The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination convened a three-day colloquium, November 11-13, 2010, as part of a series of events held through the 2010-2011 academic year marking the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Institute. The event brough together academics, policy makers, and LISD alumni for panel discussions focusing on religion, diplomacy, and self-determination; new perspectives on self-determination, sovereignty, and the state; the theory and practice of diplomacy and crisis diplomacy; and case studies focusing on Afghanistan and the Middle East. Keynote addresses were delivered by H.S.H. Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, and Joschka Fischer.

Webcasts of colloquium sessions are available on LISD's YouTube Channel.

Schedule of Events (* LISD Alumna/Alumnus)

Thursday, November 11

Welcome

4:30 pm – Princeton University Chapel 

Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, Founding Director, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination

Opening Address

H.S.H. Prince Hans-Adam II. of Liechtenstein, The Reigning Prince of the Principality of Liechtenstein

Music by the Princeton University Choir

Religion, Diplomacy, and Self-Determination
5:30 pm – 101 McCormick Hall

Panelists:
Mohammad Shamsi Ali, Imam, Islamic Cultural Center of New York
Thomas Banchoff, Director, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; Associate Professor of Government, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Alison Boden, Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel, Princeton University
Austin David Carroll, Adviser to the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations
Marehalli G. Prasan, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology 
Chair:
Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, Founding Director, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination
Comments:
*Yusufi Vali, Associate Organizer, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization 

Dinner Reception
7:00 pm – Princeton University Art Museum
Valid Princeton University ID or advance registration required. 

Friday, November 12

Opening Remarks
9:30 am – Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall
Christina Paxson, Dean, Woodrow Wilson School; Highes-Rogers Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University

New Perspectives on Self-Determination, Sovereignty, and the State
9:45 am – Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall
Co-Sponsored with the European Union Program, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and the Program on Contemporary European Politics and Society

Panelists:
Uriel Abulof, Assistant Professor of Politics, Tel Aviv University
Carles Boix, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Politics Department and Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
Gordon Bardos, Assistant Director, Harriman Institute, Columbia University
Valentin Inzko, Ambassador; High Representative and EU Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Nealin Parker, Chief of Staff, Center on International Cooperation, New York University
Dusan Sidjanski, Advisor to the President of the European Commission; Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, University of Geneva; Honorary President, European Cultural Center
William Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor of Government, Dartmouth College
Chair: 
Andrew Moravcsik, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Politics Department and Woodrow Wilson School; Director, European Union Program, Princeton University 
Comments:
*Natasha Gopaul, Associate, Weil, Gotshal and Manges
*Natalie Lockwood, J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School

Luncheon
12:15 pm – Shultz Dining Room, Robertson Hall

Theory and Practice of Diplomacy and Crisis Diplomacy
2:00 pm – Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall
Co-Sponsored with the Center for International Security Studies

Panelists:
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
James Gow, Professor of International Peace and Security; Director, International Security Studies Program, Kings College, London
William Maley, Director, Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National University
John Nicholson, Brigadier General; Director, Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell, Joint Staff, U.S. Department of Defense
*Leanne Smith, Deputy Chief, Peacekeeping Best Practices Section, United Nations
Chair:
Mark Beissinger, Professor of Politics; Acting Director, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Princeton
University
Comments:
*Knut Hammarskjöld, CEO, PetroTransAndina
*Kayvon Tehranian, Former Business Associate, McKinsey and Company, Inc.

Determine Your Own Destiny, Case I: Afghanistan
4:00 pm – Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall
Co-Sponsored with the Center for International Security Studies and the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice 

Panelists:
*Johannes Chudoba, Strategic Planning Advisor, Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and UN Office on Drugs and Crime
C. Christine Fair, Assistant Professor, Center for Peace and Security, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Christopher MacPherson, Presidential Management Fellow with the Security Cooperation Reform Task Force, Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense
Zahir Tanin, Ambassador; Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations
Daoud Yaqub, former Senior Director for Policy and Security Sector Reform, Afghan National Security Council; Non-Resident Fellow, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination
Chair:
Jennifer Widner, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Politics Department and Woodrow Wilson School; Director, Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice, Princeton University
Comment:
*Ciara Knudsen, Senior Adviser, Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, U.S. Department of State

Dinner Reception and Keynote Address
7:00 pm – Chancellor Green Rotunda, East Pyne Hall
Valid Princeton University ID or advance registration required. 

Introductory Remarks:
Christopher Eisgruber, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Public Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University

Keynote:
Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Saturday, November 13

Determine Your Own Destiny, Case II: The Middle East
9:00 am – Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall
Co-Sponsored with the Center for International Security Studies

Panelists:
Sam Gardner, Colonel (retired), U.S. Air Force
Christopher Hill, Ambassador; Dean, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver; former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Ambassador; former Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Germany; Member of Iranian Nuclear Negotiating Team
Bruno Pellaud, Former Director Deputy General, International Atomic Energy Agency; former President, Swiss Nuclear Forum
Michael Postl, Ambassador; Austrian Ambassador to Armenia, Georgia, and Uzbekistan; former former Austrian Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran 
John Waterbury, William Stewart Tod Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Emeritus, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University; former President, American University in Beirut
Chair:
Thomas J. Christensen, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Politics Department and Woodrow Wilson School; DIrector, China and the World Program, Princeton University; former Assistant Secretary of State for Asian Affairs, U.S. Department of State 
Comment:
Lachlyn Soper, Cultural Advisor, U.S. Department of Defense

Luncheon and Keynote Address
12:00 pm – Shultz Dining Room

H.E. Joschka Fischer, former Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany

The Future of LISD
2:00 pm – Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall

Participants

H.S.H. Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein was born on 14th February 1945, the eldest son of Prince Franz Josef II von und zu Liechtenstein and Princess Gina. The name Hans-Adam forms an apt link between past and present: Prince Johann (Hans) Adam I – he reigned from 1699 until 1712 – was the founder of the Principality of Liechtenstein through his purchases of the Lordship of Schellenberg (1699) and the County of Vaduz (1712). Prince Hans-Adam II grew up with his three brothers and sister at Vaduz Castle, the parental home. He attended the primary school in Vaduz and was a member of the Vaduz scout troop. In 1956 Prince Hans-Adam II, like his father before him, entered the Schottengymnasium in Vienna. In 1960 he transferred to the Grammar School at Zuoz, which he completed in 1965 with the Swiss advanced-level diploma and the German Abitur certificate. Prince Hans-Adam II then worked at a bank in London as a trainee. As well as his native German he speaks English and French. In autumn 1965 Prince Hans-Adam II embarked on a degree course in Law and Economics at the University of St. Gallen, completing it in 1969 with the de­gree of Licentiate. On 30th July 1967 Prince Hans-Adam II married Countess Marie Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (born in Prague on 14th April 1940). The couple have four children: Hereditary Prince Alois, born 11th June 1968; Prince Maximilian, born 16th May 1969; Prince Constantin, born 15th March 1972; and Princess Tatjana, born 10th April 1973. In 1970 Prince Franz Josef II entrusted his son with reorganising the management and administration of all the assets belonging to the Princely House. As part of this reorganisation the Prince’s private assets were incorporated in foundations. In 1984, the 45th year of his reign, Prince Franz Josef II appointed Prince Hans-Adam II his permanent deputy under Article 13 of the Constitution, entrusting him with the discharge of State business. On 13th November 1989, following the death of his father Prince Franz Josef II, Prince Hans-Adam II assumed the regency. Even during his deputyship Prince Hans-Adam II was a notable advocate of independence in Liechtenstein’s foreign policy. Under his leadership Liechtenstein successfully acceded to the UNO in 1990 and to the EEA in 1995. After various failed attempts in the 19th and 20th centuries to replace the Family Covenant of 1606, at the proposal of Prince Hans-Adam II the new House Statute was adopted by the Princely House in 1993. This is intended to provide the Princely House with a basis for resolving all issues within the family in the 3rd millennium too and for securing the autonomy of the Princely House in these matters. The rule of male succession was retained. In 2003 Prince Hans-Adam II was able to bring to a successful conclusion with a plebiscite a years-long discussion about the monarchy’s constitutional position, after the requisite majority for a constitutional amendment had not been reached in Parliament. 64% of voters declared themselves for the Princely House’s constitutional proposal, 20% for retaining the old constitutional provisions and 16% for amendments which would have severely weakened the monarchy’s position in the Constitution. On 15.08.2004 under Art. 13 of the Constitution of the Principality of Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II appointed Hereditary Prince Alois his permanent deputy for exercising the sovereign powers due to him, in preparation for his succession to the throne. Since 15th August 2004 the Hereditary Prince has thus been performing both nationally and internationally the duties of Head of State of the Principality of Liechtenstein. Prince Hans-Adam II now again devotes himself more to managing the assets of the Princely House. In 2009 the book of Prince Hans-Adam II, The State in the Third Millennium was published, hereafter the German edition Der Staat im dritten Jahrtausend and the Arabic version were published in 2010. Additional translations are in progress

Uriel Abulof is Assistant Professor of Politics at Tel Aviv University. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University's Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 2007-2009. He received his PhD in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007), and was subsequently a Fulbright Scholar at NYU and Princeton University. Uriel has taught at the Hebrew University, led various web-based educational projects, and is currently an editorial staff member and writer for the Eretz Acheret (A Different Land) Hebrew Journal. He currently works on the role of political ethics in intercommunal conflicts, specializing in ethnicity and nationalism, with a focus on the Middle East, Canada, the Balkans and South Africa. His most recent article appears in theInternational Studies Quarterly, and compares the existential uncertainty of two ethnonational communities: Israeli Jews and French-Canadians.

Imam Mohammad Shamsi Ali is currently the Imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, which is the city’s largest mosque located in 96th street and 3rd Ave. Manhattan and the Director of Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens. Ali serves as an Advisory Board member to numerous interfaith organizations, including the Tanenbaum Center and Federation for Middle East Peace. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Asean Muslim Federation of North America. Imam Ali also is a Board member for the Partnership of Faith in NY, and co-founder of the UNCC (Universal Clergy Coalition-International). Furthermore, he is also Assistant Director and a Board member of the Muslim Foundation of America, Inc., and Chairman of the annual Muslim Day Parade in NYC. He also serves as the Vice President of the Asian-American Coalition USA (AAC-USA) and its UN Representative. Well known in the interfaith community, Ali is a visible face of Islam.  He has lectured in churches, synagogues and other institutions both nationally and worldwide. He was among a few religious leaders who had been invited to accompany the then President George W. Bush to visit Ground Zero days after September 11th, and represented his community during the Yankee Stadium Prayer for America event along side religious and government high ranking officials,  including Former President Bill Clinton and then Senator Hillary Clinton. Ali participated in the International Conference of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in Seville Spain 2006 and the first National Summit of Imams and Rabbis of North America 2007. He represented the Muslim community at an interfaith discussion on Religions and Sustainable Development at the White House in 2007, and participated in the 2008 Transatlantic Interfaith Dialogue in Frankfurt, Germany. Ali was appointed "Ambassador for Peace" by the International Religious Federation in 2002, and a recipient of the 2008 ICLI Interfaith Award.  In 2006, he was named one of seven most influential religious leaders in New York City by New York Magazine. Last year, Ali was awarded one of 100 recipients of the 2009 Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award.  This prestigious non military gold medal is the highest recognition given to immigrants with tremendous contributions to the American society and the world and for him, it was due to his endless dedication in building bridges between religious communities.  Furthermore, in 2009, Imam Ali was chosen as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Jordan and Georgetown University. A revered Qur'an scholar, who speaks fluent, beside his native Indonesian language,  English Arabic and Urdu, Imam Ali obtained his BA in tafseer from the International Islamic University Islamabad-Pakistan in 1991; an MA in comparative Studies of Religions from the same university in 1994. He is a frequent speaker at the United Nations forums and a media guest contributor for ABC, PBS, BBC World, CNN, Fox News, National Geographic, al-Jazeera, the Hallmark Channel.

Ertugrul Apakan, Ambassador, is Permanent Representative of Turkey to the UN and former President of the UN Security Council

Kwame Anthony Appiah is a Faculty Associate in the Department of Politics and Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, a position he has held since 2002. Before that, he taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke and Harvard universities and lectured at many other institutions in the United States, Germany, Ghana and South Africa, as well as at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He specializes in moral and political philosophy, African and African-American Studies, and issues of personal and political identity, multiculturalism and nationalism. In 2007, he was the President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association and he now serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the American Philosophical Association.  He is also currently Chair of the Board of the American Council of Learned Societies. In March 2009, he succeeded Francine Prose as President of the PEN American Center. Professor Appiah has also published widely in African and African-American literary and cultural studies. His writings include books, essays and articles, along with reviews, short fiction, three novels, poetry, and an annotated collection of proverbs from his homeland, Asante, Ghana, on which he collaborated with his mother.  With Amy Gutmann, he wrote Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race, which won the Annual Book Award of the North American Society for Social Philosophy, the Ralph J. Bunche Award of the American Political Science Association and the Gustavus Myers Award for the Study of Human Rights. His book In My Father?s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture was honored by the African Studies Association, the Cleveland Foundation, and the Modern Language Association. Appiah also is co-editor, with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience and the Encarta Africana CD-ROM. Professor Appiah was educated at the University Primary School at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi; at Ullenwood Manor, in Gloucestershire, and Port Regis and Bryanston Schools, in Dorset; and, finally, at Clare College, Cambridge University, in England, where he took both B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the philosophy department. 

Thomas Banchoff is Director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and Associate Professor in the Government Department and the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. His current research centers on the politics of religious pluralism, both nationally and internationally. Banchoff is editor of Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism(Oxford University Press, 2007) and Religious Pluralism, Globalization, and World Politics (Oxford University Press, 2008). He book Embryo Politics: Ethics and Policy in Atlantic Democracies will be published by Cornell University Press in early 2011. Banchoff received his BA in History from Yale (summa cum laude) in 1986, an MA in History and Political Science from the University of Bonn in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton in 1993.

Mark Beissinger is Professor of Politics and Acting Director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) at Princeton University.  He previously served on the faculties of University of Wisconsin-Madison and Harvard University.  His main fields of interest include nationalism, state-building, imperialism, revolutions and social movements, with special reference to the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet states.  In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, he is author or editor of four books, including Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (Cambridge University Press, 2002), which won the 2003 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award, presented by the American Political Science Association for the best book published in the United States in any field of government, politics, or international affairs, and the 2003 Mattei Dogan Award, presented by the Society for Comparative Research for the best book published in the field of comparative research. Professor Beissinger  received his B.A. from Duke University in 1976  and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1982.  From 1992-98, he was the Founding Director of Wisconsin’s Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia, and from 2001-4, he was Chair of Wisconsin’s Political Science Department.  He has served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and as Vice-Chair of the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research.  His research has been supported by the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the Wissenshaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Science Foundation, the United States Institute for Peace, and the Ford, Rockefeller, and Olin Foundations. 

Alison Boden is Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel at Princeton University, a position she has held since August 2007. Previously, she served for twelve years at the University of Chicago as Dean of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and Senior Lecturer in the Divinity School, and as co-chair of the Board of the university’s Human Rights Program. She also served as University Chaplain at Bucknell University (1992-95) and as the Protestant Chaplain at Union College (1991-92). She has received degrees from Vassar College (A.B.), Union Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the University of Bradford (Ph.D.). Dean Boden is the author of numerous articles and chapters on religion and social justice in addition to a book, Women’s Rights and Religious Practice (Palgrave 2007). At Princeton and Chicago her course offerings have included such topics as religion and human rights, the rights of women, the history and phenomenology of prayer, and religion and violence. She has served in an advisory capacity to a variety of non-governmental organizations. Dean Boden is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

Carles Boix is Professor of Politics and Public Affairs in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He writes and teaches on comparative political economy and comparative politics. He is the author of Political Parties, Growth and Equality(Cambridge University Press, 1998), L'obertura catalana (Idees, 2002) and Democracy and Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (Oxford University Press, 2007). He has received the William Riker award for the best book on political economy twice, the Mattei Dogan award for best book published in the field of comparative research and the Heinz Eulau award for best article published in the American Political Science Review. His current research projects include: the examination of the impact of constitutional design on democratic stability; the book The Birth of Party Democracy, which explores the political conditions that led to the emergence of various party systems and electoral institutions in advanced democracies in the 19th and 20th centuries; the application of agent-based models to understand the formation of states; and the use of osteological evidence to trace the sources and evolution of inequality over time. Before joining Princeton he taught at the University of Chicago. (Ph.D. Harvard University).

Austin David Carroll, Knight of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, is Adviser to the Holy See Mission to the United Nations. He is also Assistant to the Secretary General of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

Thomas J. Christensen is Professor of Politics and International Affairs and Director of the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University.  From 2006-2008, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs with responsibility for relations with China, Taiwan and Mongolia. Professor Christensen’s research and teaching focus on China’s foreign relations, the international relations of East Asia, and international security.  Before arriving at Princeton in 2003, he taught at Cornell University and MIT. He received his B.A. from Haverford College, M.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. Professor Christensen has served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and as co-editor of the International History and Politics series at Princeton University Press. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2002, he was presented with a Distinguished Public Service Award by the United States Department of State.

Johannes Chudoba is Strategic Planning Advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Before his MPA 2002 in Princeton, Chudoba had earned a Masters in Cross-cultural Communication at universities in Graz, Moscow and Dublin, and worked on post-conflict social rehabilitation processes in Croatia and Bosnia from 1992 on, before joining the Austrian central bank’s foreign research division in 1997. From 2002 to 2008 he supported UN Country Teams in Tajikistan, Georgia, Sierra Leone, Albania, Nepal and Kazakhstan in joint strategic development planning processes, before taking the helm of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Afghanistan. Settling with his family in Vienna in 2009 as a university lecturer on intercultural management, he returned to Kabul from May 2010 to support the Ministry of Counter Narcotics in the drafting process of a new National Drug Control Strategy for Afghanistan on behalf of UNODC.

Karl Eikenberry was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan by the Senate on April 3, 2009 and sworn in on April 29, 2009. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Eikenberry served as the Deputy Chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium. He retired from the U.S. military with the rank of Lieutenant General on April 28, 2009. His military operational posts included service as commander and staff officer with mechanized, light, airborne, and ranger infantry units in the continental United States, Hawaii, Korea, and Italy. He has served in various strategy, policy, and political-military positions, including Director for Strategic Planning and Policy for U.S. Pacific Command; U.S. Security Coordinator and Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation in Kabul, Afghanistan; Assistant Army and later Defense Attaché at the United States Embassy in Beijing, China; Senior Country Director for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; and Deputy Director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy on the Army Staff. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, has master’s degrees from Harvard University in East Asian Studies and Stanford University in Political Science, and was a National Security Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He earned an Interpreter’s Certificate in Mandarin Chinese from the British Foreign Commonwealth Office while studying at the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense Chinese Language School in Hong Kong and he has an Advanced Degree in Chinese History from Nanjing University in the People’s Republic of China. His military awards and decorations include the Defense Distinguished and Superior Service Medals, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Ranger Tab, Combat and Expert Infantryman badges, and master parachutist wings. He has received the Department of State Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards, Director of Central Intelligence Award, Canadian Meritorious Service Cross, Czech Republic Meritorious Cross, Hungarian Alliance Medal, French Legion of Honor, and Afghanistan’s Ghazi Amir Amanullah Khan and Akbar Khan Medals. He has published numerous articles on U.S. military training, tactics, and strategy, on Chinese ancient military history, and on Asia-Pacific security issues. He was previously the president of the Foreign Area Officers Association and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has a commercial pilot’s license and instrument rating, and also enjoys sailing and scuba diving. He is married to Ching Eikenberry.

Christopher Eisgruber became the Provost of Princeton University on July 1, 2004. He is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Public Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values. From 2001 through June 2004, he served as Director of Princeton’s Program in Law and Public Affairs. He is the author of The Next Justice: Repairing the Supreme Court Appointments Process (Princeton 2007), Religious Freedom and the Constitution(Harvard 2007) (co-authored with Lawrence G. Sager), and Constitutional Self-Government(Harvard 2001), as well as numerous articles in books and academic journals. Before joining the faculty in 2001, he clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court, and then served for eleven years on the faculty of the New York University School of Law. Eisgruber earned an A.B. magna cum laude in Physics from Princeton, and then received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he obtained an M. Litt. in Politics. He holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and is a member of the American Law Institute.

C. Christine Fair has a Ph.D. from the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization in 2004 and an MA in the Harris School of Public Policy. Prior to joining the Center for Peace and Security Studies (CPASS), within Georgetown University 's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, she has served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and as a senior research associate in USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention.  Her research focuses upon political and military affairs in South Asia. She has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books including Treading Softly on Sacred Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations on Sacred Space (OUP, 2008); The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan(USIP, 2008), Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States (Lyons, 2008); Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance (USIP, 2006); among others and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles covering a range of security issues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. She is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and is the Managing Editor of India Review. She is also a senior fellow with the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point.

Joschka Fischer was Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1998 to 2005. His political career began in the State of Hesse where, from 1985 to 1987, Joschka Fischer held the office of Minister for the Environment and Energy – making him the country’s first cabinet minister from the Green Party. After serving four years as political group chairman for the Greens in the Hessian Landtag, the State Assembly, he held the offices of Deputy Minister-President of the State of Hesse and Hessian State Minister for the Environment, Energy and Federal Affairs from 1991 to 1994. In 1994, Fischer entered federal politics and became co-chairman of the Green Party’s federal parliamentary group.From 2006 to 2007, Joschka Fischer held a visiting professorship at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group and of the Executive Board of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Natasha Gopaul will be an Associate at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal, and Manges in New York as of January 2011. She received her A.B. from Princeton University in 2005, concentrating in international relations and foreign policy in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and receiving a certificate in Contemporary European Politics and Society. During her time at Princeton, she worked for UN agencies and an international law firm in Geneva.  She graduated from Princeton after completing her thesis, "Diego Garcia: Whose Footprint of Freedom," which focused on the U.S. military base on the Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia and the expulsion of its indigenous population during the development of the base.  Her thesis focused on issues including forced displacement, U.S. and U.K. foreign and military policy, and human rights. Gopaul first joined the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination as a student associate. After graduating from Princeton, she continued working with the Institute and served as the Special Assistant to the Director.  In this capacity, she was involved in international private colloquiums and conferences in Istanbul, Liechtenstein, Princeton and Salzburg on the topics of Afghanistan, Iran and the International Criminal Court. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2010. During her time at Georgetown, she was on the editorial staff of the Georgetown Journal of International Law, served as a Global Teaching Fellow and worked as a member of CALS, Georgetown's asylum law clinic, representing clients seeking asylum in the U.S. Gopaul has also worked for Christie's, the international auction house, and Lehman Brothers.

James Gow is Professor of International Peace and Security and Director of the International Security Studies Program at Kings College, London. He joined King's in 1990. From 1991 to 1997, he was responsible for a number of EC-funded projects on Security and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Between 1994 and 1998, served as an expert advisor and an expert witness for the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he was involved in establishing subject matter jurisdiction and was the first witness to give evidence in the Trial Chamber and the first person ever to give evidence at an international criminal tribunal. In 1997-1998, he was one of three academics appointed to the Expert Panel advising the then-UK Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt. Hon. George Robertson, during the Ministry of Defence's Strategic Defence Review, and he contributed to work on the 1999-2000 Strategic Context Paper under the current UK Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt. Hon. Geoff Hoon. Gow was a visiting fellow at LISD while still a program under the Center of International Studies at Princeton University. He has held other visiting positions in the U.S. at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., and the Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University. He was Reviews Editor for International Peacekeeping between 1994 and 1997 and is a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Genocide Research. Gow is currently Chair of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism Advisory Council, a member of the British Film Institute In-View Advisory Board and a member of the ESRC/AHRC ‘Global Uncertainties’ Development Panel.

Knut Hammarskjöld is CEO of PetroTransAndina.

Christopher Hill is Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Ambassador Hill served as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from April 2009 to August 2010, when he retired from the Foreign Service after a distinguished career spanning 33 years. Prior service included was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Ambassador to the Republic of Korea. On February 14, 2005, he was named as the Head of the U.S. delegation to the Six-Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. Previously he has served as U.S. Ambassador to Poland (2000-2004), Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia (1996-1999) and Special Envoy to Kosovo (1998-1999). He also served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southeast European Affairs in the National Security Council. Earlier in his Foreign Service career, Ambassador Hill served tours in Belgrade, Warsaw, Seoul, and Tirana, and on the Department of State's Policy Planning staff and in the Department’s Operation Center. While on a fellowship with the American Political Science Association he served as a staff member for Congressman Stephen Solarz working on Eastern European issues. He also served as the Department of State's Senior Country Officer for Poland.  Ambassador Hill received the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award for his contributions as a member of the U.S. negotiating team in the Bosnia peace settlement, and was a recipient of the Robert S. Frasure Award for Peace Negotiations for his work on the Kosovo crisis. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Hill served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. Hill graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine with a B.A. in Economics. He received a Master's degree from the Naval War College in 1994. He speaks Polish, Serbo-Croatian, and Macedonian.

Valentin Inzko, Ambassador, is High Representative and EU Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ciara Knudsen is Senior Advisor on the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), US Department of State. She is a former Presidential Management Fellow and holds a MPA (2006) from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Fawzia Koofi is a representative of Badakhshan Province in the Afghan National Assembly, and a Deputy Speaker of the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House). Fawzia has made her leadership journey in a country of harsh topography, internal conflict, intermittent wars and a militant government. She completed high school during the war ravaged years and entered a competitive medical school. But soon after the Taliban took over in September 1995, and barred women from access to all education. Finding the doors of a university education closed to her, Fawzia focused her energy towards women’s right organizations, and worked closely with one of the most vulnerable group such as Internally Displaced People (IDP), and marginalized women and children. After the fall of the Taliban, she continued law faculty night shift while still working with UNICEF, though her wish was to become a doctor and treat human being which are in dispread need of medical assistance due to war and its consequences, particularly women, her country has highest number of maternal mortality in the world, out of a hundred thousand life birth six thousand five hundred woman die due to lack of access to medical facilities and female doctors, but because of faculty duration which is seven years and that medical faculty had no night shifted, she shifted to law and acquired a law degree and later pursued a Masters in Business and Management from Preston University. Since 2001, women could participate in all aspects of life particularly in the public sphere. Fawzia’s political family background and orientation to public service propelled her to take hold of these new opportunities that were paving the road for many women. She decided to run for a seat in parliament from the Badakshan province, a northeastern province. Her campaign was a success and she was elected Member of Parliament from that province in September 2005, Afghan parliament is assigned with three main responsibilities according Afghan constitution, people representation, law making, and oversight of the executive branch. In 2005, right after the first elected parliament after 33 years, Fawzia was elected as the first woman Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the history of Afghanistan. Fawzia's main focus area has been human rights, especially women’s and child rights. Afghanistan also suffers from rampant corruption and she has been advocating for integrity, accountability and upholding the rule of law. With all the challenges, the fact she managed to make her presence felt in parliament, by participating in debates, initiating legislation and suggesting resolutions to address insecurity, rule of law and other challenges that her government is faced with it, is a giant leap for women in Afghanistan. Some of the key women’s initiatives that she has championed include the improvement of women’s living conditions in Afghan prisons, by approving resolutions, with her efforts a commission to work on the issue of violence against children is established, the commission is chaired by Afghanistan first vice president, is tasked to draw a short term and long term strategy to address violence against children especially sexual abuse of children which is increasing recently in Afghanistan.  She also advocates for amendment of laws that suggests savior punishment for perpetrators of child sexual abuse. She has worked with other human rights activist on the shia personal status law, with her support women were mobilized for advocating and asking their rights through putting pressure on the government to amend this law which puts women on more discriminative environment, with lots of pressure and lobbying finally government has brought amendments to this law. She promoted women and girls education, by advocating for access to good schools, as well as creating opportunities for non formal education for out of school children in her constituents, Badakhshan province. As a young woman in a heavily traditional country, to come this far, Fawzia has battled male domination, imposition of men’s selective religious interpretation on the rights of women and issues of power between men and women, and the old and new generations. Young people are seen as a threat by traditional power holders who do want the new generation to organize and be in a position to challenge traditional authority. Her current parliament term finishes in 2010. In ten years time, Fawzia wants to see more women take leadership of Afghanistan, and even become president and/or prime minister. Her message to world young leaders is to never give up, as things will change one day through continuous effort.

Daniel Kurtzer is S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor in Middle East Policy Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service with the rank of Career-Minister. From 2001-2005 he served as the United States Ambassador to Israel and from 1997-2001 as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. He served as a political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, Deputy Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs, speechwriter on the Policy Planning Staff, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. Kurtzer was a member of the American delegation to the Israel-Palestinian autonomy negotiations (1979-1982), helped negotiate the creation of the Multinational Force and Observers (1981-1982), negotiated and oversaw the successful arbitration of the Taba border dispute between Israel and Egypt, crafted the 1988 peace initiative of Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and in 1991 served as a member of the U.S. peace team that brought about the Madrid Peace Conference. Subsequently, he served as coordinator of the multilateral peace negotiations and as the U.S. Representative in the Multilateral Refugee Working Group. Kurtzer received several of the U.S. Government's most prestigious awards, including the President's Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State Distinguished Service Award, the National Intelligence Community's Award for Achievement, and the Director General of the Foreign Service Award for Political Reporting. (Ph.D. Columbia University).

Natalie Lockwood is currently in the third year of her J.D. studies at Harvard Law School, where she focuses primarily on public international law and its juncture with international relations. Natalie serves as an editor of the Harvard International Law Journal and is the co-chair of the Harvard International Affairs Council. Prior to law school, she worked for two years in the Republic of Georgia as a foreign policy and communications consultant to the Georgian government. She has also held summer positions at the International Civilian Office in Kosovo and at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York, where she worked mainly in the International Dispute Resolution group. She received her A.B. in Politics from Princeton University in 2006.

Christopher MacPherson is currently a Presidential Management Fellow with the Security Cooperation Reform Task Force within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has also completed assignments in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. He recently returned from an eight month rotation to Afghanistan, where he served as the information operations officers for an infantry battalion and agribusiness development team in Laghman Province, as well as on the Information Operations Task Force in Kabul. He holds a Master in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he studied a range of issues from domestic policy to post-conflict development and counterinsurgency. Before attending the Woodrow Wilson School, he held a variety of positions at the National Security Agency and served on the National Security Council in the White House Situation Room. He has also worked for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels, Belgium, and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York City. MacPherson also has a MS from the U.S. National Defense Intelligence College and a degree in Computer Science from Hamilton College in upstate New York. He is from Western Massachusetts.

William Maley is Director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. He has served as a Visiting Professor at the Russian Diplomatic Academy and as a Visiting Research Fellow in the Refugee Studies Programme at Oxford University. A regular visitor to Afghanistan, he is the author of Rescuing Afghanistan (London: Hurst & Co., 2006) and The Afghanistan Wars (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); co-authored Regime Change in Afghanistan Foreign Intervention and the Politics of Legitimacy (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991) and Political Order in Post-Communist Afghanistan (Boulder: Lynee Rienner, 1992); editedFundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (New York: New York University, 1998, 2001); and co-edited The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), and From Civil Strife to Civil Society: Civil and Military Responsibilities in Disrupted States (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2003).

Andrew Moravscik is Professor of Politics and International Affairs, and Director of the European Union Program, at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. From 1992 to 2004, he held similar positions at Harvard University. He has authored over 100 scholarly publications on European integration, transatlantic relations, international organization, the democratic legitimacy of multilateral institutions, and global human rights. His history of the European Union, The Choice for Europe, has been called "the most important work in the field" (American Historical Review). His current research focuses on European integration, international relations theory, historical methods, and Asian regional cooperation, for which he was on leave in Shanghai during the academic year 2007-2008. He is Non-Resident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution and Contributing Editor of Newsweek, and has published over 100 commentaries and policy analyses in the Financial Times, Prospect, Foreign Affairs and elsewhere. He is book review editor (Europe) for Foreign Affairs magazine. His policy experience on three continents includes service as trade negotiator for the US government, special assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, editor of a Washington-based foreign policy journal, assistant in the press office of the European Commission, and in various other policy-related positions. He holds a BA from Stanford, an MA from Johns Hopkins (SAIS), and a PhD from Harvard University, as well as having attended German and French universities. He writes regularly on classical music, particularly opera, for the Financial Times, Opera News, Opera, Newsweek and other publications, and conducts scholarly research on opera history and performance.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian is the former Iranian Ambassador to Germany and a former member of Iranian Nuclear Negotiating Team. He is currently a Visiting Research Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School's Program on Science and Global Security, and was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination during the 2009-2010 academic year.

Nealin Parker is currently the Chief of Staff at the Center on International Cooperation, directing research on peacekeeping and statebuilding.  Prior to her current position, she spent seven years working on development, conflict prevention and post-conflict transitions in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia. Parker is a graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where she conducted a year-long study of post-conflict tribunals in Muslim cultures as a Religion and Diplomacy Fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute for Self Determination.  Her experience and research interests include post-conflict reconstruction, especially peacekeeping, and the implementation of peace agreements; the Rule of Law, specifically post-conflict elections, managing constitution building processes, and post-conflict justice; and conflict prevention. Her travel writing and photographs have appeared in the Lexington New Gazette and been exhibited at the Bernstein Gallery in Princeton, New Jersey. She authored a book on her experience as an elections consultant in Liberia, Take a Right at the Tank and Other Ways to Get Home.

Christina Paxson is the Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs and the Hughes Rogers Professor of Economics and Public Affairs. She is the founder of the Center for Health and Wellbeing, an interdisciplinary health research center in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She served as its director from its inception to July 2009 when she was appointed to serve as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School. She is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, where she is a member of the programs on Aging, Health, and Children; a Senior Fellow of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development; and a Research Associate of Princeton’s Office of Population Research. Her research is on health, economic development and public policy, with a current focus on economic status and health outcomes over the life course in both developed and developing countries. She has been the Principal Investigator of several NIH-funded studies, including "Economic Status, Public Policy, and Child Neglect," "Parental Resources and Child Wellbeing," "College Education and Health,” “Adversity and Resilience After Hurricane Katrina,” and was the founding director of an NIA Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging at Princeton. She is a member of the Scientific Oversight Group for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a member of the advisory committee on early childhood development of the Inter-American Development Bank, and chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Health Care Strategies.   She received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1982, and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1987.

Bruno Pellaud is a former Director Deputy General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and former President of the Swiss Nuclear Forum.

Michael Postl, is the Austrian Ambassador to Armenia, Georgia, and Uzbekistan. Postl holds a PhD in European, Constitutiona,l and Public International Law of the University of Vienna. After being assistant professor at the Institute of Public International Law and International Relations at Vienna University, he joined the Austrian Foreign Ministry in 1994. From 1997 to 2001 he was Deputy Head of Mission at the Austrian Embassies in Dublin and Athens. He then worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser and was member and head of delegation to various UN and Council of Europe Conferences. Since 2004 Michael Postl is a lecturer in Public International Law and International Relations at Innsbruck University. From 2006 until September 2009 he was the Austrian Ambassador to Tehran. After a short time as acting director on Western Balkans in the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Michael Postl was appointed roving Austrian Ambassador for Armenia, Georgia, and Uzbekistan in April 2010.

Marehalli G. Prasan is a spiritual disciple of seer-yogi Sriranga Sadguru, founder of Ashtanga Yoga Vijnana Mandiram, Mysore, India.  He teaches recitation of Sanskrit prayers, Vedic chanting, Hindu scriptures and worship practices for children, youth and adults. He is an organizer and instructor at several youth camps at temples in New Jersey, Albany, Houston and Pittsburgh. In the Hindu Temple and Cultural Society at Bridgewater, he is a co-founder and had been a coordinator of a youth camp for 15 years. He is a director in the board of directors of the Hindu University of America, Florida. He is a member of the advisory board of office of religious life at Princeton University. He is a member of the executive advisory council of Hindu American Seva Charities, New Jersey. He has written four books on Hinduism. His articles and poems in English and Kannada have appeared in many souvenirs and magazines. He is a Hindu representative at inter-faith forums at colleges, schools, churches and temples. He was the coordinator of Hindu group at the 50th anniversary celebrations of United Nations in New York (1995). He has given Hindu invocations and benedictions at the undergraduate and undergraduate commencements at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey (1999, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010). He delivered the Hindu (Vedic) inaugural prayer at the opening of the general assembly of New Jersey State general assembly, Trenton, New Jersey (2008). He organizes symposia and workshops on Hinduism, Science and Religion. He organized the first symposium on Science, Technology and Religion at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, New York in 1987. He is a featured speaker on “Bharat Darshan”, a program of RBC Radio, New York. He has been interviewed on ITV, New York.  He is an outreach associate for the “Religion and Science” weekly of PBS television. He and his wife Geetha Prasad, through the cultural organization, Taranga, have written, directed and produced more than 30 plays, dance-dramas with participation of children, youths and adults. These performances have been shown at several organizations and institutions since 1981. Prasad is also a professor of mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. He has published about 100 publications including in encyclopedias, in acoustics and vibrations, the research areas of his specialization.

Dusan Sidjanski is Advisor to the President of the European Commission and Honorary President of the European Cultural Center in Geneva. He is Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, University of Geneva.

Lachlyn Soper is a Cultural Advisor with the U.S. Department of Defense based in Baghdad, Iraq.  In this capacity, she has investigated corruption within the Iraqi Security Forces, and provided policy recommendations on how to address corruption within the context of security sector reform.  She received her Masters in Public Administration from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 2009.  Previously, she worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in Jerusalem and Damascus, and has lived in several countries throughout the Islamic world.  As a former fellow with the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination’s Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations (PORDIR), Ms. Soper researched the ascendant role of Gulf states in regional diplomacy, as well as reeducation programs for returned Guantanamo detainees.  She speaks Arabic, Indonesian, Japanese and some Farsi.

Leanne Smith, is Deputy Chief of the United Nations Peacekeeping Best Practices Section, and former Deputy Chief of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. She has been practicing law and public policy across a variety of fields since graduating from the Australian National University, primarily international law and human rights law. She has worked as a clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, for Human Rights NGOs in Indonesia, for the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) on anti-discrimination and indigenous issues and for the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions. She then joined the Australian Foreign Service where she worked on policy and legal issues including: disarmament; human rights and refugee law; Pakistan/Afghanistan relations; law of the sea and corporate planning. Leanne spent three years (2001-2004) as the Australian Second Secretary in the Balkans covering FRY (Serbia and Montenegro), Kosovo, Macedonia and Romania. From 2005-2007 Leanne was seconded from the Foreign Ministry to the UN in Afghanistan where she worked first as a human rights field of ficer for UNAMA and then for OHCHR and UNDP as an international technical adviser to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Zahir Tanin, is Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations.

Kayvon Tehranian currently works for Google in Mountain View, California as an Associate for the company’s Global Sales Strategy and Operations division. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Co. as a Business Analyst in New York City. Kayvon graduated summa cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2008 and was a student associate at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination throughout his four years at Princeton. He wrote his senior thesis “The Political Economy of Natural Gas Cartelization” under the auspices of Ambassador Robert Finn.

Yusufi Vali is an organizer for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, an Industrial Areas Foundation affiliate. He has worked with faith institutions in Boston to put pressure on public officials to guarantee a $40 million renovation of a neglected inner-city school and to organize the first-ever public meeting at a local mosque (the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center) between the Massachusetts governor and 1,200 Muslims. Vali began his journey in politics while working on the 2008 Obama campaign as a field organizer in Minneapolis. His interest in religion extends from his days at Princeton where he received a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies. After Princeton, he went on to spend a year in Syria on a Fulbright, researching an interfaith movement led by the Syrian religious-political leader Muhammad al-Habash. He continued his studies as a Marshall scholar in London where he earned an M.A. in Islamic Studies and an M.Sc. in Philosophy.   

John Waterbury is the William Stewart Tod Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Emeritus at Princeton University's Departement of Politics and Woodrow Wilson School. He became the 14th President of the American University of Beirut in January 1998  and retired from the presidency in July 2008. Before joining AUB,Waterbury was, for twenty years, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He specialized in the political economy of developing countries with a special focus on the Middle East. He was Director of Princeton's Center of International Studies and Editor of the academic journal, World Politics, from 1992 to 1998. He has published widely on issues of transboundary resources and the collective action problems that they entail. In 1979 Syracuse University Press published his The Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley, and in 2003 Yale University Press published the sequel, The Nile Basin: National Determinants of Collective Action.

Jennifer Widner is Professor of Politics and International Affairs and Director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace & Justice. Professor Widner holds a degree in international management and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. Before joining the Princeton faculty in 2004-2005, she taught at Harvard and the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on problems of democratization, law, and development, with special attention to sub-Saharan Africa. Her most recent book is Building the Rule of Law (W. W. Norton), a study of courts and law in Africa and other developing country contexts. She has published articles on a variety of topics in Democratization, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Development Studies, Current History, Daedalus, the American Journal of International Law, and other publications. She is currently completing a global project on constitution writing and conflict resolution and launching a project on cross-cultural variation in standards of good faith and fair dealing.

William Wolhforth is the Daniel Webster Professor at Dartmouth College, where he teaches in the Department of Government.  Previously, he held positions at Georgetown, Yale and Princeton.  He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Security Studies. His most recent books are  World Out of Balance: International Relations Theory and the Challenge of American Primacy (Princeton, 2008, co-authored with Stephen Brooks) and The Balance of Power in World History (co-edited with Stuart Kaufman and Richard Little). He has published numerous articles on international and strategic affairs and Russian foreign policy, including “Reshaping the World Order” (Foreign Affairs2009), “American Primacy in Perspective,” Foreign Affairs (2002), “Unipolarity, Status Competition, and Great Power War (World Politics 2009); “Unipolar Stability: The Rules of Power Analysis” in Harvard International Review (2007) and “Testing Balance of Power Theory in World History,” in European Journal of International Relations (2007). Dr. Wohlforth received his BA from Beloit College and his MA (international relations) and Ph.D. (Political Science) from Yale University.  He has held fellowships at the Institute of Strategic Studies at Yale, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, and the Hoover Institution.  He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and has served as a consultant for the National Intelligence Council and the National Bureau of Asian Research. 

Daoud Yaqub is former Director of Policy for the National Security Council of Afghanistan, and is a Non-Resident Fellow with the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination. He was a visiting research associate at the Liechtenstein Institute and the Woodrow Wilson School during the 2009-2010 academic year.