Volume 1, Issue 1 (2015) Inaugural Issue

Welcome to The Cohen Journal

We are delighted to introduce the Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service’s latest project, The Cohen Journal (TCJ). TCJ provides undergraduates, postgraduates, and graduates of the University of Maine with the opportunity to publish their original research in a peer-reviewed journal. It will also highlight and promote the quality student research found at Maine’s flagship institution of research and higher learning.

The objective of TCJ is to publish up-to-date, high quality, and original research papers alongside relevant and insightful reviews on issues relevant to American domestic and/or foreign policy. The journal relies on strong research, underscoring the importance of the information that feeds into policy. We hope that the students and graduates of the University of Maine will use TCJ to elucidate on some of the difficult issues we as a country – and world – now face on a daily basis.

In choosing which articles to publish for our inaugural issue, we wanted to highlight the different forms of submissions that the editorial board will consider. The editorial board therefore chose two conventional journal articles and two “commentary pieces,” which are shorter pieces and consist of one policy letter and one book review.

Last semester, when we first solicited submissions from across the University of Maine campus, we were both overwhelmed by the number and quality of submissions we received. We would like to thank everyone who chose to submit a manuscript to the journal.

We would also like to thank Katherine, Jesse, Robert, and Danielle, who make up the Journal’s student editorial board. Their dedication to the Journal has been instrumental in bringing the Journal to this exciting point. The same thanks must go to the Journal’s Faculty Advisory Committee whose advice has been indispensable during the development of this project.

The Journal would not exist without the belief, encouragement, and advice of Dr. Richard Powell and Ms. Janet Staples of the University of Maine’s Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service. TCJ is only one facet of the University’s exciting new Cohen Institute, which will promote the style of leadership epitomized by Former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen.

Finally, we would both like to thank Secretary Cohen personally for giving this project his blessing and taking the time to write the introduction to this inaugural issue. Also, for his years of dedication to his home state of Maine and its flagship institution of research and higher learning, the University of Maine.

Mr. Darren J. Reid, MRes, MA.
Editor-in-Chief & Founding Editor, The Cohen Journal
Cohen Research Associate, The Cohen Institute
University of Maine, Orono

Mr. Samuel L. Belknap III, MS, BA.
Senior Editor, The Cohen Journal
Doctoral Candidate, Anthropology & Climate Change Institute
University of Maine, Orono