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National University Professor Paul Majkut to deliver keynote address at conference on war and deception in Finland

April 7, 2008

La Jolla, Calif. – National University Professor Paul Majkut will deliver the keynote address at a conference on war and deception in Helsinki, Finland on May 19, 2008. 

The international conference, sponsored by the Finnish National Defense University, the Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Lapland, will feature speakers across a wide variety of scholarly disciplines. In 2007, Professor Majkut lectured on American culture, film, and literature at the University of Jyväskylä as a Fulbright Senior Specialist.

"Professor Majkut's lectures and writing on the nature of deception and self-deception have received international attention and the application of his ideas to war will be of great interest for our conference," said Professor Jari Rantapelkonen of the Finnish National Defense University.

Finland has a long history of peace and conflict-resolution conferences. During the war in Vietnam, Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, despite philosophical differences, participated in peace conferences in Helsinki.

"Odysseus' Trojan horse demonstrated that victory in war and truth are incompatible," Majkut said. "The truth inside of deception is slaughter and this horrible truth reaches beyond violent conflict to infect every social institution and varieties of deception -- half-truths, lies of omission, deniability -- accompany war and today define public and private life."

Between 1991 and 2000, as editor of The San Diego Review, Majkut was the recipient of a $125,000 award from the Agape Foundation Fund for Non-Violent Change. He donated his award to local and international non-profit organizations and individuals seeking peace and social justice.

"War is deception written in blood," Majkut said. "We have entered an historical period when deception is so vast that state-sponsored violence is not considered war and governments and the public echo Orwell's 1984: 'War is peace!'"

Majkut has received press awards for investigative reporting from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Greater Los Angeles and San Diego Press Clubs, and the Society of Professional Journalists. His academic publications have been translated into Finnish, German, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

For more information, visit www.nu.edu.

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