The Laidlaw Leadership and Research Program promotes ethical leadership and international research around the world—starting with the passionate leaders and learners found on campuses like Cornell. Open to first- and second-year students, the two-year Laidlaw program provides generous support to carry out internationally focused research, develop leadership skills, engage with community projects overseas, and become part of a global network of like-minded scholars from twenty universities worldwide.

Can’t attend? Contact programs@einaudi.cornell.edu to learn more.

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The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

In the late 1990s, a new private military company (PMC) from South Africa, Executive Outcomes, intervened in Angola and Sierra Leone, where the company's operations ushered in a ceasefire. Still, when Executive Outcome's CEO, Eeben Barlow, declared his PMC capable of doing "what blue helmets could not," few in the peacekeeping and NGO world took him seriously. Twenty years later, after the rise of the Russian PMC Wagner Group, peacekeeping and mercenaries are direct competitors. Countries who traditionally contributed soldiers to the UN, such as Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, now market their troops to Exxon and the Gaza Board of Peace. Whether UN peacekeeping can survive this latest round in the privatization of warfare remains to be seen.

About the speaker

John Lechner graduated from the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. At Georgetown, John focused on security issues in Central Africa and the Sahel; Turkey; Russia, and the former Soviet Union. He is an expert on Russia’s growing influence in Africa. He speaks fluent Russian; advanced French, Turkish, and Georgian; and conversational Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), Chechen, German, and Sango (the lingua franca of the Central African Republic).

After working in finance for several years, John decided to leverage his language skills and significant experience living abroad—especially in Russia and Europe—for a career in international affairs. After arriving in Washington DC, he took an internship with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), analyzing and publishing articles on Turkish domestic politics, security, and foreign relations.

While attending Georgetown he has continued to work as a freelance journalist, covering issues related to language, history, culture, and politics in eastern Ukraine, Moldova, Turkey, the Sahel, and the Central African Republic. He is an expert on the history, languages, and politics of Central Africa, Turkey, and the former Soviet Union. You can find his articles published in Foreign Policy, War on the Rocks, Kyiv Post, The Diplomat, Africa is a Country, African Arguments, The National Interest, and Defense One, among others.

His book Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare was published by Bloomsbury in 2025.

Host
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies

Co-sponsor
Institute for European Studies, part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies

Go global in summer 2027! Global Internships give you valuable international work experience in fields spanning global development, climate and sustainability, international relations, communication, business, governance, and more.

Applications are open now.

Can’t attend? Contact programs@einaudi.cornell.edu.

***

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

Go global in summer 2027! Global Internships give you valuable international work experience in fields spanning global development, climate and sustainability, international relations, communication, business, governance, and more.

Applications are open now.

Can’t attend? Contact programs@einaudi.cornell.edu.

***

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

Go global in summer 2027! Global Internships give you valuable international work experience in fields spanning global development, climate and sustainability, international relations, communication, business, governance, and more.

Applications are open now.

Can’t attend? Contact programs@einaudi.cornell.edu.

***

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

Join us on for an informative and engaging info session to learn more about the Institute for African Development and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies programs. This session will provide an overview of academic offerings, events, faculty expertise, research opportunities, and other student support services.

Can’t attend? Contact iad@einaudi.cornell.edu or lacs@einaudi.cornell.edu to learn more.

***

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

Global politics are undergoing a radical rupture. The post-WWII rules-based international order, which prohibits most uses of military force, provides collective security, and respects human rights, has always been imperfect. But today several prominent governments appear to be explicitly repudiating these norms. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East suggest that great powers like Russia and the United States are seeking power primarily through military force and economic coercion rather than through incentives or persuasion. Middle powers such as Canada have responded by calling for new coalitions and strategies to counter aggression. What will these changes mean for the future of war and peace? In this panel, four distinguished scholars with regional expertise in Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe will discuss different visions for the future of international order, with a focus on prospects for developing non-violent means of resolving conflict.

Panelists
Amitav Acharya, American University
Oumar Ba, Cornell University
Kyoko Imai, Indo-Pacific Security Initiative, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security
Alexander Lanoszka, University of Waterloo

Moderator
Rebecca Slayton, Cornell University

Host
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies

Co-sponsors
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Institute for European Studies
East Asia Program
Institute for African Development
Southeast Asia Program

Founded in the wake of war, the East Nimba Nature Reserve shelters some of West Africa’s most endangered species. With exclusive, on-the-ground access, OVERBURDEN follows rangers, scientists, and forest defenders, including ranger Moses Darpey, biologist Grace Kotee Zansi, chief park warden Catherine Kuku Dolo, and community leaders Saye Thompson and Dada Konkah, who tend the land, protecting endangered species and sustaining livelihoods as a billion-dollar company falls short of promised support. They are joined by Shadrach Kerwillain, a Liberian conservation biologist and Mnqobi Mamba, a bat scientist from Eswatini, who navigate the tangled frontier where mining meets conservation and where memory, science, and power collide.

The film captures their intimate encounters with the mountain’s extraordinary inhabitants, from the only true viviparous toad found nowhere else on Earth to resilient cave-dwelling bats and adaptive chimpanzees. Grace works to reconcile clashing farmers and chimpanzees through coexistence strategies. Moses searches for the rare Nimba toad on high peaks, while Mnqobi revisits a cave to see if the bats he helped relocate as part of the company’s biodiversity offset program are still there.

OVERBURDEN tells a powerful story of resilience and transformation in a landscape shaped by industry yet alive with possibility. Through vivid cinematography and deeply rooted storytelling, the film follows communities and nature enduring and adapting in the face of relentless global forces. OVERBURDEN celebrates the power of mutual aid, showing how people and ecosystems persist, rebuild, and thrive against overwhelming odds.

Tikcets are free! Reserve your ticket in advance.

Hosts

Hosted by the Institute for African Development, part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment.