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Talk to the Author of “Peace Works: America’s Role in a Turbulent World” | Jun 12

Students: This program qualifies for five points toward the Tennessee Global Scholar Certificate

The World Affairs Councils of America provides a monthly special program called “Cover to Cover” that features interactive phone conferencing with authors of global affairs related books. We thank them for their support and we are pleased to share this information with you here as a benefit of your affiliation with the Tennessee World Affairs Council.

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The World Affairs Councils of America and the

Tennessee World Affairs Council Invite You to Participate in A Teleconference

“Peace Works: America’s Role in a Turbulent World”

Rick Barton

Tuesday, June 12, 2018
1:00-1:30 p.m. CT.

June’s Cover to Cover 

Bosnia, Rwanda, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria – a quarter-century of stumbles in America’s pursuit of a more peaceful and just world. American military interventions have cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars, yet we rarely manage to enact positive and sustainable change. In Peace Works: America’s Unifying Role in a Turbulent World, ambassador and global conflict leader Rick Barton uses a mix of stories, history, and analysis for a transformative approach to foreign affairs and offers concrete and attainable solutions for the future.

Drawing on his lifetime of experience as a diplomat, foreign policy expert, and State Department advisor, Rick Barton grapples with the fact that the U.S. is strategically positioned and morally obligated to defuse international conflicts, but often inadvertently escalates conflicts instead. Guided by the need to find solutions that will yield tangible results, Barton does a deep analysis of our last several interventions and discusses why they failed and how they could have succeeded. He outlines a few key directives in his foreign policy strategy: remain transparent with the American public, act as a catalyzing (not colonizing!) force, and engage local partners. But above all else, he insists that the U.S. must maintain a focus on people. Since a country’s greatest resource is often the ingenuity of its local citizens, it is counterproductive to ignore them while planning an intervention. By anchoring each chapter to a story from a specific conflict zone, Barton is able to discuss opportunities pursued and missed, areas for improvement, and policy recommendations. This balance between storytelling and concrete policy suggestions both humanizes distant stories of foreign crises, and provides going-forward solutions for desperate situations. The book begins and ends in Syria – the ultimate failure of our current approach to foreign policy, and with devastating consequences.

Tuesday, June 12, at 1:00-1:30 PM Central Time.

Reviews

“Immersed in more than 40 global conflicts over the past 25 years, Ambassador Rick Barton is among the world’s most skilled and experienced diplomats and peace-builders. His honest reflections and deep understanding of the lessons he learned challenges traditional approaches and defines smart new global options.” (Senator George J. Mitchell)

“For four decades and through forty conflicts, Rick Barton has served his country all over the world. Can America really bring peace to peoples and places that have known only war? Yes it can, but only by humility, patience, and perseverance. In this elegantly written and thoughtful book, Ambassador Barton shows us how.” (Evan Thomas, author of “Ike’s Bluff” and “Being Nixon”)

“Rick Barton tells stories that are simultaneously heart-wrenching and hopeful. Even as we scale back the grandeur of U.S. global ambition, this book offers valuable lessons about when, where, and how we can make a meaningful difference in many of the world’s most dangerous and chaotic places.” (Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO, New America)

About Rick Barton

Rick Barton currently teaches at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he serves as the co-director of Princeton’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiatives and Ullman Fellowships. He has served as an American ambassador to the United Nations and the Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees at the U.N., and was the first Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations under President Obama. He has led conflict management initiatives in crisis zones across the globe, in countries as diverse as Haiti, Iraq, Nigeria, and Turkey. Barton has published in The New York Times,The Washington Post, Politico, The Boston Globe, and numerous other international outlets. He has been a frequent guest on news shows ranging from NPR to The O’Reilly Factor.


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THE MISSION of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tennessee World Affairs Council is to promote international awareness, understanding and connections to enhance the region’s global stature and to prepare Tennesseans to thrive in our increasingly complex and connected world.

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