Preventing Violence in an Adversarial World

Preventing violent conflict is among the most crucial challenges facing humanity today. Where mass violence exists, economic development is stifled; human rights are abused; and the environment is devastated. Current problems are simply too complex and too interconnected to be settled on a violent, adversarial basis. What is needed, in John Marks’ view, is a mass attitudinal and behavioral shift toward non-violent, non-adversarial ways of dealing with differences.
30 years ago, Marks founded Search for Common Ground to play a key role in catalyzing such a shift. Under his leadership, Search has become the world’s largest non-profit conflict prevention and peacebuilding organization with offices in 30 countries. Marks is a former Foreign Service Officer, Executive Assistant to the late US Senator Clifford Case (R-NJ), and Fellow of Harvard’s Institute of Politics. He is also an award-winning, best-selling author, a Skoll Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship, and an Ashoka Senior Fellow. A graduate of Cornell University, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the UN’s University of Peace.

Is the U.S. in Decline? Putting the 21st Century into Perspective

Understanding Muslim Societies

Tarek Masoud is an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. A political scientist and Middle East specialist, his research focuses on political development in countries that are poor and unfree. In 2009, Masoud was named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and was awarded the American Political Science Association’s Aaron Wildavsky Award for Best Dissertation in Religion and Politics. Masoud holds an AB with honors from Brown and received his Ph.D in political science with distinction from Yale in 2008.

El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency

El Narco is not a gang; it is a movement and an industry drawing in hundreds of thousands from bullet-ridden barrios to marijuana-growing mountains. And, it has created paramilitary death squads with tens of thousands of men at arms from Guatemala to the Texas border. Drawing on his decade inside Mexico, Grillo goes beyond the abstract, shapeless statistics of drug tonnage and dollar values with countless zeros, and sheds light on the often shadowy power that has torn our nearest neighbor apart in its first decade as a true democracy.
Ioan Grillo has covered Latin America since 2001 for international media, including Time magazine, CNN, the Associated Press, PBS NewsHour, the Houston Chronicle, CBC and Sunday Telegraph. He has witnessed military operations, mafia killings, and cocaine seizures, and has discussed the drug war with two Mexican presidents, three attorney generals, and the U.S. ambassador. A native of England, he lives in Mexico City.

Friend or Foe? US - Pakistan Relations

Pakistan today represents a flash point for the most pivotal ideological, cultural, political, and religious battles of our time. Constable takes us on a panoramic tour of contemporary Pakistan, exploring the fears and frustrations, dreams and beliefs that animate the lives of ordinary citizens in this nuclear-armed nation, and presents both an empathic and alarming look inside one of the world’s most violent and vexing countries.
Pamela Constable is a foreign correspondent and former deputy foreign editor at The Washington Post. Since 1998, she has reported extensively from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and India. She is the author of PLAYING WITH FIRE: Pakistan at War with Itself. A graduate of Brown University, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She is the founder of the Afghan Stray Animal League, which supports a shelter and clinic for needy small animals in Afghanistan.

Power, Persuasion & Purpose – Preparing & Arming the Next Generation to Compete and Succeed Globally

Are we doing enough to inspire and prepare the next generation to compete and succeed globally? In her interactive and provocative lecture, Guittard will explore weapons of global influence and global mindsets — sharing insights, tools and techniques from a global career. This event is a must attend for students and faculty, and anyone who works globally, is interested in global affairs, travels extensively, and/or has children interested in pursuing global careers.
Cari E. Guittard is a founding Principal at Global Engagement Partners (GEP), a corporate diplomacy, global engagement, intelligence, defense and strategic communications firm. Prior to her work with GEP Guittard served as founding Executive Director of Business for Diplomatic Action, a private sector-led public diplomacy non-profit whose mission involved engaging and guiding corporations in a variety of global affairs and public diplomacy activities. Early in her career, Guittard was selected nationally as a Presidential Management Fellow and worked for the US Department of State in various cyber security and public diplomacy roles. Guittard teaches graduate courses in Corporate Diplomacy & Geopolitics for the University of Southern California Annenberg School, and courses in International Negotiations and Women’s Leadership for the Hult MBA School in Dubai. Guittard earned a Bachelors of Arts in Government & Political Science in 1997 and an MPA in 1998 from the University of Texas at Dallas. A noted public speaker, facilitator and writer, Guittard has appeared on countless media outlets and regularly contributes to the Huffington Post, Periscope Post, Public Diplomacy Magazine and the USC Center for Public Diplomacy Blog. In 2007, Guittard was named by San Francisco 7×7 Magazine as one of their Hot 20 Under 40 an annual profile of emerging leaders in the Bay Area.