The Center for Health and Wellbeing (CHW) and WWS recently co-sponsored the annual Adel Mahmoud Lecture in Global Health. Speaking on “The Transformational Nature of the AIDS Response” on March 30 was Peter Piot, M.D., Ph.D., a Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program and former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and former Executive Director of UNAIDS. The Mahmoud lecture is part of an annual series launched in 2008, bringing a leading researcher and/or practitioner in global health policy to Princeton annually. The series is funded by a grant from the Merck Company Foundation. Following his public talk, Dr. Piot met with faculty and students to discuss Princeton’s global health research and careers in international health.

The Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), WWS, and the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics (CSDP) recently hosted Joe Rospars, the New Media Director for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and former partner of Blue State Digital, in a public talk entitled, “Making Change Happen: Lessons from the Obama Campaign.” Rospars spoke about his experiences as the New Media Director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, where he oversaw all online aspects of the unprecedented communications and grassroots mobilization effort, as well as lessons learned on the campaign and how Obama’s online model and mobilization efforts can be applied even beyond politics. CITP is a new, joint venture of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Woodrow Wilson School.

The China and the World Program (CWP) and the Woodrow Wilson School hosted His Excellency Zhou Wenzhong, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the United States, for a policy lecture titled “China-U.S. Relations in the New Era” in May. Founded in 2005, CWP is committed to integrating the advanced study of China’s foreign relations into the field of international relations, by bringing exceptional young scholars whose work bridges China studies and international relations together with recognized scholars in these fields.

The Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) featured a series of public lectures and seminars this spring, which examined the legal legacy of the war on terror. Human rights attorney David Remes initiated the program with a talk on “The Challenges of Closing Guantanamo: Reflections of a Habeas Lawyer.” Remes also conducted an informal seminar with LAPA Undergraduate Associates and served as the inaugural guest of LAPA’s spring semester M.P.P./M.P.A. dinner series “Law in the Public Service: Not Just for Lawyers.” LAPA also joined with WWS to host Barton Gellman ’82, special projects reporter and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at The Washington Post. In a public forum in March focusing on the issue of accountability for national security policy makers, a panel examined “Justice After Bush: Should Administration Officials Be Prosecuted?” The panel brought together experts with differing opinions on the controversial issue. The video of this session may be found online. LAPA also welcomed John B. Bellinger III ’82, former legal advisor to Condoleezza Rice at both the National Security Council and the Department of State, as its “Distinguished Practitioner in Residence.” The visit included a public lecture on “International Law Challenges for the Obama Administration: From Closing Guantanamo to Engaging the International Criminal Court,” as well as several counseling sessions with both undergraduates and graduate students on careers in public service and served as a guest speaker in several classes. He also conducted a simulated session of the National Security Council that brought together all classes of undergraduates, as well as students from several graduate departments to debate a hypothetical presidential response to what was at the time a very real threatened North Korean missile launch. In April, LAPA was honored to host the Honorable Dorit Beinisch, President of the Supreme Court of Israel, who delivered the Donald S. Bernstein ’75 Lecture. Entitled “Defending Human Rights in Times of Terror,” the lecture frankly discussed her court’s efforts to protect human rights in a wider range of controversial cases ranging from interrogation of prisoners, to the erecting of the security fence, to the targeting of terrorists for killing or capture, among other difficult challenges. President Beinisch’s address may be viewed on LAPA’s website.

LAPA also hosted the Fourth Annual Comparative Law Works in Progress Workshop of the American Society of Comparative Law, as well as a working meeting for the reporters of American Law Institute’s Restatement of the American law of international arbitration. LAPA’s co-sponsorships included the Human Rights Colloquium, a series of lectures by distinguished human rights advocates coordinated by visiting history professor Eric Weitz, a law and literature seminar series developed by Princeton’s newly arrived Professor Peter Brooks, who received a Mellon Grant for this project and a workshop series on reparations for slavery. LAPA also co-sponsored with African American Studies a highly original and successful two-day conference on Race and Real Estate. 

A new report published by the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) recommends a push for a new regional compact to help improve the prospects for Afghanistan’s security and development, while emphasizing that Afghanistan’s government, with the support of the international community – including the U.N. and NATO – should craft a political and security plan that will provide the basis of a unified vision for the country’s future. The report, “A New Vision for Afghanistan”, is the result of a September 2008 conference convened by the Liechtenstein Institute and held in Bonn, Germany, which brought together more than 60 experts from Afghanistan, the E.U., and the U.S., representing governments, academia, and the non-profit and private sectors. The LISD’s ongoing Afghanistan project addresses the parallel challenges of building a stable Afghan state while simultaneously enhancing security in the country and the region.

The School’s “Pathways to Public Service” program will be hosting the second annual workshop for alumni who have stepped out of the workforce for several years and are considering re-entering. Twenty-eight alumni participated in the 2008 workshop, which is designed to provide an introduction to the public sector at all levels (local, state, and federal); information about how to search for government jobs; résumé writing and job interview skills; and networking opportunities. The 2009 conference will be held June 4-6, 2009 at Robertson Hall. All Princeton University undergraduate or graduate alumni with advanced degrees or equivalent work experience, who have taken at least five (5) years out of the workforce to raise a family, are encouraged to apply.

The Policy Research Institute for the Region (PRIOR) has released several new publications, including “Mount Laurel II at 25: The Unfinished Agenda of Fair Share Housing.” The report is drawn from a symposium held earlier this year marking the 25th anniversary of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision on affordable housing, exclusionary zoning and sound planning. PRIOR also released the publication “Campus Safety in Focus: Advances & Ongoing Challenges One Year Later,” drawn from a conference held on April 18, 2008. PRIOR and the Princeton University Department of Public Safety and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) hosted a conference exploring the ongoing progress and continuing questions involved in securing the nation’s campuses. The day-long program featured the release of IACLEA’s Blueprint for Safer Campuses, a keynote address by Princeton University’s Katherine S. Newman and presentations by nationally recognized experts on the best practices and model policies in threat assessment, the growing complexities in liability analysis, and the broader sociological phenomena behind incidents.

PRIOR and the New Jersey School Boards Association sponsored a forum titled “The “E” in Thorough and Efficient: How Can We Ensure Efficiency in Spending School Tax Dollars” on Friday, February 6. In November, PRIOR hosted a closed practitioners’ working conference on “Tougher Standards and High School Academics,” Co-sponsored with the School’s Education Research Section, on November 17, 2008. The invitation-only session gathered practitioners, consultants, academics, Education Law Center and NJDOE staff to discuss the mandate for high school re-constitution and how school districts and their high schools can prepare for the even tougher academic standards recommended by the New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee. In conjunction with the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, PRIOR hosted a closed forum on December 5 on “The Feasibility of the Conversion of Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield.” A distinguished group of panelists, and 100 attendees discussed the pending application for conversion of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey from a not-for-profit health service corporation to a for-profit health insurer and what that will mean for New Jersey residents, if the application is successful.

In mid-March, David Mayhew, the Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, inaugurated the annual Princeton Lecture Series in Politics and Public Affairs. The Princeton Lecture Series, which will feature outstanding scholars of American politics and policy who will address topics of pressing concern for the United States, is a joint venture between WWS, Princeton University Press, and the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics (CSDP). Mayhew’s three lectures included, “Congress and the Presidency: Dissonance in their Electoral Bases?”, “What Happens to White House Legislative Proposals?”, and “Reform as a Property of the System.” The series of talks will be compiled into book form and published by Princeton University Press.