The first five years of a child’s life are a period of intense creativity, invention and growth. During this period, children rely on those around them to provide for their physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development needs to ensure their capacity to trust and become resilient adults. Distressingly, nearly 200 million children globally may not reach their developmental potential due to the effects of unhealthy environment and paucity of educational opportunities. Many of these children also live in stressful circumstances – caused by poverty, abandonment or violent conflict – and so face additional challenges in learning to trust. This session will investigate the factors impacting early childhood development and learn which interventions can prevent, mitigate or address the potentially lasting effects of toxic stress. If –as Nelson Mandela said –“there is no keener revelation of society’s soul than the way it treats its children,” then surely the legitimacy of a state rests at least in part on whether it meets its obligations to the young.

Randa Grob-Zakhary, Global Head of Education, Porticus

Peter Laugharn, President and CEO, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (moderator)

Carolyn Miles, President and CEO, Save the Children

Deogratias Niyonkiza, Founder and CEO, Village Health Works

For more information about this event please visit: https://www.philanthropyforum.org/conference/gpf-2017/

The current crisis between the US and North Korea has escalated with both sides firing off heated exchanges following North Korea’s missile tests and threats extending as far as Guam. While North Korea has tested missiles in the past, the US is on alert as Kim Jong-un accelerates the drive for nuclear capabilities which could bolster the survival of his regime. President Trump is now faced with his biggest challenge since coming into office, and it is one which is alarming from both a humanitarian and economic perspective as South Korea and China urge more dialogue and less military exercises.

Can the US and North Korea pivot from searing rhetoric and work toward strengthening diplomacy? To what extent is China willing to help in terms of diplomacy and deterrence? Is the Korean Peninsula less safe with a nuclearized North Korea?

SPEAKERS

Orville Schell
Arthur Ross Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society

Philip W. Yun
Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Ploughshares Fund

MODERATOR:

Jane Wales
CEO, World Affairs and Global Philanthropy Forum; Vice President, The Aspen Institute

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/media-library/event/1758

President Trump’s first visit to the Middle East demonstrated a notable shift in US policy toward the region. In a marked departure from the policies of the Obama administration, the president not only embraced the Sunni Arab states, but signed a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, and stated that he will not lecture the Kingdom or other Arab autocracies on human rights issues. He also initiated a review of the Iranian nuclear deal, gave greater military emphasis to US actions in the area, and called for states in the region to isolate Iran. Meanwhile, elections in Iran have given President Rouhani a broader mandate to open Iran’s economy further.

How will President Trump’s policies and actions impact America’s relations with Saudi Arabia, the nuclear deal with Iran and the prospect of ending arduous conflicts as seen in Syria and Yemen? Will this further increase tensions, or is there potential for renewed diplomatic cooperation between the US, Saudi Arabia and Iran?

Banafsheh Keynoush, a geopolitical and communications consultant, Jessica Tuchman Mathews, distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Ambassador Hossein Mousavian, Middle East security expert at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, will discuss the US - Iran - Saudi Arabia nexus and whether we are destined for renewed diplomacy or conflict in the Middle East.

SPEAKERS

Seyed Hossein Mousavian
Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University

Banafsheh Keynoush
Foreign Affairs Scholar and Author, "Saudi Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes?"

Fred H. Lawson
Senior Fellow, Centre for Syrian Studies, University of St. Andrews

MODERATOR:

Jessica Tuchman Mathews
Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

For more information please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1737

What drives voters to the election booth? Dr. Arlie Hochschild, UC Berkeley sociologist and author of New York Times best seller “Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right,” embarked on a journey to the Deep South to explore this very question. What she found were lives damaged by lost jobs, poor wages and an elusive American dream. As she connected and became friends with the people she met, she was surprised to discover that their values mirrored the liberal values she grew up with, including a desire for community, the importance of family and hopes for their children. She came to appreciate how strongly emotions, including years of anger and frustration, drive political preference for many far-right voters.

What role did “emotion in politics” play in the results of the 2016 election? What feelings motivate Trump supporters and Tea Partiers to support these movements? Why do citizens who would seem to benefit most from “liberal” government programs detest the party that passed them? Dr. Hochschild will share her observations and the stories of those who have felt like strangers in their own land.

SPEAKER

Arlie Hochschild
Professor Emerita, Sociology, UC Berkeley

MODERATOR:

John Sepulvado
Host of The California Report, KQED Public Radio

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/event/1727

What can the rise of Japan and Germany in the last century - or the rise of Athens 2,000 years earlier - tell us about the risks facing the US and China today? Is a US-China war inevitable?

Graham Allison, among the most astute geostrategic observers of his generation, terms this “Thucydides’s Trap.” He takes us back to the Peloponnesian war to remind us of the timeless insights of the historian Thucydides: When a rising power rivals a ruling power, danger is near. In fact, in 12 of the 16 occasions this global power pattern has repeated, the outcome was war. With this view to history, the existential challenge of our era is not violent Islamic extremists or a resurgent Russia; it is the impact of China’s ascendance on the international order. According to Allison, "Never before in history has a nation risen so far, so fast."

Even Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged that the world “work together to avoid the Thucydides trap… Our aim is to foster a new model of major country relations.” But is being aware of danger enough to avoid it? While the West seeks to encircle and constrain, China demonstrates, with aggressive naval exercises in disputed seas, that it will demand the respect due a major power in its own region and the world. Can the world escape the perilous prophecy of Athens and Sparta?

Graham Allison, director of Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, founding dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School and advisor to every secretary of defense from Reagan to Obama, shares insights from his career, and outlines the painful steps both China and the US must take to avoid disaster.

SPEAKER:

Graham Allison
Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University

MODERATOR:

Michael M. Nacht
Thomas and Alison Schneider Professor of Public Policy; Interim Director, Center for Studies in Higher Education, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1732

In 2011, Cairo's Tahrir Square commanded the attention of the world as the Egyptian people demanded their freedom. At the time, President Barack Obama famously declared: “Egyptians have inspired us, they have changed the world.” But, half a decade later, is this the whole story?

The Arab World's most populous nation remains as volatile as ever and thoroughly enmeshed with a broader moment of political turbulence that is unfolding across the globe. In his new book, "The Egyptians: A Radical Story," former Egypt Correspondent for the Guardian, Jack Shenker, examines the roots of Egypt’s revolution, arguing for a much more nuanced, and far-reaching view of the forces that are reshaping the region. Egypt’s revolutionary turmoil has never just been about Mubarak, or his successors, or elections, says Shenker. It is not merely a civil war between Islamists and secularists, nor a fight between backwardness and modernity. Underlying it all, the unrest is about economically marginalized citizens muscling their way onto the political stage to demand sovereignty over domains previously closed to them: factories and urban streets, the houses they live in, the food they eat and the water they drink. The real story is more complicated and, ultimately, more hopeful.

Speaker Jack Shenker is an author and journalist, and Former Egypt Correspondent for the Guardian.

The conversation is moderated by David D. Arnold is President of The Asia Foundation.

For more information please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1683

Our lives in 2050 will be vastly different than today. Rapidly advancing technology is changing everything from food production to health care, energy output, manufacturing and the military balance. Innovations already in development include brain-computer interfaces, vat-grown cruelty-free meat, knitted cars and guided bullets among many others. Technology which once seemed like science fiction is now reality - and even old news - where can we possibly go from here?

The Executive Editor of The Economist, Daniel Franklin, explores how technology will shape the future in his recent book, Megatech: Technology in 2050. His insights are based on extensive interviews with distinguished scientists, industry leaders, academics and acclaimed science-fiction authors who are at the forefront of the most exceptional inventions and sinister trends.

Where will technology be in 2050, and how will it affect the way we live? What does this mean for the job market and how we perform our work? In what ways can we prepare for the opportunities — as well as the dangers — that await?

Speaker Daniel Franklin is Executive Editor at The Economist. He is in conversation with Quentin Hardy, Head of Editorial at Google Cloud.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1699

In April – shortly after triggering article 50 of the Lisbon treaty which started the process of withdrawing from the European Union – British Prime Minister Theresa May called for a snap general election to be held in June. There is no turning back on Brexit, but a strong win by the Conservative Party would give May a stronger mandate in executing it as she sees fit. May hopes to increase her majority in Parliament as she strives to negotiate a good deal for Britain, and local election results and polls indicate that this is a likely outcome.

The UK vote comes in the wake of the French elections, where pro-EU Emmanuel Macron won with 65% of the vote. One of his first public statements was to warn the UK to expect “tough” Brexit negotiations. Regardless of how the deal is cut, it will redefine the political and economic relationships between the EU and Britain, as well as the US, that form the bedrock of the Western alliance.

What is the future of the European Union, and how will the upcoming UK elections influence it? How will this impact the transatlantic US-UK relationship? Colin Brown, chairman of the British-American Business Council and Christophe Crombez, senior research scholar at Stanford’s The Europe Center and professor at KU Leuven in Belgium, will discuss prospects for Brexit, the European Union and international trade negotiations.

As part of our "Engage" series, this event features a post-discussion Q&A, when you will have the chance to participate directly with the speaker and gain incredible insights that you won't get anywhere else.

SPEAKERS

Colin Brown
Chairman, British-American Business Council

Christophe Crombez
Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s The Europe Center and Professor at KU Leuven in Belgium

MODERATOR:

Kausik Rajgopal
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

For more information please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1734

According to recent studies by Pew Research, consumers are now just as likely to get their news from social media as from traditional news websites. And while some Americans are confident in their abilities to detect "fake news," two-thirds feel some confusion about navigating the facts in current issues and events.

What obligations do government and media have to filter fake news, and what steps have already been taken to prevent these stories from gaining undue attention? What is the future of journalism in this post-facts era? How can we know what is credible and what is not?

Joaquin Alvarado, CEO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, will share his thoughts about reporting in a time when our country is being confronted by an unprecedented assault on basic facts.

SPEAKERS

Joaquin Alvarado
CEO, Center for Investigative Reporting

Janine Zacharia
Former Jerusalem Bureau Chief and Middle East Correspondent, The Washington Post

MODERATOR:

Edward Wasserman
Dean, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1724

Is American influence in Asia and around the world set to decline? In the years following the global financial crisis, the US has increasing ceded its leadership in the world, while China has rushed in to fill the gap left behind. Based on the inward-looking economic nationalism of the Trump administration, some say this trend is poised to accelerate.

Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, terms this phenomenon “Easternization” - the tectonic shift of the world’s center of gravity from West to East, and from the US to China. Though obscured by the headlines of the day, in the not-so-distant future we may come to view this, as Rachman does, as the momentous transformation of the young century.

How is the growing wealth of Asian nations transforming the international balance of power? Will Trump’s temperament lead to war or peace with Asian nations? After striving for years to be a part of Europe, is Russia now returning to its Asian roots? How would a shift to the East shape all of our lives? This event is co-organized with the Mechanics Institute.

SPEAKER:

Gideon Rachman
Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, Financial Times

MODERATOR:

Carla Thorson
Senior Vice President, Programs, World Affairs

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1714