Microsoft: Notre Dame professor of law Joseph Bauer supports the Department of Justice and the 20 state attorneys general who have filed antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft.
"I think the activities of Microsoft raise some serious antitrust problems as the filings suggest," Bauer said. "I'm quite supportive of those efforts. But this is different from the other classic antitrust cases because of the ways the high-tech industry is evolving so rapidly. It seems to me the government always will be behind the curve on this issue." (219) 631-6514
India: Nuclear tests by India "show the commitment of the new coalition government, led by the BJP (Hindu national party), to adopt a more nationalistic posture in international politics." says Raimo Vayrynen, John M. Regan, Jr., Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. "This posture is based on the outdated assumption that nuclear arsenals assure the country a great-power position in the world. To the contrary, India's tests and weapons potential will make its international position more vulnerable and regional security will deteriorate. The solution of the huge problems of poverty and underdevelopment in South Asia require its integration into the mainstream of the world economy. In recent years, India in particular has made progress in that direction. Now, however, the economic sanctions by the United States and international financial organizations, prompted by the nuclear detonations, will undermine this progress and isolate India internationally." (219) 631-5665; [email protected]
Israel: Notre Dame political scientist Alan Dowty believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "playing a game of chicken with the United States. He is betting -- probably correctly -- that it is not worth it to the Clinton administration to force an angry public confrontation over relatively small pieces of territory. This, he calculates, would enable him to extract every possible concession before arriving, finally, at some kind of agreement over the final deployment in the interim agreement. Then he could claim that he had, as promised, achieved a better deal than his Labor opponents would have gained, and it might enable him to keep within the coalition the more hawkish elements that have threatened to bolt and undo his one-vote majority in the Knesset. This tough posture, however, also increases the risk of no agreement being reached. This would be fine with the governing coalition in theory, since most members propose a final settlement fairly similar to the existing situation. But it also raises the risk of renewed and intensified violence and unrest, which Netanyahu may think -- incorrectly in this case -- that he can successfully contain." (219) 631-5098; [email protected]
NATO: The proposed expansion of NATO is a "leap into the unknown," says Raimo Vayrynen, John M. Regan, Jr., Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. "The results will depend on what happens in Russia -- and there is no way to know how that will unfold -- and how NATO itself evolves over the next 10-15 years. NATO once was a Cold War alliance that relied upon the threat of nuclear weapons. Now, it is an institution for the collective security of Europe, with new tasks and responsibilities. NATO's enlargement could be a good thing, provided Russia remains cooperative with the international community and NATO continues to develop as an organization whose top priority is the maintenance of balance." (219) 631-5665
Viagra: The popularity of drugs such as Viagra, creatine and others concerns Maura Ryan, a bioethicist and assistant professor of theology at Notre Dame. "My concern is the just distribution of health-care drugs," she said. "We're developing drugs for social goals while failing to meet the basic health needs of 40-plus million people who are without access to health care. I would make a distinction, for example, between someone using Viagra for medically diagnosed impotence and someone using it just to be more sexually proficient. But overall, I don't think we're asking good questions about the goals of medicine." (219) 631-7267
UFOs: A new book coauthored by Notre Dame psychologist George Howard examines the psychology behind the claims of recent UFO sightings. "We use the dominant culture as a way of stimulating our imaginations, as a way of seeing what might be possible in the not-too-distant future," Howard said in a feature story published in the South Bend Tribune. "If people in the media get us believing something is possible, then we start looking for it. Sometimes, if you look hard enough for something, you begin to see it." Howard adds that rather than label those who claim to have seen UFOs or aliens as psychopathologically delusional, we should see them as people with fantasy-prone personalities. "It's more helpful to view these things from the fantasy-prone perspective," he says. "What are the consequences of believing these are cases of extremely creative people whose fantasies have gotten a little out of hand versus the consequences of using this one claim as the litmus test for their sanity?"
(219) 631-5423
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