Conflicts around the world, to which peacekeeping have been applied, have evolved. Today most of what is asked of peacekeepers is somewhere between the impossible and the unachievable. This talk will explain why that is the case.
Dennis Jett is a professor of international relations and founding faculty member of the School of International Affairs at Penn State University. He served 28 years in the State Department in a wide range of positions including as Ambassador to Peru and Mozambique, on the National Security Council, as Deputy Chief of Mission in Liberia and Malawi and in Argentina and Israel. From 2000 to 2008, he was Dean of the International Center at the University of Florida. He has a Ph.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand and has written four books -- Why Peacekeeping Fails, Why American Foreign Policy Fails, American Ambassadors-The Past, Present and Future of America’s Diplomats, and The Iran Nuclear Deal, all published by Palgrave/Macmillan. He has also written over 160 opinion pieces for major newspapers and several articles for the Foreign Service Journal. He is a member of DACOR, the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Council on Foreign Relations and the American College of National Security Leaders. Spring semester 2016 he taught and did research in Israel on a Fulbright grant.