Cornell's Institute for African Development (IAD) will host a two-day symposium, "Failed and Failing States in Africa: Lessons From Darfur and Beyond," April 18 and 19, in the ILR Conference Center. All events are free and open to the public.

The symposium will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, including economists, sociologists, political scientists, historians and representatives, from the International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch.

The keynote will be presented by Robert Rotberg, director of Harvard University's Program on Intrastate Conflict, Conflict Prevention and Conflict Resolution, and president of the World Peace Foundation, April 18 at 6 p.m.

"State collapse entails the complete annihilation of the institutional checks and balances that constitute a viable and effective state," says Muna Ndulo, director of the IAD. "Failed states do not disappear, they simply leave a vacuum that is filled by competing local groups, warlords and other criminal actors."

The consequences of failed states include conflicts, war, environmental degradation and mass movements of refugees. The effects, as is the case with Darfur, often spill over into neighboring states.

Symposium presenters will focus on a diagnostic study of elements that lead to state collapse as well as evaluate the imperfect state construction, the causes and consequences of failed states, and effectiveness of reconstruction efforts of these collapsed states. Darfur, Liberia, Somalia, Zimbabwe and others will be used as case studies. Symposium proceedings will be published.

The event is part of Cornell's ongoing Africa Initiative with a focus on Darfur and is co-sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Office of the Vice Provost for International Relations, Cornell and Houghton College. For more information, contact CIAD@cornell.edu or 607-255-6849. For a complete schedule of events, see http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/Africa.