News Archives - 1999

Augsburg College is hosting the 11th annual Peace Prize Forum on its campus on Feb. 19-20, 1999. The forum's theme is "Striving for Peace: The Morality and Machinery of Modern Conflict." The forum is open to the general public, with registration requested by Feb. 8. The cost of registration, which includes lunch on Feb. 20 and admittance to all of the forum's sessions over the two days, is $30.

Feature presentations will be given by five speakers, including 1997 Nobel laureate Jody Williams and Steve Goose, who is representing the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The ICBL is a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize along with Williams.

Other featured speakers are Dr. John Hamre, deputy secretary for the United States Department of Defense; Dr. Larry Rasmussen, the Reinhold Niebuhr chair at Union Theological Seminary; and Jan Egeland, special advisor to the Norwegian Red Cross and International Peace Research Institute of Oslo.

At the forum's opening ceremony, Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebæk will speak on "values and interests in international politics as well as the situation in Balkan" after his recent visit there. Also speaking at the forum are Rebecca Larson, the secretary for research and development education in the Department for World Service of the Lutheran World Federation, and Gunnar Stålsett, Bishop of Oslo and member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Held in cooperation with the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, this annual forum was created to offer Nobel Peace Prize laureates, diplomats, scholars and the general public an opportunity to address the underlying causes of conflict and war in modern society and the dynamics of peacemaking.

Through presentations of the five plenary speakers, the participation of 30 seminar leaders and additional opportunities for group examination of these issues, this two-day event is expected to have a lasting impact on the lives of student-participants and area residents.

In addition to the above speakers, there will be 30 concurrent workshops on Saturday, Feb. 20, which will provide an opportunity for in-depth exploration of topics relating to the theme of the forum. Speakers will come from the five participating colleges, as well as from local organizations and educational institutions.

Registration is open to students, faculty and staff of the five participating colleges, as well as the general public. The registration fee of $30 per person includes admittance to all forum plenary sessions, Saturday seminars and Saturday lunch. Augsburg anticipates between 1,500 and 2,000 attendees for this two-day event.

The Peace Prize Forum, created in 1989, is a cooperative effort between the five Midwestern colleges that are affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and of Norwegian heritage: Augustana College (Sioux Falls, S.D.); Concordia College (Moorhead, Minn.); Luther College (Decorah, Iowa); St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.); and Augsburg.

For more information about the 11th annual Peace Prize Forum, or to set up an interview with the plenary speakers, please contact Deb Hutterer at (612) 330-1637 or Dan Benson at (612) 330-1114.

MEDIA CREDENTIALS: Please contact Augsburg media relations director Dan Benson at (612) 330-1114 to request media credentials for the Peace Prize Forum.