“COLOMBIA’S ENDLESS WAR: DRUGS, GUERILLAS, AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY” IS TOPIC OF MAJOR CONFERENCE AT BARD COLLEGE, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Many foreign policy experts view the political and social turmoil in Colombia as one of the world’s most important current foreign policy issues. With President Clinton's recent approval of $1.3 billion in aid for Colombia's drug war and his visit to the battle-torn nation, the crisis in Colombia has become a pressing issue not only within the world foreign policy community, but in domestic politics as well.

On Monday, September 18, Bard College will host a one-day conference, "Colombia’s Endless War: Drugs, Guerillas, and U.S. Foreign Policy," organized by foreign policy expert James Chace, Bard College’s Paul W. Williams Professor of Government and Public Law and Administration, and Omar Encarnación, assistant professor of political studies at Bard. The conference will focus on recent political events in Colombia, particularly as they relate to stability in the region and America’s drug and foreign policies. Sponsored by Bard’s Latin American and Iberian studies program, the political studies program, and the Dean of Studies Office at Bard College, the conference will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center.

Conference participants, including renowned scholars, journalists, and policy experts, will examine the current turmoil in Colombia and neighboring Andean countries, which many consider to pose the next big threat to American security, one with important political implications for the current presidential race. The goal of the conference is to hold productive, provocative discussions of the many dimensions of the crisis in this region and its impact on the political and economic stability of Latin America and more generally on United States and Latin American relations.

The conference is free and open to the public. For further information, call 845-758-6822.

COLOMBIA’S ENDLESS WAR: DRUGS, GUERILLAS, AND

10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Ana Arana, senior fellow, the Center for War, Peace, and Newsmedia, New York University;

Silvana Paternostro, fellow, World Policy Institute

Linda Robinson, Latin American Bureau Chief, U.S. News & World Report and Nieman Fellow, Harvard University

1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

David Rieff, visiting professor of political studies, Bard College

Kenneth Sharpe, professor of political science, Swarthmore College.

Alfred Stepan, professor of political science, Columbia University

3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

William LeoGrande, professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs, American University

Michael Shifter, senior fellow and program director, the Inter-American Dialogue

Robert White, fellow, Center for International Policy

# # #

(9.6.00)

This event was last updated on 03-02-2001

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