Held March 28-29 at the LBJ School, the symposium featured an international panel of experts from government, academia, and such organizations as the United Nations, the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Antônio R. Magalhães, the 1995-96 Tom Slick Professor of World Peace and a former Vice-Minister of Planning for Brazil, organized the event.
The conference theme was introduced by keynote speaker Henrique Brandão Cavalcanti, Chairman of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, who defined sustainable development as that which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Cavalcanti noted that the international goal of producing and sustaining positive change--whether it be economic, social, or political in nature--must be pursued holistically, with all decisions made by consensus, in order to be viable.
Over the next day and a half, panelists discussed the role of peace--or lack of conflict--in enabling sustainable development to take place; explored the theoretical and practical applications of sustainability, locally and internationally; and examined the policy implications of various sustainable development strategies. Their ideas and recommendations will be published later this year as a volume in the LBJ School's Tom Slick World Peace Series.
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