Two Hamilton alumni and one professor participated in a panel, "Nation Building—Winning the Peace," on June 4 as part of Reunion Weekend. John Hewko '79 talked about the transition from communism to capitalism in the former USSR. Visiting Assistant Professor Carlos Yordan spoke about reforming U.S. foreign policy in Iraq. Maria Zammit '74 discussed Iraq and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Regarding the transition from communism to capitalism in the former USSR, Hewko noted that the tragedy of communism is not just its inefficiency and human cost, but how difficult the transition to capitalism from communism can be. Emphasizing his lack of expertise on the Middle East, he also said that he suspected that the most practical solution in Iraq is partition along ethnic and religious lines.
Zammit claimed that most Arabs believe the U.S. unfairly favors Israelis over Palestinians in the Middle East. She concluded that, contrary to popular belief, the way to Jerusalem is not "through Baghdad." In order to "win hearts and minds" in the Arab world, she said, many feel we need to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Yordan observed that originally the U.S. did not prepare for nation building in Iraq. "We wanted to change the people in power; we didn't necessarily want to engage in government reform," he said. He noted, however, that Jay Garner has not received enough credit. After taking over as Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq for L. Paul Bremer in May 2003, Garner showed skill at averting a projected human refugee crisis of up to four million following the occupation of Iraq by coalition forces.
Zammit is the vice chair of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA), which is the largest non-profit organization dedicated to international affairs in the United States. Hewko is the vice president for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a government corporation that was recently established by the U.S. Congress and the Bush Administration in order to provide foreign assistance to developing countries in a new and innovative manner. Yordan is a visiting instructor in government at Hamilton and an expert on peacemaking efforts in former Yugoslavia. He is currently researching how presidential administrations' "belief systems" affect the making of US foreign policy.
--by Linwood Rumney '04
