Conflict, Security, and Development: Issues, Actors, and Approaches

A collaboration with the Office for International Programs at NYU Wagner and the Master’s Program in Global Public Health

This Thursday brown-bag series examines new research, creative policy approaches, and recent analytical and practical innovations in responding to challenges of security and development in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Programs are open to the public and run one hour; feel free to join us as your schedule allows.

Note location:
NYU Wagner at the Puck Building
295 Lafayette Street, Second Floor Conference Room
(southeast corner of Lafayette and Houston)

RSVP:
By visiting www.wagner.nyu.edu/events/conflictseries.php
or by calling (212) 992-8380

HUMANITY PRINCIPLES IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM:
PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM THE IRC
Thursday, January 31, 12.30–1.30 p.m.

John Keys, vice president, International Programs, International Rescue Committee

John Keys discusses how the IRC interprets and applies the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity, and independence to complex political and humanitarian crises like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Keys discusses the role of U.S. Government funding, its impact on humanitarian principles, and the differences in USG funding when the U.S. has a strategic interest.

COUNTERINSURGENCY NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY
Thursday, February 7, 12.30–1.30 p.m.

Sarah Sewall, faculty director, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Sarah Sewall addresses the intersection of national security, counterinsurgency, and human rights. She discusses the U.S. Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual and links these topics to U.S. foreign policy and current American conflicts.

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE:
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIELD AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
Thursday, February 14, 12.30–1.30 p.m.

J. Louis N. Bickford, director, Networks and Capacity-Building, International Center for Transitional Justice; adjunct associate professor, NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Should societies confront the legacies of past human rights abuse or atrocity? If so, how? What policy options are open to successor regimes during a post-transition or post-conflict period? How do these policy options relate to broader goals such as peace, stability, or democracy?

PEACEKEEPING AND THE PEACEKEPT:
MAINTAINING PEACE AFTER CIVIL WAR
Thursday, February 21, 12.30–1.30 p.m.

Page Fortna, associate professor of Political Science, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University

Does peacekeeping work? Does it make peace more likely to last? And if so, how does it work, particularly from the perspective of the “peacekept”? Distinguished scholar Dr. Page Fortna offers her own comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of peacekeeping and the causal mechanisms through which it operates.

REGIONAL CRISES IN THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST:
PROSPECTS FOR CONFLICT AND RESOLUTION
Thursday, February 28, 12.30–1.30 p.m.
Note alternate location: Center for Global Affairs, 15 Barclay Street, Woolworth
Building.

Bruce Jones, director and senior fellow, Center on International Cooperation

Despite any optimism generated by the recent Annapolis conference and the recently released National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, the Middle East remains mired in crises. Dr. Jones discusses the evolving regional and sub-regional dimensions of the inter-locking crises; assesses the short-term prospects for crisis containment; and the medium-term prospects for establishing new security and conflict management mechanisms in the region.

DELIVERING CRITICAL CARE IN DEVELOPING NATIONS:
A NEW APPROACH
Thursday, March 6, 12.30–1.30 p.m.

William S. Schechter, vice chairman, Heart Care International

Dr. Schechter discusses his work with Heart Care International, a nonprofit organization working to improve the health of economically deprived children who live in developing and war-torn countries throughout the world. Beyond simply providing much needed clinical and surgical services in these troubled places, HCI is trying to raise the standards of medical diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care in each country or region.