Peace Picks April 7 – 11

1. Political Parties and Nigeria’s Electoral Process

Monday, April 7 | 10am – 12pm

2nd Floor Conference Room, Center for Strategic and International Studies; 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW

Join us for a discussion of the critical roles and responsibilities of Nigeria’s political leaders, candidates, and party supporters in laying the foundations for peaceful, credible elections in 2015.  We will hear from the leaders of the two main parties about their plans for the primary contests, and their strategies for enforcing good conduct among candidates, promoting issue-based rather than personality-driven campaigning, ensuring a tone of moderation in the debates, and encouraging respect for the election outcome. This conference is part of an ongoing series, supported by the Ford Foundation, bringing Nigerian officials, civil society activists, and opinion leaders to Washington, D.C. to engage with U.S. policymakers and Africa experts on how best to ensure that Nigeria’s 2015 elections are free, fair, and peaceful.

SPEAKERS

Victor Ndoma-Egba (invited)
Senate Leader, Cross River State, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 

Babafemi Ojudu
Senator, Ekiti State, All Progressives Congress (APC) 

Gabriel Suswam
Governor, Benue State, PDP 

Emmanuel Uduaghan
Governor, Delta State, PDP 

Abdul’aziz Yari
Governor, Zamfara State, APC 

Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu
Chair, PDP 

Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary, APC 

Dr. Doyin Okupe
Senior Special Assistant for Public Affairs, Government of Nigeria, PDP

2. Mapping Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Architecture and Planning in Conflict Resolution Panel Discussion and Exhibit

Tuesday, April 8 | 9 – 11:30am

U.S. Institute of Peace, 2301 Constitution Ave NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Most international conflicts are territorial in nature. Resolutions often call for realignment of boundaries and borders, yet all too often without consideration for the existing environment within that space. SAYA Design for Change has developed an approach called “Resolution Planning.” Designed to reclaim the centrality of space in conflict negotiations, it focuses on the responsibility of architects to contribute to the negotiation of peace agreements and the sustainable resolution of conflicts. SAYA’s body of work, often created in collaboration with Palestinian planners and architects, has created a foundation for realizing a future Israeli-Palestinian peace.

This discussion will highlight SAYA’s work, but within the current diplomatic context to address: how does the current context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict set the stage for the implementation of new spatial thinking? How can architects contribute positively to negotiations? How can urban planning be applied to preserve stability on the ground irrespective of the outcome of negotiations?

Following the event, SAYA’s co-founder Yehuda Greenfield-Gilat will be on-hand to lead a tour of a retrospective of SAYA’s work. Light Refreshments will be served.

Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Kristin Lord
U.S. Institute of Peace

Robert Wexler
S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace

Panel Discussion
Toni Verstandig, Moderator
S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace

Yehuda Greenfield-Gilat, Discussant
SAYA Design for Change

Nizar Farsakh, Discussant
Project on Middle East Democracy

Tamara Wittes, Discussant
Saban Center, Brookings Institution‎ 

3. India’s 2014 General Election: A Preview

Tuesday, April 8 | 10 – 11:30am

Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium; 1775 Massachusetts Ave NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

From April 7 to May 12, national elections will be held in India. These elections have been described as the “world’s biggest democratic exercise,” with over 800 million people eligible to vote over nine stages. Given the scale of the elections, as well as India’s growing role on the global stage, observers and analysts around the world will be watching this hard-fought election closely. There is interest in the election campaign, candidates like Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, the factors that might influence voters’ choices, the potential outcomes and what the results (due on May 16) might mean for India’s economic and foreign policy.

On April 8, The India Project at Brookings will host a discussion previewing the national elections. Panelists will look at the context in which the elections are taking place, Indian public opinion in the run-up to the elections as reflected in a new Pew survey, the potential outcomes, as well as the impact on U.S.-India relations.

Panelists will include Sadanand Dhume, resident fellow at American Enterprise Institute; Richard Rossow, the Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Bruce Stokes, director of the Global Economic Program at Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project; and Milan Vaishnav, an associate in the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Tanvi Madan, fellow in foreign policy and director of the India Project at Brookings, will moderate the discussion.

The event will be webcast here

4. Twenty Years Later: Has Anything Changed since the Rwandan Genocide?

Tuesday, April 8 | 10am

Atlantic Council, 12th Floor (West Tower); 1030 15th Street NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Twenty years after the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda, the international community still struggles to prevent and respond to the violent conflicts that engulf many African communities. New developments have tested the international community’s collective ability to respond militarily to mass atrocities in Africa, to prosecute war criminals, and to achieve reconciliation in the aftermath of ethnic and religious strife. Efforts to institutionalize the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and to empower and legitimize the International Criminal Court have struggled to gain traction. This event will survey current conflicts in Africa, assess the US and international community’s response to those crises, and look forward to new efforts and reforms required to prevent the unthinkable.

SPEAKERS
H.E. Mathilde Mukanabana
Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United States

EJ Hogendoorn
Deputy Director, Africa
International Crisis Group

Jonas Claes
Senior Program Officer
United States Institute of Peace

J. Peter Pham
Director, Africa Center
Atlantic Council

5. Beyond the Arab Spring: U.S. Engagement in a Changing Middle East

Tuesday, April 8 | 11:30am – 1pm

5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center; 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW

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The panelists consider how a range of domestic and regional changes in the Middle East have generated new challenges for U.S. diplomacy. This event is co-sponsored with the United States Institute of Peace and is the 6th and final in a series of presentations on “Reshaping the Strategic Culture of the Middle East.”

SPEAKERS
Daniel Brumberg
Senior Adviser, Center for Middle East and Africa, United States Institute of Peace; and Co-Director, Democracy and Governance Studies, Georgetown University

Steven Heydemann
Vice President, Applied Research on Conflict, United States Institute of Peace

Danya Greenfield
Acting Director, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, The Atlantic Council

Haleh Esfandiari
Director, Middle East Program

6. Youth Inclusion in Morocco: A Discussion With Minister Mohamed Ouzzine

Tuesday, April 8 | 12:30 –2pm

Carnegie Endowment, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Moroccan Minister of Youth and Sports Mohamed Ouzzine will discuss the challenges facing young people in Morocco, including the high unemployment rate and corresponding lack of economic opportunities. He will consider how this has led to disillusionment with politics and outline the efforts in place to address these challenges and give young people a stake in Morocco’s political process and reforms.

Gloria La Cava will provide a perspective from the World Bank on recent developments in response to the minister. Carnegie’s Intissar Fakir will moderate.

7. Reacting to Refugee Crises in the Middle East: Responses from States, Scholars, and Humanitarian Organizations
IMES 2014 Annual Conference

Thursday, April 10 | 8:30am – 3:30pm

Lindner Family Commons, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University; 6th Floor, 1957 E St, NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Agenda
8:30-9:30
Participant Registration and Coffee Bar

9:00-9:10
Welcoming Remarks
Marc Lynch, The George Washington University

9:10 – 9:45
Opening Remarks
Julie Peteet, University of Louisville

9:45 – 11:15
Panel I: State Responses to Refugee Flows & Displaced Populations
Lamis Abdelaaty, University of California, Santa Cruz
Elizabeth Ferris, the Brookings Institution
Rochelle Davis, Georgetown University

11:15 – 11:30
Coffee Break

11:30 – 1:00
Panel II: Humanitarian Organizations & Responses to Refugee Crises
Geraldine Chatelard, Institut Français du Proche-Orient
Hani Mowafi, Yale Medicine and Amnesty International
Adrienne Fricke, University of California, Davis, Human Rights Initiative

1:00 – 2:00
Lunch

2:00 – 3:30
Panel III Documenting the Experiences of Refugees and the Displaced
Panelists: Zainab Saleh, Haverford College
Nell Gabiam, Iowa State University
Wendy Pearlman, Northwestern University

8. Preventing and Mitigating Conflicts: Role of the International Courts

Friday, April 11 | 9:30 – 11:15am

U.S. Institute of Peace, 2301 Constitution Ave NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

International courts are intended to prevent conflict and settle international disputes, both by holding to account those alleged to have committed international crimes and by developing applicable international law. Their role is an essential but under-examined aspect of international conflict management. This event, convened by the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and The Hague Institute for Global Justice, will offer an opportunity for dialogue with four senior international jurists, including three judges of the International Court of Justice (Joan Donoghue, Julia Sebutinde and Xue Hanqin) and Prosecutor Fatou Bensoudaof the International Criminal Court.

This event, held with the support of the Foreign Ministry of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the American Bar Association’s ICC Project, will center on the role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) within the international political and legal system. The focus of the discussion will be on the role of the courts based in The Hague (The Netherlands) in preventing and resolving conflicts, in accomplishing accountability for war crimes, and on the contribution of women to peaceful settlement of disputes and strengthening the international rule of law.

Agenda
Dr. George Lopez, Welcoming and Introductory Remarks
U.S. Institute of Peace

Judge Joan Donoghue, Expert Panelist
International Court of Justice

Judge Xue Hanqin, Expert Panelist
International Court of Justice

Judge Julia Sebutinde, Expert Panelist
International Court of Justice

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, Expert Panelist
International Criminal Court

Professor Jane Stromseth, Concluding Remarks
Georgetown Law Center and U.S. Department of State

Dr. Abiodun Williams, Moderator
The Hague Institute for Global Justice

9. Evaluating Afghanistan’s Presidential Elections

Friday, April 11 | 12 – 1:30pm

The Carnegie Endowment, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

The Middle East Institute’s Louis R. Hughes Lecture Series is pleased to present Ali A. Jalali (National Defense University), Andrew Wilder (United States Institute of Peace), Amanullah Ghilzai (Senior AfPak Journalist), and Amb. Omar Samad (New America Foundation) for a panel discussion on Afghanistan’s presidential election and its implications for the country’s political future. Afghanistan’s April 5 presidential elections have the potential to be the most consequential in the country’s recent history, determining not just who emerges as the successor to Hamid Karzai, but also the economic and political viability of the Afghan state that emerged in 2001. Drawing on their collective experience observing Afghanistan’s society and electoral politics, this distinguished group of panelists will address the election’s outcome, its bearing on chances for Afghan reconciliation, and the implications of the election for Afghanistan’s future ties with its regional neighbors, the United States, and the West.

10. The Two Koreas and the Question of National Reunification, 1953-1960

Friday, April 11 | 3 – 4:30pm

5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center; 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

The 1953 Korean War armistice resulted in an uneasy truce along a demilitarized zone not far from the 38th parallel, the imaginary line that separated the rival Korean states prior to the conflict. While bringing an end to large-scale military operations on the peninsula, both North and South Korean leaders continued to plan for national reunification under their own respective political system. South Korean President Rhee Syngman unremittingly advocated for marching North to unify Korea (pukchin t’ongil), while North Korean leader Kim Il Sung promoted economic development to serve as a magnet for South Koreans. This panel will explore the positions of the two Korea’s on the question of national reunification after the 1953 Korean War armistice until 1960, when Rhee was forced from power. The panel will feature Woo-Soo Park (Hanguk University of Foreign Studies), David A. Frank (Carnegie Council Global Fellow for Ethics and International Relations and professor at the University of Oregon), James F. Person (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), and Chul Soon Lee (Pusan National University). The event is sponsored by the North Korea International Documentation Project, part of the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program.