April 2009, Volume 3, Issue 2.

A spirit of camaraderie pervaded the ICAR faculty meeting held on February 6th, 2009, in the Truland Building. The joint meeting, representing both the regular and adjunct faculty, was the first such initiative organized to strengthen cohesion amongst the two branches of the teaching staff. Faculty members had an opportunity to mingle and exchange ideas with many of their colleagues over a light lunch. Subsequently, a round of formal introductions took place, and all present were invited to share their views. The gathering acknowledged ICAR’s adjunct faculty as a valuable asset to the academic program, as their contributions to both the graduate and undergraduate programs were noted. A suggestion to have an adjunct faculty...

The Drucie French Cumbie Chair was awarded to Dr. Andrea Bartoli in 2007, when he transitioned to ICAR from Columbia University where he was Founding Director of the Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR). In his inaugural Cumbie Lecture at ICAR, Dr. Bartoli made his vision explicit: The Drucie French Cumbie Chair is the perfect environment for the growth of integration of theory and practice that will develop the field of conflict resolution further. Located at ICAR, the preeminent center of research in the field, the Chair has been served by a wonderful colleague, Chris Mitchell. I am honored to be working in this capacity and contributing to the study and practice of peacemaking. How can we get there? I have been...

Caught in the wake of martial forces, civilians live a strange kind of existence. Cast as objects defined only in their relation to the activities and objectives of military campaigns, civilians are war’s weakest participants who, simultaneously, endure the greatest degree of suffering. Military fatalities represent a fraction of those of civilians—their deaths in comparison are calculated at a ratio of one-to-eight on a global scale. Seeking to draw attention to the plight of civilians in war, ICAR sponsored a conference on March 27th, 2009, entitled “Civilian Devastation in War.”

Researchers, scholars, and practitioners addressed the scale of civilian casualties in war, the sources of such casualties, the current state of practices seeking to reduce civilian causalities, and alternative practices for civilian protection. The conference opened with a...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai effectively legalized marital rape last week by signing a law that allows Afghan Shiite men to demand sex from their wives every four days. The Shia Family Law, widely considered a strategic move by Karzai to gain support from conservative clerics for his reelection in August, also forbids women from venturing outside of the home without the permission of a male relative. President Obama has decried the new Afghan law as “abhorrent,” and Secretary Clinton expressed her concern both in a private meeting with the Afghan president and in an interview with Radio Free Afghanistan. They were not alone in their condemnation; after worldwide government and civil...