Welcoming remarks at the Overcoming Extremism: Protecting Civilians from Terrorist Violence conference delivered by Thomas Pritzker, CEO of the Global Hyatt Corporation and followed by keynote speaker Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is hosting a two-day conference featuring high-profile leaders, experts, and opinion-makers to develop a shared international agenda for protecting civilians from terrorist violence. In addition to examining government responses and legal structures, the conference will consider how local communities and international partners can transform the enabling environment that can intimidate local actors into silence or acquiescence. Topics will include the impact of new media tools, changes in international humanitarian law, the evolution of terrorist tactics, the proliferation of suicide bombings, and innovative approaches to protecting civilians- CSIS
Bio
Rick Barton
Frederick Barton is a senior adviser in the CSIS International Security Program and co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project. A member of the CSIS Commission on Smart Power and a supporting expert to the Iraq Study Group and the Task Force on the United Nations, Barton is a regular writer, commentator, and contributor to global public discussions.
For the past five years, he was also a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he was the Frederick H. Schultz Professor of Economic Policy and lecturer on public and international affairs. His work is informed by 12 years of experience in nearly 30 global hot spots, including serving as UN deputy high commissioner for refugees in Geneva (1999-2001) and as the first director of the Office of Transition Initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development (1994-1999).
John Hamre
John Hamre was elected president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in January 2000. Before joining CSIS, he served as the 26th U.S. deputy secretary of defense.
Under Hamre's leadership, CSIS's Global Health Policy Center formed in 2009 its Commission on Smart Global Health Policy, operating from the premise that investments in health, while benefiting people first, advance a wide-range of foreign policy, security, economic and development interests. CSIS assembled the new commission in response to the 2007 Smart Power Commission, whose final report put a special focus on global health, making the case for public health investments as the leading edge of U.S. development programs and for improving the U.S. image abroad.
Hamre served as under secretary of defense (comptroller) from 1993 to 1997. Before serving in the Department of Defense, he worked for 10 years as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. From 1978 to 1984, Hamre served in the Congressional Budget Office, where he became its deputy assistant director for national security and international affairs.
Hamre received his doctorate from the School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University, where his studies focused on international politics and economics and U.S. foreign policy. He earned his bachelor's degree from Augustana College, emphasizing political science and economics, and also studied as a Rockefeller fellow at Harvard Divinity School.
Irene Khan
Irene Khan joined Amnesty International as Secretary General in August 2001. The first woman, first Asian, and first Muslim to head the world's largest human rights organization, she has led AI through developments in the wake of September 11, confronting the backlash against human rights; broadening the work of the organization in areas of economic, social and cultural rights; and bringing a strong focus to the issue of women's human rights and violence against women.
Prior to joining AI she served with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, including as Deputy Director in the Department of International Protection, Chief of Mission in India, Senior Legal Advisor for Asia and Senior Executive Officer to the High Commissioner. She is a recipient of the Pilkington "Women of the Year" award (2002), the John Owens Distinguished Alumni award (University of Manchester - 2003) and the City of Sydney Peace Prize (2006).
Thomas Pritzker
Thomas J. Pritzker is Chairman and CEO of Global Hyatt Corporation and Marmon Group, Inc. He is also Chairman and CEO of The Pritzker Organization, a family merchant bank.
Pritzker is on the Board of Directors of Royal Caribbean Cruises LTD. and Trans Union, a leading global provider of credit information and tools for credit decision making. He is also a founding member and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bay City Capital, LLC, a merchant bank specializing in life sciences.
Outside of business, Pritzker is Chairman of the Board of the Art Institute of Chicago and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago. He has also organized the Pritzker Neurospsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium. It is a collaborative effort to do research into genetic basis of psychiatric disorders.
Karin von Hippel
Karin von Hippel is codirector of the PCR Project and senior fellow with the International Security Program at CSIS. Previously, she was a senior research fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College London, and spent several years working for the United Nations and the European Union in Somalia and Kosovo. In 2004 and 2005, she participated in two major studies for the UN-one on UN peacekeeping and the second on the UN humanitarian system. Also in 2004, she was part of a small team funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to investigate the development potential of Somali remittances.
In 2002, she advised the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on the role of development cooperation in discovering the root causes of terrorism. Since then, she has participated in numerous conferences and working groups on the subject in Africa, Europe, and North America. She also directed a project on European counterterrorist reforms funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
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