Lisa Buttenheim, Director, Asia and Pacific Region, UNDPA
Panel Discussions - Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Forum on World Affairs Commences with "The Middle East Peace Process Post-Annapolis: Where are We
On April 10th, Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Haim Ramon, Vice Premier of Israel, gathered with a diverse group of UN Ambassadors and other select guests for a roundtable discussion on the Middle East peace process post-Annapolis. The session was chaired by IPI President Terje Rød-Larsen.
The event was the first in a new IPI series, the Forum on World Affairs. Each of these off-the-record meetings will focus on a major issue of international peace and security and will offer an opportunity for dialogue with leading personalities from around the world.
As well as being the opening session of the Forum on World Affairs, the event was the first in IPI’s new state-of-the-art conference space, the Tyrgve Lie Center for Peace, Security, and Development. The center will be formally inaugurated next month at an event with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Yasser Abed Rabbo has been a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee since 1971. Since that time he has actively participated in shaping the organization’s political agenda, especially on matters concerning the peace process. Mr. Abed Rabbo worked on the Palestinian Peace Initiative in 1988, the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, the Oslo Accords in 1993, and the Geneva Initiative in 2003. He is the third secretary-general of the PLO, having succeeded Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.
Haim Ramon has served in the Knesset since 1983. A member of the Labor Party for many years, Mr. Ramon joined Kadima in 2005. Mr. Haim has held several ministerial positions in the Israeli government. In 1992, he was Minister of Health, in 1995 and 2000, Minister of the Interior, and, in 2006, Minister of Justice. Mr. Ramon has long been an important partner in the Middle East peace process working with Prime Ministers Rabin, Peres, Barak, Sharon and Olmert. He was appointed Vice Premier in July 2007.
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Terje Rød-Larsen, IPI President, and Haim Ramon, Vice Premier of Israel | |||||
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The Global Observatory
Interview with John Prendergast, Co-Founder, Enough Project
Mr. Prendergast discusses the international justice system and the new ground forged by Invisible Children's Kony2012 campaign.
Key Global Events to Watch in May
A list of key upcoming meetings and events with implications for global affairs.
The Global Observatory is a new website by IPI, providing timely analysis on peace and security issues, interviews with leading policymakers, interactive maps, and more.
Recent Events
May 10, 2012
Arbour: What the Rule of Law Means
“In my understanding of the rule of law, fundamentally, what the rule of law means is that it embraces the principle of equality before the law,” Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), told an IPI audience on May 10, 2012. Ms. Arbour outlined that this means that no one is above the law and everyone has both equal protection and equal benefit of the law. 
May 03, 2012
Shachtman: Cyber Threats Akin to South Bronx, Not Pearl Harbor
“There’s not a danger of a cyber Pearl Harbor… it’s more like the South Bronx circa 1999, where there’s a danger that it becomes such a tough neighborhood that no one wants to set up shop there and people move out,” Noah Shachtman, editor of the Danger Room blog at Wired magazine and non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told an IPI audience at a panel on cyber security on May 3, 2011.
April 27, 2012
Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems
An April 27th roundtable discussion at IPI titled “Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems” examined the progress, prospects and challenges of regional and international early warning and response mechanisms to monitor, anticipate, and mitigate potential conflict situations in Africa.