Event

This event is an invitation-only, informal lunch Discussion with Under Secretary Sewall on Challenges and Opportunities for Civilian Protection. This event will be held under the Chatham House Rule. Seating is limited and is available only for registered participants.

Date and Time

Wednesday, October 12, from noon to 1 pm

Background Information

Dr. Sarah Sewall is a longtime expert on civilian security and human rights. Dr. Sewall was sworn in as Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights on February 20, 2014. She serves concurrently as the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues. Over the previous decade, Dr. Sewall taught at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she served as Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and directed the Program on National Security and Human Rights.

Dr. Sewall has extensive experience partnering with the U.S. armed forces around civilian security. At the Kennedy School, she launched the MARO (Mass Atrocities Response Operations) Project to assist the U.S. military with contingency planning to protect civilians from large-scale violence. She was a member of the Defense Policy Board and served as the Minerva Chair at the Naval War College in 2012. She also led several research studies of U.S. military operations for the Department of Defense and served as the inaugural Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance in the Clinton Administration. Prior joining the executive branch, Dr. Sewall served for six years as the Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell and earned a Ph.D at Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

Image credit: UN Geneva Mission, “Under Secretary of State Sewall Addresses Human Rights Council,” Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0.