Release date: Jan. 13, 2004
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Emory Hosts Program Series on Conflict Resolution in the Modern World

A talk and book signing by New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief and author Chris Hedges on Jan. 28 will kick off Emory University's series on "War, Power and Non-Violence: Resolving Conflict in the Modern World." All events are free and open to the public.

The series is presented by Emory's Institute for Comparative and International Studies, with funding from the Hightower Lecture Fund. The series includes lectures, discussions and video screenings by notable participants in conflict resolution from diverse perspectives. Some of the questions addressed by speakers in the series include: Why do we go to war? What role does media coverage play? How can we achieve social and political change without violence?

The additional major public events in the series are a Feb. 24 panel discussion and screening of the film "Bringing Down a Dictator" and a March 18 talk by CNN Executive Vice President Eason Jordan.

Hedges will discuss his book "War is the Force that Gives Us Meaning," which is a social-psychological assessment of the reasons we embrace the horrors of war. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 28, followed by a book signing, in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library, 540 Asbury Circle, on the Emory campus. He will speak about the insight gained from his experiences as a reporter and as an Iraqi prisoner of war. Hedges also is the author of the recent Q&A-style book "What Every Person Should Know about War" and was part of the New York Times team that received a Pulitzer Prize last year for reporting on global terrorism.

The panel discussion and screening of "Bringing Down a Dictator" will feature Jack DuVall, president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and co-author of "A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict." "Bringing Down a Dictator," the Peabody Award-winning, 50-minute documentary by filmmaker Steve York, charts the spectacular defeat of Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, not by force of arms as many had predicted, but by a nonviolent strategy of honest elections and widespread civil disobedience sparked by the student movement Otpor! ("resistance"). The film was used as a model by the recent "rose revolution" democracy movement in the Republic of Georgia that forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down after fraudulent elections. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24 in 208 White Hall, 301 Dowman Dr., Emory.

Eason Jordan is the chief news executive at CNN, and he will discuss "Inside CNN: 'Foreign' Is a Banned Word." Jordan's international experience includes managing CNN's editorial relationships with international affiliates, governments and major newspapers. He oversees CNN's World Report Conference and the CNN International Professional Program. He travels the world both as a CNN executive and a working journalist.

Jordan's accomplishments include overseeing CNN's coverage of the Gulf War and the war in Iraq; the U.S.-led interventions in Haiti, Grenada, Panama, Somalia; the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; the war in former Yugoslavia; the crackdown in Tiananmen Square; and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as well as the international aftermath of those events. His talk will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 18 in 208 White Hall, 301 Dowman Dr., Emory.

For more information on events in the series, call 404-712-9294.

NOTE: The previously announced talk by Al-Jazeera co-founder Omar al-Issawi on Feb. 12 has been canceled.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For more than a decade Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, a comprehensive metropolitan health care system.

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