Launched as a means to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global affairs, the CGA Faculty Speaker Series continues to explore, examine, and add context to timely issues. Please visit our Eventbrite page for information on upcoming webinars and to register. We encourage you to "follow" the page to receive updates when new events are added.
Faculty Speaker Series
Join CGA faculty members as they tackle today's most critical issues from a variety of perspectives.
Why Peacebuilding Now Matters More Than Ever
Dr. Thomas Hill
Tuesday, April 7th, 2020
At a moment when much of the world is choosing to see only the crisis that COVID-19 has caused, the changes it has wrought also are creating new openings for cooperation and other normative shifts that could increase peacefulness if those opportunities are seized.
The Gendered Impact of COVID-19
Dr. Sylvia Maier
Thursday, April 9th, 2020
What is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's rights, gender relations at home, women and work, and women's access to reproductive health care?
COVID-19’s Effect on Energy
Dr. Carolyn Kissane
Tuesday, April 14th, 2020
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on oil and gas demand and has resulted in a collapse in prices. Examine this impact on markets, risk countries, and the energy transition to renewables.
Women, Peace, Security, and COVID-19
Dr. Anne-Marie Goetz
Thursday, April 16th, 2020
COVID-19 has implications for the resolution of armed conflict and for women’s peace leadership. Conflict situations are often characterized by weak health services, unstable economies, a lack of trust in central state authority, and high levels of violence in public and private. This session examines the gendered dimensions of these constraints to effective response, and the prospects for women’s leadership in conflict resolution in these circumstances.
Tackling Uncertainty in the Digital Age: How Individuals, Organizations, and Governments can Turn the Unexpected into Positive Outcomes
Dr. Christian Busch
Tuesday, April 21st, 2020
In times of uncertainty, individual leaders, companies, and governments play a major role in providing a "north star", as well as community. The way leaders, governments, and companiescope with the unexpected at this point in time – a major crisis that will change how weapproach work and life – will determine their legitimacy and their ability to operate for years tocome. People will remember how you acted when it mattered the most. How can we all turnthe unexpected into positive outcomes? This session will discuss particular values-drivenpractices that came out of our research and work with companies, international organizations, and governments around the world, including with the CEOs and middle managers of theworld's top 30 companies as well as government and international organizations' leaders.
At War with an Invisible Enemy: Securitizing the COVID-19 Response
Dr. Christopher Ankersen
Thursday, April 23rd, 2020
What are the implications--positive and negative--of framing the response to COVID-19 as a 'war'?
Viruses versus Violent Extremists: Assessing and Responding to National Security Threats
Dr. Mary Beth Altier
Tuesday, April 28th, 2020
How is COVID-19 different from other threats the U.S. faces? Why will our response be different? What sorts of problems and possibilities does the pandemic create for violent extremists and other nefarious actors?
Possible Effects of Pandemic on US Power and Policy
Professor Michael Oppenheimer
Thursday, April 30th, 2020
COVID-19 is a global challenge of the magnitude not faced since World War II. That experience led to a long period of economic prosperity, spread of democracy and great power peace. But what now? Will the pandemic mostly reinforce pre-existing trends (of protectionism, populism, interstate conflict), or will it be the shock that creates political space for a collective effort to address global challenges?
Human Rights During the COVID-19 Crisis: Differentiating Protections for the Public Good from Abuses of Power
Jennifer Trahan, Esq.
Tuesday, May 5th, 2020
This discussion will explore the potential for authoritarian regimes to manipulate aspects of the COVID-19 situation to consolidate power by suspending civil and political rights, and whether the situation will trigger a reexamination of the importance of health as a human rights.
COVID-19 and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
Dr. Jens Rudbeck
Thursday, May 7th, 2020
The coronavirus crisis has triggered an economic recession across the world that has hit thepoor and the vulnerable in the global south particularly hard. While many developing countrieshave taken swift actions to contain the pandemic, they have already seen a significant declinein foreign direct investment, tourism, and remittances. Supply and value chains have beendisrupted and capital flight is on raise. As the crisis deepens as many as 500 million people maybe pushed into poverty erasing a decade of progress on that front. This session will discuss howwill the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the world's ability to meet the 2030 SustainableDevelopment Agenda, with a particular focus on how low-income countries deal with thehuman and economic consequences of the crisis.
COVID-19: Boon or Bane for Multilateralism?
Dr. WPS Sidhu
Tuesday, May 12th, 2020
There are two extreme views of the impact of Covid-19 on multilateralism. One view arguesthat the Covid-19 experience will reinforce the current trend of populist nationalism fromAnkara to Washington and beyond, as 'nation first' leaders hunker down, close borders andretreat from globalization, broadly writ. The other view argues that the inability of nations tosingle-handedly tackle the crisis, coupled with the inevitable, though grudging, global responseto the pandemic is likely to revive multilateralism in the long run. This discussion will explore these twin prospects.
Securitization and Politics in the Israeli and Jordanian Reaction to COVID-19
Joshua Krasna
Thursday, May 14th, 2020
COVID-19 caught Israel in the middle of an intractable political crisis, but also brought about a solution to that crisis. The Israeli reaction to COVID illuminates some key elements of the country's political and national security culture, and its experience may be an interesting case study for other countries.
Covid19 and the Emerging Market Financing Crisis: Geoeconomic Winners and Losers
Rachel Ziemba
Tuesday, May 19th, 2020
Covid19 has exacerbated pre-existing economic and financial challenges in many emerging economies, especially energy producers. Meanwhile trade and investment restrictions have increased, capital outflows rose and many countries are threatening to nationalize production. Can any countries benefit from shifting supply chains and financial flows? Which policymakers have been able to adopt creative policies and gain/maintain policy space? Are policy responses likely to pave the way for more rounds of debt crises? Will major players like China increase their geoeconomic power via acting as a lender of last resort, boosting their exports or will they and other large economies turn inward? What impact will it have on national economic and political sovereignty?
Global Risk and COVID-19: Assessing the Complex and Uncertain
Christopher Ankersen
Thursday, May 21st, 2020
In order to predict and manage harm, we have devised the risk assessment, a sophisticated system that allows us to examine a range of factors--threats, vulnerabilities, probabilities, and consequences. Such a system enables decision-makers to prioritize responses and devise management strategies, all in an attempt to avoid, accept, control, or transfer the risks that arise in modern life. The world's response to Covid19 seemingly fits tidily into such a framework. Calculations are made, options weighed, and plans implemented, all on the basis of risk.
At the same time, though, Covid19 illustrates perfectly Ulrich Beck's claim that "neither science, nor the politics in power, nor the mass media, nor business, nor the law nor even the military are in a position to define or control risks rationally."
This session examines the concept of risk, highlighting its strengths, weaknesses, and implications in our uncertain and complex world through the lens of the Covid19 response. It serves as an introduction to the new Global Risk specialization that forms part of CGA's MSGA degree program.
Covid-19 and Climate Change
Carolyn Kissane & Michael Shank
Tuesday, May 26th, 2020
Join CGA Academic Director and Clinical Professor Dr. Carolyn Kissane and CGA Adjunct Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Shank as they explore and examine the impact of COVID-19 on climate change.
When the World Stood Still: Covid-19 and Global Migration and Refugee Policy
Sylvia Maier
Thursday, May 28th, 2020
Dr. Sylvia Maier will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on migration and refugee policies around the world, with a focus on the US, Europe, the Gulf countries, and South Asia.
COVID 19 - Energy and the Middle East Geopolitics
Carolyn Kissane & Mohamad Darwarzah
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020
The upheaval caused by COVID-19 has been a once in a lifetime event for energy markets. And history shows that dramatic shifts in energy markets often lead to significant geopolitical realignment, especially true of the Middle East. Join us for a discussion of the current state of oil markets, how COVID-19 has created new geopolitical risks and opportunities, and what a post-COVID world may look like for the Middle East's largest oil and gas producers.
Undermining International Justice and Why It Matters in the time of Covid-19
Andras Vamos-Goldman
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Actions and omissions by the international community, especially in the last few years, have been weakening our system of international justice. This especially matters during the COVID-19 pandemic because international justice creates safeguards around some of our most fundamental human rights and international humanitarian law rules – safeguards that we very much need if we want to retain those rules in a post-COVID-19 world. Join us as we discuss these issues and the overall impact of COVID-19 on international justice.
Financial Inclusion in the Time of COVID: Enabling Effective Response and Recovery
Alexander Raia & Anand Menond
Tuesday, June 9th, 2020
Across the globe, countries are unveiling solutions to tackle the human and economic impact resulting from the COVID pandemic. To date, governments have announced close to $8 Trillion in economic stimulus to soften the impact of the crisis and to provide safety nets to the most vulnerable. As a key cornerstone of recovery efforts, there is a growing appreciation that a payment infrastructure that is both digital and inclusive is an important tool to facilitate payments to individuals and small businesses in the near-term while ensuring that long-term recovery is equitable. Digital finance also plays a key role in distributing resources quickly and supporting essential front-line personnel – particularly health workers and first responders. In this session, we examine how financial inclusion considerations have helped shape key aspects of the economic response to the pandemic. We also consider how the crisis might shape the direction of inclusive finance in the future.