SMU NEWS
Contact Denise Gee: dgee@smu.edu or 214-768-7658
Originally Posted: April 7, 2016
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT TO FOCUS ON POST-WAR PEACE-BUILDING DURING SMU TOWER CENTER TALK APRIL 12
DALLAS (SMU) – How does a war-torn country begin to re-establish peace after its people are left with damaged landscapes, psyches and international relationships? World-renowned national security expert Paul F. Diehl will examine related issues Tuesday, April 12, at SMU during a discussion titled, “Can the U.N. Walk & Chew Gum at the Same Time? Multitasking in Peace Operations.”
Hosted by SMU’s John G. Tower Center for Political Studies, the 6 to 8 p.m. event in Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Great Hall, 5901 Bishop Blvd., will be free and open to the public; RSVP to tower@smu.edu.
“There is a lot more to peace than simply ending a war. Iraq is a painful reminder that defeating an enemy isn’t the same as ensuring long-term peace and stability,” says acting Tower Center Director Joshua Rovner. “These problems will also confront the next administration even if military operations against ISIS are successful.”
“Building stable political institutions after the shooting stops is extremely important – and extraordinarily complex,” Rovner adds. “Paul is a world-renowned expert on these issues, having studied the problems of peacekeeping for decades. We are lucky to have him in the DFW area, which is increasingly a center for the study of national and international security.”
With expertise primarily focused on international conflict and enduring rivalries, U.N. peacekeeping and international law, Diehl serves as UT-Dallas’ associate provost, Teaching-Learning Initiatives director and the Ashbel Smith Professor of Political Science.
He has written or edited 25 books and more than 100 articles and chapters on international security issues. His forthcoming book, The Puzzle of Peace: The Evolution of Peace in the International System (Oxford University Press, 2016), follows The Dynamics of International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Evaluating Peace Operations (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010), Peace Operations (Polity Press, 2008), The Scourge of War (University of Michigan Press, 2004) and War and Peace in International Rivalry(University of Michigan Press, 2000).
Diehl, past president of the international Peace Science Society, has received numerous grants and awards from such organizations as the National Science Foundation, United States Institute of Peace and the Lilly Foundation.
Before joining UT-Dallas in 2015, Diehl served the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the Henning Larsen Professor Emeritus of Political Science and director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. He also is former director of the Correlates of War Project – the largest data collection effort on international conflict in the world – and founding director emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Academy. Earlier, he was a faculty member at the University of Georgia and also at SUNY-Albany.
Diehl holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan, and an undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.
For more details about the Tower Center in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, visit http://www.smu.edu/towercenter or call 214-768-3954.
About SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies
In the spirit of John Tower’s commitment to educate and inspire a new generation of thoughtful leaders, the Tower Center seeks to bridge the gap between the world of ideas, scholarship and teaching, as well as the practice of politics. The primary mission of the Tower Center is to promote the study of politics and international affairs and to stimulate an interest in ethical public service among undergraduates. The Tower Center is an academic center where all parties and views are heard in a marketplace of ideas, and the Center pursues its mission in a non-partisan manner.
About SMU
Southern Methodist University is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls approximately 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.
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