ELCA Peace Prize Forum Explores World Politics, Feb. 14-15

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Richard C. Holbrooke, Walter F. Mondale and Dr. Shashi Tharoor will address the 15th annual Peace Prize Forum, "Striving for Peace: A World Without Borders," Feb. 14-15 at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn. Concordia is one of 28 college and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Students attending the Peace Prize Forum will explore the challenges and changes of current international politics, as well as consider topics on religion and peace. This year's forum commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize and its 2002 co- recipients -- the United Nations and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Annan selected Tharoor to represent the United Nations and to speak on Annan's behalf at the forum, Feb. 14 at 1:00 p.m. CST. Tharoor, U.N. undersecretary general for communication and public information, will discuss how globalization is redefining state sovereignty and the changing role of the United Nations in preventing conflicts.
Tharoor was born in London. At age 22 he earned a doctorate degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Medford, Mass., in 1978. That same year he began working at the United Nations, serving as head of the High Commission for Refugees in Singapore during the Vietnamese "boat people" crisis.
As special assistant to the undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations, Tharoor worked on the challenges associated with the end of the Cold War and on peacekeeping efforts in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1996.
Tharoor wrote six books including the award-winning political satire, "The Great Indian Novel." In 1998 the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, named him a "Global Leader of Tomorrow."
Holbrooke, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who now serves as vice chairman of Perseus, L.L.C., a private equity firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., will speak Feb. 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Holbrooke was born in New York in 1941. He began his career as a foreign service officer immediately after earning a bachelor's degree from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1962. He was sent to Vietnam and served in a variety of posts there.
From 1967 to 1969 Holbrooke wrote one volume of "The Pentagon Papers." Following that assignment he spent one year as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
In 1970 Holbrooke was Peace Corps director in Morocco. In 1972 he left the foreign service to become managing editor of the quarterly magazine Foreign Policy, a position he held until 1976. From 1974 to 1975 he also served as a consultant to the President's Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy, and was a contributing editor to Newsweek International. In 1977, President Carter appointed him assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, a post he held for four years.
In 1981 Holbrooke became vice president of Public Strategies, a Washington-based consulting firm. He became a managing director at Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, New York, in 1985. He also served as a member of the Carnegie Commission on America and a Changing World, and was chairman and principal author of the November 1992 bipartisan "Memorandum to the President-Elect" of the Commission on Government and Renewal.
Holbrooke was the U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1993 to 1994 before being appointed by President Clinton as assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian Affairs in 1994. During that time he was also chief negotiator for the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia. In 1999 he became U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Holbrooke is founding chairman of the American Academy in Berlin, a center for U.S.-German cultural exchange. Head of the National Advisory Council of the Harriman Institute, he was a director of the Citizens Committee for New York, and twice was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Holbrooke, recipient of 15 honorary degrees from U.S. and international universities and of numerous other awards, is the author of "To End a War."
Mondale, born in Ceylon, Minn., in 1928, is a partner with the law firm of Dorsey and Whitney LLP, Minneapolis. His record of public serve includes serving as vice president of the United States, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, U.S. Senator and Attorney General for the State of Minneapolis. Mondale will provide some brief remarks and introduce Holbrooke at the forum.
In addition to keynote presentations, the Peace Prize Forum will feature more than 30 one-hour workshops on a variety of topics designed to address the forum's theme and the Lutheran response to peace.
Other highlights of the forum include an art festival, a peace fair exhibiting peacemaking organizations from around the world, and conversation sessions with the forum's keynote speakers.
A special feature of this year's forum is a gala event at the Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis, Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The event will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize and commemorate the 15-year collaboration between the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. This partnership has brought the cause of peace to a public dialogue at five ELCA higher education institutions with Scandinavian heritage -- Augsburg College, Minneapolis; Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D.; Concordia; Luther College, Decorah, Iowa; and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
The Peace Prize Forum was created to offer an opportunity for Nobel Peace Prize laureates, diplomats, scholars, young people and the general public to come together in expression of their personal commitment to peace. -- -- --
The home page of the Peace Prize Forum is at http://www.peaceprizeforum.org on the Web.

**Amy E. Kelly is director of the Concordia College News Bureau, Moorhead, Minn.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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