Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

See the Conversations with History Blog See a webcast of this interview: Weber

This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.

Welcome to a Conversation with History. I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is Steven Weber, who is Professor of Political Science at U.C. Berkeley. His publications include Cooperation and Discord in U.S. - Soviet Arms Control; the edited volume, Globalization and the European Political Economy; and forthcoming from Harvard University Press, The Success of Open Source.

1. Background ... influence of hometown community ... education ... from history to medical school to political science
2. Being a Political Scientist ... focus on the collective good ... influence of Alex George ... Robert Axelrod ... arms control case study ... follow your passion ... focus on ideas ... thinking about the future ... understanding the driving forces that shape politics ... using the indeterminacy of future to open people's minds ... exercises for the imagination
3. Political Alternatives in the Information Age ... interest in Linux operating system development ... different approach to property rights ... open source ecology ... "writing a constitution" on the Internet ... applying Alex George's methodology to understand Internet communities ... applicability of open source model ... interaction between networked and hierarchical organizations
4. Implications for Power in the Post-9/11 World ... redefining power ... motivation ... distributed innovation ... scaling John Stuart Mill ... changing how international relations are conceived ... what needs to be researched ... case of al Qaeda ... problem of international inequality ... window of opportunity ... leadership and vision
5. Conclusion ... thinking critically

See Professor Weber's Politics and Economics Blog

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