The American Graduate School in Paris (AGS) held its sixth annual Graduate Student Conference titled “The Politics of Disaster: The Mitigation, Management, and International Response to Environmental Crises” on May 26 and 27. Since 2006 AGS graduate student conferences have been organized addressing such topics as intercultural dialogue, international immigration issues, globalization, and democracy.

AGS invited students, professors, and NGO managers from around the world to examine the consequences of such crises and the environmental, social and economic responses from international governments. Panelists from China, Pakistan, England, Ireland, Argentina, and the United States, participated along with AGS students to exchange ideas and discuss potential solutions to better prevent and respond to future crises.

This conference was organized by students in the master’s and Ph.D. programs in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS. They worked under the coordination of Professor Ruchi Anand, Associate Professor at the School of International Relations at AGS, whose areas of expertise include environmental policy.

Anand authored, among other books, International Environmental Justice: A North South Dimension (Ashgate, 2004), which assesses the environmental disparities between the North and the South and the structural, political, economic, social, and legal conditions that have reinforced those disparities.

“Conferencing and publishing are invaluable and essential components of graduate school,” said Anand. “I have always pushed our students towards it. It allows them to hone their CVs and gives them a chance, in a rather amicable setting, to brainstorm challenging and complex issues of our time.”

The American Graduate School in Paris is a nonprofit institution of higher education located in France and offering US-accredited programs delivered in English to students from around the world. It specializes in business, finance, and economics, as well as international relations, diplomacy, and international affairs. Its main partners in the US are Baruch College at the City University of New York, and Arcadia University in Pennsylvania.