A Conversation on Sovereignty

WHAT: As the 2006 National Security Strategy states: "In the world today, the fundamental character of regimes matters as much as the distribution of power among them. The goal of our statecraft is to help create a world of democratic, well-governed states that can meet the needs of their citizens and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system." To accomplish this objective we must work to create a world in which sovereignty, which has been the organizing principle of the international system for the last 200 years, works effectively. Accomplishing this objective will require both imaginative policy initiatives and the effective deployment of all of the foreign policy instruments at our disposal.

WHO: Stephen Krasner is the State Department's Director for Policy Planning. Previously, Dr. Krasner was director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), deputy director of the Stanford Institute for International Studies (SIIS), an SIIS senior fellow, a senior fellow by courtesy at the Hoover Institution, and the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations at Stanford University. He also served as a Member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and as Director for Governance and Development at the National Security Council where he worked primarily on the Millenium Challenge Account. His work has dealt primarily with trends in state sovereignty, American foreign policy, and the political determinants of international economic relations. His major publications include "Defending the National Interest: Raw Materials Investment and American Foreign Policy" (1978); "Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Liberalism" (1985); and "Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy" (1999). Publications he has edited include "Problematic Sovereignty: Contested Rules and Political Possibilities" (2001).

WHEN: Friday, March 23, 2007, Noon to 1 pm

WHERE: Loy Henderson Conference Room, U.S. Department of State, Harry S Truman Building, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC

RSVP: For guests who do NOT hold a State Department ID, please RSVP by COB March 16, 2007 to foleycs@state.gov and provide full name, birthdate, drivers license or passport number, citizenship, affiliation.