People Power
Photo by Yee-Fun Yin
May 1 - Taft welcomed Shaazka Beyerle, a senior advisor at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, as this year's recipient of the Rear Admiral Raymond DuBois Fellowship in International Affairs.
Beyerle spoke about strategic nonviolent action. Acting as a catalyst to stimulate interest in nonviolent conflict, the Center collaborates with likeminded educational institutions and nongovernmental organizations to:
Educate the Global Public
The Center uses television broadcast networks, the Internet, and off-air and offline media to disseminate video programming and books, as well as learning materials for schools and universities. All these resources help promote the history and ideas of nonviolent conflict in open or closed societies where rights or self-determination are at issue.
Influence Policies and Media Coverage
The Center conducts meetings and briefings, co-sponsors conferences, and makes available articles and features, to encourage international institutions and decision makers to support civilian-based, nonviolent movements. These same tools are used to assist senior media producers and reporters to expand and improve coverage of nonviolent struggles.
Educate Activists
In response to requests, the Center provides support for workshops in nonviolent conflict attended by activists and citizens who are considering civilian-based, nonviolent action as a way to seek democracy or human rights. Such workshops impart conceptual knowledge and help develop skills in applying nonviolent strategies devised by such activists.
Prior to joining the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, Ms. Beyerle was a writer, with expertise in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Until 2004, she covered the Middle East and Southern Africa for WorldView Magazine (National Peace Corps Association). She has published articles/op-eds on people power, the Middle East, foreign affairs, culture, literature, nonfiction, and art in Al Hayat/Dar Al Hayat, European Affairs, Europe Magazine, Foreign Policy, The Independent, Washington Times, Washington Diplomat and has been cited in Al Ahram, Newsday, and Reason magazine. She has been interviewed on BBC World News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has lectured about the Middle East at the World Bank and the Maryland Women's Leadership Forum; and on journalism at the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute.
Ms. Beyerle returned to Washington, DC in August, 2000, after having lived in Jerusalem for three years. While overseas, she consulted twice with the Bethlehem 2000 Project through the United Nations Development Program and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She was also the International Press Manager for the Jerusalem Film Festival (2000). Prior to moving to the Middle East, Ms. Beyerle was the founding Vice President of The European Institute, a leading Washington-based public-policy organization devoted to transatlantic affairs. She holds an M.A. in International Relations from George Washington University, a B.A. in psychology from the University of Toronto, and conducted graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
The majority of Morning Meeting talks throughout the year at Taft are recorded and made available here.