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Monitoring the 2009 Afghan ElectionsOn August 20th, 2009 Afghanistan held presidential and provincial council elections. There were 41 presidential and over 3,300 provincial council candidates. Unlike the previous elections in 2004 and 2005 which were conducted under United Nations auspices, the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) ran the 2009 contest with the UN in an advisory role. The elections took place against a backdrop of deteriorating security, intensifying insurgency and the growing disillusionment of the Afghan public with their government and the US and NATO/ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forces. The Obama administration viewed the elections success as crucial in light of its new Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy. The administration saw... |
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Aziz Abu Sarah, CRDC Director of Middle East ProjectsThis fall, The Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) proudly welcomed new Director of Middle East Projects, Aziz Abu Sarah. Before coming to CRDC, Abu Sarah,-a Palestinian, born and raised in Jerusalem-was heavily involved in the Palestinian-Israeli peace movements. He has chaired an organization of Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families called The Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum, which works for reconciliation, co-hosted a bilingual radio show on Radio All for Peace in Jerusalem, and published articles in Haaretz, Alarabiya, The Daily Star and Middle East online-among others. In addition to serving as a lecturer on issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,-Abu Sarah is collaborating with Dr. Marc... |
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Unusual Pairs: CRDC Honors Kabawat Citizen Diplomacy Highlighted at Film ScreeningOn October 19th, The Center for World Religions , Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) will be presenting CRDCs first Citizen Diplomacy Award to CRDC Senior Associate, Hind Kabawat. In addition to recognizing Kabawat, there will be a screening of a film series entitled Unusual Pairs: Friends Across the Divide, directed by David Vyorst in partnership with the Fetzer Institute, which features Kabawat's and Gopins pioneering work in Syria. The film takes an in-depth look at unique partners who have developed friendship and cooperation in working for peace across the Arab-Israeli divide, addresses issues surrounding their biographies, motivations, and how these characteristics can be instilled in others on a large scale basis. The... |
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ICAR Undergrads Celebrate 5 Years: Looking Ahead With an Eye on InnovationAs new director Agnieszka Paczynska settles in and with the move to the space in Northeast Module II accomplished, ICAR's Undergraduate Program is set to begin celebrating their 5th anniversary with an upcoming conference on Youth in Post-Conflict Settings: Toward Healing, Justice, and Development, a brown bag lecture series, and a new action initiative called ICAR Serves. The conference is scheduled to convene October 30th from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in Research I, Room 63 on the Fairfax campus. The ICAR community, including alumni is invited to attend. Helena Cobban, a veteran writer and researcher on global affair and the author of seven books, including her most recent entitled, Re-engage! American and the World After Bush, will be the keynote speaker. Cobban was a columnist for The Christian Science Monitor, and is currently the author of Just World News, a lively blog which... |
Upcoming ICAR Community EventsTuesday, October 13, 2009 Tatsushi Arai |
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Rubenstein Rocks the Institute As ICAR Welcomes 111 Incoming Graduate StudentsThe 2009-10 academic year got underway with a flurry of events geared toward both orienting and welcoming 29 Certificate, 63 Masters, and 19 Ph.D. students into the ICAR community. Three separate orientations were held beginning with the Certificate program on August 19th and followed by the two-part orientation for incoming M.S. and Ph.D. students on August 22nd and 26th. For the first time a Faculty Mentoring Session, facilitated by Ph.D. coordinator, Sandy Cheldelin and M.S. coordinator Mark Goodale, was incorporated. Faculty members introduced themselves, speaking briefly about their research, their interests, and their areas of specialization, then met with their new advisees as a group. The evening provided a relaxing... |
ICAR Student OpinionAbandoning Missile Shield While Selling Missiles to Turkey It all began with a quasi-historic decision made by the Obama administration on September 17th to abandon the missile shield program in Eastern Europe. This verdict is quite significant as Obama puts a sharp distinction between himself and Bush once more, taking a more diplomatic stance domestically and internationally. But scrapping the program, in CNN's terms, is important because of other issues, like Iran's longrange missile capacity. While the international community looked on in awe, the US agreed to sell patriot missiles to Turkey for 7,8 billion dollars, indicating the threat the US perceives from Iran to analysts. Two regions: eastern Europe and Turkey, just a couple of hundreds of kilometers apart set the border between long and medium range missiles. Abandoning the program in Eastern Europe while... |
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Recent ICAR Articles, Op-Eds, Letters to the Editor, and PhotosSorting Out Our Options in Afghanistan Wanted: Middle East Statesmen US Jews and Israelis Split on Obama A Toast For Peace Gacaca Courts in Rwanda: An Endogenous Approach to Post-Conflict Justice and Reconciliation Inevitable US Policy Shift on Burma; Why and How? The Legacy of 9/11 |
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ICAR M.S. Student and Staff Member, Mike GiustiThe beauty of ICAR lies in its diversity of interests. As a Masters student Mike Giusti is focusing on how mind-body medicine and mindfulness techniques can be applied to conflict resolution. He started developing an interest in spiritual, metaphysical, and holistic philosophies as a junior in college and recently became involved in the practice of mind-body medicine. When asked why, Giusti responded, “Because it is a field in which all of my interests converge as tools in helping people.” In today's fast paced world the whole individual is often overlooked. This fact necessitates the training of conflict resolution practitioners in mind-body medicine techniques. This is especially vital in post-conflict... |
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Zoë Rose, ICAR Alum and Interim Office ManagerThis month the ICAR community will be losing Zoë Rose, a staff member who has been a fixture at ICAR for over a year. Zoë began working while she was in the Master’s program as a graduate admissions assistant, where she helped Admissions Director Erin Ogilvie with student services and served as the face of ICAR as she represented the Institute at graduate fairs across the country. Most recently, Zoë has been the interim office manager while Amanda Martin is absent on maternity leave, managing operations on the Arlington Campus and at Point of View. Academically, Zoë’s interest initially revolved around international security and nuclear weapons in space. Perhaps an unusual topic, she found the issues to be... |