"Global Development and Terrorism: Related Topics?" is the title of a Cornell University forum that will attempt to identify the key issues in U.S. foreign policy and global affairs. It will be held Thursday, Nov. 8, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall, at Cornell. The forum is free and is open to the public.

The event is hosted by the university's New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The moderator will be Susan A. Henry, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences. A question-and-answer period will follow presentations by the speakers.

The speakers will include:

Lawrence Busch , Michigan State University Distinguished Professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards. His interests include biotechnology policy, food and agricultural standards, and agricultural science and technology policy. He is co-author or co-editor of a number of books, including Plants, Power, and Profit: Social, Economic, and Ethical Consequences of the New Biotechnologies (Blackwell, 1991); From Columbus to Conagra: The Globalization of Agriculture (Kansas, 1994); Making Nature, Shaping Culture: Plant Biodiversity in Global Context (Nebraska, 1995) and The Eclipse of Morality: Science, State, and Market (Aldine deGruyter, 2000).

Omer Saeed Bajwa , Cornell master's degree student in communication. His master's thesis, "Negative Media Coverage of Islam," examines anti-Islamic rhetoric and representations of Jihad in the Western press before the Sept. 11 attacks. He holds a bachelor's degree in English, literature and rhetoric from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He also has studied under classically trained Islamic scholars and has been involved in Islamic activist work for the past six years. Ron Herring, the Cornell J.S. Knight Professor of International Relations and director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. His current and recent research interests include property rights in nature; global environmental treaties; liberalization of economic development strategies and policy; and the effects of international development flows on ethnic conflict. He is the editor, with Milton Esman, the Cornell J.S. Knight Professor of International Relations Emeritus, of the bookCarrots, Sticks and Ethnic Conflict: Rethinking Development Assistance (University of Michigan Press, 2001.)

Samer Alatout , Cornell visiting assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. His Cornell doctorate from the university's Department of Science and Technology Studies focuses on the politics of water resources and the process of state building in the Middle East, particularly in Israel and Palestine. His research describes the role played by water knowledge and politics in the construction of Israeli and Palestinian political identities.