The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is proud to host a Director's Seminar entitled "Intervention and State Sovereignty" with Gareth Evans, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group and former foreign minister of Australia. The seemingly intractable conflict between intervention and state sovereignty has spurred serious debate for more than a decade, especially surrounding NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999 and the lack of international intervention in Rwanda in 1994. Mr. Evans co-chaired the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which sought to forge consensus around the issues of when intervention should occur, under whose authority and how. It produced a provocative report last year, The Responsibility to Protect, whose central theme is that sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe - from mass murder and rape, from starvation - but when they are unwilling or unable to do so, that responsibility must be borne by the broader community of states. (See the Commission's web site: http://www.ciise-iciss.gc.ca/). Please join us for what is sure to be a stimulating and informative discussion.
