Soviets occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989 to prevent the country from collapsing. Currently Russia is treating Syria as a client state in similar ways. Afghanistan remains a struggling democracy, often falling into "failed state" category. The Syrian state is almost nonexistent in terms of functional central institutions. This symposium will dig deeper into the two countries' situations, answering such questions as: What are the similarities and differences with regard to the relationship with Russia? What role do regional rivalries (Iran and Saudi Arabia) or intervention (Turkey) play? The panel features Amr al-Azm (left), associate professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University; Alam Payind, director of the Middle East Studies Center at Ohio State University; and Richard Herrmann, professor and chair, Department of Political Science. Read more and register

Lori Fisler Damrosch is Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia Law School. Her principal areas of interest are public international law and the U.S. law of foreign relations. Prior to joining the Law School, Damrosch served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State with responsibilities including European and Canadian affairs, international antitrust, aviation, and trade. In this event, Damrosch will present her research at the intersection of the international law and comparative constitutional law governing use of military force. Taking the multinational coalition against Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) as an illustration, she will discuss the national constitutional processes by which democratic states decide to participate in international military operations. Read more and register

Maurizio Albahari is associate professor of anthropology and in the Keough School of Global Affairs and University of Notre Dame. He is a social-cultural anthropologist who explores the tension between human existence and structures of power. Albahari has published extensively on the humanitarian, socio-cultural, legal, and geopolitical components of the ongoing refugee "crisis," as well as on forms of civic engagement and migrant integration. His current research traces participatory citizenship and trans-Mediterranean mobilization in the everyday life of maritime spaces, as well as of changing cities in Italy and in the region.  Albahari is the author of  Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border  (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).  Read more and register

Valentine Moghadam is professor of sociology and international affairs and director of the Middle East Studies Program at Northeastern University. Born in Tehran, she is a former section chief at UNESCO and the author Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East (1993, 2003, 2013), Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks (2005, winner of the American Political Science Association's Victoria Schuck Award), and other path-breaking works on women and revolution in the Middle East.

Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. He was a lead author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001 and organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003. He contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Mann has received a number of honors and awards not only for conducting science but also communicating effectively to public audiences about the reality and implications of Earth's currently warming situation. Mann is author of three books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, and most recently, The Madhouse Effect with editorial cartoonist Tom Toles.  Read more

Lawrence Wilkerson is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He has served in numerous roles, including as chief of staff to Colin Powell at the U.S. Department of State and associate director and member of that department's Policy Planning staff under Ambassador Richard Haass. Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army as both enlisted man and officer. His final assignments were as special assistant to then-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell from 1989 to 1993, and as deputy director and director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College from 1993 to 1997. Wilkerson is a world-class national security expert known for rigorous, non-partisan analysis and clear expression of his views. Read more and register