Speaker: Jill Goldenziel,  Associate Professor, Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia

This presentation will argue that the United States needs to develop a Lawfare strategy to combat its adversaries. It will first define the concept of Lawfare and discuss how its use has evolved and escalated in recent years. It will illustrate this phenomenon by examining three different types of Lawfare between China and the United States or its allies: international arbitration over China's claims to the Spratly Islands, China's non-uniformed maritime militias, and litigation involving the United States and Huawei.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

How can international law better protect both international security and the human rights of people fleeing violence? This presentation will argue that the refugee and migration crisis has resulted not only from intractable violence, but from the world's failure to manage it. It will then propose and sketch new international law to address this crucial human rights problem.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

A seminar with Philippe Fargues, Robert Schuman Chair, Director of the Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute and MEI Associate.

When and why do states assist refugees? Throughout history, states have always crafted international legal agreements to assist refugees that serve both their own interests and the refugees they purport to protect. Even as states provide humanitarian assistance to refugees, they may also use the existence of refugee flows as a political pawn. This seminar will examine this phenomenon with particular reference to the case of Vietnamese refugees following U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis. 

Despite the existence of international law designed to protect people fleeing persecution, the international community's response to population displacement varies greatly, with some people given access to resettlement in the West while others are summarily returned to their countries of origin. What explains variation in the international community's response to cases of population displacement? In this seminar, Dr. Goldenziel will explain how the political and security interests of the United States determines if, when, and how the United Nations will call mass population displacement a refugee crisis and provide those displaced with humanitarian assistance.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.