Carnegie Corporation of New York announced a $200,000 grant to the Foreign Policy Association to help establish the Andrew Carnegie Distinguished Lecture in honor of former Corporation president David Hamburg. The annual lecture series will provide a forum for nationally and internationally recognized leaders to explore issues related to the prevention of deadly conflict and the mitigation of its most dangerous consequences.
The inaugural lecture will be held in 2013 in New York City.
The Andrew Carnegie Distinguished Lecture will both honor and advance the work of David Hamburg, who led the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict (1994-1999) and authored No More Killing Fields: Preventing Deadly Conflict in 2002. Dr. Hamburg served as the Corporation’s president from 1982 to 1997.
“The lecture series honors David Hamburg who set his sights on the elimination of war,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation. “As a physician, research scientist, and public policy thinker, David Hamburg emphasized the role of the scientific and technical community both in advancing knowledge and understanding of human conflict, and in finding ways to reduce intergroup hatred and violence.”
Gregorian continued, “Under David Hamburg’s leadership, Carnegie Corporation pursued solutions to the problem of ethnic and regional conflict and supported projects seeking to diminish the risks of a wider war stemming from civil strife. Finding the pathway to peace in conflict situations remains a primary concern of David’s work, which includes a focus on mediation, reconciliation and, above all, prevention.”
Dr. Hamburg’s call for deeper understanding of conflict and broader support for preventive action, articulated in the final report of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, continues to resonate strongly among public policymakers, academics, business leaders, nongovernmental and intergovernmental groups, and other influential contributors to policymaking. His call for strategic collaboration continues to challenge all of these participants and potential participants.
Speakers for the series will be leaders in their respective fields who have wrestled with questions related to peace building and have demonstrated—through their life and work—that, as Hamburg said, “prevention [of deadly conflict] is best thought of not only as avoiding undesirable circumstances, but also as creating preferred alternatives.” Audiences will be encouraged to reexamine their assumptions and re-consider their own work in light of these thought-provoking, challenging, and illuminating lectures.
About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of our democracy.
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