Mar 10, 2005 -- "Humanity has a propensity for evil and for bystanding," Samantha Power said in the opening remarks of her lecture on "Can the United States Respond to Genocide in an Age of Terror?" Ms. Power argued that the US has done little in major cases of genocide in the 20th century and leadership has not been exerted to prevent genocide. One exception to this policy was when 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred in Bosnia and America belatedly stepped in. "In this case, the Jewish community took action in response to images of emaciated men held in detention camps and advocated for their human rights." Power suggested that only when the public applies political pressure do politicians react in a substantive manner. After the 9/11 attacks, lawmakers in Washington understood that the old way of conducting foreign policy was no longer viable. “Failed states make bad neighbors and can’t be ignored,” Ms. Powers asserted. “The old cold war mantra of ‘He’s a bad dictator but he’s our dictator,’ no longer holds.” America has undertaken a new approach in dealing with human rights issues by promoting democracy and asserting the importance of giving societies a voice in selecting their leaders. Additionally, a “protection deficit” became apparent around the globe with more peacekeepers needed to stop the killing of innocents. Middle-tier countries such as Canada and Sweden have not stepped up, leaving smaller, poorer countries to fill the void at the request of the UN Security Council. Today, America's standing in the world also suffers from a “legitimacy deficit” according to Ms. Power. She said the US government lacks diplomatic capital and moral power among European nations. “We need to change our policies; our policies are not consistent,” Ms. Power concluded. “We cannot be part of “bystanding.” Genocide intervention is necessary, and “upstanders” can create awareness to deal with America’s legitimacy problem.” An adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Ms. Power appeared as part of a program at YU's Stern College for Women commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. Ms. Power is author of A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and National Book Critics Circle Award, she is also the author of an article on the Rwandan genocide, “Bystanders to Genocide” and is coeditor with Graham Allison of Realizing Human Rights. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Ms. Power was a journalist for US News and World Report and The Economist, for whom she covered the war in Yugoslavia from 1993 to 1996. In 1996 she joined the International Crisis Group as a political analyst, helping launch the organization in Bosnia. Currently, she is working on a book on the causes and consequences of historical amnesia in American foreign policy. Ms. Power’s lecture was part of the Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program. Dr. Robbins-Wilf, a founding member of the Stern College Board of Directors, founded and funded the program that brings top scholars, authors, artists, and opinion shapers to Stern College, offering students unique perspectives on the world. The Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence lecture series is entitled “Human Rights and Sovereignty”. The series opener on Feb. 23 at 7:30 pm featured Kenneth Roth, executive director, Human Rights Watch, and Jack Snyder, PhD, Columbia University, “Debating Human Rights and Sovereignty.” Ms. Power’s lecture was cosponsored by YU’s Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs. For reservations and information on other series lectures contact humanrights@yu.edu.