Retired US Navy Commander Jeffrey Sizemore, a global leader on atrocity prevention training for practitioners, will offer the 2026 Atrocity Studies Annual Lecture, presented by Syracuse University School of Education and the minor in Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice.
“Atrocity Prevention in Practice in a Contested World” takes place on Wednesday, Jan. 28, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the K.G. Tan Auditorium in the National Veterans Resource Center on the Syracuse University campus.
“As atrocity violence continues in Gaza and Sudan, ethnic cleansing escalates in Myanmar, and authoritarianism intensifies around the globe, the US government under the current administration has eliminated the very offices designated to prevent such atrocities,” says Professor Julia M. White, Director, School of Education Minor in Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice and Co-coordinator, Spector/Warren Fellowship for Future Educators. “The shuttering of the US Department of State’s Office of Global Criminal Justice and Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor—which included the Office of Security and Human Rights and Commander Sizemore’s position of Senior Advisor on Atrocity Prevention—represents a deliberate dismantling of America’s role in early warning when mass violence is on the rise.”
White continues, “Commander Sizemore will provide a firsthand account of how atrocity prevention infrastructure operated within the US government, the successes and failures, and how individuals and organizations can fill the gaps left as the second Trump Administration retreats from the United States’ commitment to human rights and atrocity prevention.”
As Senior Advisor on Atrocity Prevention for the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Sizemore coordinated atrocity prevention training and worked with interagency colleagues as part of the Atrocity Prevention Task Force. He represented the United States in multilateral atrocity prevention activities, building partnership with like-minded states and advocating for the necessity and value of prevention work.
Before joining the State Department, Sizemore served for more than 20 years in the US Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, retiring as a commander in 2020. He received a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from George Washington University in 2001 and a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College in 2012.