Evening Conversation with Gary Haugen
February 25, 2014
National Press Club, Washington, DC
"The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence"

Beneath the surface of many of the world's poorest communities, common violence — like rape, forced labor, land theft, police brutality, and other forms of oppression — has become routine, unpunished, even expected. And while the world has made encouraging strides in the fight against global poverty, this hidden crisis of violence and lawlessness undermines our best efforts to help the poor, sabotages development, and blocks the road out of poverty.

In this Evening Conversation, Gary Haugen offers an account of how we got here, how a plague of violence has largely escaped the notice of global development experts — and what it will take to address the injustice and oppression that keeps the world's most vulnerable mired in poverty. Haugen serves as President and CEO of International Justice Mission. IJM is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression.

Responding to Haugen is Ambassador Mark Lagon, Global Politics and Security Chair at Georgetown University's Master of Foreign Service Program, and Senior Fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations. Lagon previously served as Ambassador at Large directing the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.