A study trip to Ethiopia

With generous funding from the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Professor Lakhdar Brahimi took 22 of his Sciences Po students on a study trip to Ethiopia.

As part of the master's degree programmes offered by the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs, Professor Brahimi’s Conflict Resolution class aims at giving students an understanding of the present generation of conflicts and real sense of what it means to mediate international conflicts.

“Most of the conflicts today are in Africa (…) so I thought that bringing my students to Addis Abeba to hear from the main actors who are trying to play a constructive role in management and resolution of these conflicts would be useful”, says Professor Brahimi. 

From February 22nd to February 28, the students had the chance to hear from and interact with, the Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, the President of the African Union Commission and other Senior Officials of the Organisation, the Executive Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the French, Algerian, Swiss and British embassies.

The students also attended a seminar at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) and met students from the university.