The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination will sponsor a talk, "A War Game: Deciding How to Respond after an Initial Strike on Syria," at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 19, 2013, at the United States Institute of Peace (Room B241) in Washington, D.C. The session will feature Col. Samuel Gardiner, U.S. Air Force (retired) and will be chaired by LISD Director, Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, in collaboration with Steven Heydemann, Special Advisor for Middle East Initiatives at USIP. To attend the event, RSVP Daniel Nikbakht.

Col. Sam Gardiner, US Air Force (retired), works on strategic issues. He has taught strategy at the National War College, Air War College, Army War College and Naval War College. In addition, he was a visiting scholar at the Swedish Defense College. He has been involved with and facilitated State Department strategy reviews on Burma, Kosovo, Haiti, Bangladesh, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Sudan and Afghanistan. He designs and conducts war games. He has conducted games for the Air Force, Navy, Army, CIA, and Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department. He has conducted numerous war games on the military options for Iran and written extensively about the issue. He recently conducted a war game focused on Syria.

Wolfgang Danspeckgruber is the Founding Director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University. He researches, writes and teaches on security and state building issues in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the wider Middle East; on theory and practice of international diplomacy, private, and crisis diplomacy; the International Criminal Court; and issues concerning Religion and Diplomacy. Since 2001 he has visited Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Georgia, India (Kashmir), Israel, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and has been involved in related private diplomacy. Until 2000, Danspeckgruber was involved in private diplomacy in Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus, and has also worked with the Ahtisaari Team and the EU Special Representative on the status of Kosovo. He conducted fact-finding missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia/Serbia. Danspeckgruber is also founder and chair of the Liechtenstein Colloquium on European and International Affairs (LCM), a private diplomacy forum in Liechtenstein.

Steven Heydemann serves as special advisor for Middle East initiatives at USIP. Heydemann is a political scientist who specializes in the comparative politics and the political economy of the Middle East, with a particular focus on Syria. His interests include authoritarian governance, economic development, social policy, political and economic reform and civil society. From 2003 to 2007, Heydemann directed the Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University. From 1997 to 2001, he was an associate professor in the department of political science at Columbia University. Earlier, from 1990-1997, he directed the Social Science Research Council’s Program on International Peace and Security and Program on the Near and Middle East.