The conference promotes evidence-based policy-making on environment and energy, drawing on policy experiences and research knowledge from the US and the EU. Specifically, the focus will be on the challenge of securing energy for economic growth while ensuring the protection of human health and the environment. The broader conference agenda examines the choice of the energy portfolio of various countries, and how trade-offs should be struck on the benefits and risks of various energy resources.

This conference features keynote speaker Ambassador Peter Tomsen (GSPIA ’64), Former U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Author of "The Wars of Afghanistan". An R.S.V.P. is required. To attend, please email Beverly Brizzi by Monday, December 2nd, to confirm your registration.

Dr. Harry Patrinos is Manager, Education at the World Bank. He specializes in the economics of education, especially school-based management, demand-side financing and public-private partnerships. He is responsible for managing education staff at the World Bank. He managed education lending operations and analytical work programs in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.

The first of the EUCE/ESC's Pizza and Politics discussions of the year, GSPIA's EU and the World Organization's executive members talk about their experience interviewing policy-makers, EU civil servants, and visiting major institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg as participants in the EU in Brussels Program, co-sponsored by Pitt's EUCE/ESC and GSPIA. Also learn about getting involved in the EU and the World Organization and about other upcoming EU Studies opportunities at Pitt! PIZZA WILL BE SERVED.

Mr. Zimmermann will discuss the challenges faced by the World Bank tackling corruption, while pursuing an aggressive development agenda, including a recent corruption investigation that ultimately led to the Bank's withdrawal from financing a major infrastructure project in Asia and the innovative tools used to try to strike a balance between the need for integrity and pursuit of a transformational development project beset by allegations of corruption.

Olivier Ferrando, Director of the French Institute for Central Asian Studies in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

The prevailing work on globalization argues that foreign investment reduces corruption, either by competing down monopoly rents or diffusing best practices of corporate governance. However, openness to foreign investment has differential effects on corruption (specifically, petty bribery) even within the same country and under the same domestic institutions over time. Specifically, foreign investment is most closely associated with corruption when firms seek to enter restricted sectors that offer higher rents.

We are approaching a decade of formal democracy in Afghanistan. What is the state of democracy in the country? To what extent do Afghans support democratic institutions and the state more generally? Are there differences between attitudes toward national and local governing institutions? What role does informal governance play? This talk will examine results of a large mixed-methods research project in Afghanistan that explores individual attitudes toward the state and other political institutions in the country.