The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Rescheduled! Originally planned for February 9.
A seminar with Susan Akram, Clinical Professor, Boston University School of Law, discussing her book Still Waiting for Tomorrow: The Law and Politics of Unresolved Refugee Crises.
Moderated by Vincenzo Bollettino, Research Associate, Harvard School of Public Health.
Professor Akram will give a background to unresolved and protracted refugee situations around the world, illustrating key features that are common to the longest unresolved refugee crises today: Palestine, Western Sahara and Tibet. The discussion will focus on how these crises have been viewed from the legal perspective through the United Nations, and how the UN's framing of these crises has either advanced or impeded progress in resolving them. These three crises will be contrasted with the case of Southwest Africa/Namibia, whose people were successful in a multi-pronged strategy that had an important legal component to achieve self-determination, allow return of refugees and end the apartheid regime. The focus will be primarily on how Palestinian refugees can use the model of Namibia to advance their claims through a robust strategy in the UN, and contrasted with key features of Tibet and Western Sahara, as well.
Professor Akram's presentation and discussion will be followed directly by a book signing at the Harvard COOP, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA.
About Still Waiting for Tomorrow:
"This book focuses on the common features of protracted refugee situations. It is a critical examination of the reasons underlying the extended nature of those crises, as well as potential solutions to them. The book addresses war and armed conflict, environmental change and natural disasters, statelessness and protection gaps, among other elements, as common origins of refugee crises. It analyzes the root causes of some of the longest-standing unresolved refugee situations in the world today (including, but not limited to, the cases of Palestinians, Sahrawis, and Tibetans), addressing the particular political and legal tensions undermining solutions to them. The book comprises contributions from some of the leading scholars and practitioners in the field of international refugee, human rights and humanitarian law, and international relations." -Cambridge Scholars Publishing
About Susan Akram:
Susan Akram is Clinical Professor at Boston University School of Law, teaching immigration law, comparative refugee law, and international human rights law and supervising students handling international human rights projects and cases in BU’s International Human Rights program. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (B.A), Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC (JD), and the Institut International des Droits del ‘Homme, Strasbourg (diplome in international human rights). Before joining the faculty at BUSL in 1993, Susan Akram was executive director of Boston’s Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project and before that, directing attorney of the immigration project at the public interest law firm of Public Counsel in Los Angeles. She is a past Fulbright Senior Scholar in Palestine, and has taught at Al-Quds University/Palestine School of Law in East Jerusalem, the American University in Cairo, and regularly teaches at the Oxford Refugee Studies Centre in the UK. She was also interim director of the program for resettling Iraqi refugees from the camps in Saudi Arabia after the First Gulf War.
Her publications include: Still Waiting for Tomorrow: The Law and Politics of Unresolved Refugee Crises (Akram, Syring, Eds, 2014); International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Rights-Based Approach to Middle East Peace (Akram, Dumper et al, Eds, 2010); “Immigration and Constitutional Consequences of Post 9-11 Policies Involving Arabs and Muslims in the United States: Is Alienage a Distinction without a Difference?” (with Maritza Karmely, UC Davis L.Rev., 2005); “The Aftermath of September 11, 2001: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims in America,” (Arab Studies Q’ly, 2002); “Temporary Protection as an Instrument for Implementing the Rights of Return for Palestinian Refugees,” (with Terry Rempel, Boston Univ. Int’l L. J., 2002). Book chapters include: The Failure of the Two-State Solution (Faris, Ed., 2013), Palestine and the Palestinians in the Twenty-First Century (Davis and Kirk, Eds, 2013), Human Rights and Moral Imperialism (Hernandez-Truyol, Ed., 2002); Civil Rights in Peril (Hagopian, Ed., 2004). Encyclopedia entries published in: Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Lynne Rienner, 2010); Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012).