KU News Release

KU to host conference on developing nations

LAWRENCE — The Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of Kansas will bring together business executives and government officials, as well as representatives of international organizations, the military and academia for the Conference on Helping Failed States Recover: The Role of Business in Promoting Stability and Development.

The conference will take place April 4-6 at the Adams Alumni Center and begins with a keynote address from former Kansas Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 4.

Kassebaum Baker, a KU graduate who served in the U.S. Senate from 1978 to 1997, currently is a board member of the International Crisis Group, nonprofit organization working to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

Lynn Ground, KU lecturer and retired World Bank official, is organizing the event, and stressed the need for a conference devoted to this topic.

“There has been a comparative dearth of work in the conflict literature on the potentially powerful role of the market, entrepreneurs and business in preventing conflict and in contributing to sustainable peace,” said Ground.

KU students, faculty and staff can attend all sessions during the three-day event free of charge. A total of seven sessions will be offered throughout the conference on the political economy of economic decline, poverty and conflict; conflict sensitive business practices; opportunities for and challenges to doing business in post-conflict countries; and case studies on conducting business in such countries. Dinner will be served on April 4, and lunch and a reception will be offered on Thursday, April 5.

Some of the notable speakers at the conference will be People to People International President and CEO Mary Eisenhower; Dionisio Borda, former minister of finance of Paraguay; Jennifer Brinkerhoff, director of the Center for the Study of Globalization at George Washington University; AIESEC founder Jean Choplin; Cathy L. Daicoff, managing director of Credit Markets Services, Standard and Poor’s; Victor Davies, Center for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University; Ismael Gaspar Martins, Ambassador of Angola to the UN and chairman of the UN Peacebuilding Commission; Virginia Haufler, professor, Center for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland; Mitsuhiro Kagami, Ambassador of Japan to Nicaragua; Ret. Brig. Gen. W. Christopher King, dean of academics, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; Leo Maraboli, principal mining sector specialist, the World Bank; Rex Pingle, president of PMD International; and Takao Shibata, KU Chancellor’s Lecturer and former Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs official.

Ground anticipates the conference will attract the interest of many firms that currently operate or are attracted by the opportunities in post-conflict countries as well as state and local government officials, faculty and students from KU and other universities, and those in the Lawrence, Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita communities interested in international affairs.

“There are ample opportunities for business in post-conflict countries, with foreign direct investment in these countries reaching $37 billion in 2004,” said Ground. “This conference represents an effort to further explore the role of business in promoting stability and development. As such, we actively seek the participation of business executives who have personal experience in working in these types of environments.”

“The KU CIBER is very pleased to have Lynn Ground at the center and working on this very important topic,” said Melissa H. Birch, director of the Center for International Business Education and Research at KU. “International competitiveness and national security are important themes for CIBER and this conference allows us to bring to Kansas some of the best thinking on the subject of business practices in these conflict-prone environments. We believe the ideas shared at this conference will both help local firms succeed in difficult markets and inform research and policy-making.”

The conference is co-sponsored by Black & Veatch Inc. and KU's School of Business; Kansas African Studies Center; Center for East Asian Studies; Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies; Center of Latin American Studies; Office of International Programs; and Peace and Conflict Studies Program.

Go to www.ciber.business.ku.edu/fs.php for a full list of sessions and to get registration information or contact ciberpc@ku.edu or (785) 864-3125.

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