UNE makes international news as Tangier Global Forum prepares to host Senator George Mitchell

Senator George Mitchell

The University of New England’s Tangier Global Forum will cap its spring lecture series with a visit from former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell. A global luminary, who authored the agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland in 1998 and served as President Obama’s special envoy to the Arab-Israeli peace process from 2009 to 2011, Mitchell will present a lecture titled “Is Peace Possible in the Middle East?”

The story of Mitchell’s lecture in Tangier was picked up by several media outlets in Africa and the Middle East, including the Moroccan Press Agency, Moroccan World News, Uncova, allAfrica, Africa News, Gulf Times, 2M, and Le 360.

Mitchell served as U.S. Senator from the state of Maine from 1980 to 1995, and as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. For his role in forging the Northern Ireland peace agreement, he received the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In accepting the former award, he opined, “I believe there’s no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended. They’re created and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings. No matter how ancient the conflict, no matter how hateful, no matter how hurtful, peace can prevail.” 

Humanity’s capacity to move beyond seemingly insurmountable ideological differences has certainly been tested by the centuries of turmoil in the Middle East, and Mitchell’s lecture in Tangier is as timely today as it would have been a century ago.

The Tangier Global Forum has attracted diverse audiences of community members and students since its debut last fall. Mitchell’s lecture will be the eighth of the academic year for the series, following such topics as the challenges facing the Arab world, the birth of monotheism, and how the lessons of the Enlightenment might be applied to the greatest challenges facing humanity today.  

Read more from the Moroccan Press Agency, Morocco World News, Uncova, allAfrica, Africa-News, Gulf Times, 2M and Le 360.  

To learn more about the Tangier Global Forum, visit www.une.edu/tgf

To apply, visit www.une.edu/admissions