On September 3rd, Professor Altier presented on the issue of terrorist re-engagement and recidivism in an Open Meeting of the Global Research Network with the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee. She highlighted key issues with the focus on terrorist recidivism rates, the need to account for contextual differences, and individual and societal risk factors. Professor Altier argued that short-term projects and programming help on the margins, but are a Band-Aid approach to larger political and societal issues (e.g. grave human rights abuses, lack of accountability, insecurity) that shape individuals’ incentives to engage in violent extremism.
Professor Christian Busch will present his bestselling book, The Serendipity Mindset: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck” (“Wise, exciting, and life-changing”; Arianna Huffington) at the “NYU Books & Business: Faculty Book Talk Series”. In The Serendipity Mindset, Dr. Busch explains that serendipity isn’t about luck in the sense of mere randomness but about seeing what others don’t, combining these observations in unexpected and strategic ways, and learning how to detect the moments when apparently random or unconnected ideas merge to form new opportunities. His science-based framework for “cultivating serendipity” allows for navigating the unexpected and turning uncertainty into opportunity.
On September 24 and 25, 2021, Professor Jennifer Trahan attended a conference (in person) at Case Western Reserve School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio. The conference was entitled “The Academy and International Law: A Catalyst for Change and Innovation.” Professor Trahan spoke on Panel 1 entitled “The Academy and Grotian Moments,” and moderated Panel 2 entitled “75th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Judgment: The Academy and War Crimes Prosecutions.” Videos of the panels can be found at here.
On September 10, 2021, Professor Trahan also spoke remotely at Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat, Haryana, India. She spoke about “Existing Legal Limits to the Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes.” She spoke to the Jindal Society of International Law.
Professor Oppenheimer presented the results of the Spring 2021 CTED project on emerging terrorist threats, to the Counter Terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council; launched the CGA Fall CTED study on the future of Afghanistan; spoke at a public CGA meeting on the impacts of 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy; and was interviewed by Italian State Television on the lasting impacts of 9/11.
In a lengthy interview with the International Luxembourg Forum Dr. Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu deliberated on the continued dangers posed by nuclear weapons. In particular, he addressed the following questions: Could a confrontation between India and Pakistan escalate into a nuclear war? Is overt conflict & nuclear war between China & India possible? What are the prospects for India’s military space programs? Could new nuclear powers emerge in Asia or other parts of the world? Watch the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDci8uK-V8c.
During the high-level week of the 76th UN General Assembly Dr. Sidhu also spoke to WION TV, Doordarshan India, and Times Now on India’s role in supporting the UN priorities of combating climate change, and recovering from COVID-19, the significance of the QUAD summit, and future trajectory of India-US relations.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Joshua Krasna, and his former student CGA alumnus George Meladze, published “The ‘Four Plus One’: The Changing Power Politics of the Middle East” as a peer-reviewed Occasional Paper by the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies at Tel Aviv University.
In July, Anne Marie Goetz with co-author Joanne Sandler, published an article on the politics of selecting the next head of UN Women, the newest UN entity, formed in 2010 to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. ‘Feminist Wanted: Seeking the Next Leader of UN Women’ (published July 8) analyzed the credentials of the known set of candidates for the role, discussed the calls by transnational feminist groups for a transparent process in which the shortlisted candidates could share their vision for gender equality, and made a strong plea for the selection of a candidate with experience in feminist policy work and advocacy. In mid-August, the Secretary-General announced the selection of Sima Sami Bahous, the then Jordanian ambassador to the UN, as the next Executive Director of UN Women. Dr. Bahous has extensive government experience and has served as a regional director at UNDP, but her background in the area of women’s rights, empowerment, or gender equality is less prominent in her profile.
To support her in this new feminist leadership role, Goetz and Sandler, both former staff of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), one of the foundational components of UN Women, and (in Goetz’s case), a former senior policy leader in UN Women (in the area of peace and security) organized a consultation with a set of 200 former UNIFEM staff over the course of September 2021 on priorities for Executive Director Bahous’s first 100 days in office and beyond. This group produced an Open Letter to Dr. Bahous, in essence a ‘to do’ list, for her first 100 days in office and beyond. The letter urged her to consult with feminist organizations all over the world to learn about their work and collate priorities in the face of current crises such as COVID, climate change, and misogynist authoritarian populism. The letter also called for important internal changes to enable UN Women better to hold all parts of the UN to account for delivering on women’s rights and gender equality, namely developing and applying tools to make the existing ‘System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality’ more directly auditable. One such tool would be the finalization of a long-overdue system-wide common budget tracking method to identify precisely the funds committed to gender equality, to check that they are actually spent, and to evaluate impact. The Open Letter received press coverage and a consultation between the drafters of the letter and Executive Director Bahous is expected soon.
On July 8th Anne Marie Goetz moderated a large panel discussion for the UNDP and the University of Pittsburgh to launch the 2021 report on Gender Equality in Public Administration.
https://www.undp.org/publications/global-report-gender-equality-public-administration
Among the speakers discussing the report were:
- Aminath Shauna, Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, Republic of the Maldives;
- Yasna Provoste Campillay, President of the Senate, Republic of Chile
- Memory Kachambwa, Director of FEMNET
- Sandra Pepera, National Democratic Institute, Director for Gender, Women and Democracy
The event shared new global data in the Gender Parity in Civil Service (Gen-PaCS) dataset and highlighted the report’s findings on women’s participation in decision-making levels in public administration around the world. The report for the first time includes data on women in public administration in 170 countries. Women’s participation in public administration globally averages 46%, close to parity, but there is substantial variation across countries and regions (as ow as 6% and as high as 77%), and women are concentrated at lower levels, holding only 31% of leadership roles).
The question of gender parity in public administration is not just a matter of employment equity, but of building the responsiveness and effectiveness of the public sector. The particularly effective responses of some women leaders to the COVID crisis has shown that many of them “flattened the curve” through decisive and early measures to prevent COVID transmission. They often did so with a level of transparency not generally seen in other countries, and with a unique compassion towards those burdened with extra care responsibilities because of the pandemic. Goetz is publishing an Op Ed about these findings with the UNDP Global Director of Gender, Raquel Lagunas.
On June 11 Anne Marie Goetz spoke at a UNDP symposium to generate content for their special report this year that revisits the concept of Human Security. Titled ‘A New Generation of Human Security’, the 4 day symposium sought to assess new challenges to human security during the 21st century and to determine how these change the human security framework first promulgated by the UN’s Human Development Report in 1994. A discussion of the outline of this new report can be found here, as well as a record of the symposium.