JHU SAIS to Host Conference on Nation-Building

The Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) will host a daylong conference, "Nation-Building: Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq," on Tuesday, 04/13 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The conference is hosted by the Bernard L. Schwartz Forum on Constructive Capitalism at SAIS. Said Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, will be the keynote speaker at noon.

The United States has engaged in approximately one new nation-building exercise every 18 months since the end of the Cold War, and yet the institutional memory for how to organize such efforts remains weak. This conference will seek to draw lessons from both more distant historical nation-building experiences as well as our current involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq, and make recommendations for future institutional change. In addition, panelists will look intensively at the prospects for Iraq emerging as a democracy following the planned transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to an Iraqi government on 07/1.

The conference will include the following sessions:

- 8:30 a.m. - Introductory Remarks by SAIS Dean Jessica Einhorn and Francis Fukuyama, Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy

- 8:40 a.m. - Session 1: "Historical Lessons, Learned and Unlearned"

- 10:30 a.m. - Session 2: "Afghanistan: Lessons and Prospects"

- 12 p.m. - Keynote Luncheon Address by Ambassador Said Jawad

- 2 p.m. - Session 3: "Iraq: Lessons from the Reconstruction"

- 3:45 p.m. - Session 4: Iraq's Future and the Transition to Self-sustaining Institutions"

The event, which is open to the public, will be held in Kenney Auditorium located on the first floor of the school's Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. Members of the public should RSVP to cpaddock@jhu.edu or 202.663.5650.

Media who want to cover this event should contact Felisa Neuringer Klubes in the SAIS Public Affairs Office at 202.663.5626 or fklubes@jhu.edu.