Some self-determination movements have inspired the world, while others have provoked humanitarian and economic crises, and sometimes prolonged warfare. To analyze what contributes to better outcomes and worse ones, The Center for Strategic & International Studies Launch of a new Book: Independence Movements and Their Aftermath: Self-Determination and the Struggle for Success. With a keynote address by Dr. Denise Natali, Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Department of State. Dr. Jon Alterman will moderate a panel discussion with Ambassador Peter Galbraith, Former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia and Dr. Terrence Lyons, Associate Professor, George Mason University.
Denise Natali is the assistant secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the U.S. State Department. Previously, she served as the director of the Center for Strategic Research at the Institute for National Strategic Studies – National Defense University, where she provided analysis and support to senior U.S. government stakeholders.
Dr. Natali’s extensive work in post-conflict relief, reconstruction, and stabilization includes experience with a non-governmental organization in Peshawar, Pakistan, the American Red Cross, and the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. Dr. Natali also taught and conducted research at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimaniya. She is the author of The Kurdish Quasi-State: Development and Dependency in Post-Gulf War Iraq and The Kurds and the State: Evolving National Identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Dr. Natali earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in international affairs at Columbia University, and a B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College. Peter Galbraith is a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia and Vermont state senator. Prior to his 2010 election to the Vermont Senate, Amb. Galbraith served as the deputy UN envoy to Afghanistan in 2009. Previously, he advised Kurdish leaders during the Iraqi constitutional process from 2003 to 2005. He also served as director for political, constitutional, and electoral affairs of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor from 2000 to 2001. From 1993 to 1998, Amb. Galbraith served as ambassador to Croatia where he worked on the Croatian and Bosnian peace processes.
In 1995, he helped mediate the Erdut Agreement that ended the war in Croatia. From 1979 to 1993, he was a senior adviser on the Near East and South Asia and international organizations on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is the author of The End of Iraq and Unintended Consequences. Ambassador Galbraith received a J.D. from Georgetown Law Center, an M.A. from Oxford University, and an A.B. from Harvard College. Terrence Lyons is an associate professor of conflict resolution at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. His research focuses on comparative peace processes and post-conflict politics, with a regional emphasis on Africa. He has written or co-written five books and co-edited a further four.
He has consulted with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations, and key think tanks. He was the senior adviser to the Carter Center in Liberia and Ethiopia. In March 2017, he testified before the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health on the crisis in Ethiopia. He received his Ph.D. in international relations from Johns Hopkins University, an M.A. in history from Michigan State University, and a B.A. in history from the University of Virginia. This event is made possible through general support to CSIS.
US former ambassador to Croatia Amb. Peter Galbraith has part of the panel discussion acknowledges Somaliland’s independent sovereignty.
“Somaliland should be recognized as an independent sovereign state it has operated like that for 27 yrs. It is a perfect example of the absurdity of a policy based on preserving the territorial integrity of a state that doesn’t exist “Somalia”-said US former ambassador to Croatia Amb. Peter Galbraith
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