Mohonk International Peace Conference: Lessons from the Kosovo Conflict

NEW PALTZ — The Independent International Commission on Kosovo will meet in a conference coordinated by SUNY New Paltz at the Mohonk Mountain House on Dec. 7-8.

The Commission recently completed its final analysis of the Kosovo conflict and will use the New Paltz conference to gauge public reaction to its analysis and discuss its recommendations for future peacekeeping and peacemaking operations.

Conference participants include Commission Chair Justice Richard Goldstone, Commission Co-chair Carl Tham, Commission member Richard Falk, Ambassador Johnathon Levistsky, and senior representatives from the United Nations, Physicians for Human Rights, Doctors Without Borders, South Africa, Brookings Institution, International Crisis Group, Carnegie Corporation of New York and various universities.

The conference is supported in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Mohonk Consultations.

Media are invited to cover all or parts of the conference. To arrange coverage, contact Ken Ross at (845) 257-3245.

The following is the conference itinerary:

Dec. 7

9:30 a.m. Introduction of the Commission

9:45 Overview of the Commission’s final report and how it was received, Justice Richard Goldstone, Commission chair

10:30 Commentary: Benjamin Barber, director of the Walt Whitman Center, and David Rieff, Bard College

11:15 Break-out session: Could the conflict have been avoided?

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Overview of recommendations from the final report and recent changes in Serbia, Richard Falk, Commission member

Invited commentary: Robert Keohane, Duke University, Dr. Ivo Daalder, Brookings Institution, and Johnathon Levitsky, special assistant on Kosovo and the Balkans to the U.N.

Dec. 8

9:30 a.m. Final session, the lessons of Kosovo for future and ongoing crises, Carl Tham, Commission co-chair

10:30 Invited commentary, Joelle Tanguy, executive director, Doctors Without Borders

11:30 Closing questions from the floor

Additional information about the Independent International Commission on Kosovo, including its final report, is available online at www.kosovocommission.org.