This is a groundbreaking addition to the school due to Evans’s vast array of experience in global relations, according to a press release provided by the school.
Evans will be in Bloomington from May 11-24, teaching an intensive seminar on diplomacy, participating in an international conference on campus on the Responsibility to Protect and meeting with students and faculty.
“I am extremely pleased that our students and scholars will have the opportunity to study and work with Gareth Evans, who is truly one of the most important voices in foreign policy today,” IU President Michael McRobbie said in a press release.
“Through his work in the areas of government service, academia and civil society, he has made major contributions to the dialogue and debate over some of the most critical issues facing today’s international society. I have no doubt students at our new School of Global and International Studies will greatly benefit from his unique perspective and experiences.”
Within his intended curriculum, Evans intends to show how international security happens, what strategies are most useful in dealing with these specific kinds of issues and what other organizations have a significant influence in this particular process.
Looking towards the future of international security, Evans remains essentially an optimist.
He said good policy-making can make a difference, and even though there is evidence of chaos and horror going on — with the number of genocides and mass-atrocity crimes as major illustrations — the world is still moving in the right direction.
“Basically the world has moved beyond from turning to arms,” Evans said. “I do think gradually we are better in dealing with these situations.”
Relative to the massive scale on which the deaths of the 20th century must be measured, Evans thinks the 21st will be an almost incomparable improvement.
Evans has previously worked in Australia as a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments, where he served as the Attorney General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communications and Foreign Minister.
“I bring three kinds of experience to the table,” Evans said. “I have eight years of foreign ministry, nine years of conflict resolution and chair a wide range of higher-level governmental panels.”
As one of Australia’s longest serving foreign ministers, Evans was best known internationally for his roles in developing the U.N. peace plan for Cambodia, bringing to a conclusion the international Chemical Weapons Convention and founding the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and ASEAN Regional Forum.
He also was at the forefront of originating the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Evans has always felt a need to look towards the future in hopes of a world without the need of arms.
Evans said he hopes to display other forms of diplomatic leverage, negotiating peace settlements and multilateral diplomacy and the roles that various commissions ?contribute.
He wants to show that contributing to policy and international relations can go beyond the formal governmental system.
There are many careers in the NGO realm that have global influence and embody missions that deal with topics related to international human rights and conflict ?prevention.
