December 2004/January 2005
Vol. X, No. 4
Institute People
Institute President Richard Solomon gave a presentation with Sheryl Brown, Chief Technology Officer, at the United States Institute of Peace/UNISYS conference on Crisis Management and Information Technology in Nice, France. The title of the talk was “Securing Crisis Recovery: In the Beginning Was Communications.” He also gave presentations to the National Defense University’s Regional Centers, at the Institute’s Senior Fellows’ Retreat, at the School for Advanced International Study Swiss Foundation (on “Sports as a Tool for Peace Building and Diplomacy”), and at a Korean Economic Institute Opinion Leaders Seminar. He also gave remarks at a press conference with Congressman Sam Farr to celebrate the opening of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Post-Conflict Reconstruction.
In late September, director of the Education Program Pamela Aall spoke on the topic of peacemaking in protracted conflicts at Ohio University’s Center for International Studies. The talk drew on the results of the Institute’s two-year study of mediation in intractable conflicts and was part of a workshop organized by Alan Tidwell on “Beyond Violence: Transforming Intractable Conflicts.” In late October, Aall participated in a seminar on “The State of the Art in Peace and Conflict Studies,” hosted by the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. Her remarks centered around the substantive issues the field of peace and conflict studies addresses, the challenges facing the field, and the job prospects for students graduating with a degree in peace studies or conflict resolution.
Ginny Bouvier presented a paper on “A Reluctant Diaspora? The Case of Colombia” for an authors’ conference on “Diasporas in Conflict” September 20–21, 2004, in Macau co-sponsored by the Institute and the United Nations University. In early October, she participated in the congressional launching of her report “Women and Global Leadership: Report of the Women's Leadership Conference of the Americas.” Members of Congress attending the luncheon were Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), Congressman Jim Leach (R-Iowa), Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-California), Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-California), and Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-New York). Later that month, she organized and chaired a panel at the Latin American Studies Association meetings in Las Vegas, Nevada, on “Local and National Initiatives for Peace in Colombia.” Panelists included several former Institute grantees.
Keith Bowen, instructional designer in the Professional Training Program, worked with Bob Perito and George Ward to develop a DVD for U.S. government employees and contractors assigned to work in Iraq. The “Iraq Experience DVD” has won two Aurora Awards from a national panel of production professionals. Bowen has also designed a Certificate Course in Conflict Analysis for anyone interested in conflict management studies. The Internet-based course is available anytime, anywhere, free-of-charge, and uses a variety of audio and visual resources to make the training engaging and memorable.
C. Christine Fair, program officer in the Research and Studies Program, has had several articles published, including “Militant Recruitment in Pakistan: Implications for Al-Qa’ida and Other Organizations,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism; “Learning to Think the Unthinkable: Lessons from India’s Nuclear Test,” forthcoming in India Review; “Disarming Development,” by Julie DaVanzo, Clifford Grammich, Brian Nichiporuk, and C. Christine Fair, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, forthcoming in the October 2004 issue of Peace and Conflict Studies; “Domestic Disputes: Pakistani Internal Security,” C. Christine Fair and Peter Chalk, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. In addition, she has two books forthcoming from RAND: Urban Battle Fields of South Asia: Lessons Learned from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, and The Counterterror Coalitions: Cooperation with Pakistan and India.
Ted Feifer |
Professional Training Program officer Ted Feifer participated in an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference on recruitment and training in Vienna in November, and briefed participants on the Institute's REACT Online training course for U.S. candidates for employment with the OSCE. Afterward, he led a workshop on negotiation and diplomatic skills for the OSCE Presence in Albania in Tirana, later that month.
Jeff Helsing of the Education Program wrote an article titled “The Regionalization, Internationalization, and the Perpetuation of Conflict in the Middle East” in Ethnic Conflict and International Politics: Explaining Diffusion and Escalation (edited by Steven E. Lobell and Philip Mauceri, published by Palgrave MacMillan, 2004). This book took shape at a faculty workshop on ethnic conflict and human rights put together and sponsored by the Institute’s education program at the University of Northern Iowa in 2001.
Abdeslam Maghraoui, associate director of the Muslim World Initiative, lauched a study on the question of political authority in contemporary Muslim societies. The purpose of the study is to understand why and how some Muslim societies undertake successful democratic reforms while others hesitate or altogether resist change. The study will establish whether regime change and continuity within the Muslim world depends on the rulers' unwillingness to give up power or on some general cultural and religious attitudes about political authority. The case studies include Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. The centerpieces of the study are an edited volume to be published by the Institute and a public event to present the study's findings. Abdeslam Maghraoui will edit the volume and write the conceptual chapter. The principal authors of the study convened a workshop in November at the Institute.
Colette Rausch, program officer with the Rule of Law Program, along with Vivienne O'Connor of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, traveled to Beijing, China, to present the “Model Transitional Codes for Post Conflict Criminal Justice” at the International Corrections and Prisons Association's Annual General Meeting and Conference. This meeting assembled a wide range of international experts to discuss the theme of “Development: Helping One Another to Improve—What Works, Where and How?” Ms. Rausch and Ms. O'Connor also organized and ran a roundtable in early November in Bangkok, Thailand, where the draft codes were discussed. Representatives were present from Bangladesh, China, Fiji, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
Colette Rausch attended a conference in Beijing on post-conflict criminal justice. |
Daniel Serwer, director of the Balkans Initiative and Peace and Stability Operations, recently traveled to Europe to attend two conferences on the future of Kosovo. He participated in the German Parliamentary Society’s discussion “Kosovo in 2005: A Year of Decision?” in Berlin, then went to Brussels to address the EU Council on the Western Balkans (COWEB) on the topic of Kosovo. In late October, Serwer submitted a paper titled “Kosovo Won’t Wait” to be jointly published by the Centre for European Policy Studies and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Grants Program officer Taylor Seybolt and Daniel Byman published “Humanitarian Intervention and Communal Civil Wars: Problems and Alternative Approaches” in Security Studies. The article reviews military intervention techniques used to resolve violent communal conflict and finds that all have their problems and costs. If the U.S. military is to implement them, however, it will require both operational and political changes.
In October, director of the Professional Training Program George Ward addressed the 2004 Parliamentary Hearing of the Inter-Parliamentary Union at the United Nations on an integrated approach to post-conflict peace building. He focused on the challenges of civil-military cooperation and the need for inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogue in the aftermath of conflict.
The Muslim World Initiative (part of the Research and Studies Program) is cosponsoring a one-day workshop in Brussels to explore the potential for greater transatlantic cooperation on democracy promotion in the Middle East. The workshop, an outgrowth of a recentlypublished Special Report authored by Mona Yacoubian titled “Middle East Democracy Promotion: European Initiative,” will bring together roughly 25 American and European analysts and policymakers to brainstorm and develop concrete policy options for moving the ball forward on transatlantic cooperation in this area. They will produce a short (four- to five-page) paper outlining the policy options generated from the workshop.
In addition, the following Institute people made news:
The CBC featured an interview with Judy Barsalou about the Palestinian succession crisis (November 6).
CNN Live International interviewed Christine Fair about the Indo-Pakistani peace process (September 5). She analyzed the new bin Laden tape on NPR in Los Angeles (November 1).
Scott Lasensky and Phebe Marr published an op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune titled “A Chance for Iraq and Its Neighbors” that focused on the Sharm el-Sheikh conference (November 20).
Sloan Mann and Dan Serwer appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” to address the high cost of security in Iraq and how it affects reconstruction (September 28).
Sloan Mann published an op-ed, “Time to Focus on Building Iraq’s Human Capital,” in the Christian Science Monitor (October 8). He was interviewed by Fox News about the discovery of a mass grave in Iraq (October 15) and appeared on CNN International to discuss the situation in Iraq (October 23).
Jonathan Morrow was interviewed about the current conditions in Afghanistan on Voice of America’s “Point of View” (September 15).
Robert Perito was interviewed on BBC TV about the upcoming Iraqi elections (September 28).
Dan Serwer was interviewed on NPR about elections in Iraq (October 22).
David Smock, as well as another member of the panel that produced the Institute’s Special Report on Ijtihad, participated in a roundtable discussion of the report on Voice of America’s “On the Line” (October 20).
