August 19, 2014
History Impeded Future Progress in Northeast Asia
Date: August 19, 2:00 – 5:30pm
Location: Heritage Foundation, Lehrman Auditorium, 214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington DC 20002
The United States and its allies face growing security threats in Asia from North Korea and China. Given these challenges, it is critical that trilateral U.S.-Japan-South Korea relations remain strong. Yet Tokyo-Seoul relations are strained due to a difficult legacy of historical problems. What are the challenges to reconciliation and what steps can Japan and South Korea take? What role should Washington play to redirect attention toward common allied objectives? Join us for an expert discussion on Japan-Korea relations, and what it means from a U.S. perspective.
RSVP here.
August 20, 2014
Preempting Environmental and Human Security Crises in Africa: Science-Based Planning for Climate Variability Threats
Date: August 20, 10:00am
Location: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 6th Floor, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, devastating impacts of climate variability are already being observed in Africa through increased wildfires, shrinking rivers, reduced crop yields, increased water and vector-borne diseases, and other forms. In coming decades, these climatic changes are predicted to impact human and state security via increased resource conflict, radicalization, economic crises, and humanitarian disasters. These threats all have global implications and require urgent rethinking of African and international security strategy. To this end, the Wilson Center’s Africa Program and Environmental Change and Security Program, in partnership with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, will host a dialogue aiming to more effectively link science-based analysis of climate variability with security planning.
This dialogue will build on the findings of the Water, Energy and Security in Africa Conference at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, which explored innovative and sustainable strategies for minimizing negative impacts of climate variability on human security across Africa, with specific focus on case studies from Lake Chad, Lake Victoria, and the Nile and Congo River basins. The dialogue will entail a moderated discussion with African water security experts and policymakers aiming to identify lessons learned from mitigation and adaptation interventions to date as well as strategies for future collaboration.
RSVP here.
The Ukraine Crisis and Russia’s Place in the International Order
Date: August 20, 2:00pm
Location: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC
For over two decades, the United States and Europe have been trying to integrate Russia into the international order. This post-Cold War strategy yielded some success, but has now come crashing down over following Russia’s aggressive turn and the ensuing crisis over Ukraine. The United States is seeking to isolate President Putin while Russia is trying to distance itself from what it sees as a Western-dominated order. President Obama says this is not the beginning of a new Cold War, but a new era seems all but inevitable, with potentially severe consequences for the global economy, counter-terrorism, the non-proliferation regime and climate change.
On August 20, 2014, the Foreign Policy program at Brookings will host a discussion on what Russia’s foreign policy turn means for the international order and for U.S. foreign policy. Thomas Wright, fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy (IOS), will moderate a conversation with Brookings President Strobe Talbott, Senior Fellow Clifford Gaddy of Brookings’ Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE) and Susan Glasser, editor at Politico Magazine.
Following the discussion, the panelists will take questions from the audience. Register here.
Scientific Statecraft: What is it, who does it, and why it’s important
Date: August 20, 4:30pm
Location: Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036
Prof. Billauer will give an overview of all the areas in which science can impact policy, and discuss the work of several scientists who left their mark on world policy.
Barbara Billauer, Research Professor of Scientific Statecraft at The Institute of World Politics, is also the founder of the Foundation for Law and Science Centers (FLASC Inc.), a non-profit educational organization dedicated to teaching judges and policy-makers the principles of the scientific method, where she designed a patent-pending method of teaching science to lay-decision makers. Formerly an active trial lawyer who handled complex medical malpractice, pharmaceutical, toxic tort, and environmental cases, she currently serves on a UNESCO Bioethics Expert Advisory Committee where she is working on a judicial education project.
Prof. Billauer is a graduate of Cornell University (Hons.) and holds a J.D. degree from Hofstra University, a Master’s Degree in Occupational Health and Safety from New York University, has done advanced work in Bioethics, and holds a certificate in Risk Management Sciences from John Hopkins University where she completed doctoral studies in public health. She has served on numerous Boards, has published extensively and lectured nationally on various science-policy issues including national security. She has also written the entry on Benjamin Franklin for the John Wiley Encyclopedia of Political Thought, forthcoming this October.
Register here.
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