PHILADELPHIA -– Harvey Rubin, executive director of the Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response at the University of Pennsylvania, will be among the international experts participating in “Peace and Security Summit” June 30–July 1 in New York.

Rubin, a charter member of ICSR, will be introducing Tzipi Livni, Israel’s opposition leader and former foreign minister, before her address on July 1.  It will be Livni’s first appearance outside Israel since the flotilla incident.

Rubin said that a remarkably diverse group of delegates from nearly 20 countries is expected to participate in panels and working sessions focused on issues ranging from domestic radicalization and violent extremism to the ongoing conflicts across the world, particularly the Middle East.

“We will not only be assessing the state of global counter-terrorism,” he said, “but we’ll explore if and how terrorism eventually ends.” 

“Can Afghanistan Be Won?”  is among the scheduled debates on June 30.  It features former Ambassador Peter Galbraith and noted writer and lecturer Christopher Hitchens.

The roster of international participants includes former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell; Abdulkarim Al-Eryani, Yemen’s former prime minister; Daniel Benjamin, counterterrorism coordinator, State Department; Noman Benotman, former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group; Hekmat Karzai, director of the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Kabul; Fran Townsend, former Homeland Security advisor; and David Trimble, former first minister of Northern Ireland and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

During the past two years, ICSR has developed into a premier research authority on radicalization and political violence with projects addressing online radicalization and recruitment, de-radicalization in prisons and an in-depth analysis of the differences between U.S. and European radicalization.  ICSR has also established the Atkins Fellowship program, in which young Arab and Israeli leaders spend four months in London develop approaches to further peace and understanding in the Middle East.

ICSR is a partnership of Penn; Kings College, London; The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel; and the Regional Centre on Conflict Prevention in Jordan.