Fred Cuny Center for Peace & Conflict Studies
Fred Cuny
Peace and Conflict
Summer Program
Fred Cuny Peace and Conflict Summer Program
Program Dates:
Lectures: 30 June to 25 July 2025
Regional Trip: 23 June 2025 - 28 June 2025
Internships – August 2025
Application Deadline: Open for Applications / Final Application date: May 15, 2025
To secure your spot in the program, we require all applicants to complete their application and make full payment no later than May 1.
Reserving your place early ensures that you have guaranteed participation in the program. Please note that applications received after May 1 will be subject to availability, as spots for the study tour may become limited.
We encourage all interested individuals to submit their applications and payments promptly to avoid disappointment. Don't miss out on the opportunity to be part of our summer program and embark on a journey of learning, growth, and discovery.
The Summer Program is a premier international leadership and peace-building seminar taught by renowned practitioners and academics who have hands-on experience in the United Nations, national governments and militaries, humanitarian organizations, and the private sector. Under-graduate and graduate students are offered courses on peacekeeping, conflict transformation, war, diplomacy, state-building, genocide studies, transitional justice, terrorism, political violence, development economics, and political science practicum/experiential learning. This program will equip students with the necessary skills from a practitioner’s perspective for careers in government, international organizations, think tanks, and academia.
This year’s novelty of the Fred Cuny Peace and Conflict Summer Program is that RIT Kosovo is offering for the first time an Advanced Graduate Certificate.
The Summer Program’s courses and the Advanced Graduate Certificate are accredited by the State of New York and by the Rochester Institute of Technology in Kosovo (RIT Kosovo).
The program offers the following unique features:
- Regional Travel: The programs include a joint, one-week study tour to Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where students learn about the region and its history by meeting local stakeholders and activists and visiting historical and recreational areas.
- Live What You Are Learning: Kosovo is a ‘living laboratory' of history and state-building in the heart of the Balkans and an ideal location to explore the origin and resolution of armed conflict and mass atrocities, reconstruction, international peacekeeping, institution-building, justice, and reconciliation efforts at the end of wars.
- Practitioner-Focused and Mentorship Based: Courses are taught by senior civilian and military officials, NGO activists, and academics with hands-on experience in the Balkans, Middle East, and elsewhere. The staff function not just as instructors but as mentors invested in your professional development as a leader in international affairs.
- Professional Exposure: You will meet Kosovo government senior officials, activists, and officials from diplomatic and international missions.
- Intellectual Stimulation: Visit historically significant sites in Kosovo, take part in informal late-afternoon seminars on current issues, and participate in workshops/simulations of peacekeeping operations and reconciliation efforts.
Note: Availability of courses will depend on the number of registered students. RIT Kosovo reserves the right to cancel a course due to insufficient number of registered students
A study tour at the start of the program enables participants to visit important historical and cultural sites in the region and to meet officials and activists in the region. Our tour goes from Albania, to Montenegro, Croatia (Dubrovnik), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo and Srebrenica).
Day One: Tirana (Albania)
Day Two: Budva (Montenegro)
Day Three: Dubrovnik (Croatia)
City tour of Dubrovnik, the Old Town. The walls were built and rebuilt over the centuries as the destructive forces of nature and enemy armies required - today, they surround gleaming stone buildings, and the 300-metre-long pedestrian street called Stradun. You'll flit between the city's main gates of Pile and Ploče, cobbled streets dotted with charming boutiques and sea-to-table restaurants. As you step through the gates of old city walls, you will be taking a step back in time, losing yourself in the grandeur and beauty of this culturally influential city. We will not only tour the main streets and squares but also the intriguing narrow side streets where locals are still living and is this way you will be thoroughly introduced to Dubrovnik's Old City, the "Grad", how the locals call it, meaning "The City", as you embrace its history, legends, culture, monuments, way of life.
Day Four: Mostar and Sarajevo (Bosnia & Hercegovina)
Visit the Office of the High Representative. Sarajevo Sightseeing. Cultural and touristic attractions in the city of Sarajevo, city tour of Sarajevo, Old Town, Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a compact city on the Miljacka River, surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and is a charming city in a valley which wears its heart on its sleeve and shows its scars on its buildings. This Balkan city is often cited as a place where east meets west. Its center has museums commemorating local history, including Sarajevo 1878–1918, which covers the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, an event that sparked World War I. Landmarks of the old quarter, Baščaršija, include the Ottoman-era Gazi Husrev-bey Mosque. Continuing with the Tunnel of Hope. The Sarajevo Tunnel, also known as Tunel spasa and Tunnel of Hope, was a tunnel constructed between March and June 1993 during the Siege of Sarajevo in the midst of the Bosnian War. During the time it was used, it is estimated that 20 million tons of food entered the city, and 1 million people passed in and out of it. From July 1993 until the end of the Siege in late February 1996, the Sarajevo War Tunnel was the only connection besieged Sarajevo had with the outside world.
Day Five: Sarajevo and Srebrenica (Bosnia & Hercegovina)
A guided tour of Srebrenica. The Srebrenica Genocide Memorial, officially known as the Srebrenica–Potočari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide, is the memorial-cemetery complex in Srebrenica set up to honor the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Day Six: Return to Prishtina (Kosovo)
A detailed route plan will be available upon completion of registration.
Michael Hess is at M&TCH Consulting after working at MPRI as Vice President for Development and Stability Operations in August 2009 after serving as Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Hess was in that position from June 2005 until January 2009.
Prior to his appointment to USAID, he worked as a Senior Risk Reviewer and Vice President at Citibank, responsible for monitoring and evaluating 15 areas of risk for corporate finance units at Citigroup Inc. in New York.
Hess has over 30 years of active and reserve service in the United States Military. He received his commission from the United States Military Academy in 1971, and has served in humanitarian operations in Turkey, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. Hess served in both command and staff assignments in the U.S. and Germany and taught European History at the United States Military Academy.
In April 2003, Colonel (Ret.) Hess was recalled to active duty to serve as the humanitarian coordinator in the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He later served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Coalition Provisional Authority, assisting in the establishment of the 2,000-person multinational organization responsible for establishing a representative government for Iraq as well as for rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure.
Hess has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a master’s degree in European History from Columbia University in New York, a master’s in business administration and international finance from New York University in New York, and is a graduate of the National Strategic Studies Program at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Paul Hughes was the special advisor and the director of Overseas Safety and Security at United States Institute of Peace (USIP) before retiring in September 2022. Hughes served in many capacities during his 17 years at USIP, among them serving as the acting vice president of two of USIP’s centers, the Center for the Middle East and North Africa, and the Center for Applied Conflict Transformation. He also served as the Institute’s chief of staff, director of Nonproliferation and Arms Control Program, and the director of Iraq programs. Additionally, he also served as the executive director of the 2018 National Defense Strategy Review Commission, the 2010 and 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panels, the executive director of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, and the director for military and security reviews for the 2006 Iraq Study Group.
Prior to joining USIP, he served as an officer in the US Army, retiring as a colonel as the Army's senior military fellow to the Institute for National Security Studies of the National Defense University. From January to August 2003, Hughes served as a senior staff officer for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance and later with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. During that time, he developed several policy initiatives, such as the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of the Iraqi military. As the director of national security policy on the Army staff from 2000-2002, he developed and provided policy guidance for the Army in numerous areas, such as arms control, weapons of mass destruction, missile defense, emerging nontraditional security issues, and crisis prediction. From 1996 to 2000, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as deputy director of the Office for Humanitarian Assistance and Anti-Personnel Landmine Policy, where he led the OSD participation in crafting U.S. landmine policy and the DOD responses to Hurricane Mitch (1998), the Turkish earthquakes (1999), and the Mozambique floods (1999).
Hughes holds two master's degrees of military arts and sciences and a bachelor's degree in sociology from Colorado State University. His awards include two Defense Superior Service Medals, three Bronze Star Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, four Army Commendation Medals, and several campaign and service ribbons.
Susan Romanski works as a consultant in the humanitarian and development sector. She has over two decades of experience in relief and development initiatives and spent many years at Mercy Corps where she served most recently as the Senior Director of Humanitarian Capacity. She was also the Director for US Response, the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction and Deputy Director of the Global Emergency Operations (GEO) Unit. Previous to those positions, Susan was a team leader for humanitarian response operations. In this capacity, Susan spearheaded the agency’s response to famine and the HIV/AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe, initiated humanitarian relief operations in Iraq, organized humanitarian assistance in Liberia, launched operations in Sri Lanka following the Pacific Rim tsunami, led initial relief efforts in Darfur, and was among the first international aid workers to arrive in Bam, Iran and northeast Pakistan following the devastating earthquakes in those areas.
From 2011 to 2014, Susan served as the Head of Programs for CRS’s South America Zone, responsible for over 30 programs in Bolivia, Peru, Brazil and the Colombian/Ecuadorian border.
Her programmatic work has included emergency preparedness and response; economic development; refugee assistance, food security; community health and water; forced labor issues; indigenous rights and extractives; and psychosocial programming.
Susan has also worked with the United Nations Development Program, the World Food Program, the International Rescue Committee and the Trickle Up Program throughout Africa and Latin America.
Susan has M.A. in international relations from Boston University and a B.S. in journalism and communications from the University of Florida.
Robert A. Saunders holds the rank of Distinguished Professor in the Department of History, Politics, and Geography at Farmingdale State College, a campus of the State University of New York (SUNY). His research explores various intersections of geopolitics, national identity, and political violence. Professor Saunders has held visiting researcher positions at the University of Leeds, Aarhus University, and Malmö University. His scholarship has appeared in Political Geography, Geopolitics, Millennium, Politics, and Nations & Nationalism, among other journals. He is the author of five books, including Geopolitics, Northern Europe, and Nordic Noir: What Television Series Tell Us About World Politics (Routledge, 2021).
Len Hawley served on the policy team of the National 9/11 Commission. He was responsible for investigating U.S. counterterrorism policy in State, Defense, Justice, OMB, and the FBI from 1998 through the attacks of September 11, 2001.
He was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration where he directed U.S. engagement and political-military preparations for multilateral interventions to regional crises including Kosovo, East Timor, Lebanon, Congo, Sierra Leone, Eritrea-Ethiopia, and Afghanistan.
He worked at the White House on the National Security Council staff as Director for Multilateral Affairs where he coordinated U.S. political-military planning for multilateral complex contingencies. He was also responsible for U.S. government efforts to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations to respond to crises. Prior to serving at the White House, he acted as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance within the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Len worked as a congressional staffer in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. He served in the US Army for twenty-five years where he deployed with ground combat units overseas in Vietnam and Germany, and he was a research fellow at the Naval War College and also at the National Defense University.
Before he died, Len advised US officials at the National Security Council, State Department, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense on contemporary policy issues and interagency pol-mil planning. And he served as a senior mentor for executive leadership courses sponsored by the State Department and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Advanced Graduate Certificate in Peace and Conflict Studies (3 courses/9 credits)
Completion of the three following courses is required:
- POLS-641 Peacekeeping and Conflict Transformation
- POLS-642 War, Diplomacy, and State-Building
- POLS 615: Political Science Practicum/Experiential Learning
- This class is not eligible for undergraduates.
Undergraduate students can enroll in the following courses:
- ANTH-345: Genocide Studies and Transitional Justice
- POLS-445: Terrorism & Political Violence
- ECON-448 Development Economics
- POLS-541 Peacekeeping and Conflict Transformation
- POLS-542 War, Diplomacy, and State-Building
Undergraduates can take up to three courses.
Program Price
For information on group discounts from a university and on Faculty-led programs at summerinfo@auk.org.
