EPIIC 2011-2012: Conflict in the 21st Century
Program News | Posted Jun 22, 2011
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EXP 91F
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00-5:30pm, Barnum 008
Bi-monthly Discussion Sessions TBA
EPIIC is open to undergraduate and graduate students of all majors • EPIIC coursework can count toward credit in many majors • Full Credit/Letter Graded
Register at SIS Online: September 6
COLLOQUIUM OVERVIEW
More than 1.5 billion people currently live in countries directly affected by conflict, with millions more feeling the indirect consequences. While inter-state and intra-state violence have seen recent declines, violence is still on the rise, compromising peace, security and development. The 2011-12 Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship colloquium at Tufts University will explore the complexity and challenges of international, national, and local conflict in this century.
Some of the questions we will address include:
What are, and will be, the primary causes of conflict in the 21st century?
What governance issues do states and the international community need to take into consideration in redressing conflict situations, including the persistence of secular nationalism, communalism and national self-determination? Are there effective strategies to construct pluralistic societies? What is the role of religious faith in both mollifying and exacerbating conflict?
In what ways will the global war on terrorism need to be reconsidered as the war in Afghanistan enters its tenth year and the war in Iraq enters its eighth year?
How can states and the international community address violence and lawlessness associated with local disputes, political repression and organized crime in fragile and failed states?
What impact do the internet and other social media have in mediating the balance between power and powerlessness?
How can states redress ongoing resources conflicts, from the DR Congo to Nigeria to Iraq?
What are the environmental stresses that can lead to or exacerbate conflict, from food insecurity to the impact of climate change to migration to the depletion of resources?
What is the relationship between plutocracy, poverty, inequality and conflict? Between public health and conflict?
We will examine persistent, seemingly intractable confrontations from Israel and Palestine to Kashmir to the Korean peninsula, looking for avenues to durable solutions. We will consider the ways in which state failure and internal conflict present international security threats, analyzing the potential role of external actors in preventing and resolving such crises. The colloquium will also explore the effectiveness of current post-conflict resolution and reconstruction strategies and study ways to mitigate and prevent conflict. What are the avenues for building, and rebuilding, civil society?
Current events in Libya and the Cote d’Ivoire have focused attention on the international community’s commitment to the “Responsibility To Protect” and the roles of military and humanitarian intervention. When and how should states intervene?
The course will also explore the future forms of conflict and the changing battlefield, from contending with non-state actors to cyber warfare, from armed humanitarians to robotic warfare. How will future wars be fought and resolved?
DEDICATION -- TIM HETHERINGTON
“Tim Hetherington was much more than a war reporter. He had an extraordinary talent for documenting, in compassionate and beautiful imagery, the human stories behind the headlines… His work has raised the visibility of many of the world’s forgotten conflicts.” -- Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch; IGL Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award recipient, 2004
EPIIC this year is dedicated to the brilliant British photographer and film-maker, Tim Hetherington, a Board member of the Institute’s Program on Narrative and Documentary Practice. He was killed while covering the war in Libya on April 20, 2011. Hetherington reproted on many of the world’s most critical human rights stories: conflicts in Liberia, Afghanistan, Darfur, and Libya. The IGL will be collaborating with Human Rights Watch.
Colloquium Lecturers and Advisers include:
• Samih Al-Abed, Former Minister of Planning, the Palestine National Authority
• Graham Allison, Author, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe
• Andrew Bacevich, Author, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War
• Diane Davis, Project Director, Urban Resilience in Situations of Chronic Violence, MIT
• Bonnie Docherty, Author, Meeting the Challenge: Protecting Civilians through the Convention on Cluster Munitions*
• Edward Girardet, Author, Killing the Cranes: A Reporter’s Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan
• Justine Hardy, Founder and Director of Healing Kashmir
• Karl Kaiser, Director, Program on Transatlantic Relations, Weatherhead Center, Harvard University
• David Kilcullen, Senior Counterterrorism Strategist, U.S. State Department
• Sherif Mansour, Senior Program Officer, Middle East and North Africa, Freedom House
• Amb Jonathan Moore, US Coordinator and Former Ambassador at Large for Refugees
• Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Former CIA Station Chief, Soviet Union
• Roger Petersen, Author, Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe
• Lowell Schwartz, Political Scientist, The RAND Corporation; Author, Beyond the Nuclear Shadow
• Ervin Staub, Author, Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict and Terrorism
• Nik Steinberg, Researcher, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch*
• John Tirman, Executive Director, Center for International Studies, MIT; Author, The Deaths of Others
Tufts Lecturers/Advisers include: David Art, Political Science; Daniel Drezner, The Fletcher School; Michael Glennon, The Fletcher School; Kelly Greenhill, Political Science; Bruce Hitchner, Classics; Ayesha Jalal, History; Paul Joseph, Sociology; William Moomaw, The Fletcher School; Vali Nasr, The Fletcher School; William Ostlund, Fletcher Security Studies Fellow; Peter Uvin, The Fletcher School; Robert Wilkinson, The Fletcher School; Peter Winn, History.
* pending confirmation
EPIIC Weekend Immersion: “Human and Military Security”
September 23-25, 2011
Outward Bound at Appalachian Mountain Club, Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire
Resource Scholars:
Daniel Holmberg
Daniel Holmberg began his career in humanitarian aid in the South Sudan civil war in the early 1990s with the United Nations. He served with the International Committee of the Red Cross between 1995-97 in the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide and on the front-line in the civil conflicts in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the early 2000s, he served as a Country Logistics Manager in Iraq, Liberia and Northern Sudan. Most recently, Daniel was the Country Director in Pakistan for Action Contre la Faim/Action Against Hunger.
Ayan Holmberg
Ayan Holmberg was born and raised in Mogadishu, Somalia where she worked with UNICEF as a program support officer. She worked in Somalia until 1999, serving in a program support role with the United Nations Development Program – Somalia, War Torn Societies Project. In 2000, Ayan joined Progressive Interventions.
William Martel
William Martel is Professor of International Security Studies at The Fletcher School. Martel was the Director and Founder of the Center for Strategy and Technology from 1993–99. From 1999–2005 he was Professor of National Security Affairs and Chair of Space Technology and Policy Studies at the Naval War College. He is the author and co-editor of several books, including Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Military Policy and The Technological Arsenal: Emerging Defense Capabilities.
Research
EPIIC also provides unusual opportunities for students to conduct research related to its annual theme, both at home and abroad. Last year students traveled to China, India, North Korea, South Korea, Turkey and within the US. More than 900 students have traveled to more than 85 countries since 1986.
Potential topics students can explore this year include: tensions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia; the preparedness of the Afghan police; Hezbollah’s strategy in light of recent events in Syria; the changing environment of laws governing armed conflict; the efficacy vs. ethics of drone attacks; the impact of the fiscal crises on Pentagon budget priorities; the challenge of asymmetric conflict for advanced military powers; the future Iraq-Iran relationship; the botnet attack on Estonia; control of the the Arctic seabed; how natural resources influence security concerns; the potential for a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East; Yemen as a failed state; reconciliation prospects in Sri Lanka; the future of Zimbabwe; the war against Mexico’s drug cartels; demobilization and reintegration of militias in Rwanda.
You will have the opportunity to learn such tools as GIS, GPS, web-based mapping platforms, and crowdsourcing, and use geospatial analysis tools for projects in which there is a significant spatial question or issue. Examples include a conflict risk assessment based on environmental stress, demographics, and shortages of natural resources; identifying strategic protest routes for civil resistance in Cairo; designing a security guard system for one of the most violent slum neighborhoods in Nairobi.
International Students and EPIIC
There is also the opportunity to develop research ideas together with international students from the Institute’s TILIP (Tufts Initiative for Leadership and International Perspective) program. Last year, EPIIC brought more than 50 students from Brazil, China, Israel, Iraq, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea to participate in its symposium.
Texts
In addition to periodicals and papers, required and recommended texts over the TWO semesters include: Contentious Identities: Ethnic, Religious, and Nationalist Conflicts in Today’s World, Daniel Chirot • Grasping the Nettles: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict, USIP • Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, Paul Collier • Challenges for Transitional Justice in Divided Societies, Paige Arthur • Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy, Kelly Greenhill • The Future Faces of War: Population and National Security, Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba • Too Poor for Peace? Global Poverty, Conflict, and Security in the 21st Century, Lael Brainard and Derek Collet • Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict, Michael Dartnell • Armed Humanitarians: The Rise of the Nation Builders, Nathan Hodge • Urban Battle Command in the 21st Century, Russell Glen and Gina Kingston • Servants of War: Private Military Corporations and the Profit of Conflict, Rolf Uesseler • Producing Security: Multinational Corporations, Globalization, and the Changing Calculus of Conflict, Stephen Brooks • They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, Roméo Dallaire
The Norris and Margery Bendetson EPIIC International Symposium
February 23-26, 2012
The international symposium is an annual public forum designed and enacted by the EPIIC students. It features scores of international practitioners, academics, public intellectuals, activists and journalists in panel discussions and workshops.
Advisers and Panelists include:
• Sami Al-Faraj, Head, Kuwait Centre for Strategic Studies
• Victor Asal (EPIIC ‘87), Co-Director, Project on Violent Conflict, SUNY Albany; Author, The Nature of the Beast: Terrorist Organizational Characteristics and Organizational Lethality
• Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, High Representative for Disarmament, Under Secretary-General, United Nations
• Stephen E. Flynn, Senior Fellow, National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Author, America the Vulnerable*
• Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Former Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations*
• Sanjoy Hazarika, Director, Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
• Adam Hochschild, Author, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 and King Leopold’s Ghost*
• Laura Holgate, Senior Director, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Terrorism and Threat Reduction, National Security Council
• Pervez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Nuclear and High-energy Physics and Head of the Physics Department, Qauid-e-Azam University, Islamabad
• Mac Maharaj, Special Negotiator, Office of the President of South Africa
• Zachariah Mampilly (EPIIC’96 ), Author, Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life During War
• Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Belfer Center, Harvard University
• Funmi Olonisakin, Director, Conflict, Security and Development Group, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, King’s College, London*
• Gwyn Prins, Director of London School of Economics Mackinder Programme for the Study of Long Wave Events
• Janice Raymond, Executive Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women*
• Peter Rosenblum, Clinical Professor in Human Rights, Columbia University
• Col Ferdinand Safari, Defense Attache, Rwandan Embassy in United States
• Jake Sherman (EPIIC’96), Deputy Director for Programs, Conflict Center on International Conflicts, New York University
• Peter W. Singer, Author, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century*
• Rick Sollom (EPIIC’94), Deputy Director, Physicians for Human Rights
This year’s Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award recipients include:
• Lt. General Arlen “Dirk” Jameson (USAF), Former Deputy Commander in Chief and Chief of Staff, US Strategic Command
• Jonathan Moreno, Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Pennsylvania; Author, Mind Wars: Ethics, National Security and the Brain
• Zainab Salbi, President, Women for Women International: Helping Women Survivors of War Rebuild Their Lives
• Abiodun Williams, Vice President, The Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, US Institute of Peace; Author, “The Responsibility to Protect: Leadership Required”
* pending confirmation
Special Projects and Opportunities
Project on Justice in Times of Transition (PJTT)
PJTT is a strategic ally of the IGL. There are extensive opportunities for involvement with their initiatives, this year on research efforts into neuroscience and social conflict with the MIT Saxe Laboratory; mediation efforts in Bahrain; efforts on improving U.S./Cuba relations; and ways of reviving the stalemated negotiations on northern Kosovo.
Public Health and Conflict
Think with Centers for Disease Control officials and experts at the U.S. Naval War College about strategies to assist countries whose health sectors have been disrupted by disaster or conflict
Contested Terrain: Conflict, History, Memory and Reconciliation
This initiative will explore the relationships between perspective, memory, and historical “truth.” Working with Tufts Professor of History and Latin American Studies Peter Winn, the first project will probe the complex nature of the Shining Path/Sendero Luminoso’s record of violence and the government’s military repression under the dictator, Fujimori.
A Two-State Solution in the Middle East
Work with the Institute’s NIMEP initiative, as well as senior Israeli and Palestinian figures led by Yair Hirschfeld and Samih Al-Abed on their vision of Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab cooperation in the political, economic, and civil society realms to create a sustainable two-state solution.
Program on Narrative and Documentary Practice
Deliberate with Gary Knight, cofounder of the VII Photo Agency and director of the Institute’s Program on Narrative and Documentary Practice, about media war, crisis, and conflict reporting. Work with award-winning film and video producer, Fiona Turner, to complete her documentary, “Made in Yugoslavia: The Inside Story of Photographers at War.”
Gender and War
Research gender crimes and the epidemic of rape in war with experts in Physicians for Human Rights’ program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Areas
AKE
Participate in research and internships with the experts of AKE, the British organization specializing in survival in hostile environments and risk analysis on issues ranging from kidnapping to political risk assessment of potential resource wars
Wounds and War
Think with Professor Ira Herman, Head of the Center for the Innovations of Wound-Care of the Tufts Medical School, on his “Wounded Warrior” project and advances in bionic tourniquets and trauma recovery
Counter-insurgency and Counterterrorism
Participate in a research study group with senior U.S. Special Forces officers, security analysts, and members of the Institute’s ALLIES program looking at the irregular challenges the SOF will encounter in future security environments
Institute Scholars and Practitioners in Residence (INSPIRE)
James Clad, Senior Fellow and Professor of Near East and South Asian Studies at National Defense University; Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific Security Affairs
Lucas Kello (EPIIC’96), Post Doctoral Fellow (Oxford PhD), Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University; Liaison to the MIT-Harvard multidisciplinary Minerva Project on “Explorations in Cyber International Relations (ECIR)
Ariel “Eli “ Levite, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; former Principal Deputy Director General (Policy), Israeli Atomic Energy Commission
Mark Rosengard (Col, US Army, ret), Former, Director of Operations, Task Force Dagger, Afghanistan; Inaugural Commander, Joint Special Operations Task Force, Trans-Sahara
Susannah Sirkin, Director, Physicians for Human Rights
For more information, please see our summer mailer.