21st Annual Thanksgiving Day Tea
War in the World Today: Beyond Winning or Losing

What does winning a war - or losing a war - mean in today's world? Professor Mari Fitzduff will look at the emergence of the "new wars" which have become so prevalent since the end of the Cold War. Most of these wars are intrastate or global wars; are centered around issues of identity, survival, and power; and defy much of the established wisdom about how to win or lose wars and how to train for such. She will also examine how, in these interconnected and globalizing times, there are now few local wars; almost all wars are global and need both regional and global responses for their cessation. Drawing upon current and developing research, she will outline what some of these responses could be, and how they could possibly change the future of both our world and our children's world.

Mari Fitzduff, Professor of Coexistence and Director of the Master's Program in Intercommunal Coexistence

Mari Fitzduff, PhD, is Professor and Director of the MA Program in Coexistence and Conflict at Brandeis University. The program is an international program, and is specifically geared towards the needs of mid-career professionals working at governmental or intergovernmental level on issues of conflict. Professor Fitzduff brings more than 20 years of experience in both coexistence policy development, practice, and research to the program. From 1990-1997 she was the first chief executive of the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, which was at the forefront in developing governmental policies and local community programs to tackle many decades of violent conflict. More recently she served as director of UNU/INCORE, a United Nations University center and one of the world’s leading organizations for research on conflict.

She has served as a consultant and trainer on conflict programs in the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Basque country. She is frequently utilized as an international expert by governments and international organizations such as the Commonwealth, the United Nations, and the World Bank on issues of conflict and diversity.

Her many publications include Community Conflict Skills, Beyond Violence: Conflict Resolution Processes in Northern Ireland, a UNU/Brookings book which has won an American Library Associations Notable Book award, NGO’s at the Table with Cheyanne Church, and she is coeditor of a 3-volume series The Psychology of War, Conflict Resolution and Peace, which was published in 2006. She is also the author of a recently published discussion paper on what should be the core competencies for graduate programs concerned with coexistence and conflict work, which has been published as part of the Leadership series of publications by the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Hosted by Alberta Gotthardt Strage ’56
67 Addison Road, London W14 8JL

RSVP before Monday 17 November. Contact Joan Givner Bovarnick, Ph.D. ’69, club president, at 020 7602-6647 or Alberta at 020 7603-5847. You may also email greatbritain@alumni.brandeis.edu.