AGS holds its 6th Graduate Student Conference on the Politics of Environmental Disasters

On May 26-27, AGS held its sixth Annual Graduate Student Conference on the theme: “The Politics of Disaster: The Mitigation, Management, and International Response to Environmental Crises.” After a decade marked by a particularly intense series of natural and man-made environmental catastrophies, AGS invited students, professors, and NGO managers from around the world to examine the consequences of such crises and the environmental, social and economic responses from international governments.

Panelists from China, Pakistan, England, Ireland, Argentina, and the United States, participated along with AGS students to exchange ideas and discuss potential solutions to better prevent and respond to future crises.

Click here to view the conference program

This conference was organized by a special conference committee composed of students in the Master's and Ph.D. in International Relations and Diplomacy programs working under the coordination of Ruchi Anand. Professor Anand's areas of expertise include international environmental policies. She authored, among other books, International Environmental Justice: A North South Dimension (Ashgate, 2003) which assesses the environmental disparities between the North and the South and the structural political, economic, social and legal conditions that have reinforced those disparities.

"Conferencing and publishing are invaluable and essential components of graduate school.", says Anand. "I have always pushed our students towards it and for the past six years, we've formalized it and we're only getting bigger and better each year. It allows students to hone their CVs and gives them a chance, in a rather amicable setting, to brainstorm challenging and complex issues of our time. And to top it all, it's always a lot of fun putting it together and seeing our students getting involved and taking charge - that's the AGS spirit!".

The previous AGS Graduate Student conferences have addressed the following themes:

• 2006: Order and Disorder in a Changing World

• 2007: Current Challenges and Future Trends in International Security

• 2008: Searching Beyond the State: Intercultural Dialogue and Alternative Approaches to International Politics

• 2009: Democracy in the 21st Century: Relevant, Redundant or Risk?

• 2010: Evolving Borders: Identity and Affiliation in a Volatile International Landscape

More photos of the 2011 conference: