Speaker(s):Professor John M. Richardson, Jr., American
University
&
Professor Stanley W. Samarasinghe, Tulane University
Materials: (Real Player)
John M. Richardson Jr. writes, lectures and consults in the fields of applied systems analysis, international development, and Third World political conflict, with a particular emphasis on ethnic conflict. He is presently Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of International Service at American University, Washington D.C. In 1988 he was Visiting Professor of International Relations, Department of History and Political Science, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Previously, he held teaching and/or research appointments in the Departments of Systems Engineering, Systems Research Center and Department of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University and the System Dynamics Group, Sloan School of Management, MIT. As an active duty Naval Officer, he taught naval weapons and space technology at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Richardson was an early contributor to the
field of global modeling, under the auspices of the Club of Rome, and played a major role
in the global modeling "clearing house" activities organized by the
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. His publications on global modeling
are widely regarded as definitive. In 1982, he was named by an international committee of
the Society for Computer Simulation as "one of the twenty most effective decision
makers in the world."
Dr. Richardson is the author, co-author or editor of five books. Earlier works include Partners in Development (1969), Groping in the Dark: The First Decade of Global Modeling (1982), Making it Happen: A Positive Guide to the Future (1982) and Ending Hunger: An Idea Whose Time has Come (1985). He was a contributor to the volume, Breakthrough: New Global Thinking (1988), published jointly in the United States and the U.S.S.R. His most recent book is Democratization in South Asia: The First Fifty Years (1998; co-edited with S.W.R.deA. Samarasinghe). He has also published numerous professional papers and research reports.
His current work focuses on the causes of political conflict in Third World nations and non-violent strategies for development. He has a forthcoming book titled, Paradise Poisoned: Political Conflict in Sri Lanka. He presently serves on the Editorial Board of Futures Research Quarterly and is a director of the Sri Lanka-based International Center for Ethnic Studies.
Dr Stanley W. Samarasinghe is the Director of the Tulane University Institute for International Development in Arlington, Virginia, USA. An economist by training, he graduated with a BA from the University of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and took his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, England. In 1985-86 he was a Takmi Fellow in international health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was on the faculty at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya for over twenty years before he moved to the US. His primary research interests are in the fields of international health and development, and conflict and conflict prevention. He is a founder director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (1982--), Sri Lanka which has gained international recognition as one of the leading centres for the study of ethnic and violent conflict. Most recently he was one of the principal researchers in a global study of "Causes of Conflict" sponsored by the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael Institute), Holland. His current research includes a project that seeks to establish links between humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and long-term development assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa, and a project that examines corruption and governance in South Asia. He and John M. Richardson, Jr. (the other speaker in the seminar) co-edited Democratization in South Asia – The First Fifty Years (International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka, in association with the Ford Foundation, CIDA, MacArthur Foundation and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 1998). His other publications include Economic Dimensions of Ethnic Conflict (St Martin’s Press, New York, 1991) jointly edited with Reed Coughlan; Peace Accords and Ethnic Conflict (Frances Pinter, London, 1993) jointly edited with K. M. de Silva; Historical Dictionary of Sri Lanka (Scarecrow Press, London, 1998) co-authored with his wife Vidyamali Samarasinghe.