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End Poverty, Protect the Planet, and Ensure Prosperity for All - Part 1 The United Nations recently brokered two historic agreements applicable to every person on the planet. In September 2015, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched to guide the U.N.’s work over the next 15 years, and in December, the U.N. created a roadmap in Paris for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and responding to their devastating impacts. The world in 2030 will look very different if we get these goals right. The hope is that we will have avoided and averted some of the world’s worst crises, but that is only if we get it right. There is a chance that we will not. |
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Nigeria's Former INEC Boss Joins Mason as a Visiting ScholarThe former chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has joined George Mason University as a visiting scholar. Professor Jega, a scholar and practitioner of international politics and democracy, previously served as the Vice Chancellor of the Bayero University Kano. He was also a former National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria. Among his recent accomplishments, Professor Jega successfully managed and transformed the complex Nigerian electoral system of 69 million registered voters, 155,000 polling booths, and 700,000 staff. The credibility and... |
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Working with UNHCR to Help Refugees in Africa In May 2004, S-CAR MS student Kofi Goka, left Ghana to further his education in the U.S. He first attended Kutztown University in Pennsylvania and then Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he obtained a Master’s of Arts in International Affairs degree. Kofi's course work at S-CAR, focuses primarily on conflict resolution and management, relating to violent extremism in West Africa. |
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An Afternoon with Nadia Murad: A Survivor of ISIS Enslavement and Genocide In August 2014, while many observers believed the Islamic State’s (ISIS) focus was on Southern Iraq, the organization suddenly shifted its focus to the Kurdish north. On August 3, 2014, ISIS attacked and captured Shingal, a predominant Yazidi town. The sudden offensive did not allow many families in Shingal and surrounding villages the time to escape. Kocho, a village to the south of Shingal was one of the villages that fell into the hands of ISIS. |
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Obada Shtaya, MS Student Obada Shtaya is a current MS student, born and raised in Nablus in the north of the West Bank, Palestine. After earning his undergraduate degree in English literature at An-Najah National University, and working for a while, he decided to move to the U.S. in August 2015, after he received a Fulbright Scholarship to further his education at Mason. |
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Kaitlin Conway, MS Alumna After graduating from the Masters program in 2014, Kaitlin Conway joined Training Resources Group (TRG), an organization that provides training, consulting, facilitatation, and organizational development services to their clients. "The skills I learned and developed at S-CAR, such as facilitation, reflective practice, and narrative evaluation and praxis, are ever present in my work with our clients who range from large to small corporations, international organizations, federal and state government agencies, as well as non-profit organizations." |
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The Rwandan Genocide 22 Years Later This year marked the 22nd commemoration of the Rwandan genocide that claimed over one million lives. Each year since 1994, Kwibuka, meaning “remember,” is held to commemorate the lives lost during the genocide. To encourage a commitment to oppose genocidal ideology, this year’s commemoration was held around the world under the theme Kwibuka 22: Fighting Genocide Ideology. |