The staff of the Institute has gone through the voluminous proceedings of the September 1995, "Managing Chaos" conference to distill the views expressed by nongovernmental organization (NGO) representatives and others on the emerging role of NGOs in managing international conflict. To our mind, some of the most interesting and significant thinking of the conference focused on the new challenges facing humanitarian relief NGOs (sometimes called "operational" NGOs to distinguish them from advocacy groups) during a time when humanitarian crises and natural disasters are both perpetuated and made more complex by the animus of subnational and regional conflict.

Pamela Aall is a program officer in the Education and Training Program of the Institute with primary responsibility for college-and university-level activities. She also chairs the Institute's interprogram initiative on non-governmental organizations. Before joining the Institute she was a consultant to the President's committee on the Arts and the Humanities and to the Institute of International Education.