PSU Magazine Spring 1987

, -----·CONVERSATION· T he first permanent director of PSU's two-year-old International Studies Degree Program is a man with some pretty strong feelings about the state of the world today. Mel Gurtov, a political scientist whose specialties are China and American foreign policy, comes to Portland State from the University of California– Riverside. A native New Yorker who is fluent in Chinese (Mandarin), Gurtov has a master's from the School of International Affairs at Columbia University and a doctorate from UCLA . At PSU, Gurtov heads up an inter-disciplinary under– graduate program that offers concentrations in the Far East , Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa. As a researcher for the RAND Corpora– tion, Gurtov helped prepare the section of the Pentagon Papers dealing with US. involvement in Vietnam through the mid- 1950s; later he testified on behalf of Daniel Ellsbe1g, who leaked the papers to the public in 1971. Such first-hand experience with US. foreign policy, along with subsequent research and writing, have figured into the development of Gwtov's distinctly global persj1ective. The author of "China Under Threat: The Politics of Strategy and • Diplomacy" (1980) and "Roots of Failure: US. Policy in the Third World" (with Ray Maghroori, 1984), and a recent candidate for US. Congress, Gurtov is an outspoken critic of US. policy and an ardent supporter of international cooperation. The following are excerpts from a recent interview with Gurtov. Q: You left a 15-year career at the University of California-Riverside to come to Portland State, so you must have perceived a particular challenge or potential here. A: I believe that this particular curriculum is very innovative and really on the leading edge of educa tion because it's mu lti-disciplinary and because it gets back to promoting area and language skills, which have been very bad ly neglected around the country ... Although I'm a poli tical scientist, I think it's very important for all of us to think and teach or study across discipli– nary lines. Today, to be successful in any pursuit, one has to branch out and be multi-dimensional, especially if one is going to get involved in internati onal work of any kind, from tourism to • government service . .. Mel Gurtov Globally Speaking Mel Gurtov, director of the International Studies Degree Program at PS U, talks about the future of his program and the condition of the globe. Interview by Cynthia D. Stowell PSU MAGAZINE PAGE 17 The challenge is to make a beginning international studies program for undergraduates dynamic and innova– tive enough to attract the attention not on ly of students and faculty but espe– cially of the community. This is a chance to build bridges between the campus and the community. Q: President Sicuro has referred to Portland State as a " global university." What do you think he means by that and how do you hope to dovetail with that notion ? A: I've used the same kind of language. I see one of our main missions in terms of the program for undergraduates as creating global awareness. I think we have to move beyond a narrow, often self-defeating nationalism and start looking at the planet as an economic and ecological who le. I assume what the President means, which is certainly what I wou ld mean , is that this university is ideally situated in a n international city, which is going to be increasingly dependent on international ties to grow and employ people. It seems like just the right place to have a curriculum which is internationall y oriented. ::l We have to be careful there because w ' ~ the concept of Pacific Rim has become VJ quite a catchv10rd. There's a tendency ci in an economically depressed area such < as ours to create artificial expectations t that the Pacific Rim holds the key to ~ two-percent unemployment ... But Oregon is interdependent with the rest of the United States and its economy, and until and un less the root structural problems of the American economy are dealt with, l don't see much prog– ress being made on that. Oregon's not going to be able to survive on what it can do in the trans-Pacific trade. Q: Your first major job out of school was with the RAND Corporation (a Defense Department think tank). Considering your later publications, which are critical of U.S. foreign policy, this background is surprising. A: At the time I joined RAND, I was hired because of my master's degree work in Vietnam . I had written what became my first book, a study of the U.S. policy and Chinese policy in the first Vietnam War, when the French were kicked out in the Fifties. So I was