This blog invites your posts, comments, blowback on the subject of what we regard to be the inevitable progressive future of the USA. Reform and concern for the poor and middle class and great equity and fairness in the economic, social and legal systems of your country are going to come. They will come in fits and starts at first, then more rapidly. Clinton, 1993-2001, was the first “Progressive light” Democratic partner since Carter. Obama, 2009-present is a more substantial, if less easy-going, transitional progressive, all the more so because of the hyper-conservative climate in which he operates. Also, the symbolic implications of electing an African-American president in 2008 are profound. This leads to the equally important second dimension of this web-log: it is a platform for the launching of our book OBAMA, PROGRESSIVE RESURGENCE, TWILIGHT OF THE FAR RIGHT 1990-2040. This book, written by the author (see About F.L. Shiels, Ph.D. in the navigation buttons) and Dr. Arthur Lerman, is developing out of the ideas, writing, and responses seen on the blog itself. We invite your participation, ask for any and all comments, and ask for you to return here and Have Fun! Frederick L. Shiels, Professor/Ph.D., (has) headed the Model United Nations program at Mercy College for 25 of his 33 years there. He has been Adjunct Professor at Baruch College, Long Island University, and Marist College. He teaches the theory and practice of diplomacy, research, and self presentation in classes on International Organizations, International Relations, American Foreign Policy and U.S. history and politics. His research specialty has been the American Presidency, but he has branched out into studies of Japan, nuclear weapons control, the Baltic States, and Civilian casualties. The author and editor of five books and numerous articles, he taught in Japan and Latvia for the Fulbright program. He has traveled to 34 countries and encourages students to travel in an informed and happily curious way, and to engage the world through lifelong study, with stress on clear speaking and writing, and the use of new technologies in preparing for international careers– or any career. FREDERICK L. SHIELS Curriculum Vitae   January, 2021 PERSONAL INFORMATION: 53 Winterberry Circle Cross River, NY 10518 Home Telephone (914) 763-1888 Date of Birth  June 10, 1949 Place of Birth  Wilmington, Delaware USA ACADEMIC BACKGROUND: Graduate: Cornell University Ph.D. 1977 (Government) The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies M.A. 1973 (International Studies) Undergraduate: Vanderbilt University B.A. 1971 (Political Science) HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS: Fulbright Senior Lecturer, Riga Latvia  Jan. 26-June 29, 2006 at the University of Latvia Fulbright Senior Lectureship, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, 1985-86. Summer Fellowship Winner and Honorary Member, International Studies Association, 1975 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Professor Emeritus Political Science and History, Mercy College, 2012-present PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, 1987-2012, MERCY COLLEGE, Dobbs Ferry, New York 10522 (Associate Professor September 1983 -August,1987; Assistant Professor, September 1978 August 1983 ); substantial responsibility for new course development and building political science curriculum; student internships and advising; Model UN Director 1986-2011 ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY, Brooklyn, NY starting Fall, 2004 ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, BARUCH COLLEGE/CITY UNIVERSITY OF NY, 1999-2004 ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND HISTORY, MARIST COLLEGE, 1990-2004 (occasional) VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, BARUCH COLLEGE / CUNY 1/77-8/78 (includes summer semesters 1977 and 1978); extensive responsibility for curriculum development and graduate student advising, thesis supervision. TEACHING ASSISTANT, CORNELL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT 1973-1975. RESEARCH AIDE ON U.S. AFRICA POLICY TO THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, 1973. RESEARCH INTERN, FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE, 1973-1975. RESEARCH INTERN, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 1971-1972 (extensive archival work). FIELDS OF ACADEMIC SPECIALIZATION: International Relations Comparative Politics (esp. Third World, but also Northeast Europe) Foreign Policy (esp. US/Third World, but also Northeast Europe) Public Administration / American Government DISTANCE LEARNING

• I have taught 112 distance/online learning courses in history /political science since 1994
• I have developed an American History website for Mercy College http://faculty.mercy.edu/fshiels 

DISSERTATION TITLE: “The American Experience in Okinawa: A Case Study for Foreign Policy and Decision-Making Theory” FELLOWSHIPS, RESEARCH GRANTS: Charles F. Olson Grant for Historical Research, 2002 ($10,000) Faculty Development Grants at Mercy College, 1984-2004 totaling $18,500 Peace Studies Program (Cornell/Ford) Research Grants, 1975 and 1976. Cornell University China-Japan Program Grant, 1976. Cornell Center for International Studies Grant, 1975. PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS: APSA  International Studies Association FOREIGN LANGUAGES: French; basic Spanish and basic Japanese and Latvian CURRENTLY: (2014) working on book on the future of progressive politics in the U.S., a blog https://progressivefutureusa.com/ , am studying and writing poetry at the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY… I have recently published poetry in the NEW VERSE NEWS and SiXFOLD RECENTLY (2013)- I assisted Prof. Beerd Beukenhorst of the University of Amsterdam, edit his Book WHOSE VIETNAM?, a foreign policy study and conducted a seminar at that University in Janauary of 2014 on my own research on civilian casualties in American foreign wars RECENT RESEARCH ON EUROPE:

1.  “The Elephant and the Fox: U.S. Latvian Bi-Lateral Relations”, 2007 article and paper presentation
2. “ Globalization and Country to Country Aid Projects”, 2008 article and paper presentation, Turiiba, Univ., Riga, March, 2008
3.  “The Helsinki-Tallinn Connection: A Case Study in International Mentoring of Baltic States Entering the European Union” project/article being worked on presently

 General Publications /Paper Presentation- SEMINARS-  Tallinn Estonia, Jan. 2013, Estonia Technical University and Oslo Norway, Oslo University, Public Administration discussing the Obama foreign policy and issues in US/ EU relations PAPER PRESENTATION: “Why We Bomb: The American Calculus of Foreign Civilian Lives,” at Lincoln College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, 3/2010               ARTICLE: “Whose Dead?: The Killing of Iraqis and Afghanis to Save American Lives”, 2004-2006 research and submission of article this year for possible publication in The American Prospect, a progressive-mainstream magazine ARTICLE/PAPER for PRESENTATION: “Why We Bomb: Strategic and Legal Questions about Civilian Deaths in American Wars”, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, November 1, 2006 RESEARCH COMPLETED, PUBLICATIONS: ARTICLE: “Whose Dead?: The Killing of Iraqis and Afghanis to Save American Lives”, 2004-2006 research and submission of article this year for possible publication in The American Prospect, a progressive-mainstream magazine ARTICLE/PAPER for PRESENTATION: “Why We Bomb: Strategic and Legal Questions about Civilian Deaths in American Wars”, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, November 1, 2006 BOOK REVIEW, for Houghton- Mifflin, of James Q. Wilson’s, American Government, the edition, 2006 (one of the best selling American government texts and the one used at Mercy College) BOOK REVIEW, for Pacific Historical Review, of Nicholas Sarantakes’ Keystone: The American Occupation of Okinawa and U.S./Japanese Relations, May, 2002. ARTICLE, “Presidential Houses Seen Through the Eyes of Children,” in Presidential Forum, Indianapolis, Spring 1996 BOOK CHAPTER, “Misperception at the Top” in H. Wiberg and Paul Smoker, Inadvertent Nuclear War, Pergamon, 1993, [refereed] BOOK CHAPTER, “The American Interlude in Okinawa: 1945-72,” in George DeVos and Koji Taira (eds.), Okinawa: Challenge and Adaptation at Japan’s Periphery, U. Hawaii Press, forthcoming BOOK, Preventable Disasters: Why Governments Fail, ( Rowman and Littlefield, 1991) ARTICLE, “Iran: The Unheard Revolution,” in Kyushu University Review of Law and Politics, April, 1986 [refereed] BOOK, Ethnic Separatism and World Politics, University Press of America, 1983 BOOK, Tokyo and Washington: Dilemmas of a Mature Alliance,  Lexington Books (D.C. Heath) November, 1980 BOOK, America, Okinawa, and Japan, (Univ. Press of America) 1980 BOOK, The New American Foreign Policy: A Primer for the 1980’s, (edited reader) Collegium Book Publishers, 1979 ARTICLE, “American Rule in Okinawa,” in December 1978 Ryudai Law Review (Ryukyu National University, Japan) [refereed] CURRENT RESEARCH- Study of Civilian Casualties in U.S. military interventions funded in part by Charles Olson Grant (more information available on request) PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCES: Discussant, panel “Distance Learning Applications in History: USA and Turkey” at the Conference on Computers and History, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, June, 1999. Symposium Paper, “Misperception, Multipolarization and History in Fast Forward,” Presented at the Conference on the Consequences of the dissolution of the Soviet Union for the Inadvertent Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction, held in Parnu, Estonia, April 16-20, 1993. Proceedings published by the Estonian Academy of Sciences in 1993. Panel Paper, “Okinawa’s American Interlude: 19451972,” INTERNATIONAL NORTH AFRICAN AND ASIAN STUDIES (ICANAS) CONFERENCE, Toronto, August, 1991 Symposium Paper,”Preventing the Ultimate Disaster: Misperception at the Top,” CONFERENCE ON ACCIDENTAL NUCLEAR WAR, University of Copenhagen Centre for Research on Peace and Conflict, Copenhagen, June, 1990. Panel Paper, “Nuclear Disaster Prevention in Theory and  Practice,” INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION MEETING, London, March 1989 Panel Paper, “Iran: The Unheard Revolution,” AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION CONVENTION, Chicago, September, 1987 Panel Paper, “Israel’s October Surprise, NORTHEAST POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION (NEPSA)  CONVENTION, Boston, 11/86 Panel Paper, “Ethnic Diversity and Third World Democracy,” NEPSA, Boston, November 1984 Chaired Panel, “Ethnic Separatism and World Politics,” NEPSA, Philadelphia, November 1983 Chaired Panel, “New Directions in American Foreign Policy” and Presented Paper “Preventable Disasters” NORTHEAST POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION CONVENTION, Newark, November, 1981 Panel Paper, ” Rationality Revisited: Bureaucratic Politics Assessed” NY STATE POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, New York, 2/79 Chaired Panel, “Comparative Foreign Policy,” INTERNATIONAL 

STUDIES ASSOCIATION, Toronto, 2/79 ANNUAL CONVENTION