror.” He is a columnist for The Guardian as well as a regular contributor to The Nation, and his writing has also appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, CNN, The London Review of Books, The National, The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Progressive.

Sponsored by: Office of the Provost; College of Arts & Sciences; Department of Near Eastern Studies; Jewish Studies Program; Religious Studies Program; Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures; Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East at the Cornell Law School; Comparative Muslim Societies; Critical Ottoman + Post-Ottoman Studies; Einhorn Center for Community Engagement; Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; Society for the Humanities.

For more information, visit https://as.cornell.edu/public-engagement/antisemitism-and-islamophobia-….

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please email Lori Sonken at ljs269@cornell.edu.

Menachem Z. Rosensaft, adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School and General Counsel Emeritus, World Jewish Congress shares his views on antisemitism, the Israel-Hamas War and the law of genocide.

Born in 1948 in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany, the son of two survivors of the Nazi death and concentration camps of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, Rosensaft is also general counsel emeritus of the World Jewish Congress, and a past president of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City. He has taught about the law of genocide at Cornell Law School since 2008 and at Columbia Law School since 2011; beginning this semester, he is teaching separate courses on antisemitism in the courts and in jurisprudence to Cornell law students and to undergraduates. He is the author of "Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen" (Kelsay Books, 2021) and editor of "God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors" (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2015).

This talk will take place at 5 p.m. in 401 Warren Hall.

All the talks are open to the public and will be livestreamed on eCornell. To view this first talk, register at this eCornell site: https://ecornell.cornell.edu/keynotes/overview/K021224/

Sponsored by: Office of the Provost; College of Arts & Sciences; Department of Near Eastern Studies; Jewish Studies Program; Religious Studies Program; Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures; Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East at the Cornell Law School; Comparative Muslim Societies; Critical Ottoman + Post-Ottoman Studies; Einhorn Center for Community Engagement; Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; Society for the Humanities.

For more information, visit https://as.cornell.edu/public-engagement/antisemitism-and-islamophobia-….

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please email Lori Sonken at ljs269@cornell.edu.

Today, illegality is the major frame through which societies discuss migration. While the existing literature has situated the emergence of the figure of the illegal migrant in the post-1945 era, I show that people were already criminalized as illegal in 1920s Germany. To target Jewish migrants fleeing the pogroms in present-day Poland and Ukraine, the German government built its first immigration detention camps and attempted to control its external borders and deport those that had been categorized as ‘nuisance foreigners’ – the poor, those without a job or a permanent abode, and those who had been found guilty of a crime. Through a historical case study of Germany, this paper therefore asks how states first came to render people on the move as illegal. Drawing on one year of archival research, I show how the making of migrant illegality is as much rooted in the domestic control of vagrants and Roma people as it was influenced by the transnational efforts to manage colonized labor. I argue that the entanglements of these local-subnational and global-colonial histories of mobility controls equipped the German state with the legal, bureaucratic, and enforcement capacities to define and categorize who can be excluded as an illegal migrant and to detain and deport those targeted.

About the Speaker

Sabrina Axster is a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University’s Migration Initiative and hold a PhD in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University.

This event is part of the Department of Government's Politics, Sandwiches, and Comments workshop series.

Recent assessments of climate change impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa indicate that the continent is already experiencing impacts from rising temperatures, including water shortages, reduced food production, loss of lives and biodiversity loss. There are an increased number of extreme events, from drought, floods and tropical storms, and these events will worsen if global greenhouse gases are not significantly reduced. At the same time, Africa is one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, and many countries struggle to manage with the cost of climate change adaptation, while also paying high levels of debt. Alongside these climate challenges are ongoing extractive industries looking to Africa as a new or ongoing source of resources – including mining precious minerals to support renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. Despite this bleak picture, alternative models that are transformative and reparative are emerging as ways to imagine just climate futures in Africa. These alternatives include attention to multiple types of social inequities and building development strategies through dialogue and careful attention to power dynamics. Adaptation approaches that support decent livelihoods alongside biodiversity, ecosystems and indigenous knowledge are being tested and expanded. Recognition of power inequities at multiple scales and reparation of these inequities is part of such approaches.