The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination's Project on Gender in the Global Community hosted a panel discussion, "Women as Peace Builders: On the Ground and at the Table," on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. in 016 Robertson Hall on the Princeton University Campus. The panel began with a keynote address by H.E. Dr. Aurelia Frick, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Cultural Affairs for the Principality of Liechtenstein. The event was convened as part of the Institute's 10th anniversary year celebration, and was the second event of LISD's new research initiative on women leaders in international relations. It was free and open to the public. A reception followed the panel at 5:30 p.m. at Prospect House.

The panel followed the United Nations’ meeting, “1325: A Call to Action,” held the morning of the panel in New York City. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR1325), which was established in 2000, was the first resolution to focus on women, peace, and security, marking the first time that the UN Security Council directly addressed the disproportionate impact of crises and armed conflicts on women and upheld the importance of women’s equal and full participation as agents of peace and security. In addition, the resolution recognized the valuable contributions of women toward conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and peace building.

In tandem with the SCR 1325 ten-year milestone, “Women in Peace-Building” examined the influence of the resolution over the past decade and the evolving role of women in international peace making and crisis diplomacy, especially in the post-9/11 global environment.

Panelists:

Alison Boden is Dean of Religious Life and of 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 (AB), 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.

Aurelia Frick is Minister of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Cultural Affairs for the Principality of Liechtenstein, a position she has held since March 2009. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Director of Legal and Compliance as well as Company Secretary at K2 HCS in London and was an Associate at Dr. Bjorn Johansson Associates AG in Zurich. She was also the owner of Fidaura Trust reg. and a part-time lecturer at the Hochschule Liechtenstein. Frick studied law at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and passed the bar examination of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. She earned her Doctorate in Law from the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Amaney Jamal is Associate Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Her current research focuses on democratization and the politics of civic engagement in the Arab World. She extends her research to the study of Muslim and Arab Americans, examining the pathways that structure their patterns of civic engagement in the US. Jamal has written four books. The first book, Barriers to Democracy, which won the Best Book Award in Comparative Democratization at the American Political Science Association (2008), explores the role of civic associations in promoting democratic effects in the Arab World. Her second book, an edited volume with Nadine Naber (University of Michigan) looks at the patterns and influences of Arab American racialization processes. She is writing a third book on patterns of citizenship in the Arab world, tentatively entitled Of Empires and Citizens: Authoritarian Durability in the Arab World (under contract with Princeton University Press). Jamal is further a co-author on the book, Citizenship and Crisis: Arab Detroit after 9-11. Jamal is currently working on two new projects. The first focuses on the politics underlying gender rights in the Arab world. Her second project examines the role of international hierarchy on political development trajectories in the Muslim world. Jamal is a principal investigator of the "Arab Barometer Project,"; co-PI of the "Detroit Arab American Study," a sister survey to the Detroit Area Study; and Senior Advisor on the Pew Research Center Projects focusing on Islam in America, 2006 and Global Islam, 2010. In 2005, Jamal was named a Carnegie Scholar.

Nannerl Keohane is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She writes and teaches in political philosophy, leadership, and feminist theory. She has served as president of Wellesley College (1981-1993) and Duke University (1993-2004). She is the author of Thinking about Leadership (2010), Philosophy and the State in France (1980), and Higher Ground: Ethics and Leadership in the Modern University (2006); and co-edited Feminist Theory: A Critique of Ideology (1982). She has been vice-president of the American Political Science Association, and on the editorial boards of The American Political Science Review, Ethics, Political Theory, and Signs. Keohane has taught at Swarthmore College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University, as well as Wellesley and Duke. She won the Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and chaired the Faculty Senate at Stanford, and has three times been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, of whose board she is now vice-chair. She has served on the boards of IBM, State Street Boston, the Brookings Institution, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Keohane is also a member of the Harvard Corporation, and chairs the Board of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Her current research interests concern leadership and inequality, including gender issues.

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 an MPA ('06) from the Woodrow Wilson School.

Ursula Plassnik is a lawyer and career diplomat who is actively engaged in promoting the international causes of women and who pays particular attention to questions relating to the dialogue of cultures and religions. Since December 2008 she has been a member of the Austrian Parliament, and has served as Special Envoy for International Women’s Issues at the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. From 2004-2008 she was Austria’s Foreign Minister, and in March 2007 was reappointed Federal Minister for European and International Affairs. From 1997-2004, Plassnik was Chief of Staff for Wolfgang Schüssel, former Federal Chancellor of Austria. She served in the Directorate for Economic Policy and EU Coordination at the Austrian Foreign Ministry from 1994-2000, and eventually served as Head of the Directorate for the General Affairs Council and the European Council. From 1990-1993, Plassnik worked in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Secretariat Office of the Secretary General to promote cooperation between the EFTA and the European Parliament. Since beginning her career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981, Plassnik held several postings abroad, including as Ambassador to Switzerland and to Spain. She served as Austrian Representative to the Council of Europe from 1987-1990. She received her law degree from the University of Vienna in 1978, and earned a post-graduate diploma from the College d’Europe in Bruges, Belgium.