This Thursday “Brown-bag Series,”- Conflict, Security, and Development: Issues, Actors, and Approaches- 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.

All events are held from 12:30- 1:30 p.m. 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.

  • Thursday, January 31, Humanity Principles in the Age of Terrorism: Practical Lessons from the IRC with John Keys, vice president, International Programs, International Rescue Committee. 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.
  • Thursday, February 7, Counterinsurgency National Security Strategy with Sarah Sewall, faculty director, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. 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.
  • Thursday, February 14, Transitional Justice: The Development of the Field and Future Challenges with 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?
  • Thursday, February 21 Peacekeeping and the Peacekept: Maintaining Peace After Civil War with 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.
  • Thursday, February 28, Regional Crises in the Greater Middle East: Prospects for Conflict and Resolution with Bruce Jones. (Note alternate location: Center for Global Affairs, 15 Barclay Street, Woolworth Building.) Jones is 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. Jones will discuss 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.
  • Thursday, March 6, Delivering Critical Care in Developing Nations: A New Approach with 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.

Thursday Brown Bag Series held in collaboration with the Office for International Programs at NYU Wagner (www.nyu.edu/wagner/international/).

The new NYU Center for Global Affairs, within the University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies [www.scps.nyu.edu], is located in the School’s state-of-the-art facility in the Woolworth Building - one of downtown New York’s architectural treasures. The Center presents provocative and timely public events regarding the latest topics in world affairs (formerly held at the NYU Vernon Center for International Affairs), and houses a new graduate program in global studies and myriad non-degree courses in international affairs.

Press Contact

Christopher James
Christopher James
(212) 998-6876