Conference Schedule
Monday, October 5th, 7:00pm - 8:30pm | Keynote Address: Women, Peace and Security
Link to view this presentation.
Keynote:
Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat
Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat is President of Women in International Security (WIIS) since February 2013.
She was the founding and executive director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) North America (2012-2014). Previous positions include: senior advisor to the U.S. Institute of Peace Center for Gender and Peacebuilding; associate vice president and director of the U.S. Institute of Peace Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program; adjunct associate professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. She has also held senior positions at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC; and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva.
Her areas of specialization are: women, peace and security, gender, international organizations, arms control and disarmament, terrorism and countering violent extremism, peacekeeping, use of force, economic sanctions, U.S.-European relations.
Dr. de Jonge Oudraat is co-editor of The Gender and Security Agenda: Promoting Equality and Peace in the 21st Century (2019); Women and War: Power and Protection in the 21st Century (USIP Press, 2011); and Managing Global Issues: Lessons Learned (Carnegie Endowment, 2001).
Other recent publications include: “WPS+GPS: Adding Gender to the Peace and Security Equation,” WIIS Policy Brief (November 2017); “Women, Gender and Terrorism: The Missing Links," WIIS Policy Brief (August, 2016); “Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism: the Role of Women and Women’s Organizations” in A Man’s World (CGCS and Hedayah Center, 2016); “Women In Combat: Learning from Cultural Support Teams,” WIIS Policy Brief, (August, 2015); The 1325 Scorecard-Gender Mainstreaming: Indicators for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its Related Resolutions (NATO/WIIS, 2015); “Peace and Security in the 21st Century: Understanding the Gendered Nature of Power” in Managing Conflict in a World Adrift (USIP Press, 2015); UNSCR 1325: “Conundrums and Opportunities,” International Interactions, (No.4, 2013);“Mostly Sunny, Partly Cloudy-The transatlantic forecast for the next four years,” Atlantisch Perspectief, (No. 8, 2012); ”Play it Again, Uncle Sam: Transatlantic Relations, NATO and the European Union” in Rewiring Regional Security in a Fragmented World (USIP Press, 2011).
De Jonge Oudraat did her undergraduate studies at the University of Amsterdam and received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris II (Panthéon).
She is a Dutch and US national.
Moderator - Dr. Karin Warner, Professor, School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh and Founder and President, Women in International Security - Pitt Chapter
Dr. Karin Warner joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty following a 34 year career in the United States Navy Nurse corps where she held numerous senior healthcare facility and enterprise-wide leadership positions in facilities in the United States, Italy, and in Asia. A Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Dr. Warner is a certified Lean and Six Sigma (LSS) Black Belt, a certified LSS Green Belt instructor and expert facilitator. She served as the Program Executive Officer of the Western Pacific Medical Alliance and improved quality and clinical capabilities, improving collaboration across the facilities and provided structure for sustainability of business practices and clinical outcomes. Her nursing and leadership experience includes work in cardiac-stepdown, neonatal intensive care, pediatric outpatient settings, facility Education and Training, Senior Nurse and Director of Wellness Programs, Quality, and Primary Care Departments. She has extensive experience in emergency management and disaster preparedness. Dr. Warner served on Capitol Hill as a legislative fellow for national and veterans’ health policy, and was the first Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the navy medicine enterprise. Her last position in the navy was Chief Operating Officer of a medical facility with four separate clinical sites in two states.Dr. Warner received her Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree from Duke University (2014), Dual-Master of Science Degrees in Nursing (1. Clinical Nurse Specialist – Medical Surgical Nursing with a concentration in cardiac rehabilitation, and 2. Nursing Health Policy) from the University of Maryland (1996), Master of Science in National Security Strategy with a concentration in Weapons of Mass Destruction from the National War College (2015), Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College (2012),and her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from the University of Maryland (1990). A member of Sigma Theta Tau (International Honor Society of Nursing) since 1990, she is a member of both the Pi and Beta Epsilon Chapters. Dr. Warner also holds an advanced certificate in Health and Public Policy from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (1996). She is the past Navy Director of the Federal Nurses Association (2007-2011).
Tuesday, October 6, 7:00pm - 8:30pm | New Approaches to Arms Control & Nonproliferation
The proliferation of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction continues to pose a threat to U.S. national security, but the threat is evolving, and Cold War-era foreign policy tools and institutions may not be the best-equipped to address the new face of such threats. This panel will explore the nature of arms control and nonproliferation policy in 2020 and consider new ways for the United States to advance its interests in these areas globally.
Link to view this presentation.
Panelists:
Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Founder and Executive Director of Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation
Bonnie Jenkins is the Founder and Executive Director of the Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS), a 501c3 nonprofit organization established in 2017. Jenkins is currently the Chair of the Steering Committee of the International Women’s Conference on Preventing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction to Non-State Actors, and the Chair of the Committee on Radioactive Sources: Applications and Alternative Technologies of the National Academies of Sciences.
From 2009 – 2017, Jenkins was an Ambassador at the U.S. Department of State (DOS) where she served as Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs (CTR) in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. In that role, she coordinated the Department of State’s programs and activities to prevent weapons of mass destruction (WMD) terrorism with programs funded by other U.S. Departments and Agencies, and with similar programs funded by other countries. She served as the U.S. representative to the 30-nation G7 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction and chaired the Global Partnership in 2012. Jenkins was the Department of State’s lead to the four Nuclear Security Summits that took place from 2010 – 2016. Jenkins also worked closely with several international organizations including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), INTERPOL, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the American Biological Safety Association, and the Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit.
Jenkins began her career as a civilian in the federal government at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in the Office of the General Counsel, where she was the legal advisor to U.S. Ambassadors and delegations negotiating WMD and conventional arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation treaties, and conventions. She also served as legal advisor to several WMD and conventional international implementation bodies, including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty Joint Consultative Group, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.
Jenkins is a retired Naval Reserves Officer and received several awards for her service. She was a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (Belfer) at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University in both the International Security and Managing the Atom Programs. During that time, Jenkins also worked at the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School where she advised law students on employment in the US government and public entities. Jenkins holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Virginia; an LL.M. in international and comparative law from the Georgetown University Law Center; an M.P.A. from the State University of New York at Albany; a J.D. from Albany Law School and a B.A. from Amherst College. While at the University of Virginia, she was a Fellow at the Miller Center.
Dr. Rupal Mehta, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Dr. Rupal N. Mehta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Previously, she was Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow in the Belfer Center's International Security Program and Project on Managing the Atom at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Her research interests lie in international security and conflict, with a specialization in nuclear nonproliferation/counter-proliferation, extended deterrence, nuclear latency, and deterrence and coercion strategy.
Dr. Mehta's first book, Delaying Doomsday: The Politics of Nuclear Reversal (Oxford University Press, 2020) explores the conditions under which states that have started nuclear weapons programs stop their pursuit. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Strategic Studies, The Washington Quarterly and her commentary has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, War on the Rocks, International Studies Quarterly, and the Washington Post's Monkey Cage. She received a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego, and B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Amy Nelson, Research Fellow, Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, National Defense University
Dr. Amy Nelson’s work explores the efficacy of arms control and export control regimes for regulating, stabilizing and eliminating sensitive military technologies; the impact of emerging and evolving technologies on nonproliferation and disarmament efforts and regimes; and new mechanisms or approaches that can remedy the points of vulnerability caused by these technologies. She often draws on information from the decision sciences, including neuroscience, psychology and behavioral economics, in order to inform policy analysis. She is interested in ways in which policy can be better informed and international relations theory can be more rigorously defined and defended through the careful and cautious application of decision-theoretic concepts, like risk, uncertainty and ambiguity.
Dr. Nelson also works on pathways to proliferation for emerging weapons technologies, the diffusion of digitized weapons information, the future of defense coproduction policy, obstacles to successful implementation of nuclear safeguards, improving policy processes for the U.S.'s conventional defense trade, and cognitive obstacles to thinking rigorously about cybersecurity.
She is currently a Research Fellow at National Defense University's Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction and a research scholar at the Center for International Security Studies at Maryland. Dr. Nelson was previously in Berlin, Germany as a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow, examining German military innovation, and the modernization of nonproliferation efforts as required by novel technologies and a changing geo-political landscape. Prior to that she was a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She completed her dissertation while a Research Fellow at SIPRI North America and the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. Dr. Nelson has also worked as a policy analyst at the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and as a member of the U.S. Arms Control Delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, Austria.
Dr. Nelson is writing a book on arms control negotiation as a kind of decision-making under uncertainty. Her book manuscript identifies common biases and patterned responses that result from uncertainty, and uses a novel dataset to establish best practices empirically. These best practices can be employed to overcome the effects of missing information on how states establish goals, identify proposals and engage in negotiation strategies for getting desirable agreements. The first half of the book explores the history of arms control using this framework from 1945 to 2010 and the second half looks to the future--how is arms control changing, how should it change and how do the evolving security landscape and emerging weapons technologies threaten to erode the efficacy of existing regimes?
Dr. Nelson received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California Berkeley in 2013, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2007, an M.A. in French Studies (Intellectual History) from Columbia University in 2001, and an A.B. in Philosophy with Honors from Stanford University in 2000. Her doctoral research was supported by fellowships from the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) and the Marshall Foundation. In 2012-2013, she was also a Visiting Research Associate with the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Moderator - Dr. Ryan Grauer, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Ryan Grauer is an Associate Professor of International Affairs in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. His research examines the sources and use of military power in the international arena. He is the author of Commanding Military Power (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and his work has been published in World Politics, the European Journal of International Relations, Security Studies, and the Journal of Global Security Studies, among other outlets. At present, Grauer is working on projects examining the creation, organization, and operation of multinational coalitions in battle; the causes and consequences of soldier surrender in war; and the scope and intensity of uses of force by democracies. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and his BA from the University of Chicago. He has previously been an Academic Visitor in Nuffield College at the University of Oxford.
Wednesday, October 7, 7:00pm - 8:30pm | Climate Change and Conflict
Experts predict that rising temperatures will increase the risk of violence and armed conflict globally, as states grapple with issues of water and livestock scarcity, climate change-induced natural disasters, and the resulting economic fallout. Developing nations, people living in poverty, women, minorities, and other marginalized groups will bear a disproportionate share of the burden of climate-induced violence. This panel will seek to better understand the national security implications of climate change and consider opportunities for the United States to prevent or mitigate climate-induced conflict globally.
Link to view this presentation.
Panelists:
Dr. Katherine Mach, Associate Professor, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami
Katharine Mach is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a faculty scholar at the UM Abess Center, focused on environmental science and policy.
Mach's research assesses climate change risks and response options to address increased flooding, extreme heat, wildfire, and other hazards. Through innovative approaches to integrating evidence, she informs effective and equitable adaptations to the risks.
Mach is the 2020 recipient of the Piers Sellers Prize for world leading contribution to solution-focused climate research. Mach previously was a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Environment Assessment Facility. Before that from 2010 until 2015, Mach co-directed the scientific activities of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This work on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability culminated in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report and its Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. The associated global scientific collaborations have supported diverse climate policies and actions, including the Paris Agreement.
Mach is a lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report and the US Fourth National Climate Assessment. She serves as an associate deputy editor for Climatic Change and an advisory committee member for the Aspen Global Change Institute, the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment, and Carbon180. Across all of her research projects, Mach engages in relevant policy processes, and she frequently discusses climate change risk and adaptation with the media, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and communities. Mach received her PhD from Stanford University and AB summa cum laude from Harvard College.
At UM, Mach is the Graduate Program Director for the Department of Marine Ecosystems and Society. She teaches Interdisciplinary Environmental Research: Introduction to the Why and the How (ECS 601/MES 680).
Ms. Mackenzie Burnett, Co-Founder, The Next 50
Mackenzie Burnett primarily researches how climate change impacts national security concerns. Her current research focuses on how the U.S. military integrates climate risks into its planning and decision making. She is also interested in water rights and Arctic security, and founded the Stanford Arctic Club during her graduate program. Outside of her research, Burnett is the cofounder of The Next 50, an organization making politics more accessible to young people. In the past, she built and sold an open source software infrastructure startup and was recognized for her work as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2017. Burnett currently sits on the Board of Directors for Interact, a nonprofit that provides fellowships to mission-driven technologists, and the Advisory Board of The Well, a nonprofit community and coworking space for women of color entrepreneurs in her hometown, Columbia, MD. While pursuing her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, she cofounded Bitcamp, UMD's annual hackathon, and was the Executive Director of Startup Shell, UMD's student-run startup incubator and coworking space.
Burnett holds an M.A. in International Policy from Stanford University. She holds a B.A. in International Relations and a B.A. in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Ms. Rebecca Simon, Humanitarian Assistance Advisor to the Military, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, USAID
Rebecca Simon currently works for USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) as a Humanitarian Assistance Advisor to the Military. Since joining BHA, she has worked as an Advisor to AFRICOM and served on two Response Management Teams (RMTs) supporting complex emergency response in Nigeria and South Sudan. She also deployed in the field as a Civil Military Affairs Coordinator to numerous USAID/BHA field responses, including the Hurricane Dorian response in the Bahamas, the East Africa regional drought response, the Syria regional complex emergency response, and the Venezuela regional complex emergency response. She currently leads BHA’s DC-based civil-military engagement portfolio, regularly liaising with various elements of the USG interagency and the international humanitarian community.
Prior to coming to work at BHA, Rebecca worked as a consultant in both the public and private sectors, supporting projects for financial institutions and the U.S. military and intelligence communities. As a government consultant, Rebecca worked on a range of issues, including: U.S. military insider threat assessments, Syria chemical weapons demilitarization, and the West Africa Ebola outbreak. Additionally, Rebecca has worked with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the U.S., coastal Kenya, and Liberia, and supported development efforts focused on poverty alleviation, countering deforestation, and building local and community health infrastructure.
Rebecca previously served as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy, deploying to the Arabian Gulf on the USS BATAAN and working as a collections manager for counter-piracy missions off the Horn of Africa. She also served as the Intelligence Department Head for PC CLASSRON ONE, providing intelligence training, coordination, and support to forward deployed crews working in the Arabian Gulf.
Rebecca holds an M.A. in Security Studies and a Certificate in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies from Georgetown University and B.A.s in International Relations and English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Moderator - Dr. Marcela González Rivas, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
Marcela González Rivas is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is on the faculty advisory board of the Center for Latin American Studies. Her research is on social equity and how community development and regional economic planning can overcome issues of marginalization of people and places. One area of concentration has been regional economic inequality in Mexico, exploring how the country’s trade policies since the 1940s have impacted the economic performance of individual states. She has particularly concentrated on how these policies, in combination with the planning processes that have allocated infrastructure policies, have affected the southern states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. A second area of concentration is on inequality of water access in Mexico. She has focused on why indigenous communities in Mexico have particularly low levels of water access, and how planning, community development processes, and new technologies might be able to reverse this trend. Her work has been published in the Annals of Regional Science, Community Development, Development in Practice, Latin American Research Review, Mexican Studies, and Water Policy.
She has extensive teaching experience, having taught at Cornell, Princeton, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Topics of the courses have included urban and regional development and planning in developing nations, immigration, international institutions, research design, and urban spatial structure. For several consecutive years, she has also led an international policy and planning workshop for Master’s Degree students, in which we travel to the Mexico or Colombia to study different government programs. She has a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA); an M.Sc. in development studies from the London School of Economics (UK); and a B.A. in international relations from the University of the Americas (Mexico).
Thursday, October 8, 7:00pm - 8:30pm | Inequities and Global Health Systems
COVID-19 has exposed inequities in global health systems, including disproportionate burdens on women, migrants and refugees, and other marginalized and vulnerable populations. This panel will seek to understand why such disparities exist, and how the United States can most effectively support efforts to address them, including through development assistance and in partnership with multilateral organizations.
Link to view this presentation.
Panelists:
Dr. Sylvanus Ayeni, M.D.
Sylvanus Adetokunboh Ayeni was born and raised in Nigeria. He graduated from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria in 1972. He did two years of general surgery training at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York from July 1976 to June 1978. Thereafter, his Residency training in neurosurgery was done at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals, Madison, Wisconsin from July 1978 to June 1983.
From May 1992 to February 1993, he was a Research Fellow in the Department of Neurosurgery, Osaka City University Medical School, Osaka Japan, following a short-term fellowship in Fulda, Germany.
As a neurosurgeon, he worked in the private sector, as a civilian neurosurgeon for the US Navy (July 1985 to June 1988) and also in Academia. His last academic position was on the faculty at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha Nebraska.
He is president and founder of Pan Africa Children Advocacy Watch, (PACAW) Inc., a non-profit organization involved in education of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. www.pacaw.org
He is the author of the non-fiction book: RESCUE THYSELF: Change In Sub-Saharan Africa Must Come From Within; Hamilton Books — Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
He has been involved in development issues in Sub-Saharan Africa in the education and healthcare sectors for many years. He has participated in medical missions to countries in Africa and has been visiting faculty as a neurosurgeon. He has been a guest speaker at meetings of national and international associations.
Dr. Doris Browne, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Doris Browne has tirelessly championed many causes that have significantly contributed to improving the health status of the vulnerable population. She has a special interest in and is passionate about women health, cancers especially breast cancer, chronic diseases, sickle cell anemia, environmental health, and radiation casualties. She is the 118th President of the National Medical Association (NMA) and President and CEO, Browne and Associates, LLC a health consulting small business that manages programs addressing national and global health programs. As President of the NMA, her program theme focused on a Collaborative Approach to Health Equity entitled “The Urgency of Now: Creating a Culture for Health Equity." She has achieved both national and international recognition as an expert educator and speaker. She has been either featured or quoted in many news articles and Op-Eds in the Army Times, US Medicine, Washington Post, CNN, ePolitico, PBS New Hour, Ebony, and Essence. Dr. Browne has made numerous briefings before senior executive government, congressional and White House officials. In addition to being a physician executive, medical educator and “hands on” clinical practitioner, Dr. Browne authored a textbook and co-edited proceedings of consensus conferences, book chapters, and published numerous articles in the medical journals. She participated in an international disaster preparedness and humanitarian assistance program for 17 West African Nations following the Ebola epidemic of 2015.
She retired from the U.S. Army as a Colonel and from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. Dr. Browne is a graduate of Tougaloo College (BS), University of California at Los Angeles (MPH), and Georgetown University (M.D.)
Dr. Browne participates in numerous organizations and activities to include being a member of Board of Trustees of Tougaloo College; National Medical Association and its local affiliate, Medical-Chirurgical Society of DC; American Society of Clinical Oncology; American College of Physicians; Trinity Episcopal Church; and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority to name a few.
She is a mother of a daughter and grandmother to a grand-daughter.
Moderator - Ms. Tara Devezin, Baylor College of Medicine, Global Tuberculosis Program
Tara Devezin is a graduate from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) and received her Masters in International Development. Upon graduating in Spring 2016, Ms. Devezin received the first annual GSPIA Ford Institute for Human Security Simon Reich Human Security Writing Award for the best student paper on a human security topic. Her paper focused on improving women’s health in the East African countries of Malawi and Uganda. Since graduating, Tara has worked in the international public health sector, providing program and project support for numerous funded activities throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Tara joined Baylor College of Medicine’s (BCM) and Texas Children’s Hospital’s (TCH) Global TB Program in October 2017. In her role, she applies essential management skills that supports strategic planning and program development, operational and administrative grant application logistics, and oversees provision of project implementation activities for donor reporting and implementation success. Since joining BCM and TCH, Ms. Devezin has managed projects funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Defense (DOD), European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Stop TB Partnership – TB Reach, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Prior to joining BCM, Tara was the Senior Technical Coordinator on the HIV, TB and Infectious Disease Unit at Jhpiego, an international nongovernmental organization which is a Johns Hopkins University affiliate. In this role, she provided team operational support and logistical provision for CDC and USAID TB and HIV funded activities. Ms. Devezin has worked with numerous non-profit organizations and travels extensively throughout Africa for programmatic support and to international meetings to establish and maintain partnerships that drive effective global health results.
Friday, October 9, 1:00pm - 4:00pm | Student Showcase
Link to view the Student Showcase presentations and conference closing remarks.
1:00pm-1:25pm | Liliana Devia, GSPIA PhD candidate presents Understanding the Repercussions of Demobilization on Reintegration through the Experience of Ex- Combatants in Colombia
Irregular intrastate wars are invariably multifaceted and difficult to end. One frequently advocated means of restoring peace, however, is convincing rebels to hand in their weapons and engage in customary peaceful political practices as they work to resolve grievances. One way to do this is through Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programs, which have been presented as fundamental steps in the transition from war to peace. It continues to puzzle why some combatants stay in an armed group and contribute to the fight while others leave, particularly when there is a set of policies, institutions, and practices in place for them supporting their demobilization and reintegration. The processes by which individual rebels disengage from the group, stop self-identifying as members, and head to a civilian identity have not been as explored. My research studies demobilization and reintegration from armed groups in Colombia from the lived experiences of ex-combatants regardless of their participation in a DDR program.
1:30pm-1:55pm | Luciana Lemos, GSPIA MPA’22 presents COVID-19 and the urgency of expanding water and sanitation access for indigenous people
The COVID-19 crisis has brought to light the urgency of recognizing water access as a public health priority. Since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 crisis a pandemic in March 2020, the key recommendation has been proper hand washing. This sounds reasonable for people with access to water, but for the 785 million people in the world without access, it is a huge concern. For indigenous people, COVID-19 represents a huge risk. Chronic structural and economic inequalities, including the lack of water and sanitation, are characteristics of indigenous communities throughout Latin America. In recognition of this, governments have set up programs to address the specific needs of indigenous communities, living in chronic conditions of poverty. In fact, many countries have made progress in improving overall access to clean water and sanitation (SDG Goal 6). However, relatively few have reduced the persistent water inequalities that exist within countries, across income levels or across urban/rural areas. The focus of the research is to determine the key factors behind programs that have managed to reduce the water gap, i.e. to expand water and sanitation access in the most vulnerable communities. By analyzing systematically the programs implemented to address the needs of rural communities, we identify the main factors associated with effective programs in the water sector. The ultimate goal of the research is to determine the factors that are consistently observed in programs that have succeeded in reducing the water gap.
2:00pm – 2:25pm | Laura Gooding, GSPIA MPIA’21 & Gabrielle Sinnott, GSPIA MPIA’21 present Human Trafficking in Palm Oil Supply Chains
Our presentation will be a summary of a report, for which were part of the authorship team as part of a working group at GSPIA’s Ford Institute for Human Security during 2019-2020. The report analyzes key indicators in human trafficking and labor laws from 22 countries and social compliance policies from 24 companies to assess best practices of combating human trafficking in global supply chains. It specifically examines policies on supply chain transparency, recruitment procedures, debt bondage, and child labor. It also reviews coverage gaps in these policies and obstacles to their implementation and enforcement. To accomplish this, we selected 10 indicators of effective anti-trafficking laws and policies, informed by reports from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Verité, the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, and other research on the topic. We examined these indicators across a sample of top palm oil countries (Malaysia and Indonesia), major palm oil consumers (including the European Union and the United States), countries with large migrant workforces or agricultural sectors, and countries that have enacted innovative policies to address trafficking in supply chains. We will share with our research conclusions and recommendations for the private and public sectors.
2:30pm-2:55pm | Jillian Royal, GSPIA MPA’21 presents Humanitarian Intervention and the Use of Force Past and Present
A key structure of civilization is the order and protection that society grants to its people. Laws and policies are instituted to uphold the values that a society deems to be important. The international community in an effort to support each other developed international treaties and policies that are agreed upon rules for countries to respect each other’s sovereignty while also establishing protocol to maintain peace and security. The concept of humanitarian intervention dates back to the nineteenth century, although in recent decades, it has become supported and legitimized through international laws and doctrine. This presentation will explore the international cases which establish the precedent for humanitarian intervention and the use of force. Then it will provide and analysis of the current state in Venezuela which has had calls for humanitarian intervention by the international community.
3:00pm – 3:30pm | I Younan An, GSPIA MID’21 presenys The Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Potential Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Automation Technologies on Gender Equality
In the fourth industrial revolution, the world is changing at a rapid rate with innovative integrated digital technology, and, to an even greater extent, with artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies. Industry 4.0 has the goal of digitally transforming the manufacturing sector production line to promote productivity with less physical labor by using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies. During these uncertain times with the COVID 19 pandemic, having access to technologies is very important for people to access information, participate in their workforce, or receive education. Most importantly, even in the future during post-COVID 19 era, technology will remain a full force that shape the lives of the citizens of this world. This paper examines the likely detrimental effects of AI and proposes to change the structure of the labor force by reducing the share of female employment in the manufacturing sector through employer’s male preferences, demand for high skilled labor, and the status of women’s work. AI and automation technologies are also likely to perpetuate gender inequality due to the unequal access of men and women to information and technical and vocational training. Empirical research shows that AI and automation technologies are putting 88 percent of waged garment workers at high risk of replacement in Cambodia. Women make up approximately 80 percent of the textile, clothing, and footwear (TCF) industries in Cambodia. Women, therefore, are at a higher risk of being replaced by those technologies, because they are low-skilled workers who perform repetitive tasks. The detrimental effect of new technologies can impact women’s economic security and also their livelihoods as well.
3:30pm – 3:40pm| Concluding Remarks