JMC International Relations

Two new faculty members will join the International Relations field, beginning this academic year. 

Professor Yasumasa Komori earned his Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.  His dissertation was entitled “The Construction of Regional Institutions in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific:  Origins, Motives, and Evolution.”  A specialist in International Political Economy, foreign and security policy, Professor Komori taught about East Asia in World Politics at Pittsburgh.  He also recently published an article entitled “The New Dynamics of East Asian Regional Economy:  Japanese and Chinese Strategies in Asia,” Pacific Focus, 2006, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 107-149.  In the fall, he will be teaching MC 320 (Politics, Society and Economy in the Third World) and a senior seminar (MC 492), Globalization and Regional Governance:  East Asia and Beyond.  In the spring, he will be teaching MC 221 (Politics and International Economic Relations) and MC 324D (Regional Cooperation and Conflict in East Asia).

Professor Mark Axelrod, whose appointment is joint with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School and is currently completing his Ph.D. in Political Science at Duke University.  His thesis at Stanford was entitled, “Implementing Customary International Law in Domestic Courts” and his dissertation is entitled “Saving Institutional Benefits: Path Dependence in International Law.”  He is a specialist in international environmental policy and law.  In addition to his teaching experience at Duke, Stanford and at Humboldt University (in Berlin), he interned with  the Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group in Pune and New Delhi, the Center for International Environmental Law in Geneva and with EPA in Ann Arbor.  His publications have appeared in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2nd edition).  In the spring, he will be teaching MC 450 (International Environmental Law and Policy) and a graduate seminar in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. 

Also joining us for a special course in the Spring Semester will be Professor Timur Kocaoglu. Professor Kocaoglu is visiting from Koc University in Istanbul where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Strategic Studies. Professor Kocaoglu earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University, writing his dissertation on issues of national identity in Soviet Central Asia during the Post-Stalin Period. He has subsequently published widely about Eurasia, the Soviet Union, Russia and Islam. In the Spring semester, he will be teaching Russian Foreign Policy (MC 328).

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