by Kim Flinchbaugh
Dickinson and U.S. Army War College representatives will participate in a panel discussion, “Beyond Kinetics: Advancing Civil-Military Partnership in Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism,” on Wednesday, April 4, at 6 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium.
The panel will explore how the United States, Pakistan, Mali and Nigeria have experienced and learned from the changing phases of extremism and what actions have and have not worked. Panelists include U.S. Army War College representatives Brig. Muhammad Umer Bashir, Pakistan Army; Lt. Col. Casey Miner, U.S. Army; and Lt. Col. Yssouf Traore, Malian Army. Dickinson representatives include President Margee Ensign; Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob, visiting international scholar in international studies; and Shawn Diniz '18.
Bashir is an artillery officer in the Army of Pakistan. He has commanded at the regiment and brigade levels and worked as an instructor at the Pakistan National Defence University and Command and Staff College. Bashir also deployed to Morocco as a United Nations peacekeeper.
Miner has more than 27 years of service in the U.S. Army and is currently a student at the War College’s Carlisle Scholars Program, focusing on youth identity and preventing violent extremism. Recently, he completed an interagency fellowship with USAID where he served as the Kyrgyzstan desk officer, helped develop the Asia countering violent extremism strategy and worked on strategic youth security issues. Miner also served as a command inspector general in Afghanistan.
Traore is an international fellow at the War College. He served in the Malian 33rd Airborne Regiment, where he was a company commander, operations officer and regiment commander. He also served as the commanding officer of the Malian airborne taskforce during the Sabre, Serval and Maliba operations with allied forces to oust Islamic militants from northern Mali from 2013 to 2015.
Ensign is Dickinson’s 29th president. Previously, she served for seven years as president of the American University of Nigeria (AUN). AUN is located in Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, one of the three northeastern Nigerian states that have been under a state of emergency due to the Boko Haram terrorist insurgency. To manage the crisis, Ensign co-founded and led the Adamawa Peace Initiative, which successfully promoted peace in the area through education, empowerment and community development while feeding 300,000 refugees fleeing the fighting to the north. Ensign has been internationally recognized for her pioneering work at AUN. She worked in Africa for 15 years and served as an advisor to the governments of Uganda and Rwanda.
Jacob is a visiting international scholar in the international studies program at Dickinson. His teaching and research interests include the intersection between communications, conflicts and peace building with particular reference to the Lake Chad Basin, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Jacob worked with Ensign at AUN, where he chaired the Communications & Multimedia Design Program and served as interim dean in the School of Arts & Science. He has led the implementation of projects in support of peace building in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, including a U.S. State Department-funded project on peace journalism.
Diniz is a senior at Dickinson majoring in international studies (security studies concentration) with a minor in Spanish. Diniz’s two internships, at the U.S. Army War College and at Creative Associates International, a development contractor in Washington, D.C., have enhanced his worldview and aid in his assessment of geopolitical hotspots.
The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues in collaboration with the Carlisle Scholars Program at the U.S. Army War College.
Published April 3, 2018