Lecture by Lord John Alderdice: "If Ireland can find Peace, what chance for Israel?" September 13, 2010

Lord John Alderdice is an appointed life Member of the British House of Lords of the British Parliament at Westminster. Recently the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords elected him as its new Convener (Chair) and in this position Lord Alderdice will provide an essential link between backbench Liberal Democrat peers and Liberal Democrats in Government. He is also a Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist at the Centre for Psychotherapy which he established in Belfast, United Kingdom. He is a Visiting Professor in Psychiatry and Joint Chairman of the Critical Incident Analysis Group at the University of Virginia.

About the lecture: The success of the Irish Peace Process and the healing of historic British-Irish hostilities has made some commentators wonder why it has not yet been possible to apply some of the 'lessons learnt' to the problems of Israel's relations with the Palestinians and its other Arab neighbours. In the last thirty years, no one has been involved in the Irish Peace Process from so many different perspectives as Lord Alderdice, and since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 he has devoted much of his energy to exploring the vexed questions of the Middle East through regular visits to the region and meetings with a remarkable range of participants. In his lecture he will address the value and the limits of 'lessons learnt' from Ireland, and the problems of implementing them in the Middle East.

This lecture is supported by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's Josh Rosenthal Education Fund. The Fund was created in memory of Josh Rosenthal, a 1979 U-M graduate who died at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The fund supports lectures, research, and student internships that encourage public discussion and greater understanding of changes in the world since 9/11. The lecture is co-sponsored by the International Policy Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Official Website: http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/news/events/?event_id=230&