Simulations are an excellent way to introduce and reinforce complex topics for both novices and experienced students in an international relations class. One such topic, the provision of aid in a humanitarian crisis, can be taught through the use of collaborative and active-learning techniques found in a simulation. This article presents a simulation for an international relations course that models and illustrates the challenges that well-meaning decision makers face when determining an appropriate international response in a humanitarian crisis.

The American Political Science Association invites applications for participation in the summer 2012 Africa Workshops, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. All costs of participation (travel, lodging, meals, daily stipend, and materials) for up to 20 Africa-based and 3 US-based participants will be covered. The working language of the workshop is English.

On a foggy Monday morning in late September 2010 in Kiel, Germany, I received a phone call from Berlin. “Do you have any plans for November through summer of next year?” the voice inquired. One of the two German Marshall Fund congressional fellows for the 2010–2011 round had suddenly dropped out and a replacement was needed. The call came five months after I had been initially rejected for the fellowship, and while my life had certainly moved on (I had begun work on my PhD dissertation at the University of Kiel and had expected to stay in Northern Germany for two or three years), I quickly regained my composure, asked for time to discuss this with my dissertation director as well as with my parents, and shortly thereafter accepted the selection. Exactly how I managed to cram the amount of work required for moving overseas into four weeks instead of the usual four to six months remains blurry. Eventually, however, I was able to tie up the loose ends in Germany, get the appropriate work visa for the United States, and even participate in a prestigious, long-planned naval reserve exercise that the German Navy's chief of naval operations had invited me to attend.

As PS heads to press, political science research funding is under direct threat in the US Congress, which is considering appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF) for FY 2013 as part of FY 2013 Commerce, Justices, Science Appropriations Bill. In early May, the House of Representatives passed the Flake Amendment to prohibit the use of any NSF funds “to carry out the functions of the political science program” by a vote of 218 to 208.

The following pages contain updated information, for 2012, for APSA Organized Sections available as we head to press with this issue. Additional details concerning each section's activities and awards, with full details on the award nomination process and the awards committees if not provided here, are available on the section's website, or contact them directly.

Regular readers of the International Programs section of PS will be familiar with APSA's Africa Workshop program, an academic conference series funded by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, now going into its 5th annual iteration. This summer, approximately 30 scholars from across Africa and the United States will gather at the University of Botswana in Gaborone for this year's workshop “Local Communities and the State in Africa.”

APSA is pleased to recognize the recipients of campus-wide and departmental awards for teaching excellence during the 2011–12 academic year. Usually, Pi Sigma Alpha hosts these recipients each year at the Reception Honoring Teaching at the APSA Annual Meeting; however, due to cancellation of the event, PS is pleased to note the awardees here.

Passed by the US House of Representatives as part of the annual defense authorization bill in May 2011, provisions of the New START Implementation Act (NSIA) represented an attempt by Congress to exercise more robust involvement in US nuclear policy, an area historically subject to a great deal of deference to the executive branch. The bill sought to implement the “grand bargain” that preceded the ratification of the New START treaty—namely, that the treaty's seven-year window of reductions to US nuclear forces should be made in tandem with a 10-year modernization program of both the weapons themselves and their aging delivery systems. The context of this arrangement was growing concern about the ability of the United States to retain a sustainable nuclear deterrent for the indefinite future. Although the NSIA provisions were abandoned during conference with the Senate in December 2011, their underlying concerns remain unresolved, and the sustainability of the nuclear enterprise is certain to reappear as a future point of controversy.

Eight new members of the APSA council were elected last fall. The new members are Paul Gronke, Reed College; Ange-Marie Hancock, University of Southern California; David A. Lake, University of California, San Diego; Taeku Lee, University of California, Berkeley; Kenneth J. Meier, Texas A&M University; Kathleen Thelen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stephen M. Walt, Harvard University; and Angelia R. Wilson, University of Manchester.

After a competitive application process, the APSA Africa Project Steering Committee has selected this year's workshop leaders. The US-based facilitators of the workshop are Parakh Hoon (Virginia Tech) and Lauren MacLean (Indiana University). Their Africa-based colleagues are Joseph Mbaiwa (Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana, Maun Campus), Sethunya Mosime (University of Botswana, Gaborone Campus), and Lungisile Ntsebeza (University of Cape Town). The theme of this year's workshop is “Local Communities and the State in Africa.” The event will be held in July 2012 at the facilities of the University of Botswana in Gaborone.

Upcoming international conferences.

This list celebrates the generous contributions of our members in giving to one or more of the following programs from 1996 through 2011: APSA awards, programs, the Congressional Fellowship Program, the Centennial Campaign, and the newly created APSA Teaching Award. APSA thanks these donors for ensuring that the benefits of membership and the influence of the profession will extend far into the future. APSA updates and publishes this list annually in the January issue of PS.

A regular meeting of the American Political Science Association Council was held in Seattle, Washington, on August 31, 2011. The meeting called to order at 9:00 a.m. by President Pateman. President Pateman declared a quorum present.

The administrative committee consists of the president, president-elect, treasurer, and four other council members whose main duties include preparing agendas for council meetings and annual business meetings and acting on behalf of the council to dispose of policy issues deemed of insufficient weight to require decisions by the council.

APSA is pleased to include here the names of individuals who have completed their doctoral dissertations at political science departments in the United States during 2010 and 2011. The list is based on data collected in the APSA member database and includes information reported by both individuals and departments. Dissertations are listed by fields of interest as labeled by APSA: American politics, comparative politics, international relations, methodology, public administration, political philosophy and theory, public law and courts, and public policy.

Harriet Fleisher Berger was a trailblazer. She was a curious thinker and a practitioner of feminism before the term became familiar in the field of political science. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1938, married, and raised two sons. After graduation, she became a researcher at the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. This was a pathway for young women at that time since many of the traditional academic pathways were often limited for women. In addition to her research at the ILGWU, she also helped start the first union medical clinic in Philadelphia. Her family came from an aristocratic-type family, who owned a garment manufacturing business in Philadelphia which provided them with a comfortable standard of life. Throughout her life Dr. Berger, in addition to her teaching, actively worked as an anti-colonialist, a liberal, an environmentalist, a conservationist, a labor organizer, and a New Deal Democrat.