Past Baker Peace Conferences
- The Great War: A Centennial of the First World War
This March 2014 conference focused on the 100-year anniversary of the outbreak of what was then referred to as 鈥淭he War to End All Wars.鈥漇ir Hew Strachan, the Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College, gave the keynote address on 鈥淢ilitary Operations & National Policies, 1914-1918鈥 Discussion panels included Dr. Sean McMeekin, Dr. Nicholas Lambert, Dr. Keith Neilson, Dr. Jennifer Keene, Dr. Kimberly Jensen, Dr. Dennis Showalter, Dr. Leonard Smith, and Dr. Michael Neiberg. - A World at Peace? Lessons from the End of the Second World War
This March 2013 conference examined the end of the Second World War in three key regions: Western Europe; Eastern Europe and the USSR; and Asia and the Pacific. It explored the successes and failures of the postwar settlements in these three parts of the world. The keynote address was given by Dr. Gerhard Weinberg on "History's Biggest War Ever Comes to an End." Panelists for the Friday discussions included Dr. John Brobst, Dr. David Curp, Dr. James Felak, Dr. Jeffrey Herf, Dr. Steven Miner, Dr. Ronald Spector, and Dr. Tara Zahra. - Crime & Punishment: Securing Domestic Tranquility in the 21st Century
This March 2012 conference explored how our police and legal authorities do and should deal with law enforcement and crime in the new century. Mr. William, Bratton, former chief of police in both New York City and Los Angeles, now working as a private consultant in the field of international security was our keynote speaker. Panelists for the Friday discussions included Mr. Robert Blecker, Dr. Ernest Drucker, Dr. Angela Hawken, Mr. Radley Balko, Dr. John Eck, Dr. Heather MacDonald, Dr. Andrew Golub, Mr. William Healy and Dr. Mark Kleiman. - Failed States - A New World Disorder?
This April 2011 conference explored the military, diplomat and economic/political challenges posed by so-called failed states, whose very concept is contested in academic forums.. General Anthony Zinni, USMC Ret., was our keynote speaker. Panelists for the Friday discussions included Dr. David Carment, Dr. Ken Menkhaus, Dr. Robert Rotberg, Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, Dr. Jonathan M House, Dr. Miguel LaSerna, and Dr. Glenn E Robinson. - Women鈥檚 Rights Are Human Rights
This April 2010 conference, whose title is taken from the slogan adopted by the Beijing Conference, examined the issues of reproductive rights, education, employment and empowerment, and the question of a universal standard for women鈥檚 rights, both as issues in American domestic politics and as international phenomenon. Participants included Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Helen Alvare, R. Charli Carpenter, Christine Chin, Jessica Gavora, Michelle Goldberg, Molly Ladd-Taylor, Bert Lockwood, Sonya Michel, and Leslie Reagan. - Engaging China and India: Security, Stability, and the Global Economy
This April 2009 event explored the rapid rise of Indian and Chinese economic and political power and the ramifications in both the domestic and international arenas. Participants were James Lilley, former ambassador, Francine Frankel, Sumit Gaguly, James Mann, William Overholt, David Shambaugh and Ashley Tellis. - Making Peace, Ensuring Justice
This April 2008 conference explored the truth and reconciliation processes in Latin America, Southern Africa and Eastern Europe and learn what factors lead to successful outcomes and well as what elements impeded positive results. Participants included Steven Stoltenberg, Alison DesForges, Greg Grandin, Lyn Graybill, Richard Pipes, Joanna Posnanska and Steve Stern. - The State of the Atlantic Alliance
This April 2007 conference examined the emergence of an increasing number of divergent views among the member of the Atlantic alliance and how these can be addressed (if they can be) and what importance the transatlantic tie still has following the end of the cold war. Participants included Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution, Ted Galen Carpenter, Jeffrey Herf, Lisa Martin, Jeremy Rabkin, William Schabas, and Beth Simmons. - Religion and Violence
This March 2006 conference explored the connection between religious faith and violence, with panels on 鈥淩eligion as a Source of Violence鈥, 鈥淩eligion and Peacemaking鈥 and 鈥淭he Debate of 鈥淛ust War鈥濃. Participants included Dennis Ross, J. Daryl Charles, Alexander Downes, James Felak, Paul J. Griffiths, Stanley Hauerwas, James Turner Johnson, Charles Kimball, Michael Sells and Bat Ye鈥檕r. - US Intelligence, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
This April 2005 conference assessed the capability of US intelligence agencies to protect the American people from terrorist attacks. Panels focused on "9/11 and Iraq: What Went Wrong?" "Intelligence and Civil Liberties," and "International Reform: The Future of American Intelligence." Among the participants were James Woolsey, David Kay, Michael Scheuer, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Graham Fuller, Loch Johnson, and Athan Theoharis. - The United States and Global Hegemony
An April 2004 conference debated the strategic, ideological, and economic roles of the United States in the world of the early 21st century. Participants included former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Michael Ledeen, John Mearsheimer, Akira Iriye, Allen Weinstein, Patrick Choate, and Lori Wallach. - US Energy Consumption and the Environment
This April 2003 conference examined one of the crucial issues facing the United States in the 21st century: the tension between our domestic energy needs as an advanced industrial nation and the imperatives of environmental protectionism, with panels on "The United States and Global Warming," "Oil Dependence and National Security," and "Fossil Fuels versus Renewable Energy Resources: The Politics of US Energy Policy." Participants included former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Geoffrey Kemp, and Michael Klare, along with leading scientists and former US Department of Energy officials. - Democracy in Post-Soviet Russia
Some of the world's most prominent Russia analysts convened in Athens in April 2002 to assess the nature of Russian democracy in the aftermath of the collapse of communism. Participants included Dimitri Simes, Marshall Goldman, Michael McFaul, Peter Reddaway, Herbert Ellison, Vladimir Petchatnov, Stephen Kotkin, and Oleg Grinevsky. - War Crimes, Justice and Peace
This February 2001 conference focused on the issue of war crimes and their prosecution over the past half century. Individual sessions were devoted to Japan, Germany, the Balkans, Ireland, Latin America, the United States, South Africa, and Rwanda. Participants included William Eckhardt, Chief Prosecutor of the My Lai war crimes trial, and Betty Williams, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize recipient from Northern Ireland. - Prospects for Peace in the New Millennium: Lessons from the Twentieth Century
This 2000 conference discussed the current state of peace organizations and the search for peaceful solutions to international conflict. Among the participants were William Greider, Blanche Weissen Cook, and Frank Ninkovich. - The European Union: From Jean Monnet to the Euro
Nearly simultaneous with the introduction of the new European currency, this 1999 conference dealt with economic aspects of the European Monetary Union and its relation to the United States. Among the participants were Rodney Thom, Stephen Schuker, John Gillingham, and Hugo Kaufman. - 1968 Revisited
This conference, held in April 1998, examined a particularly turbulent year in the recent history of the United States and Europe. Participants included Todd Gitlin, Clarence Page from the Chicago Tribune, and Melvin Small. - The New Cold War History
This conference in May 1997 brought together a group of international scholars who have used archives and documents from the former Eastern bloc countries and China to discuss the implications of these recently opened sources for our understanding of the Cold War. Participants included Vojtech Mastny, Tim Naftali, Richard Ned Lebow, Tony Smith, and Odd Arne Westad. - Making War and Keeping Peace: What Should Television Report?
This May 1996 conference explored how television, with its immediacy and global reach, has affected public understanding and government handling of issues of war and peace. Among the participants were Peter Arnett of CNN and George Newman, USIA. - Feminist Theory and Gender Perspectives in World Politics
This conference in May 1995 brought together historians, political scientists, philosophers, and experts in gender studies to discuss how feminist and gender perspectives are affecting scholarship in foreign relations history and international relations theory. Participants included Jean Bethke Elshtain and Diane Kunz. - 91探花 Legislative Policy Conference
With support from 91探花, the Institute held the fourth in a series of biennial seminars for members of the Ohio General Assembly in January 1997. The purpose of these conferences was to relate historical experience and methods to current policy issues. Approximately two dozen legislators attended the 1997 conference and heard presentations from national and regional experts on a variety of topics, including education, domestic and international economics, health care, and the 1994 elections. - Chaos, Complexity, and Contemporary History
This May 1994 conference brought together an unusual mixture of physicists, mathematicians, and social scientists to examine the applicability of the new sciences to the study of history. Among the participants were Stephen Jay Gould, James Rosenau, William H. McNeill, and Paul Kennedy. - Assessing the North American Free Trade Agreement
This April 1993 conference examined some of the most controversial issues associated with NAFTA. Sessions focused on: 鈥淐reating or Destroying Jobs?鈥 鈥淓nvironmental Impact,鈥 and 鈥淪overeignty at Risk?鈥 The conference concluded with an address by Pat Choate entitled, 鈥淣AFTA: Selling Out to Foreign Interests?鈥 - The Washington Connection: Getting a Job, Surviving, and Thriving in Washington
This May 1993 conference brought to the Institute several Washington, D.C.-based policy-makers, policy advocates, and journalists to discuss the relationship between their education and their employment. Loch Johnson was among the participants. - Nuclear Weapons and Cold War Statesmen
This September 1991 conference featured scholarly papers written by Institute graduate students, as well as students from several other major universities. Commentators included Robert Bowie, McGeorge Bundy, John Mueller, David Rosenberg, and Marc Trachtenberg. - China and the Cold War
A September 1989 conference, sponsored by the Institute and funded by the MacArthur Foundation, invited to campus 15 Chinese graduate students working in the United States, along with several distinguished American professors of international relations and diplomatic history, to discuss new Chinese sources for Cold War history and the implications of the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre for freedom of intellectual inquiry in China. - Central America
This November 1988 conference brought to campus several leading U.S. and Central American experts for a discussion of revolutionary violence in a region of special concern to U.S. foreign policy. Among the participants were Walter LeFeber and Howard Wiarda.