Title: ELCA Peace Prize Forum Explores World Politics, Feb. 14-15
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
January 24, 2003
ELCA PEACE PRIZE FORUM EXPLORES WORLD POLITICS, FEB. 14-15
03-010-MR/AK*
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Richard C. Holbrooke, Walter F. Mondale and Dr.
Shashi Tharoor will address the 15th annual Peace Prize Forum, "Striving
for Peace: A World Without Borders," Feb. 14-15 at Concordia College,
Moorhead, Minn. Concordia is one of 28 college and universities of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Students attending the Peace Prize Forum will explore the
challenges and changes of current international politics, as well as
consider topics on religion and peace. This year's forum commemorates
the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize and its 2002 co-
recipients -- the United Nations and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Annan selected Tharoor to represent the United Nations and to
speak on Annan's behalf at the forum, Feb. 14 at 1:00 p.m. CST.
Tharoor, U.N. undersecretary general for communication and public
information, will discuss how globalization is redefining state
sovereignty and the changing role of the United Nations in preventing
conflicts.
Tharoor was born in London. At age 22 he earned a doctorate
degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts
University, Medford, Mass., in 1978. That same year he began working at
the United Nations, serving as head of the High Commission for Refugees
in Singapore during the Vietnamese "boat people" crisis.
As special assistant to the undersecretary general for
peacekeeping operations, Tharoor worked on the challenges associated
with the end of the Cold War and on peacekeeping efforts in the former
Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1996.
Tharoor wrote six books including the award-winning political
satire, "The Great Indian Novel." In 1998 the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, named him a "Global Leader of Tomorrow."
Holbrooke, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who now
serves as vice chairman of Perseus, L.L.C., a private equity firm with
offices in New York and Washington, D.C., will speak Feb. 14 at 7:00
p.m.
Holbrooke was born in New York in 1941. He began his career as a
foreign service officer immediately after earning a bachelor's degree
from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1962. He was sent to
Vietnam and served in a variety of posts there.
From 1967 to 1969 Holbrooke wrote one volume of "The Pentagon
Papers." Following that assignment he spent one year as a fellow at the
Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
In 1970 Holbrooke was Peace Corps director in Morocco. In 1972 he
left the foreign service to become managing editor of the quarterly
magazine Foreign Policy, a position he held until 1976. From 1974 to
1975 he also served as a consultant to the President's Commission on the
Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy, and
was a contributing editor to Newsweek International. In 1977, President
Carter appointed him assistant secretary of state for East Asian and
Pacific Affairs, a post he held for four years.
In 1981 Holbrooke became vice president of Public Strategies, a
Washington-based consulting firm. He became a managing director at
Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, New York, in 1985. He also served
as a member of the Carnegie Commission on America and a Changing World,
and was chairman and principal author of the November 1992 bipartisan
"Memorandum to the President-Elect" of the Commission on Government and
Renewal.
Holbrooke was the U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1993 to 1994
before being appointed by President Clinton as assistant secretary of
state for European and Canadian Affairs in 1994. During that time he
was also chief negotiator for the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended
the war in Bosnia. In 1999 he became U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations.
Holbrooke is founding chairman of the American Academy in Berlin,
a center for U.S.-German cultural exchange. Head of the National
Advisory Council of the Harriman Institute, he was a director of the
Citizens Committee for New York, and twice was a director of the Council
on Foreign Relations.
Holbrooke, recipient of 15 honorary degrees from U.S. and
international universities and of numerous other awards, is the author
of "To End a War."
Mondale, born in Ceylon, Minn., in 1928, is a partner with the law
firm of Dorsey and Whitney LLP, Minneapolis. His record of public serve
includes serving as vice president of the United States, U.S. Ambassador
to Japan, U.S. Senator and Attorney General for the State of
Minneapolis. Mondale will provide some brief remarks and introduce
Holbrooke at the forum.
In addition to keynote presentations, the Peace Prize Forum will
feature more than 30 one-hour workshops on a variety of topics designed
to address the forum's theme and the Lutheran response to peace.
Other highlights of the forum include an art festival, a peace
fair exhibiting peacemaking organizations from around the world, and
conversation sessions with the forum's keynote speakers.
A special feature of this year's forum is a gala event at the
Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis, Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The event will
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize and commemorate
the 15-year collaboration between the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and the
Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. This partnership has brought the
cause of peace to a public dialogue at five ELCA higher education
institutions with Scandinavian heritage -- Augsburg College,
Minneapolis; Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D.; Concordia; Luther
College, Decorah, Iowa; and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
The Peace Prize Forum was created to offer an opportunity for
Nobel Peace Prize laureates, diplomats, scholars, young people and the
general public to come together in expression of their personal
commitment to peace.
-- -- --
The home page of the Peace Prize Forum is at
http://www.peaceprizeforum.org on the Web.
**Amy E. Kelly is director of the Concordia College News Bureau,
Moorhead, Minn.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html
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