La Follette School grad Tom Loftus, the former ambassador to Norway and special advisor to the director of the World Health Organization, joins Kjell Magne Bondevik, former prime minister of Norway and founder of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, in a discussion about religion's role in international negotiations.
The session, “Negotiating Religion Internationally,” will be Friday, September 25, 2009, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Tripp Commons at the Memorial Union. It is sponsored by the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Loftus and Bondevik will speak on the initiative of the Oslo Center for Peace and; Human Rights that resulted in the 2008 Tehran conference on religion in the modern world and; discuss the negotiations surrounding the Oslo accords. Professor David Morgan of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Assistant Professor Amaney Jamal of Princeton University will comment on the program.
Loftus graduated from the La Follette School's predecessor, the Center for the Study of Public Policy and Administration, in 1972. He served in the Wisconsin Legislature from 1977 to 1991 and was speaker of the Assembly for eight years. He was the U.S. ambassador to Norway from 1993 to 1997, then worked with the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2005.
The Lubar Institute is organizing the September 25 event in partnership with the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, U.S. Foundation, with support from the International Institute and the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Loftus helps launch foundation to support peace, human rights, October 23, 2008, La Follette School News
— posted September 21, 2009