Seminars and Lectures

Seminars

Every academic year the Project on Justice in Times of Transition and the Institute for Global Leadership co-host a seminar or larger research initiative at Tufts University designed to examine an aspect of post conflict transformation using expertise and mentorship of one or more former world leaders and experienced conflict transformation practitioners from PJTT's network.

These classes include:
 

    Arturo Cruz, Nicaraguan Ambassador to
    the United States lecturing at PJTT/IGL class
 

•  The Role of Leadership in Conflict Transformation, explored the impact of leadership in transitional societies through distinguished guest lectures which included senior leaders from some of the most intractable conflicts, such as President Jose Ramos Horta of East Timor, Ambassador Arturo Cruz of Nicaragua, Naomi Chazan,former Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset and Ambassador Nicholas Burns former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.
   

• US Experiences in Talking with the Enemy was taught by Ambassador William Luers (former US Ambassador to Venezuela and Czechoslovakia former President of the United States-United Nations Association). This course considered the decision-making process surrounding the efforts of past US administrations to engage with their adversaries. The class opened with an examination of the US effort to open relations in 1933 with the USSR and went on to consider the influence of the Munich Pact in 1938, efforts to open relations with China, Vietnam and Cuba and the current US problems in dealing with Iran and North Korea and non state actors.
   

“Taking ‘Talking with the Enemy’ with Ambassador Luers last semester exceeded my expectations of the levels of intellectual curiosity and thoughtful discourse that can happen in a classroom. Everything from the class discussions to Ambassador Luers' personal accounts of his experience left me invigorated with the spirit of inquiry after each seminar.”
-- Nadia S. Nibbs, Tufts University, Class of 2011
 

Lecture Series

Sir Mark Malloch Brown, former UN Deputy Secretary
General at 2007 EPIIC Symposium: Global Crisis
Governance and Intervention

The Project and the IGL plan to co-host a lecture series around a particular theme, such negotiating with non-state actors, which brings leaders and decision-makers who were integral to facilitating change and development in a war torn societies. Past speakers have included distinguished guests such as Ashraf Ghani, former Finance Minister and Presidential Candidate in Afghanistan and Ram Manikkalingam, the former advisor on the peace process to President Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka. Lectures are podcasted online and shared with policy-makers working in the peacebuilding and human rights field world wide.