Genocide Intervention Network

In October 2004, two Swarthmore College students, Mark Hanis and Andrew Sniderman, established the Genocide Intervention Network in hopes of empowering citizens to protect civilians from the atrocities occurring in Darfur.

GI-Net's mission and policy goals were greatly influenced by the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, drafted by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, in order to create a permanent anti-genocide grassroots movement.

[4] GI-Net's controversial idea of supporting military force for foreign intervention attracted the attention of Gayle Smith, who had two decades of experience in Africa and had been the senior director of African Affairs in Clinton's National Security Council.

[5] Feeling pressured by the U.S.-based advocacy campaign, the Khartoum spent close to a million dollars on an eight-page spread in the New York Times encouraging companies to invest in Sudan, a country with "peaceful, prosperous and democratic future".

The Dream for Darfur team had one and only goal: to convince China that the continuation of the Olympic Games in Beijing was at risk unless it withdrew support for Sudan's regime.

[8] The mission of the Dream for Darfur team was to break down the foreign policy information into digestible form, so that citizens, without the background to understand the complexities of the international policy-making process, could become involved in the anti-genocide campaign.

GI-Net immediately broadened its efforts by introducing a membership and chapter program in order to educate and mobilize support for U.S. policies that could assist victims in Darfur.

Named in honor of Carl Wilkens—the only American to remain in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994—the "Wilkens Fellowship" was a selective year-long program that exposed individuals to vital tools and resources in hopes of building permanent peaceful communities throughout the world.

[10] The Task Force launched successful divestment campaigns around the world targeting university endowments, asset managers and city, state, and national investment policies.

[11] As a result of the Task Force efforts, twenty-two states, dozens of universities, eleven cities and fifteen countries adopted Sudan divestment policies.