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For immediate release: Dec. 4, 2000
Princeton launches Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination
Religious leaders address dimension of faith in international conflicts
Princeton, N.J. -- Religious leaders from throughout the world will gather at Princeton University Sunday, Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. for a public panel discussion on the religious dimensions of self-determination, as the university officially opens the new Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination.
The discussion, "Religious Dimensions of Self-Determination and the State: Concepts, Perspectives, Propositions," will take place at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, in Dodds Auditorium in Robertson Hall. The Institute was founded earlier this year to foster research and develop practical resolutions to the kind of internecine warfare that recently has threatened international peace and devastated places like Bosnia, Chechnya, and the Balkans.
"Within the last 10 years, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many of the major international and intra-state conflicts relating to secession and self-determination have a religious dimension," said the Institute's founding director, Wolfgang F. Danspeckgruber, a lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School. "To better understand this -- its foundations and its impact on the outcome of conflicts -- we have asked major religious leaders to address the issue of self-determination through the prism of their respective faiths."
Confirmed participants include the Reverend Dr. Joseph C. Williamson, Princeton's dean of religious life; the Honorable Imam Omar Abu-namous of the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City; Archbishop Renato R. Martino, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations; Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue in New York City and president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation; The Right Reverend Carolyn Tanner Irish, Episcopal Bishop of Utah; The Reverend Irinej Dobrijevic, director of the Office of External Affairs for the Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada; and The Reverend Father Papken Anoushian of the diocese of the Armenian Church in New York. Each will address self-determination of states from the perspective of his or her denomination and traditions, and Irish also will consider issues relating specifically to women and children.
Princeton University President Harold T. Shapiro and Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, an authority on self-determination whose gift of $12 million created the Institute, also are scheduled to speak.
This sort of dialogue is central to the work of the Institute, which examines the complex issue of self-governance from a variety of perspectives, ranging from legal systems, economics and politics to ethnicity, religion and geography.
The Institute brings together scholars, diplomats, and community leaders to help develop guidelines for governments facing civil unrest, and to create management strategies for situations where violence does occur. "My family and I believe this is a sound investment for the benefit of mankind," the Prince said.
The interdisciplinary Institute involves undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the departments of politics, economics and sociology. It grew out of the University's Liechtenstein Research Program on Self-Determination, established in 1994 through a gift from the Prince. Since its inception, the research program, directed by Danspeckgruber, has broken new ground conducting fundamental research on self-determination and by bringing key players from countries in conflict face-to-face for public discussions and private conferences.
Researchers at the Institute have begun work on three major projects. One explores state power, borders, and self-governance in the regions of the former Soviet Union; the second will search for solutions to the problem in Kashmir, where separatist groups have mounted an 11-year struggle against Indian rule; and the third -- also supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York -- will develop general strategies to prevent and manage crises of self-determination. Institute programs will also examine the theoretical dimensions of self-determination and support teaching on the topic.
"We hope that by creating an objective framework for discussion, we will generate ideas that help avoid violence," said Danspeckgruber. "The roots of these conflicts usually go back many generations, and are not simple to resolve. By looking at them within the context of a region's history, population, and geography, we hope to find solutions that can satisfy a community's need for increased autonomy without causing bloodshed based on age-old patterns or rivalries.''
The Institute is part of the Center of International Studies in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
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Editors note: Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein and Professor Danspeckgruber will take questions from reporters at a press conference following the discussion. Please contact Marilyn Marks at 609-258-3601 by December 6 if you wish to participate.
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