Studying International Affairs
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The University of Maine's International Affairs Program, directed by political scientist Bahman Baktiari, has grown apace with Americans' interest in Mideast issues since 9-11. The program had 34 majors in 2000; today, that number has nearly tripled to 95 majors in 2004, and now includes a dozen international students.

Students can specialize in one of six areas — anthropology, economics, environmental issues, history, modern languages or political science. Seventeen cooperating professors from different departments carry the teaching load.

Baktiari describes the major as "well connected." Last year, live video teleconferencing facilitated a discussion of the United States' Middle East policies between UMaine students and their peers at the American University in Cairo, where Baktiari has been a visiting professor. A similar three-hour transcontinental discussion between Orono and Cairo students is planned for March 16 on the subject of how Muslims perceive themselves and their relationship to the West.

In the past two years, UMaine students have attended campus lectures by Sen. Bob Kerrey of the 9-11 Commission, and by former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson. Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, attended a small luncheon with faculty and students Feb. 25 before going to give the keynote address at the Camden Conference on the Middle East.

Kenneth Hillas Jr., deputy chief of mission to the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic, came to UMaine last fall to speak on the European Union at the International Affairs Luncheon Lecture Series. Hillas is one of 18 graduates from the International Affairs Program now working for the U.S. State Department, eight at the level of deputy ambassador. Three graduates work for offices of Senators Collins and Snowe.

Other students have gone to work for organizations in Maine with a focus on international trade and in the offices of the state's congressional delegation. Others go to graduate school.