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What factors make a particular conflict front-page news or worthy of network TV coverage while others get little or no media attention?

Scholars from around the world will come to Colgate to explore this issue of  “forgotten” conflicts in a conference hosted by the university’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program (P-Con).

The participants will analyze what media scholars call the attention economy, in which certain conflicts – for a multitude of political, strategic, or economic reasons – aren’t afforded serious consideration by those outside the region.

P-Con program director Dan Monk talks about these forgotten conflicts, the war in Iraq that is consuming much of the media’s attention, and the upcoming P-Con conference in the latest episode of Colgate Conversations, a podcast series that highlights members of the Colgate community.

Monk says the visiting scholars will talk about conflicts such as Chechnya, Tajikistan, and several African regional crises like Western Sahara.

Dan Monk was recently named a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

A government’s response to a conflict, such as Spain’s “wall of silence” regarding the unsettled situation in its former colony of Western Sahara, will be addressed by scholars who also will explore how conflicts become classified as forgotten or intractable.

Students in Colgate’s  P-Con program created a database of conflicts around the world and the terminology used to describe them that will help inform the discussion at the conference, which will be held April 13-14.

Monk, recently named a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,  also speaks in the podcast about the Iraq war and prospects for peace in the Middle East.

He said that the United States must maintain some kind of presence in Iraq despite the public’s legitimate disaffection with the war.

 “The United States is now in a situation where the consequences of leaving are potentially even more catastrophic than the current civil war,” said Monk, who noted that he does not support the war but is wary of the current calls for withdrawal.

If America withdrew as the “hegemonic referee” of the region, Monk said one consequence would be the wholesale massacre of the Kurdish people in northern Iraq.

The Kurds, the largest stateless minority in the Mideast, are an extremely vulnerable population and the United States would be responsible for their fate if they pulled out without any kind of realistic deterrence remaining in the region, said Monk.

To hear more about Monk’s views of the Mideast situation and the examination of forgotten conflicts, go here or see the Colgate Conversation page or iTunes page for download options.