Schedule

• Overview
• Schedule

Power: Balance, Order, and Flux

51st Annual International Affairs Symposium

April 8-10, 2013

All sessions are free and open to the public. Sessions are held in Templeton Campus Center, Council Chamber, with the exception of the Monday evening session, which will be in Agnes Flanagan Chapel. Details are subject to change.

Watch the event recording Download the brochure

 

Monday, April 8

A Disturbance in the Force? Assessing the Scope of Cyber Threats

3 p.m. 

What are the real implications of cyber attacks in the international community? Some believe that technology does not pose new, unseen threats of destruction; others view these advancements as opening the floodgates to more intensified conflict.

Learn more about speakers Jan Neutze and Tim Maurer ▸

Jan Neutze  works for Microsoft’s Global Security Strategy and Diplomacy team as a Senior Security Strategist on cyber security. He previously worked at the UN, where he served on the UN Secretary-General’s Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, focusing on countering terrorist use of the Internet. Prior to his role at the UN, Jan worked in Washington, DC-based think tanks where he focused on security policy issues.

Tim Maurer is a nonresident fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute and a program associate at the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. Maurer previously was a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he focused on internet policy. His areas of expertise include global governance, Internet human rights policy, and cyber security. Maurer has presented his research at various conferences, including the Berlin Conference on International Cyber Security.

Tidal Shift: Promoting Military Retrenchment or Escalation

7:30 p.m.

As nascent Eastern powers develop, what role should countries in North America and Europe assume? Should the West forgo its traditional position as an international power arbiter? Or must the rise of power in one region be countered to maintain a balance?

Learn more about speakers Barney Frank and Walter Lohman ▸

Barney Frank served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. While serving in the House of Representatives, he was a proponent of nonmilitary aid to the developing world, and he also supported international human rights, the recognition of genocide, democratization in Pakistan, and Arab-Israeli peace relations. Frank has spoken frequently on international relations and American foreign policy with regard to overextension and the idea that the West can assist in global affairs without coercive interventionism or boosted militarism.

Walter Lohman is the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. Previously, he served as senior vice president and executive director of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, advised former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, and served as a policy aid to Senator John McCain. Lohman frequently writes and speaks on East and Southeast Asian politics, often in connection to relations with the West.

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Tuesday, April 9

State of Pandemonium: Assessing the Security Implications of Failed States

3:30 p.m.

While it has been said that the gravest threats to America will come from failing states, scholars debate the danger they actually pose.Are they a breeding ground for hostile nonstate actors, or simply a boogeyman, haunting policy makers by night?

Learn more about speakers Pauline Baker and David Tucker ▸

Pauline Baker is president emeritus for the Fund for Peace, which collaborates with Foreign Policy magazine to produce the annual Failed States Index. A fervent advocate of the regional and global implications of failed states, Baker has served as staff director for the Africa Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

DavidTucker is an associate professor of defense analysis and an instructor in the Homeland Security Master’s Degree Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Tucker is an expert on unconventional conflict and terrorism. His work, including The Misleading Problem of Failed States: A “Socio-geography” of Terrorism in the Post-9/11 Era, is at the heart of the debate on failed states.

Parceling Peace: Seeking Solutions to Intrastate Ethnic Conflict

7 p.m.

While coexistence of different ethnic groups is ideal in the abstract, some analysts propose physical separation as a more realistic method for settling power struggles. Others contend that power sharing may lead to enduring peace. 

Learn more about speakers Michael Kerr and Carter Johnson ▸

Michael Kerr is a professor of conflict studies and director of the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies at King’s College London. His research focuses on ethnic conflict regulation, peace processes, and consociationalism, or power sharing. He works with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to advance foreign policy strategies focusing on the Middle East.

Carter Johnson is the regional director for the Russian Federation and Moldova at American Councils for International Education and an adjunct professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, where he teaches graduate courses on civil wars and political violence. He has written extensively on ethnic conflict and cooperation as well as the effects of partition as a means of mitigating ethnic disputes.

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Wednesday, April 10 

A King in Every Corner: Negotiating Regional Collective Security

3:30 p.m.

Regional security organizations were created to solidify trust among participating states, but do they create friction between member-states? Or do they create mutually-beneficial environments and increase regional stability without sacrificing any member-state’s sovereignty?

Learn more about speakers Joshua Kleinfeld and Alexander Cooley ▸

Joshua Kleinfeld is an assistant professor of law at Northwestern University Law School. He has appeared on news networks to comment on the continued relevance of regional security organizations in the post Cold-War world. His paper “Skeptical Internationalism” analyzes the nature of international law and its relationship to international security and regional security organizations.

Alexander Cooley is professor of political science at Barnard College and author of Great Games, Local Rules. His research focuses on how the governments of Eurasia use regional security organizations and outside interest to promote state sovereignty and support their domestic authoritarian practices.

Corporations in the Third World: Arrested Development or Forward Progress?

7 p.m.

Do multinational corporations aid economic growth by creating jobs and giving consumers access to free markets and new technologies? Or, along with other Western-led financial institutions, are they increasing financial hardship in the developing world?

Learn more about speakers John Perkins and Gary Quinlivan ▸

John Perkins is a founder and board member of the nonprofit organizations Dream Change and the Pachamama Alliance, and author of the best-selling book Confessions of an Economic Hitman. In his previous work at an American-based strategic consulting firm, Perkins experienced what he saw as the deleterious effects of multinational interests hijacking state development in the Global South.

Gary Quinlivan is the dean of McKenna School and a professor of economics at Saint Vincent College in Pennsylvania. His research focuses on international trade and finance. Quinlivan has served as an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University’s Economics Department, and is an adjunct scholar at the Center for Economic Personalism at the Acton Institute. He is a strong advocate for the promotion of multinational corporations in developing nations, and he has written in the areas of sustainable development and international trade.