Professor of International Affairs, Princeton University*; author of After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy
Resident and Conference Participant
1993: working on a project involving state compliance with international treaty commitments
2003: attending a seminar on the International Criminal Court
"Unlike other research-study centers for social scientists, Bellagio includes artists. When I was first at Bellagio as a research fellow, I benefited not only from the time to think and write, but also from discussions with Eileen Blumenthal about theater, from Dozier Bell's painting, and from Patricia Goedicke's poetry. It is not just its beauty that makes Bellagio remind us that there are more things under heaven than are encompassed by our own disciplines.
"I had the same experience of transdisciplinary stimulation when I returned briefly to Bellagio 10 years later for a week-long seminar on the International Criminal Court. Participants came from Europe and the United States in roughly equal numbers, and likewise from law and political science. Americans were notably more skeptical about the court than Europeans, political scientists more so than legal scholars. The result was a set of vigorous discussions, with much disagreement, that one would not have had in the United States—or probably in most European institutions of higher learning. Once again, we were forced out of our silos to think about arguments that we would not normally have taken seriously. Yet the context of Bellagio is so congenial that these vigorous disagreements coexisted with warm feelings toward one another as people. We could respectfully disagree yet enjoy the outdoor vistas, the hikes, and the ambience as fellow human beings."
*Title at time of Bellagio stay
