Day: June 23, 2012

This week’s peace picks

Lots of good events in DC this week, several of them big all-day events.  I’ll be away part of the week in Vienna–that’s my excuse for not going to everything.  Write-ups for peacefare.net are, as always, welcome. 

1.  Unleashing the Nuclear Watchdog:  Strengthening and Reform of the IAEA, Stimson, noon June 25

Event Details

On June 13, 2012, The Centre for International Governance Innovation released its long-awaited report, “Unleashing the Nuclear Watchdog: Strengthening and Reform of the IAEA.”

The report will be presented at an event on June 25 in Washington, DC, co-hosted by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute North America (SIPRI North America). CIGI Senior Fellow Trevor Findlay, author of the report, will present the report’s findings. He will be introduced by Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, executive director, SIPRI North America.

The  release of “Unleashing the Nuclear Watchdog: Strengthening and Reform of the IAEA” marks the culmination of a two-year research project that examined all aspects of the Agency’s mandate and operations ― from major programs on safeguards, safety, security and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy to governance, management and finance. The report makes multiple recommendations, both strategic and programmatic, for strengthening and reform of the Agency.   The project was a joint undertaking of CIGI’s global security program and the Canadian Centre for Treaty Compliance (CCTC) at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Professor Findlay holds a joint fellowship with the International Security Program and the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He also holds the William and Jeanie Barton Chair in International Affairs at NPSIA and is director of the CCTC.

When & Where

SIPRI North America, Stimson Center
1111 19th Street NW
Twelfth Floor
Washington, DC 20036

Monday, June 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM (ET)
2.  Revolution Under Siege: Is There Hope for Egypt’s Democratic Transition?
Summary: Mohamed Elmenshawy, director of the Languages and Regional Studies Program at the Middle East Institute; Nancy Okail, director of Freedom House’s Egypt Programs; Anwar El-Sadat (participating via Skype), president of the Reform and Development Party in Egypt; and Ruth Wedgwood (moderator), director of the SAIS International Law and Organizations Program, will discuss this topic. Lunch will be served. For more information and to RSVP, contact fhevents@freedomhouse.org.

3.  Iran and the West: Oil, Sanctions, and Future Scenarios, SAIS room 500 BOB, 9-12:45 June 26

Room 500
1717 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC

 

9:00 – 9:15 Light Breakfast
9:15 – 9:30 Welcoming RemarksAmbassador Andras Simonyi (Managing Director, SAIS CTR)
9:30 – 11:00 PANEL I    Energy and Politics: Myths and Reality of a Complex InteractionSpeakers:

Claudia Castiglioni (Calouste Gulbenkian Fellow, SAIS CTR)

Sara Vakhoshouri (President of SVB Energy International and former Advisor to Director of the National Iranian Oil Company International)

Guy Caruso (Senior adviser in the Energy and National Security Program at CSIS, former administrator of the Energy Information Administration)

Moderator:

Robert J. Lieber (Department of Government and School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University)

11:00 – 11:15 Coffee
11:15 – 12:45 PANEL II The Future of Iran-West Relations: A Transatlantic PerspectiveSpeakers:

Michael Makovsky (Foreign Policy Director at the Bipartisan Policy Center)

Abbas Maleki (Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at Center for International Studies, MIT)

Moderator:

Suzanne Maloney (Senior Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institution)

4.  Crisis Yemen:  Going Where?  City Club, 555 13th St NW, 10-noon June 26

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations periodically sponsors public educational programs on Capitol Hill and around Washington, DC where an assemblage of domestic and internationally renowned specialists analyze, discuss, and debate issues of importance to the relationship between the U.S. and the Arab countries, the Middle East, and the Islamic world. These events examine how best to strengthen and expand mutual Arab-U.S. trust, confidence, and benefits while examining a range of complex issues, interests, and policies.
UPCOMING:

June 26, 2012
Crisis Yemen: Going Where?

TRANSCRIPT EVENT FLYER
TRANSCRIPT WAQ AL-WAQ

Participating specialists:

Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Lecturer and Director, Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, Princeton University; and former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen
Mr. Gregory Johnsen, Ph.D. Candidate, Princeton University; author, Waq al-waq blog and The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia; and former Fulbright and American Institute for Yemeni Studies Fellow in Yemen
Dr. Charles Schmitz, Associate Professor of Geography, Towson University; President, American Institute for Yemeni Studies; and former Fulbright and American Institute for Yemen Studies Fellow in Yemen
Mr. Robert Sharp, Associate Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, U.S. Department of Defense/National Defense University

Moderator:

Dr. John Duke Anthony, Founding President & CEO, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations; former Fulbright Fellow in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen; and official observer for four of Yemen’s presidential and parliamentary elections

5.  Armed Drones and Targeted Killing: International Norms, Unintended Consequences, and the Challenge of Non-Traditional Conflict, German Marshall Fund, 12:15- 2 pm June 26

 

Date / Time
Tuesday, June 26 / 12:15pm – 2:00pm Register with host
Location
German Marshall Fund 1744 R Street NW, Washington DC, 20009
Speakers Mark R. Jacobson, Sarah Holewinski, Mark V. Vlasic
Description A discussion of the dilemmas posed by the use of RPVs, or “drones to include the implications for alliances, international norms, and their use outside of traditional armed conflict. The panel will also address the unique capability this new technology presents as well as the potential for unintended consequences and “blowback.”Speakers include Sarah Holewinski, Executive Director of CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict) who is preparing a report on drones with the Colombia Law School Human Rights Clinic and Mark Vlasic from Georgetown University and Madison Law & Strategy Group PLLC who has served at the World Bank and the Pentagon and has authored a legal analysis of Targeted Killing in the Georgetown Journal of International Law. The event will be moderated by Dr. Mark Jacobson, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and former Deputy NATO Representative in Afghanistan.

6.  Third Annual Conference on Turkey:  Regional and Domestic Challenges for an Ascendant Turkey, National Press Club, 9-5 June 27

529 14th St., NW
Washington
District of Columbia
20 045
"istanbul galata" by DeviantArt user ~illegale

The Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies
in collaboration with the Institute of Turkish Studies present:

“Regional and Domestic Challenges for an Ascendant Turkey”

June 27th, 2012
9:00am-5:00pm
National Press Club
529 14th Street, NW 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045

Conference Schedule:

8:45am – 9:00am: Registration

9:00am – 9:15am: Welcome
Ambassador Wendy J. Chamberlin, Middle East Institute
Gönül Tol, MEI’s Center for Turkish Studies
Ross Wilson, Institute of Turkish Studies

9:15am – 10:00am: Opening Keynote
Senator John McCain
United States Senate

10:00am – 10:30am: Keynote
Ömer Çelik
Deputy Chairman of the Justice and Development Party

10:30am – 10:45am: Coffee Break

10:45am – 12:15pm
Panel 1: Turkey’s Domestic Calculus: The Kurds, the Constitution, and the Presidential System Debate

Yalçın Akdoğan, Member of Parliament, Justice and Development Party
Ruşen Çakır, Turkish Daily Vatan
Michael Gunter, Tennessee Technological University
Levent Köker, Atilim University
Moderator: Michael Werz, Center for American Progress

12:15pm – 1:00pm: Lunch*

1:00pm – 1:45pm: Keynote
Ibrahim Kalın

Chief Adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

1:45pm – 3:15pm
Panel 2: Turkey, the EU, and the U.S.: Evolving Partnerships Post-Arab Spring

Brice de Schietere, Delegation of the European Union to the U.S.
Ambassador W. Robert Pearson, IREX
Ambassador Ross Wilson, Atlantic Council
Yaşar Yakış, Center for Strategic Communication, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Moderator: Sharon Wiener, Koç University

3:15pm – 3:30pm: Coffee Break

3:30pm – 5:00pm
Panel 3: Turkey’s Leadership Role in an Uncertain Middle East

Amr Darrag, Freedom and Justice Party, Egypt
Joost Hiltermann, International Crisis Group
Yigal Schleifer, Freelance Journalist
Robin Wright, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Moderator: Abderrahim Foukara, al-Jazeera

*Complimentary lunch will be available on a first come first served basis

 

Register
7.  The South China Sea and Asia Pacific in Transition: Exploring Options for Managing Disputes, CSIS, 9:30 am June 27 and 28

Follow @CSIS for live updates

The CSIS Southeast Asia Program will host its second annual conference on Maritime Security in the South China Sea June 27-28, 2012.

The conference is a timely policy level discussion of the complex and important issues around the South China Sea. The program will take place a week before Secretary of State Clinton departs for the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and Post-Ministerial Conference (PMC) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific Kurt Campbell will deliver the keynote speech on Wednesday, June 27 and Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), chairman of the Senate’s Asia Pacific subcommittee, will present a keynote address on Thursday, June 28.

In addition, CSIS is pleased to have recruited a world-class group of experts from Asia and the United States to initiate the dialogue around five key themes:

  • Recent developments in the South China Sea
  • South China Sea in ASEAN-U.S.-China relations
  • Assessment of the South China Sea in a changing regional landscape
  • Role of international law in resolving and managing territorial disputes
  • Policy recommendations to boost security and cooperation in the South China Sea

Continuing disputes suggest there is a great need and interest to explore security in the South China Sea. We have invited approximately 20 experts to make presentations and will invite senior officials, executives, academics, and members of the media to participate in the dialogue. The full conference agenda is available here.

Please click here to RSVP by Monday, June 25, 2012. When you RSVP you MUST include the panels you wish to attend.You must log on to register. If you do not have an account with CSIS you will need to create one. If you have any difficulties, please contact imisadmin@csis.org.

8. Libya, One Year LaterCATO, noon June 27

Noon (Luncheon to Follow)

Featuring Diederik Vandewalle, Adjunct Associate Professor of Business Administration and Associate Professor of Government, Dartmouth College; Jonathan Hutson, Director of Communications, Enough Project to End Genocide and Crimes against Humanity; Benjamin H. Friedman, Research Fellow in Defense and Homeland Security Studies, Cato Institute; moderated by Malou Innocent, Foreign Policy Analyst, Cato Institute.

The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001

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If you can’t make it to the Cato Institute, watch this event live online at www.cato.org/live and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #CatoEvents. Also follow @CatoEvents on Twitter to get future event updates, live streams, and videos from the Cato Institute.

Some political commentators have called the Obama administration’s intervention last year in the Libyan civil war an “undeniable success” and one of “the greatest triumphs and signature moments in Barack Obama’s presidency.” One year later, however, Libya remains in crisis. Reports suggest that operatives linked to al Qaeda are active in Libya. Militias are detaining thousands of former regime loyalists and engaging in widespread torture. Instability remains rampant and has spilled into neighboring states. Moreover, President Obama’s unilateral decision to intervene contravened congressional war powers.

What do these troubling developments mean for the future of the UN’s “responsibility to protect”? Did the death of Muammar Qaddafi vindicate the intervention? Will Qaddafi’s example make other so-called rogue states less willing to relinquish their nuclear programs? Were political commentators premature in declaring NATO’s intervention a success? Please join us as leading scholars examine this under-appreciated and almost forgotten topic.

Cato events, unless otherwise noted, are free of charge. To register for this event, please fill out the form below and click submit or email events@cato.org, fax (202) 371-0841, or call (202) 789-5229 by noon, Tuesday, June 26, 2012. Please arrive early. Seating is limited and not guaranteed. News media inquiries only (no registrations), please call (202) 789-5200.

9. Sanctions on Iran: Implications for Energy Security, Brookings, 9-12:30 June 29

Falk Auditorium

Washington, DC

Register to Attend

Next month, international economic pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran will intensify dramatically. Although Iran has been the target of various U.S. and multilateral sanctions throughout most of the past three decades, the latest measures are the most severe in history. These actions have been credited with reviving Iran’s interest in negotiations with the world, but they have yet to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and are creating new challenges for the international coalition that has sought to constrain Iran. They also pose new uncertainties for energy markets and the international economy at a precarious period in the global recovery and the U.S. presidential campaign.

On June 29, Foreign Policy at Brookings will host a discussion assessing the wide-ranging implications of the Iran sanctions regime and consider the prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

After each panel, participants will take audience questions.

Details

June 29, 2012

9:00 AM – 12:30 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium

The Brookings Institution

1775 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.

Map

For More Information

Brookings Office of Communications
events@brookings.edu
202.797.6105

Event Agenda

  • 9:00Welcoming Remarks
  • 9:15Panel One: Strategic and Energy Implications of Iran Sanctions
  • 10:45Break
  • 11:00Panel Two: International Approaches to Iran Sanctions
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