Episodes
In this "Protests in Perspective" webinar, moderated by Williams University's Professor Neil Roberts, South African government official Michael Canham and University of Chicago's Professor Adom Getachew discuss the 2020 protests in an international and historical context. What can the Movement for Black Lives learn from the anti-apartheid movement? What makes the African American struggle so resonant with minorities and oppressed people around the world?
Published 10/27/20
Foreign policy may not be in the headlines when it comes to Biden vs. Trump, but U.S-China competition and questions about America's role in the world are deeply tied in to "front-page" topics like the pandemic, the economy, and political ideology. In a talk moderated by Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev, the Atlantic Council's Ali Wyne discusses how "great power competition" is shaping the 2020 election.
Published 10/13/20
The aftershocks of World War II did not end with German capitulation in May 1945. Millions were displaced, including concentration camp survivors, POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and Nazi collaborators. Many eventually returned home, but "the lost million" did not. Author David Nasaw and Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal discuss this forgotten chapter in history and its relevance to today.
Published 10/08/20
In this wide-ranging conversation, Christopher Hill, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, among other nations, and Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev discuss U.S.-Asian relations in the context of the 2020 election. How concerned should Americans be about China's aggressive foreign policy? What's the effect on allies like Japan and South Korea? How can diplomacy help to defuse some of the rising tensions?
Published 09/29/20
The killing of George Floyd and the wave of protests that followed bring to life the current struggle for civil rights, human rights, and social justice. Why did the protests go global? How does the history of global responses to American injustice inform our understanding of contemporary developments? Emory's Mary L. Dudziak and Wisconsin's Brenda Gayle Plummer share their thoughts in this fascinating discussion.
Published 09/21/20
Professor Derek Reveron, chair of the U.S. Naval War College's National Security Affairs Department, discusses how subnational and transnational forces--namely, the COVID-19 pandemic--intersect with national security in this conversation with Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev. What are the implications for how politicians and policymakers conceptualize American foreign and defense policy in the 2020s?
Published 08/10/20
How have conversations in the immigration rights community shifted since this round of Black Lives Matter protests started? In this new environment, what are some tangible policy changes a more progressive administration could enact in the United States? Senior Fellow Kavitha Rajagopalan offers a nuanced perspective on the many connections between immigration and systemic racism in the United States.
Published 08/06/20
Patrick Gaspard, president of Open Society Foundations, discusses the role of young people and civil society in this historic summer in the United States in this inspiring and wide-ranging conversation with Jonathan Becker, vice chancellor of the Open Society University Network. What does "radical citizenship" mean? How can we stay hopeful and engaged in the fight for equality across the globe?
Published 07/28/20
Molly O'Toole, immigration and security reporter at the "Los Angeles Times," discusses Trump's "Remain in Mexico" asylum policy and its many ethical and legal issues. What's the status of challenges against this policy? How has it been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Plus, she draws some connections between the George Floyd protests against policy brutality and the issues that migrants face at the border.
Published 07/15/20
Due to COVID-19, significant restrictions have been placed on freedoms to move about in many nations. Philosopher Christian Barry explores how the costs of these lockdowns can be weighed in a morally plausible way against the costs arising from increased spread of the virus. Many issues come back to a central question: Under what circumstances can some people be expected, even compelled, to bear costs for the sake of others?
Published 06/25/20
The last decade has witnessed a vibrant public discussion about how to safely, ethically, and legally integrate complex artificial intelligence (AI) into modern life, particularly in the sphere of security, says Senior Fellow Arthur Holland Michel. How do we learn to trust AI systems that we don't understand? What are the implications of this new technology as many nations confront a combination of mass protests and the pandemic?
Published 06/16/20
What do Americans think about the role the United States should be playing in the world? How do they conceive of the different trade-offs between domestic and international affairs, among competing options and sets of interests and values? The Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Dina Smeltz and Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah share the results of surveys from their organizations in this conversation with Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev.
Published 06/09/20
The rapid development of emerging technologies like AI signaled a new inflection point in human history, accompanied by calls for agile international governance. With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic however, there is a new focal point in the call for ethical governance. Senior Fellow Wendell Wallach discusses his work on these issues in this interactive webinar with Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal.
Published 06/07/20
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended daily life for everyone. From large corporations to small non-profits to schools to the military, leaders at all types of organizations are struggling to manage the fear and uncertainty that comes with this crisis. What are the best principles for leading amidst this chaos? Senior Fellow Jeff McCausland, a retired U.S. Army colonel, shares his strategies and historical examples of extraordinary leadership.
Published 05/22/20
In this fascinating conversation with Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal, historian Ted Widmer looks back on 13 pivotal days in Abraham Lincoln's life in 1861--the basis for his new book "Lincoln on the Verge." How would American and world history be different without Lincoln's ethical leadership? And as the U.S. struggles through the COVID-19 pandemic, what can the Civil War era teach us about political divisiveness in 2020?
Published 05/15/20
If global interconnections begin to fray in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, what happens to the ethical underpinnings of international relations? Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev and Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal discuss this important question and much more as solidarity begins to weaken among European Union and NATO states.
Published 04/21/20
With record-breaking winter warmth in Europe, catastrophic fires in Australia, and deadly flooding in Indonesia, we are deep into a climate crisis. In this wide-ranging talk, Janos Paztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G), talks about his organization's work on the governance of emerging climate altering technologies.
Published 02/21/20
How much do morals matter for U.S. presidents when it comes to international affairs? What are the ethics of "America First" or 2003 invasion of Iraq? Joseph Nye, former dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, works through each presidency from FDR to Trump and scores their foreign policy on three ethical dimensions of their intentions, the means they used, and the consequences of their decisions.
Published 02/13/20
With artificial intelligence embedded into social media, credit card transactions, GPS, and much more, how can we train it to act in an ethical, fair, and unbiased manner? What are the theories and philosophies behind AI systems? IBM Research's Francesca Rossi discusses her work helping to ensure that the technology is "as beneficial as possible for the widest part of the population."
Published 01/27/20
Over the course of a generation, algorithms have gone from mathematical abstractions to powerful mediators of daily life. They have made our lives more efficient, yet are increasingly encroaching on our basic rights. UPenn's Professor Michael Kearns shares some ideas on how to better embed human principles into machine code without halting the advance of data-driven scientific exploration.
Published 11/26/19
How can established powers manage the peaceful rise of new great powers? Bard's Michelle Murray offers a new answer to this perennial question, arguing that power transitions are principally social phenomena whereby rising powers struggle to obtain recognition as world powers. How can this framework help us to understand the economic and military rivalry between United States and China?
Published 11/21/19
Can new developments in solar technology put the United States on track to produce 50 percent of its energy with renewables by 2030? What global citizen actions need to be undertaken to help reach this goal? Eban Goodstein, director of Bard Center for Environmental Policy, answers these questions and more in this hopeful and informative talk.
Published 10/04/19
Larry Diamond's core argument is stark: the defense and advancement of democratic ideals relies on U.S. global leadership. If the U.S. does not reclaim its traditional place as the keystone of democracy, today's authoritarian trend could become a tsunami that could provide an opening for Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and their admirers to turn the 21st century into a dark time of surging authoritarianism.
Published 06/28/19
The original idea of the Internet was for it be a "free speech nirvana," but in 2019, the reality is quite different. Authoritarians spread disinformation and extremists incite hatred, often on the huge, U.S.-based platforms, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. David Kaye, UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion & expression, details the different approaches to these issues in Europe and the United States and looks for solutions in this informed and important talk.
Published 06/20/19
What is the current state of the academic-policy gap and why should we care? What progress has been made in bridging this gap? What more can be done? Notre Dame's Michael Desch, founding director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, and George Washington's Henry Farrell, an editor and writer at the "Washington Post"-affiliated "Monkey Cage" blog, engage in a thoughtful and spirited debate on the relevance of political science today.
Published 06/17/19