Richard Falk, Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, presented a public lecture, "Legitimacy Wars, Self-Determination, and the Rise of Soft Power" on Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 4:30 p.m. in Bowl 1, Robertson Hall on the Princeton University campus. The lecture was the first in the 2010-2011 series, "Changing Notions of State, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination," held as part of LISD's 10th anniversary celebration events.

In addition to his appointment at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Falk is the Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University. In 2001 he served on a three person Human Rights Inquiry Commission for the Palestine Territories that was appointed by the United Nations, and previously, on the Independent International Commission on Kosovo.

His recent book, The Great Terror War (2003), considers the American response to September 11, including its relationship to the patriotic duties of American Citizens. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Religion and Humane Global Governance, Human Rights Horizons, On Humane Governance: Toward a New Global Politics, Explorations at the Edge of Time, Revolutionaries and Functionaries, The Promise of World Order, Indefensible Weapons, Human Rights and State Sovereignty, A Study of Future Worlds, and This Endangered Planet. He is coeditor of Crimes of War.

Falk serves as Chair of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Board of Directors and as honorary vice president of the American Society of International Law. Falk also acted as counsel to Ethiopia and Liberia in the Southwest Africa Case before the International Court of Justice. He received his B.S. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; L.L.B. from Yale Law School; and J.S.D. from Harvard University.