Save the Date: USIP Conference on Preventing Violent Conflict, June 1

[Jonas Claes]

Dear Colleague,

The United States Institute of Peace's (USIP) Center for Conflict
Management will hold its second annual conference on “Preventing
Violent Conflict” from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm on June 1, 2011, at the new
USIP Headquarters (2301 Constitution Avenue, NW).

The goals of this Conference are to spotlight the importance of
conflict prevention, address specific challenges facing conflict
prevention efforts, and identify priority areas for USIP’s future work
on conflict prevention. The keynote speaker will be Gareth Evans
(former Foreign Minister of Australia). The conference includes panel
discussions on "Regional Challenges” and "Global Conflict Prevention
Initiatives". Other confirmed speakers include Maria Otero (Under
Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs), Jordan Ryan
(Assistant Administrator and Director of the UN Development Program),
Daniel Kurtzer (former US Ambassador to Israel and Egypt), Mark
Schneider (Senior Vice President, International Crisis Group), Paula
Dobriansky (former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs),
Jendayi Frazer (former Assistant Secretary of State for African
Affairs), Thomas Pickering (former US Ambassador to Russia, India,
Israel, etc.), and Pauline Baker (President Emerita of The Fund for
Peace). This year’s conference will also include four break-out
sessions allowing the participants to discuss specific challenges
facing prevention efforts.

We look forward to your attendance and encourage you to RSVP at your
earliest convenience using our online registration system:
http://www.2011preventionconference.eventbrite.com.

The final agenda will be included when the official invitation goes
out mid-May. Lunch will be provided to participants.

Best Regards,

Jonas

-------------
Jonas Claes
Program Specialist
Center for Conflict Management
U.S. Institute of Peace
202.429.1982
jcl...@usip.org

[Barrs, Casey]

Thanks for this Jonas.

 

This is a great cast of presenters for the subject of preventing conflict.  Sometimes the good work of ambassadors and under secretaries inspires in at-risk populations a hope that may turn out to be misplaced.  That's not a criticism, just a comment on the nature of a very difficult endeavor.  Will any of your presenters therefore speak to the ways that locals might also be supported in carefully preparing for a failure to prevent conflict? 

 

Casey

 

Casey A. Barrs

Protection Research Fellow

The Cuny Center

[Alan J. Kuperman]

Casey raises a great point. And not only do prevention efforts
sometimes fail to prevent, sometimes they backfire by escalating
violence against noncombatants. Reducing this risk seems like a vital
issue for a USIP conference on prevention. I'd be happy to present
the lessons of my last 15 years of research, as I did this month at a
U.S. Naval Academy conference on the ethics of intervention, and as I
summarized in this article: blogs.shu.edu/diplomacy/files/archives/
Kuperman%20-%20Rethinking%20the%20Responsibility%20to%20Protect.pdf.
A USIP conference would be an especially apt venue for such a talk
because USIP funded my research as a graduate student in the 1990s.

best regards,

Alan J. Kuperman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
LBJ School of Public Affairs
University of Texas at Austin
www.utexas.edu/lbj/faculty/alan-kuperman/
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