Publications & Events

On Tuesday, March 28, 2023, the Kent Program hosted an interdisciplinary panel on violence towards religious minorities in India. Set against a complex historical backdrop of decolonisation, state-building, and conflict, growing violence and repression against religious minorities in India is again an urgent threat, even as India continues to develop into a global economic powerhouse and one of the world’s most populous and powerful nations. This expert panel, consisting of prominent academic, journalistic, literary, and policy voices,  discussed the instruments of violence and repression, potential pathways for protecting India’s religious minorities,

and strategies to mitigate the risks of future conflict. 

Introduced by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Director, Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution; Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Practice, International and Public Affairs; Director, International Conflict Resolution Specialization

Moderated by Rumela Sen, Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University



With Experts:



Katherine Ewing, Professor, Department of Religion; Director, South Asia Institute, Columbia University

Mohammad Ali, Independent Journalist and Winner of the 2021 Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia

Ria Chakrabarty, Policy Director, Hindus for Human Rights

Watch the event recording here >>

On Thursday, December 1, 2022, the Kent Program hosted an expert panel on Sri Lanka's unprecedented economic crisis. Faced with a perfect storm of long-term sovereign debt, the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation in advanced economies, a strong dollar, high commodity prices, the war in Ukraine, and internal political dynamics, Sri Lanka was the first chip to fall in what is likely to be a series of seismic post-pandemic shocks for developing economies for years to come. This panel offers a comprehensive, multi-sectoral look at the current crisis in Sri Lanka and discusses a nuanced approach to US policy towards the strategically significant nation and the broader Indian Ocean region.

Introduced by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Director, Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution; Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Practice, International and Public Affairs; Director, International Conflict Resolution Specialization

Moderated by Page Fortna, Harold Brown Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy, Department of Political Science, Columbia University

With Experts:

Kasturi Chellaraja Wilson, Group Chief Executive Officer, Hemas Holdings PLC

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Founding Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Centre for Policy Alternatives; Board Member, Sri Lanka Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International and Strategic Studies

Shanta Devarajan, Professor of the Practice of Development, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Former Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank Group

Sonali Deraniyagala, Lecturer in Economics, South Asia Institute, SOAS University of London; Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs, SIPA

Watch the 'Crisis in Sri Lanka' Recording >>

On October 31, 2022, Kent Program Director Jean-Marie Guéhenno hosted Arancha González, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs, for a conversation on Europe’s position and role in world affairs. The two examined the war in Ukraine, before turning to other global exigencies which concurrently necessitate a mobilization of the international community, such as climate change. Guéhenno and González then turned to a discussion of China, including China’s incorporation into the global economy, its political ‘openness’ that was predicted by many yet never materialized, and the prospects for strategic alignment between Europe and the United States. The two concluded with a discussion of Europe’s position as an emerging regulatory leader.

Introduced by Keren Yarhi-Milo, Dean, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Moderated by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Director, Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution; Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs; Director of International Conflict Resolution Specialization

With Arancha González, Dean, Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po

On October 24, 2022, Kent Visiting Professor Ghassan Salamé gave the Kent Program's annual lecture, drawing on an extensive career as both a scholar and practitioner. In parallel to the worldwide deregulation of national economies, and the mixture of stalled democratisation and rise of populism leading to deregulation of politics in many countries, Salamé posited that the international system has also witnessed a no less serious deregulation: that of the use of force that started more than two decades ago, involved many countries, large and small, and found its apex (so far) in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Hosted by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Director, Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution; Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs; Director of International Conflict Resolution Specialization

Lecture by Ghassan Salamé, Kent Program Visiting Professor; Founding Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs; Former Lebanese Minister of Culture; Former Special Representative of the UNSG for UNSMIL

Watch Recording »

On Friday, April 22nd, 2022, Kent Program Director Jean-Marie Guéhenno hosted a discussion of postwar Ukraine, Europe, and the future of Russo-Ukrainian relations with panelists Grigory Nemyria, Mariya Zolkina, and Sergei Guriev.

• Grigory Nemyria is First Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament and former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine
• Mariya Zoklina is a Political Analyst at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation
• Sergei Guriev is a Professor of Economics at Sciences Po and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin

Watch Recording »

On Tuesday, February 22nd -- the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine -- the Kent Program hosted a virtual panel on "The Ukraine Crisis and the European Security Architecture" featuring Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy in Moscow; Stephen Sestanovich, Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Columbia SIPA; Kadri Liik, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations; and Samuel Charap, Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation. The engaging discussion was moderated by Kent Program Director Jean-Marie Guéhenno.

Watch Recording »

Events following the departure of US forces have shocked the world and prompted heated debate about "what went wrong" in Afghanistan. On October 12th, 2021, former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan and architect of the Bonn Process Lakhdar Brahimi reflected on decades of engagement with Kabul and drew lessons for the future.

Watch Recording »

In the midst of a deadly pandemic, climate crisis, and other threats, how do we rethink peacebuilding? On October 1st, 2020 Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), visited SIPA virtually to discuss the future of conflict resolution in a changing global landscape. 

SIPA Dean Merit E. Janow delivered opening remarks, as did Muhtar Kent, retired Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, who in 2019 helped launch the Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution at SIPA. Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Director of the Kent Global Leadership Program, joined the ICRC President in the conversation, which focused on how the Red Cross navigates conflict resolution in an increasingly fragmented and polarized world.

Watch Recording »

Are we losing the battle against violence and war? In March 2021, Jean-Marie Guéhenno – then Visiting Professor and now Director – examined this question and explored the increasingly complex challenges posed by contemporary conflict during the spring lecture of the Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution.

Guéhenno spoke of the need to better understand the specific ideas defining our time, rather than relying on terms anchored in the past (such as “post-Cold War” and “post-post-Cold War”). For example, while the benefits of globalization are well known, we must keep in mind that there are political and material risks to global connectivity and interdependence. The pandemic is a clear example, said Guéhenno, as well as the climate crisis — especially as it has already begun to drive mass migration. He concluded by sharing some insights from his experiences as a diplomat, emphasizing the precarity of human communities and the need to support and build communities from the ground up as well as strengthen global norms and institutions.

Guéhenno’s remarks were followed by a discussion moderated by Jack Snyder, Columbia’s Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations. Snyder echoed the importance of mutual connectivity and vulnerability between nations, and both speakers highlighted the need for the Golden Triangle — government, business, and civil society — to coordinate their efforts in conflict resolution.

Watch Recording »

The Kent Global Leadership Program's second annual intensive summer training was held in-person in New York City from June 13th to June 17th, 2022. Twenty-five diplomats from nineteen permanent missions, foreign ministries, and multilateral organizations participated in sessions featuring expert panels on topics such as the political economy of state-building, conflict resolution and recovery in urban settings, and mitigating the global impact of conflict.

The training centered around two in-depth simulations: one focused on negotiating an agreement to end an intractable civil war, and the second focused on post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction in an urban environment. Throughout each simulation, participants had access to experienced peacemaking practitioners, who acted as consultants and facilitators and brought to the world of diplomacy some of the methods used in business schools.

Read the Training Summary Report »

View Past Training Sessions »

The Kent Global Leadership Program's inaugural intensive summer training was held virtually from June 28th to July 2nd, 2021. Twenty-seven diplomats from seventeen permanent missions, foreign ministries, and multilateral organizations participated in sessions featuring expert panels on topics such as the role of the private sector in conflict prevention and the impact of natural resources as both conflict drivers and development assets.

Two days of the program were dedicated to the study of two recent case studies: the Colombian peace process and resource/land conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The week culminated with a conversation with former President of Colombia and Nobel Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos.

Read the Training Program Final Report »

View Past Training Sessions »