Elizabeth Nyamayaro, Mary Boyce, Helen Lu, Carol Mason, and Dennis A. Mitchell
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
A discussion on women and equality in academia with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in conjunction with the UN's global HeForShe movement for gender equality.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Science and Technology, United Nations, Women, and Inequality
This World Leaders Forum program features an address by President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Her Excellency Paula-Mae Weekes, titled “Glass Ceilings and Dirt Floors”, followed by a question and answer session with the audience
Topic:
Development, Education, Gender Issues, Women, and Inequality
Political Geography:
New York, Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, and United States of America
President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid will address how Estonia has successfully made a wide-scale digital transformation of both its public and private sectors resulting in an advanced digital society. Estonian government created a nationwide digital platform which enables citizens to file taxes in minutes, run companies from distance and access medical records online. Additionally, Estonia is permitting non-residents from around the world to apply for Estonian e-Residency to become a part of its digital society. Estonia has been recognized as a model for other nations looking to modernize their government services and governance. The President of Estonia will address the challenges and opportunities her country faces in regards to digital transformation.
Topic:
Development, Science and Technology, Internet, and Economic growth
This World Leaders Forum features an address by Ashis Nandy, Indian Political Psychologist, Social Theorist and Critic; Honorary Fellow and Former Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi; Distinguished Fellow, Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne, titled “Cities of the Mind: Lost Cities and Their Inhabitants”, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
Topic:
Development, History, Urbanization, and Ethnic Cleansing
Most interlocutors thought that there is almost no chance that the presently stringent sanctions can force the DPRK to agree to disarm. The Chinese and the Russians generally believe that the maximal concession that sanctions can win from the DPRK is an agreement to freeze their warhead and missile development — particularly inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) development — in return for some combination of confidence-building measures, security guarantees, and progress toward political normalization. The North Koreans will not give up the nuclear weapons they already have… at least not until there is a permanent peace on the peninsula and the US is no longer understood to be an enemy.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Diplomacy, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power, and Disarmament
Political Geography:
Russia, China, North Korea, and United States of America
The April 27, 2018 Inter-Korean Summit was a visibly cordial, even happy, event. At its conclusion, North and South Korea released a “Declaration of Peace, Prosperity and Unification.” This paper reviews a selection of key sections and phrases in “The Declaration” with attention to understanding their implications for the goal declared by both parties of ending “division and confrontation” on the peninsula and for addressing the overhanging issue of denuclearization. Notably, both parties strongly assert their rights as Koreans to take leadership in this task before them. Among the issues this review examines are the implications of various provisions in The Declaration for two great powers with long-standing interests in and influence on the Korean peninsula: China and the United States.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Diplomacy, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power, and Disarmament
Political Geography:
Russia, China, South Korea, North Korea, and United States of America
The CCP’s development of the ‘social credit’ system is another step in the Party’s long exploration of ways to fuse political control and economic prosperity. The expanding global reach of China’s economy means that social credit’s fusion of social and political control will also be used to bend entities outside China’s borders towards the Party’s political objectives. Dozens of international airlines, including four US airlines, recently discovered what this means in practice.
Topic:
International Relations, Economy, Ideology, and Surveillance
China’s “New Silk Road” or “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) has reached Central Asia in resounding fashion. As a result, the republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have seen large increases in Chinese presence and investment. Although both countries have overlapping needs, the degree and character of PRC involvement in each has differed. PRC investment in Tajikistan is characterized by expensive loans on infrastructure investment and energy projects that the country may be unable to repay (Avesta.tj, December 25, 2017). Kyrgyzstan, while having hosted similar projects, is also attempting to move the country into the twenty-first century by improving its transportation and digital infrastructure (Tazakoom.kg). Development experts classify both countries as “high-risk” for debt distress given public debt projections (Cgdev.org). However, despite the risk of such an outcome, both countries appear inclined to welcome PRC investment with open arms, as a way of funding needed investment like power generation and logistical links with the outside world.
Topic:
Development, Infrastructure, Economic growth, and Soft Power
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan
China has a serious and worsening Islamophobia problem. While relations between China’s Muslim minorities and its Han majority have been fraught since 2009’s deadly inter-ethnic riots in the far western city of Urumqi, recent years have seen the normalization of online hate speech directed at Muslims. The rise of Islamophobia inside China is a product both of government action, and of the government’s failure to act. Commentary on the recent death of a prominent Muslim leader in the western province of Qinghai highlights the extent to which the situation has deteriorated, and suggests the ways in which China’s warped online discourse could blunt its efforts to build influence and win friends in countries across the Muslim world.
Topic:
Demographics, Ethnic Conflict, Islam, Geopolitics, and Islamophobia
Upon coming to power in May 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) adopted a more muscular approach to China than its predecessors. As part of this, it was not averse to using the Dalai Lama and the CTA to gain leverage in its dealings with China. Its recent move to put distance between itself and Dharamsala reflects an understanding that playing the ‘Tibet card’ brought India no benefits. In fact, the failure of the BJP’s four-year gambit reaffirms what many Indian diplomats and scholars have been saying for decades: there is no ‘Tibet card’ for India to play.
Topic:
International Relations, Diplomacy, Bilateral Relations, and Territorial Disputes