On Trade Remedy

It took a while after dissertation defense to plan out a firm book proposal and agenda. A couple of meetings were held with book publishers in order to figure out what they were looking for and how I could contribute. In the course of a year, after comments from several job talks and seminars, the book project – which was originally my dissertation – is really taking off. But it really took time to figure out how the contents and the flow of the book should be reorganized, as opposed to the organization of the dissertation. Books on dissertation revision into book volumes (Germano, 2013), recent book volumes that were published by my senior colleagues and meetings with book acquisition editors at local branches of renowned university presses helped along the way, in addition to the early career researchers workshop at ISA Hong Kong in June.

The book’s focus now is mainly on the interactions between states on trade remedy and protectionism. I consider the topic quite timely, as the world is facing heightened protectionism as of late – just consider the slogans in the US presidential elections on trade. Once again, I’ll be affiliated with the APSA Centennial Center. Only this time I will be spending a bulk of my time at the US International Trade Commission main library. The key mission is to unearth documents on trade remedy (specifically Japan’s and South Korea’s pre-WTO and China’s post-WTO) that are not available online, and to talk with some people who are knowledgeable on these issues.

On Cybersecurity and Industrial Espionage

My second goal during this trip is to uncover the links between innovation and industrial espionage that results in confrontation of IP issues. This work would be for my ongoing articles that are being reviewed or in progress. I scheduled some meetings with cybersecurity experts in the Washington and Virginia areas.

I am expecting that this trip would be very worthwhile.