Last modified: Wednesday, April 8, 2009
IU symposium to present Indian, Israeli and Turkish responses to terror
WHAT: Symposium titled"From Mumbai to Gaza: Indian, Israeli, and Turkish Responses to Global Terror"
WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 15
WHERE: Rawles Hall room 100, Indiana University Bloomington
Note to news media: Boaz Ganor will be available for interviews. To make arrangements, contact Steve Hinnefeld at IU University Communications, 812-856-3488 or slhinnef@indiana.edu.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, stunned the world and provided a dramatic reminder of its modern-day dangers.
Boaz Ganor
In response, faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington have organized a symposium to address the problem of terrorism from the perspective of three countries hit hard by violence. "From Mumbai to Gaza: Indian, Israeli, and Turkish Responses to Global Terror" will take place at 7 p.m. April 15 in Rawles Hall 100. The symposium is free and open to the public.
Boaz Ganor, deputy dean of the Lauder School of Government and Diplomacy at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, will present the Israeli perspective. Other panelists will include IU faculty members Sumit Ganguly, director of the India Studies Institute and research director of the Center on American and Global Security at IU Bloomington; and Kemal Silay, Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Professor in the IU Department of Central Eurasian Studies.
"Terrorism is now a constituent feature of contemporary life and takes place far more frequently than most people are aware," said Alvin Rosenfeld, director emeritus of IU's Borns Jewish Studies Program and professor emeritus of English, who will serve as moderator. "By holding this symposium, my colleagues and I aim to bring this fact to the attention of people on campus and in the broader community, and to help them understand it."
Each panelist will speak for 30 minutes, and a question-and-answer session will follow their presentations. Rosenfeld said the choice to focus on India, Israel and Turkey was deliberate.
"Among countries targeted by terrorists, India, Israel and Turkey stand out," he said. "Each has been hit repeatedly, has seen many of their citizens and others in their countries killed, and seeks ways to forestall future attacks."
While Ganguly and Silay can speak with authority on terrorism and security issues in India and Turkey, Rosenfeld said, Ganor was invited to campus to provide expertise on the Israeli perspective.
Ganor, currently a Koret Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, has published extensively on terrorism and counter-terrorism. He is founder and chairman of the International Academic Counter Terrorism Community, a senior fellow at the Memorial Institute for Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City, and a member of the international advisory team of the Manhattan Institute to the New York Police Department. He has advised the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the Israeli Counter-Terrorism Coordinator at the Prime Minister's Office, Israel's National Security Council, and the Israeli Ministry of Transportation.
"We all wish it were otherwise," Rosenfeld said, "but terrorism will be part of our future as it has been part of our recent past. Through painful experience, people in India, Israel and Turkey know this more vividly than most of us in America do. By learning about the ordeals they have had to face, we may be able to better prepare for some rough times ahead."
For more information about the symposium, biographies of the panelists and links to articles, see https://www.indiana.edu/~college/symposium/MumbaiToGaza.shtml.
Sponsors include the Borns Jewish Studies Program, the Simona and Hart Hasten Visiting Fellows Program in Jewish Studies, the India Studies Program, the Department of Political Science, the Turkish Studies Program, the Center on American and Global Security, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs.
