December 7
Featuring Rep. Ro Khanna, (D-CA); Caroline Dorminey, Policy Analyst, Cato Institute; Scott Paul, Humanitarian Policy Lead, Oxfam America; and Kate Kizer, Policy Director, Win without War; moderated by John Glaser, Director of Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute.
After years of quiet U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign in Yemen, top officials in the Trump administration are finally talking about ending the conflict. But a lasting resolution to the war remains a distant prospect, and the Yemeni people continue to suffer under bombardment and blockade in one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory.
What are the facts in Yemen? Why has the United States abetted the Saudi war in Yemen for almost four years? And what is the role of Congress in checking the authority of the executive to get involved in distant conflicts? Please join us for a discussion of these topics.
November 28
Featuring Nury Turkel, Chairman, Uyghur Human Rights Project; Sophie Richardson, China Director, Human Rights Watch; and Sigal Samuel, Religion Editor, The Atlantic; moderated by Mustafa Akyol, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute.
The Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim people who primarily live in Xinjiang, a northwestern region in China, have long suffered the repressive regime of the Chinese Communist Party. Since early 2017, however, a new wave of repression began, as Chinese authorities initiated a comprehensive “reeducation” program involving state propaganda, mass surveillance, and the internment of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in concentration camps. Using the handful of violent extremists among Uyghurs as a pretext, the Beijing government, as observed by international media and human rights organizations, has embarked on a crusade to erase the identity, religion, culture, and language of a minority.
This story is a major human rights crisis in itself, yet it also signals a broader threat to freedom in other parts of the world. In Xinjiang, Chinese authorities are testing their new products for social control, such as drones disguised as birds to surveil citizens and state-issued tracking devices on human bodies. This cutting-edge totalitarianism can easily be exported to other regimes around the world that are eager to spy on their citizens and persecute their dissidents.
January 15
Featuring David Edelstein, Vice Dean of Faculty in Georgetown College and Associate Professor in the Department of Government, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and the Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University; Stacie E. Goddard, Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College; Paul K. MacDonald, Associate Professor, Wellesley College; and Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Boston University; moderated by Christopher Preble, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute.
The Trump administration has emphasized the reemergence of great power competition as the organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy. What scholarship should inform its understanding of how to compete with China and Russia? And how will international relations change in an era when new actors are challenging the status quo?
The history of great power politics can provide some clues. Over time, states have risen above rivals and fallen to new challengers—but the transitions have not always been disastrous, nor even violent. Some states have successfully managed their decline, while others have resorted to aggressive posturing, or even war, to try to maintain their status at all costs.
Join us as four distinguished scholars discuss their recent work on the history and future of great power relations.
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