25TH ANNIVERSARY RUSK CENTER LECTURE TO FOCUS ON UNITED NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Abstract

Thursday, October 3, 2002

WRITER: Kristine Fortunato 706/542-5172 CONTACT: Gabriel Wilner 706/542-5238, wilner@uga.edu

25TH ANNIVERSARY RUSK CENTER LECTURE TO FOCUS ON UNITED NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

ATHENS, Ga. - Abiodun Williams, director of strategic planning in the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, will deliver the third lecture in the Dean Rusk Lecture series, titled "The United Nations and Peacebuilding" on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 at 3:30 p.m. in the Larry Walker Room at Dean Rusk Hall. The four-part Dean Rusk Lectures commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Dean Rusk Center - - International, Comparative and Graduate Legal Studies.

Williams has served in three United Nations peacekeeping operations as special assistant to the deputy special representative of the secretary-general in Bosnia and Herzegovina, special assistant to the representative of the secretary-general in Haiti, and political and humanitarian affairs adviser to the U.N. Preventive Deployment Force in Macedonia. He was Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Assistant Professor of International Relations and has taught courses in international organization, theory and practice of international relations, and power and justice in the international system.

Executive Director of the Dean Rusk Center and Kirbo Chair in International Law Gabriel Wilner says this 25th anniversary celebration is very much a celebration of Dean Rusk and the university's good fortune of being associated with him. "During his time at the university, Dean Rusk encouraged students and faculty to gain international experiences and broaden their perspective. It brings us great joy to pay tribute to him by continuing his educational legacy with this lecture series."

Wilner said the post Williams occupies is an important one particularly since Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary general, has established himself as an activist in his role as the highest United Nations official.

The Rusk Center was established in 1977 and merged with International and Graduate Legal Studies in 1999 to bring research, teaching and service at the University of Georgia School of Law into the evolving international dimensions of law. A former secretary of state, the late Dean Rusk was the inspiration behind the center's creation. It was his profound belief that through education, international cooperation could be a conduit of maintaining peace, building democratic institutions and raising standards of living throughout the world.

Law school Dean David Shipley praised this initiative undertaken by the director and staff of the Dean Rusk Center and said this series is ample evidence of just how important Rusk's legacy is to the law school and how much a part of the law school the study of the many facets of international and comparative law has become.

The remaining lecture in the series is "The United States and Europe: Political Cleavages and the Use of Law" by Manuel Medina Ortega, a member of the European Parliament, on Monday, Oct. 28, 2002, at 3:30 p.m. in the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom at the School of Law.

The previous two lectures in the series were:

"Democracy Beyond Nation State: World Trade Organizations and European Union" given by Eric Stein, the Hessel E. Yntema Professor Emeritus of law at the University of Michigan, held Sept. 25, 2002.

"Constitutional Rights and Human Rights" given by Louis Henkin, University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, held Oct. 2, 2002.

For more information regarding the lectures or the other events celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Dean Rusk Center please contact Hala Khuri at (706) 542-5211.

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