An interesting two-day “Local Roots of Global Peace” International Student Conference, organized by Stonehill College, the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, and the Eurasia International University, concluded on 22 June at the Eurasia International University in Yerevan.  With over eighty participants, some thirty speakers offered innovative presentations on global security studies, with prominent young scholars from Georgia, Iran, Italy, the London School of Economics (LSE) in the United Kingdom, and from MGIMO University in Moscow.

As the third annual conference, this year’s event brought together a diverse group of speakers, moderators and participants that include leading academics, prominent policy analysts, policy makers and civil society leaders for two days of interactive learning that integrates the academic and policy world.

And coinciding with Armenia’s “Velvet Revolution,” this year’s conference also featured an especially relevant set of papers and presentations, with speakers from Yerevan State University, the American University of Armenia.  In addition, members of the Armenian parliament, such as Maria Karapetyan and Mikayel Zolyan, former acting Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Babken Der Griorian, and others also joined a special roundtable devoted to “Armenia’s Velvet Revolution in the Global Context of Democratic Declines”.  The special keynote luncheon address on the first day was given by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Arevik Anapiosyan.

With a special focus on practical topics, the conference included two important Professional Development Roundtables on each day, with the second devoted to Public Scholarship and Policy Writing, and an interactive writing workshop facilitated by Dr. Todd Gernes, Associate Professor of History and Writing Program Director at Stonehill College.

This conference also provided students with an opportunity to enhance and develop their research skills, as well as garnering important advocacy and professional development opportunities in the areas of effective teaching, policy writing, and public presentations.  In addition to local Armenia university students, a group of students from Stonehill College in the United States also presented a set of impressive papers on a wide range of topics, including U.S. foreign policy, corruption and violence, human trafficking, security issues of climate change and the linkage of gender and peace, as well as challenges related to Syrian refugees.