Adil Najam on “Economic Development, Human Development, and the Pursuit of Happiness”

Conference Panel

April 4, 2004

Click here to download video. (94.9 MB Real Media file)

Prof. Adil Najam, then at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, speaks at the April 2004 Pardee Center conference on Democracy and Human Development: A Global Inquiry. Speaking in the context of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Prof. Najam begins by reviewing the MDGs and the likelihood of their implementation, but only to make the point that the goals also represent a “poverty of aspiration” on the part of the world’s policymakers. Using the example of South Asia, he argues that “human security” provides us a lens to link together—and possibly do something about—the most pressing challenges of our time: human development and human security.

Prof. Najam’s presentation is followed by a commentary on the presentation by Dr. Ralph Buultjens from New York University and a lively Q&A period. The session is moderated by Ambassador Charles Stith of Boston University.

Video length is 01:26:50.

About the Speaker

Prof. Adil Najam is the Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy and the Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. At the time of this presentation he was an Associate Professor of International Negotiation and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Prof. Najam served as a Lead Author for the Third and Fourth Assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He is also a past winner of MIT’s Goodwin Medal for Effective Teaching, the Fletcher School Paddock Teaching Award, and the Stein Rokan Award of the International Political Science Association, the ARNOVA Emerging Scholar Award, and the Pakistan Television Medal for Outstanding Achievement.