Colorado State University International Colloquium to Feature Former Gov. Bill Ritter, Former U.S. Sen. Timothy E. Wirth on Sept. 6-7

Note to Reporters: A conference logo is available with the news release at http://www.news.colostate.edu.

Colorado State University will host the “International Colloquium: Managing Global Conflict Ten Years After 9/11” on Sept. 6-7 with former Gov. Bill Ritter and Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and former U.S. senator, among the featured panelists.

Two former U.S. Ambassadors, Christopher Hill and J.D. Bindenagel, will join experts from the public and private sectors and CSU faculty at the event in an exchange of ideas on energy, water, U.S. foreign policy, food safety, environmental conflict and cooperation, food security and the Middle East. Many of the panels will highlight how CSU is actively engaged in applying research around the world to help solve these global challenges.

The international colloquium will be held in the Lory Student Center on the main campus in Fort Collins. A full schedule of events is available at http://wsprod.colostate.edu/cwis30/2007/main/forms/conflict_coll/Schedule.pdf.

A summary of the panels:

Tuesday, September 6
• Water Security: Scarce Resources and the Potential for International Conflict
• U.S. Foreign Policy Challenges in the Post 9/11 Era
• Environmental Policy in an Era of Political Polarization: Prospects for Conflict and Consensus

Wednesday, September 7
• Ensuring Food Safety at the Global Level
• The Grandest of Challenges: Meeting the Food Demands of a Growing World Population
• America and the Clean Energy Agenda
• The Middle East in Transition

Ritter, now director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, will lead the panel on “America and the Clean Energy Agenda” at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 7 in the student center’s Grey Rock Room with retired Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE); Dan Arvizu, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and Bryan Willson, director of CSU’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory.

At 3:30 p.m. Sept. 6, Wirth will moderate a panel on environmental policy organized by Diana Wall, founding director of Colorado State’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, which will feature Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post, and CSU professors Michele Betsill, Barry Noon and Bill Timpson. The talk is in Room 230 of the student center.

Jim Cooney, vice provost for International Affairs, will lead a panel on foreign policy changes featuring Loren Crabtree, former Colorado State provost and former chancellor of the University of Tennessee; Thomas Risse and Tanja Boerzel of the Free University of Berlin; and Bindenagel, currently vice president for Community, Government and International Affairs at DePaul University and a former U.S. Ambassador with 28 years in the diplomatic corps. The panel will be at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 6 in the Grey Rock Room.

The International Colloquium is organized by the Office of International Programs at CSU with support from the Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President for Research.

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