News & Events

Recent Mortara Center Events

 

"World Malaria Today", A Conference on the occasion of the first World Malaria Day

On On April 25th, top policy and scientific experts gathered on campus to discuss the progress being made in the global fight against a deadly disease that affects millions around the world.  The conference addressed the issues of the burden of malaria, policy changes and action, and recent technological issues. Some of the panelists included Dr. Joel Breman from Fogarty International Center (NIH), Dr. Bernard Nahlden, Deputy Director of President George W. Bush's Malaria Initiative and Dr. Nelle Temple Brown from the World Health Organization among others. See more

"What is the Promise of Citizen Diplomacy?"

On April 22nd, the Mortara Center together with World Learning and The Aspen Institute organized a symposium examining the contribution of citizen diplomacy to shaping the role of the United States in the world. The event included a keynote address from Representative Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), and Representative Earl Pomeroy (D-North Dakota) and two panel discussions around the questions of "What Can Citizens do? Experiencing High-Road Diplomacy" and "Democratizing Diplomacy and Development".

 

War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism - Douglas J. Feith

Douglas Feith, the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, discussed his recent book at the Mortara Center on April 16th. The event was co-sponsored by Georgetown's Lecture Fund. Feith started with a discussion of the five strategic thoughts that animated the Bush Administration after the attacks on September 11, 2001. The last of the five points was that the Bush Administration had concluded that a purely defensive strategy in the Global War on Terrorism would not be prudent or acceptable. Feith then sought to dispel some of the myths surrounding the Bush Administration, neoconservatives, and the Iraq War. Daniel Byman responded to Feith's talk, which had been held while protests were going on outside the Mortara Center. Feith answered questions from the filled-to-capacity audience, as well. Praise for the scholarship of War and Decision was universal, although the man and his actions while in the administration remain controversial.

 

Realism and the Next U.S. President: National Interests, Grand Strategy, and the Use of Force

On April 11, the Mortara Center, together with the BMW Center for German and European Studies organized a conference to celebrate, honor, and recognize the contributions of Professor Robert J. Art to international relations, security studies, and U.S. Policy.   The conference was focused around two main panels: Theory and Scholarship, American Power and Strategy in the 21st Century, featuring Robert Keohane, Risa Brooks, Stephen Van Evera and Stephen Walt; and on American Policy and National Interests, What Should the Next President Know and Do? with Robert Jervis, Shai Feldman, Barry Posen and Louise Richardson.

 

"State Fragility: Causes, Consequences, Responses"

The problems of State Fragilty have become an increasing focus of US foreign policy as well as scholarly research. Fragile states, it is feared, can become the source and sanctuaries for terrorists. Fragile states are vulnerable to civil conflicts which typically cause death, displacement and destruction of national assets. Such conflicts often spread to neighboring countries, creating regional security and humanitarian crises. The response to state fragility and failure has been post-conflict stabilization and 'nation building' efforst on the part of foreign governments and international organizations to reconstitute the institutions of state, usually beginning with democratic elections. The experience of nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan has made the concept controversial and may make it an issue in the Presidential election.

On March 31st, the Mortara Center, together with the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, the Security Studies Program and the Center for Democracy and Civil Society organized a conference that analyzed the causes and consequences, and U.S. policy experiences and options in addressing the challenge of state fragility.

 

"The Problem of Conjecture: American Strategy after the Bush Doctrine" - Niall Ferguson

Not long after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, American Foreign Policy was redefined in the 2002 'National Security Strategy'. At the time and subsequently, the two principles of preemption and unilaterism were widely criticized as dangerous novelties in American foreign policy. In many ways, however, President Bush's stated ambition "to extend the benefits of freedom across the globe" was the most ambitious and perilous element of the Bush doctrine. In his talk on March 19th at the Mortara Center, Niall Ferguson explored the four underlying deficits of U.S. policy since 2002, suggesting that these deficits are structural, not merely the results of mistakes by one misguided administration. Even if they did not exist, however, the Bush doctrine would still need to be abandoned. Its fundamental weakness is conceptual and relates to the fundamental problem that confronts any democratically elected strategist, as identified more than forty years ago by Henry Kissinger: "the problem of conjecture".

 

"Citizen Diplomacy in a Fast Moving World" - Mary Robinson

On March 14th, the Mortara Center together with World Learning and The Aspen Institute organized a conference on global human rights issues. Mary Robinson, President of Ireland from 1990 until 1997 and the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, keynote speaker, talked about international migration. She concluded her address by saying that citizen diplomacy must be based in shared values. She referred to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a template of the shared values and urged students to pledge to uphold the declaration.

 

"How Entrepreneurs Make Meaningful Change in the World?" coffee with Dean Cycon

Dean Cycon came to the Mortara Center on March 13th, to talk about business ethics, entrepreneurship, and fair trade coffee. Cycon leads the American Fair Trade Coffee Movement and founded Dean's Beans Organic Coffee, a $3 million coffee roasting operation in Orange, Massachusetts. His criticism of Starbucks' business practices led Sue Mecklenburg, Vice President of Sustainable Procurement Practices at Starbucks, to say "Dean has made Starbucks a better company." His own company focuses on designing and funding development projects in partnership with coffee growers. It also pays its farmers more per pound of coffee than any other company in the U.S. The lecture was part of a series of discussions sponsored by the Mortara Center, Georgetown's Entrepreneurial Organization, GU Student for Fair Trade and the Kauffman Initiative on Social Entrepreneurship on the role business can play in economic development.

 

"Traffic" MTV EXIT film screening

On March 11th, representatives from MTV EXIT spoke about and showed "Traffic", a short film about human trafficking, designed to target young people and raise awareness all around the world. The panel of speakers included Tom Ehr, the Executive Director of the MTV Europe Foundation, Simon Goff, director of the MTV EXIT campaign, Melanie Oliviero, Strategic Advisor to USAID's Global Development Alliance, and Sarah Mendelson, Director of the Human Rights and Security Initiative at the Center for Strategic International Studies. A discussion followed the screening, during which Oliviero and Mendelson spoke in-depth about human trafficking, particularly its close relationship to conflicts such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

"Memo to the President Elect" - Dr. Madeleine Albright

In her latest book, former Secretary of State and best-selling author Madeleine Albright offers provocative ideas about how to confront the striking array of challenges that the next commander-in-chief will face and how to return America to its rightful role as a source of inspiration across the globe. She spoke to Georgetown students on March 11th about the book. Her lecture drew on her own experience as Secretary of State as well as her deep knowledge of U.S. foreign policy in the last eight years. The book promises to guide the next occupant of the White House as well as, perhaps more importantly, the voters who choose that person.

 

"The Wilsonian Moment" -  Erez Manela

On January 23rd, Professor Erez Manela, Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History at Harvard University, discussed his newest work, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism. In this book, Manela embarks on an unprecedented comparative analysis of Chinese, Indian, Korean, and Egyptian responses to the promise and disappointment of Wilsonian self-determination doctrine in 1919 and its aftermath. His book highlights the very substantive impact Wilson's lofty rhetoric and flawed diplomacy had, not just on the European international system, but on global politics as a whole. Manela's work offers important new insights into the origins of the vexed relationship among American interests, democratic ideals, and global nationalism.

 

"Doing Business Differently: Starbucks and the Case for Corporate Social Responsibility"

On November 6th, Sue Mecklenburg, Vice President of Sustainable Procurement Practices at Starbucks,  gave a lecture on CSR and the Starbucks strategy for conducting business responsibility around the world. Mecklenburg argued that ensuring the social welfare of Starbucks' employees, especially its coffee farmers, helps rural communities while ensuring sustained chains of supply for Starbucks. She showed how this was done through basic technical assistance and aid as well as through Starbucks' C.A.F.E. (Care and Foreign Equity) practices. These policies ensure that while Starbucks makes investments in the social and physical well-being of its farming communities, they also receive insurance of high quality products and transparent business planning. Through this program Starbucks shows how ethical business practices can allow businesses to make a profit while fulfilling their social responsibilities to their workers.

more recent events...

 

Recent Mortara Center News

 

The Mortara Center is pleased to announce the appointment of four Visiting Mortara Associates for the coming academic year.

Dr. Guo Yongjun, currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, China. Dr. Yongjun is conducting research on the comparison of the Foreign Aid Policy of China and the United States. Dr. Yongjun has a PhD from Nankai University. 

Dr. Richard E. Bissell is currently the Executive Director of Policy and Global Affairs Division at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. From 1997-1988 he was the head of the interim secretariat of the World Commission on Dams, a joint initiative of the World Bank and the World Conservative Union (IUCN). He served as a member of the World Bank Inspection Panel from 1994-1997 and was chair from 1996. He was a senior official at USAID, directing the Bureau of Policy and Program Coordination and the Bureau of Research and Development. He has published books and articles on global issues such as political economy in developing countries, and international institutional and policy change.

Dr. Daniel Lucey, is currently an adjuct professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Co-Director of the Master of Science Program in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases at Georgetown University's Medical Center. Dr. Lucey has been working on biodefense and emerging infectious diseases with the DC Department of Health, the Washington Hospital Center, DC Hospital Association, the Office of the Attending Physician to the US Congress, Project Hope in Egypt, and public health officials and clinicians in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Canada, Egypt, Uganda and Israel since 2003. Dr. Lucey co-organized the "World Malaria Today" conference that took place on April 25th.  More information... 

Professor Leslie Vinjamuri, was until recently an Assistant Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London where she is also the Convenor of General Diplomatic Studies and Practice at the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy. She is currently completing a book manuscript, Justice, Accountability, and War Since 1945 and holds a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation to study U.S. foreign policy on the role of justice and accountability in coercive diplomacy, ongoing conflict, and postwar reconstruction. Dr.Vinjamuri has served as a consultant to the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva on issues concerning the role of accountability in peace agreements and has lectured widely on the role of accountability in the war since 1945. Her research includes projects on Terrorism and Civil Liberties and Human Rights in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe; Religion and Peacebuilding; and Transatlantic Relations. Her articles have been published in journals including International Security, Survival, and the Annual Review of Political Science. Professor Vinjamuri will give several seminars at the Mortara Center on transnational justice in academic years 2007-09.
 
Dr. Zhang Xiaoai (Diane) is currently the General Secretary at the Institute of Human Econology, Beijing, China. She is also the Director, Poverty Lift Program for Ruo'ergian County, Sichuan. She has worked extensively in the area of ecology and history. Dr. Zhang has received a research fellowship from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and grants from the Expedition Council, National Geographic Society and Triangle Arts Association. She received her Ph.D. from New York University in Philosophy. Dr. Zhang will present her film, produced with the National Geographic Society on the Long March (in which her father participated) and will offer a seminar on her current research at the Mortara Center in academic year 2007-08.  The film presentation took place on October 2nd, at 4pm at the Mortara Center.