These are small-group, multi-day deliberations, convened by experts, that enable participants to explore in depth particular issues introduced in the annual symposium. The topics addressed -- for example failed states and sovereignty in Africa, humanitarian intervention and human rights, the morality of the death penalty -- reflect and anticipate some of the urgent and contentious concerns of the day. The workshops are often designed to have policy outcomes.
These nonpartisan workshops merge the theoretical insights of academia with the practical experiences of world affairs and have often created lasting linkages among its participants, across professions and disciplines. They have included:
A workshop that considered the creation of WarWatch, to track the proliferation of conventional weapons. This has evolved into the on-going ArmsWatch of Human Rights Watch.
A workshop on pandemics and microbial threats, Microbial Threats and Global Society, that refined the position papers and guidelines issued on global infectious diseases by the Centers for Disease Control and Rockefeller University.
A workshop on Darwinism and Artificial Intelligence, which was published on CD-Rom by Oxford University Press.
A day-long workshop that considered the Emerging Issues in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies, including humanitarian intent, human rights obligations, the notion of neutrality, and the possibilities for cooperation between NGOs and the military. It was co-sponsored by Tufts' Feinstein International Famine Center and the Center for Population and Development Studies at Harvard University.
Highly Capitalized Anti-Social Activities, a workshop that provided an in-depth probe into transnational trends and threats to global civil society from prominent predatory and licit and illicit criminal enterprises, including the trade in arms and the trafficking of people.
Reactions
Daniel C. Dennett
Professor of philosophy, director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts, and twice National Book Award Finalist ( The Origins of Consciousness and Darwin's Dangerous Idea )"This was an opportunity to participate in an unusual -- but tested -- form of public education. EPIIC at Tufts has had remarkable success over a decade in bringing the brightest people together to talk about controversial topics, always in a spirit of constructive dialogue. I wouldn't have agreed to organize a workshop if I hadn't been sure that everything would be done to make the setting as conducive as possible to serious exchange of ideas, communication at the highest levels, responsibly disseminated to a wide audience."
The Boston Globe
Editorial, March 4, 1995"...The topics are as cutting-edge as today's headlines. Thus a workshop on human rights and humanitarian emergencies will look at the conflict between the desire for peace and the desire for justice; another on "Darwinism and artificial intelligence" will try to get at the essential differences between humans and machines with the director of cognitive studies at Tufts and the editor of the magazine Wired .
"As rarefied as the discussion may seem, each workshop is aimed at producing concrete policy recommendations. In a time of rampant anti-intellectualism, the thinking alone is worth celebrating.