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An American in Paris: Professor Leila Nadya Sadat

Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Fulbright Chair, University of Cergy-Pontoise

1870, 1914, 1940 . . .

A couple of weeks ago I visited the eastern part of France -- Lorraine -- with my family. We were invited to stay with friends, in a home built during the war of 1870, and occupied in the other two wars with Germany in 1914 and 1940. We visited the American Cemetary...

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War in Libya

I was living in Paris in 1990 practicing law when the first Gulf War broke out. President George H.W. Bush led a coalition, pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 678, to repel Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Resolution 678 was adopted by a vote...

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Jessup 2011

  I had the privilege to author the Compromis for this year's Jessup problem, which you can find on the website of the International Law Students Association, here. The scenario resembles real life, involving the use of drone attacks against an ethnic...

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Paris in America — Edouard Laboulaye

Last week I went to a very interesting program at the Collège de France on this little book by Edouard Laboulaye, celebrating the bicentennial of this lesser known luminary of France. The book Paris en Amérique itself appeared in 1863 and was...

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The French Sense of Time and Space

We are now back from the period known in France as les vacances scolaires when everything, for anyone with (or even randomnly associated with) school age children stops dead. Being extremely organized, school holidays in France are all taken at the same...

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The Weight of History

This past Wednesday and Thursday, the Commission Franco-Américain brought together all the American Fulbrights and Chateaubriand Fellows working and studying in France so that we could learn about each other’s work, and share our research and our...

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French University Life — or, plus ca change. . . .

The past two weeks I took the train (RER) from Paris to Cergy-Pontoise where I will be teaching. Cergy is a new university, just celebrating it's 20th year, that is located outside of the city. The suburban campus has the advantage of providing a more...

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