Balsillie School of International Affairs

‘Stop this carnage’: The politics of death and mourning in the production of Europe’s ‘migration crisis’
2018-04-19 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Toronto) | In Person, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
We are having a technical issue with our ticketing system. To register for this event, please email events@balsillieschool.ca.
Between 2014 and 2016 an estimated 1.6 million refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean by boat to Europe. Over 12,000 deaths were recorded of people trying to make the journey, and many more unrecorded deaths are thought to have occurred elsewhere along the way before reaching the sea. In 2015, at the height of Europe’s so-called ‘migrant/refugee crisis’, over one million arrivals were recorded in Italy and Greece and 3771 people died during the crossing. Against this backdrop, the paper locates the discussion over migrant deaths at sea in the context of debates on borders, deaths and the politics of mourning. It identifies the key stages in the development of European responses to the crisis, showing how EU policymakers oversaw a reorganisation of the governance of migration and border control in the Mediterranean whilst under pressure from tragic events at the EU’s external borders and outpourings of public grief. Finally, drawing on interviews with refugees and migrants who crossed the Mediterranean, I will focus on the different ways that witnessing and becoming aware of the risk of death, as well as a longing for survival, can shape migration decisions and experiences.
About the speaker
Nando Sigona is a social scientist with over fifteen years research and teaching experience in migration, refugee, citizenship and ethnic studies. He joined the School of Social Policy in February 2013 as a Birmingham Fellow. Dr Sigona’s work investigates the migration and citizenship nexus. This is achieved through in-depth examinations of a range of experiences of societal membership including, but not limited to, those of: EU families; refugees; Roma, undocumented migrant families, ethnic minorities, unaccompanied minors, children of undocumented migrant parents, dual citizens, ‘failed’ asylum seekers, and stateless people.
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Film Screening: A Bold Peace: Costa Rica's Path of Demilitarization
2018-04-17 19:00 - 21:15
NEW DATE!
Registration Required:
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Revised April 16, 2018
The Balsillie School and Project Ploughshares are pleased to screen the award-winning 2016 documentary A Bold Peace which presents the unique political and cultural history of Costa Rica. Over 60 years ago, Costa Rica became one of the only nations in the world to disband their military and to redirect national resources towards education, health, and the environment. A Bold Peace challenges our thinking about war and peace. This inspiring film also shows how this small Central American country has become on an international leader on diplomacy, disarmament, environment and climate change. More information about the film can be found here.

Co-sponsored with

Indigenous Peoples, Canada and the Declaration
2018-04-05 19:00 - 21:00
Watch The Recording

Romeo Saganash MP will give a talk on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Canada.
Romeo Saganash was the first Aboriginal MP elected in Quebec; he represents Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou. Romeo has served as NDP critic for Energy and Natural Resources, International Development, and as deputy critic for Intergovernmental Aboriginal Affairs.
Romeo Saganash is a member of the house of commons. He has advanced the private members bill C-262 “An act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
At the age of 23, Saganash founded the Cree National Youth Council. In 1989, he became the first Cree graduate to obtain a Bachelor of Law in Quebec. Between 1990 and 1993, he was Deputy Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees and then Vice-Chairman of the Cree Regional Authority.
Beginning in 1993, he was Director of Quebec Relations and International Affairs for the Grand Council of the Crees. In 1997, he chaired the James Bay Advisory Committee on the Environment. In 2003, he received an award of recognition from UQAM for his role in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Paix des Braves on February 7, 2002, between the Quebec government and the Grand Council of the Crees.
This public talk will be followed by a legal panel consisting of Paul Joffe, Jose Aylwin, and Dr. Peggy Smith. The event will be moderated by Darren Thomas.
Event Poster

Right-wing populism as the "new nationalism" of Europe and America
2018-04-03 12:00 - 13:30
What is new and what is nationalist about Europe’s ‘new nationalism’?
Daphne Halikiopoulou
Far right parties are on the rise across Europe. While these differ in many ways, it is their shared emphasis on sovereignty and policies that promote a ‘national preference’ that has facilitated the term ‘the new nationalism’. In other words, the shared ability of these parties to mobilise support by advocating strict immigration policies, euroscepticism and policies that place the ‘native’ inhabitants first in a range of areas including welfare and social services, points to the importance of nationalism in understanding this phenomenon. But while the rhetoric of these parties is indeed centred on nationalism, the drivers of support are neither new nor necessarily nationalism – related. There is a much more complex mechanism at play. The threefold explanation involves: (1) An economic argument about insecurity and the risks and costs of economic hardship facing both labour market insiders and outsiders; (2) a political argument about the loss of trust in institutions, state capacity and the ability of the state to deliver on its social contract obligations; and (3) an instrumentalist argument about nationalism as a ‘supply-side’ factor, a strategy used by parties in an attempt to broaden their appeal by presenting themselves as legitimate to large sections of the population.
The Populist Spiral: Ethno-Traditional Nationalism, Immigration and ‘Antiracism’
Eric Kaufmann will present evidence for what he calls the ‘populist spiral’, arguing first that right-wing populism is largely an ethnocultural response to culturally-distinct immigration or ethnic change among the section of the population that is psychologically conservative or authoritarian. Second, this impulse is in tension – within individuals and nations – with a quasi-religious norm system based on antiracism. The definition of racism is contested, but had been expanding in scope prior to the 1990s. Since then, European and now American populists have successfully challenged these norms and rolled them back. Once norms are breached, a self-fulfilling spiral increases both the supply of, and demand for, right-wing populist parties and policies. That is, until the supply of conservative/authoritarian voters is fully mobilised.
About the speakers
Dr Daphne Halikiopoulou (PhD LSE) is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics, Department of Politics and IR, University of Reading. She has written extensively on radical nationalism, the politics of exclusion as well as the cultural and economic determinants of far right party support. She is author of Patterns of Secularization: Church, State and Nation in Greece and the Republic of Ireland (Ashgate 2011); co- editor of Nationalism and Globalisation: Conflicting or Complementary (Routledge 2011 with Sofia Vasilopoulou); and co-author of The Golden Dawn’s Nationalist Solution: Explaining the rise of the far right in Greece (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, with Sofia Vasilopoulou). Her research appears in the European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Common Market Studies, Government and Opposition, Nations and Nationalism and South European Society and Politics among others. She is currently working on insecurity and far right party support in Europe.
Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth (Profile 2010), The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America (Harvard 2004), The Orange Order (Oxford 2007) and Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland since 1945 – with H. Patterson (Manchester 2007). He is co-editor, among others, of Political Demography (Oxford 2012) and Whither the Child: causes and consequences of low fertility (Paradigm 2012), and editor of Rethinking Ethnicity: Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities (Routledge 2004). An editor of the journal Nations & Nationalism, he has written for Newsweek International, Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines, and blogs at Huffington Post. His current ESRC grant, affiliated with the think tank Demos, examines white working-class responses to diversity in the UK.

Canada and the Global Forces of Populism
2018-04-02 17:00 - 19:00
Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs will speak about public opinion forces that are driving populism around the world today, and their current and potential impacts in the Canadian context.
About the speaker
Prior to joining Ipsos in 1990, Dr. Bricker was Director of Research in the office of Canada’s Prime Minister. He was also a research consultant with firms in Ottawa and Toronto.
Dr. Bricker holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Carleton University (where he was a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellow), and a BA and MA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has also been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Wilfrid Laurier University, which named him one of their top 100 graduates in the last 100 years.
Darrell is a prolific author. He’s written five national bestselling books, Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset (with Ed Greenspon – Doubleday, 2002), What Canadians Think About Almost Everything (with John Wright – Doubleday, 2005), We Know What You’re Thinking (with John Wright – Harper Collins, 2009), Canuckology (with John Wright – Harper Collins, 2011), and The Big Shift (with John Ibbitson – Harper Collins, 2013).
Speaker Bio

Deconstructing the Ideological Complexity of Right-Wing Populism Across Borders
2018-04-02 13:00 - 2018-04-03 17:00
The political landscape of Western nations has been in upheaval in recent years, between the election of Donald Trump in the United States; the “Brexit” referendum in the UK; and the increasing electoral strength of the National Front in France, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, the Alternative for Germany, the Swiss People’s Party and the Sweden Democrats, among others. These movements often appear radically different from one another in their positions on economic, social and foreign policy; their tactics, allegiances and rhetoric, as well as in their ultimate impact. Nonetheless, they share enough in common to justify widespread intuition that they represent a global ideological phenomenon variously labelled “the new nationalism”, “right-wing populism” or the “radical right”.
Factors used to explain the rise and appeal of these movements include increased economic dislocation, insecurity and inequality due to globalization and workplace automation; mass migration and influxes of new immigrants, especially visible and religious minorities, triggering nativists’ cultural anxieties; and rising mistrust of governments, media, academics, experts, and political elites fuelled by polarizing social media. But approaches that focus too heavily on any one of these factors, or even any simple combination of factors fall short of capturing the nuances of this complex phenomenon.
A better approach is one that frames populist ideology and mobilization as an emergent phenomenon resulting from a pattern of interaction between factors; a pattern that is difficult to discern because these factors operate on different levels of analysis: economic, cultural, institutional and psychological. Methods developed by the Ideological Conflict Project, operating under the BSIA and WICI, can be used to explore how changes to the international political environment have served to open a new “basin of attraction” in the global ideological landscape; in effect, a growing mass market for an otherwise underrepresented convergence of beliefs. While the ideological movements that fill this space each bear the marks of their particular national contexts, they also share a number of commonalities in terms of how they make sense of a changing world. All of these similarities and differences must be accounted for by scholars, activists and politicians grappling with the phenomenon.
This workshop will assemble a team of emerging and established scholars interested in contributing to the development of a comprehensive framework for analyzing right-wing populist ideologies and movements that integrates a diversity of theoretical and disciplinary insights. We would especially like to hear from scholars whose work involves close case analysis or comparative study of how particular national identities and politics interact with a shifting global ideological and economic environment to create space for the formation, rise and/or decline of distinctive right-wing populist movements in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary, Poland and Greece.
To attend this workshop, email Dr. Steven Mock at SMock@balsillieschool.ca.

Global Populism and Democratic Futures Summit
2018-03-28 19:00 - 2018-03-29 20:00
Join us at the Summit – registration required
University of Waterloo’s Global Engagement Seminar Program is pleased to invite you to the Global Populism and Democratic Futures Summit on March 28 & March 29.
The aim of the Summit is to showcase projects developed by the Global Engagement Seminar Program’s students, as well as to engage the broader community in important conversations about the global rise of populist movements.
The Global Engagement Program brings together a select group of students from across the six university faculties in order to engage with pressing global challenges. The program Director, Dr. Jasmin Habib, and this year’s Jarislowky Fellow, Dr. Henry Giroux, are encouraging students to think critically about the global challenges posed by populism and the implications for different communities’ futures.
Along with keynote presentations by Henry Giroux, Kurt Huebner, Ann Komaromi and possibly others, the Global Engagement Seminar students will showcase their exhibits and deliver presentations on such topics as Social Media and Civic Engagement, the rise of and response to Anti-Science Movements, Cultural Belonging in the Wake of Populism, and Mainstreaming and Populist Feminisms.
These projects aim to contribute towards the development of meaningful responses and solutions to these timely global issues.
KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS
Wednesday, March 28th, 7:00 – 8:45 PM – CIGI Auditorium
“Framing” Social Media featuring Dr. Ann Komaromi
The techno-optimism that coloured early evaluations of social media’s potential has turned to techno-pessimism for many, as social media is blamed for the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. In this talk, Komaromi considers some of the evidence for framing social media as a culprit for this debacle of democracy. She also draws on her research of Soviet dissident networks to suggest that we need to think more about the frameworks of culture and policy/regulation within which social media operate.
Cultural and Socio-Economic Factors of Populism in Europe featuring Dr. Kurt Huebner
Populism is not populism. The variety of populism is large. Still, as a set of ideas and as a discursive style, populism usually comes with a ‘us’ vs. ’them’ – approach, where the populist actor condemns the elite in the name of the ‘silent majority, i.e. the ‘true people’. Populism draws on cultural resources and at the same time addresses economic-social problems. Mostly, populist movements want to return the power of the nation-state by simultaneously re-defining the ‘chosen people’. The talk will look into a sample of populist movements and parties across Europe, making the argument that the retreat to the nation-state has the potential to undermine the project of European integration.
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Between 1:30pm and 6pm, the Global Engagement Seminar students will showcase their exhibits: The Effects of Populism on Science and the Effects of the Anti-Science Movements, M(Other)Land: Cultural Belonging in the Wake of Populism, and You Don’t Know what Your Social Media is Doing to Your Democracy.
Between 3:30pm and 5pm, a panel discussion on the topic #Feminism: When a Movement Goes Mainstream will be held. Antonio Brieva, the President of the Feds, and a representative from the UW Equity Committee will join the discussion on university policies and practices to advance gender equality on- and off-campus.
If you cannot join us through the day, you will be able to learn about the students’ ideas between 6pm and 7:30pm on March 29 when all students will deliver formal presentations about their projects.
Please reserve your free tickets for the Summit at https://global-engagement-summit-day-two.eventbrite.co.uk

International Prudential Standards in a World of Growing Nationalism and Protectionism
2018-03-28 12:00 - 13:30
There are worries that the growing nationalism and protectionism in some of our trading partners could threaten financial system stability. Some observers argue that this is a recent phenomenon. It is not. Concerns about globalization have been sprouting like bad weeds for more than 20 years. The global financial crisis was an unfortunate reminder that while global banks may be international in life, they are always national in death.
The lecture explains how international standards are set for the global financial system. Experience teaches us that international standards work best for those activities that are truly cross-border in nature. The so-called Basel III Accord is discussed. It is notable for its focus on reforms that address various macro-prudential issues.
The lecture concludes with ideas on some lessons to be learned from recent attempts at international cooperation. International standard setters need to accept there are limits as to how far they can go in setting standards when it comes to products, services and markets that are more domestic in nature. They also need to adapt to the evolving international cooperation cycle and make sure current standards are fully and consistently implemented before seeking out new standards to introduce.
About the speaker
Mark Zelmer is the Former Deputy Superintendent of Financial Institutions OSFI Canada and a Senior Fellow at the CD Howe Institute.

Narratives of Central American Migrants Living in Mexican Limbo: Student-Led Research in Mexico
2018-03-26 12:00 - 13:30
Registration Required

Cancelled: Never Forget the Victims: Prosecuting Charles Taylor, President of Liberia, for War Crimes
2018-03-22 19:00 - 20:30
We are very sorry to report that this talk has been cancelled due to bad weather impeding the speaker’s travel. We hope to reschedule this talk in the near future.

International criminal prosecution is seen by some as an essential tool to end impunity and reduce the extraordinary impact that war crimes and crimes against humanity have on civilians who are trapped in war. Others criticize international prosecution as simply another form of Westerners attempting to impose their view of justice on a skeptical world while ignoring and silencing the voices of the victims and the communities from which they come.
In this talk, David Crane, the founding prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone will speak about his experience in prosecuting the first sitting head of state for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Charles Taylor. Crane will elaborate on his belief that prosecutions of this kind must never forget the voice of the victims or their communities, and that the guiding question of international prosecutions should be “is the justice we seek the justice they want?”
About the speaker
Professor David M. Crane was appointed a Professor of Practice at Syracuse University College of Law in the summer of 2006. From 2002 to 2005, Crane was the founding Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, an international war crimes tribunal, appointed to that position by Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan. Serving with the rank of Undersecretary-General, Crane’s mandate was to prosecute those who bore the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international human rights committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 1990s. Among those he indicted for horrific crimes was Liberian President Charles Taylor, the first sitting African head of state in history to be held accountable in this way.
This event is co sponsored by Canadian Red Cross, Conrad Grebel University College, Project Ploughshares and Wilfrid Laurier University.

A Nation of Feminist Arms Dealers? Canada and Military Exports
2018-03-22 12:00 - 13:30
The Canada-Saudi light-armoured vehicles deal is likely to be remembered as the Trudeau government’s first scandal. Situating this deal in a historical-comparative context and using the best available quantitative arms trade data, this analysis advances two main claims. First, Canada’s Liberal governments are just as likely as Conservative governments to encourage exports of Canadian military goods, including goods going to human rights-abusing customers. Second, Canada’s overall arms exporting behaviour is similar to the behaviour of its “international do-gooder” peers, Sweden and the Netherlands. This leads to a more philosophical discussion: what does arms trade mean for feminist foreign policy?
About the speaker
Srdjan Vucetic is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA-ÉSAPI), University of Ottawa; Responsable des études de maîtrise de l’École supérieure d’affaires publiques et internationales; Co-Coordonnateur pour le Réseau en théorie internationale du Centre d’études en politiques internationales (CÉPI-CIPS). Research interests in international politics, include foreign and defence policy, identity, arms trade, and the Yugoslav region (where his name is spelled Srđan Vučetić).

Lessons of the Colombian Peace Agreement for Global Governance and Challenges Ahead
2018-03-21 12:30 - 14:00
The peace agreement achieved by the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla in November 2016 is a result of a five-year domestic political process, but also a product of broader global norms and governance mechanisms guiding peace making and transitional justice of civil war settlements in the 21st century. After a year of its implementation, serious challenges threat the agreement’s sustainability. Nonetheless, as the world grapples with intractable conflicts in various regions, the Colombian peace agreement remains a relevant subject for global governance students, as it provides lessons on how substantial agreements may be reached amidst a complex legal, security and political context, both nationally and globally. Andrés García Trujillo presents an analysis of the origins, evolution and challenges of the Colombian process based on his knowledge and first-hand experience of the peace talks as a government advisor, as well as his doctoral dissertation in progress.
About the speaker
Andrés García Trujillo is a PhD candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. He worked for five years at the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace of Colombia, during which time he was involved in the peace talks between the Colombian Government and the FARC in Havana, Cuba on the issues of rural development, gender and reincorporation, as well as the implementation of the agreement. Previously, he was advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and an independent researcher and consultant on development and public policy issues. Andrés holds BAs in International Development Studies and International Political Economy from Trent University, Canada, a Master’s in Social Policy from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia.

The Stranded Wealth of Nations: Oil Exporters, the Shale Revolution and Climate Policy
2018-03-15 12:00 - 13:30
In this talk, Thijs Van de Graaf argues that two profound shifts in technology and markets are disrupting the oil industry and present a fundamental threat to oil rentier states. In the short term, traditional oil firms and exporters will feel ongoing pressure from the shale revolution, a disruptive technology that has unexpectedly and permanently driven down the cost of producing crude oil. In the medium term, the industry must confront a peak and eventual decline in demand as evolving consumer preferences and innovation will steadily push oil out of all but a few activities. Together, these shifts are reflective of a new ‘energy order’, in which oil is no longer an exhaustible resource, oil trade flows increasingly shift to the Asia-Pacific, and oil prices exhibit greater short-term volatility amid a long-term declining trend. These shifts have big implications for oil rentier states. The low oil prices of 2014-2017 are used as a natural experiment to assess the impacts of lower oil revenues on the two largest oil-exporting countries, Saudi Arabia and Russia. The analysis exposes the vulnerability of both countries to lower oil rents, and shows how the downturn has created pressures for short-term adaptation and long-term transformation.
About the speaker
Thijs Van de Graaf is an assistant professor of International Politics at the Ghent Institute for International Studies, Ghent University, Belgium. His research covers energy security, international politics and global governance. Dr. Van de Graaf is the co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy (Palgrave, 2016), Rising Powers and Multilateral Institutions (Palgrave, 2015), author of The Politics and Institutions of Global Energy Governance (Palgrave, 2013) and co-author of Global Energy Governance in a Multipolar World (Ashgate, 2010). He is the coordinator of the REFRACT network, a member of the steering committee of the regular WIRE seminars, and an associated member of the REPI research group at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Dr. Van de Graaf is also a Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance network.
Can’t make it to the event? Watch it live here.

Celebrating Graduate Student Research at the International Migration Research Centre
2018-03-08 12:30 - 13:45
Graduate students at the IMRC discuss issues related to women and migration including regulating refugee mobility, the migration journey across borders and border enforcement at sea.
A Journey of Escape: Refugee women between war and borders
Maissaa Almustafa
Since 2011, more than five million individuals from Syria have escaped the brutal war there, to find themselves trapped between border control regimes designed to regulate refugee mobility and an international refugee system that has failed to offer protection. Both regimes have forced those who are desperate to secure safety and to seek out a new life, to undertake precarious journeys for Northern Europe where they believe they will find better protection and acceptance. However, with restrictive European “non-entrée” system, desperate refugees from Syria have been left with no legal route to these states, but for the undertaking of life-threatening journeys through Aegean and the Mediterranean Seas.
Against this context, Maissaa explores this complex journey of escape. She situates refugees at the center of her work with a particular focus on the experience of women when they are confronted with border control and a failing protection regime. Informed by original field research based on interviews and personal knowledge of the journeys, Maissaa’s presentation examines the conditions that forced refugees from Syria into these journeys, which is an ‘act of escape’ (Mezzadra 2015) and a process of identity transformation and reconstruction.
Navigating Risks across Borders: Migrant Women In Mexico
Carla Angulo-Pasel
This presentation delves in Carla’s doctoral research where she spent three months in southern Mexico learning about how borders affect the migration journeys of migrant women from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA). Carla discusses the different stages of migration, including pre-migration motivations and what the journey across Mexico looks like for migrant women. Lastly, she explores the violence of borders and the survival strategies employed by women given the dangerous and precarious landscape they encounter.
Arriving Somewhere, Not Here: Determining the Effectiveness of Maritime Interdiction Operations using Search and Rescue in the Central Mediterranean Sea, 2006 to 2015
Kira Williams
There exists little work modelling the effectiveness of maritime interdiction operations in stopping current migration or deterring future migration. In this paper, Kira tests the hypothesis that increases in maritime interdiction operational activity using search and rescue decrease migration. They form two subhypotheses based on this core hypothesis: (1) increases in past maritime interdiction operational activity decrease current migration, and (2) increases in current maritime interdiction operational activity decrease current migration. Kira tests these subhypotheses with new and detailed interdiction data from Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, using time series modelling. They reject both subhypotheses both data sets used. Increased operational activity in the past or present has no significant relationship with migration in the present. These findings support a growing body of literature which finds that increasing border enforcement at sea fails to halt migration (Collyer 2007; Lutterbeck 2006; Williams & Mountz forthcoming).
About the speakers
Carla Angulo-Pasel recently successfully completed her PhD in Global Governance at the BSIA. Her research critically examines border security and its effects on ‘unauthorized’ migration. Specifically, she investigates in the intersection of border security and human rights of female migrants.
Maissaa Almustafa is a doctoral candidate at the Global Governance Program at Balsillie School of International Affairs and she an instructor at Political Science Department at WLU. She is an affiliated researcher with the IMRC. Her broad research focuses on refugee journeys in search of protection and the impact of refugee governance policies on the lives and trajectories of refugees. Maissaa was born in Damascus, Syria, where she worked with the British Embassy in Damascus for more than 17 years as a Senior Trade & Investment Officer. Maissaa is actively involved in refugees’ resettlement in Waterloo region. In addition to sponsoring her own family, she volunteered at the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support and is now a member of WLU Steering Committee for assisting Syrian refugees and is a member of the board of directors of Reception House of Waterloo Region where she heads the policy and advocacy committee.
Kira Williams (they/them) is a research associate at University of Waterloo, instructor, researcher and teaching assistant in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, lecturer at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and employee for the International Migration Research Centre. They are currently a doctoral candidate in the Waterloo-Laurier Graduate Program in Geography. Kira’s research focuses on international migration, global governance, and analytical methodology. Their thesis explores how states are reconfiguring spaces at sea to manage the movement of people and shift borders in the Central Mediterranean Sea.

Public Service Q&A with Jonathan Berkshire Miller
2018-03-06 16:30 - 17:30
In this informal session, Jonathan Berkshire Miller will speak with students about strategies to find a career in the Canadian federal public service and what it’s really like working there.
About the speaker
Jonathan Berkshire Miller is an international affairs professional with expertise on security, defense and intelligence issues in Northeast Asia. He spent nearly a decade working on economic and security issues related to Asia with the Canadian federal government and worked both with the foreign ministry and the security community. He also regularly provides advice and presents to multilateral organizations and foreign governments on regional geopolitics.
Speaker Biography

Geopolitics and Security Shifts in East Asia - A Perspective from Japan
2018-03-06 15:00 - 16:30
There have been a number of dynamics impacting the geopolitical landscape in East Asia over the past few years. The most acute – and recent – examples of this have been the intensifying provocations from North Korea, which continues to look at enhancing its nuclear and missile program. But, there are also a number of other critical changes in the region – from new leadership in South Korea to leadership consolidation in China. The region also continues to adapt to a new administration in the US and its changing views on trade and – perhaps – alliances. All of these factors have made Japan’s geo-strategic environment more complex. How is Japan adapting to this change and what are the tripwires to watch for?
About the speaker
Jonathan Berkshire Miller is an international affairs professional with expertise on security, defense and intelligence issues in Northeast Asia. He has held a variety of positions in the private and public sector. Currently, he is a senior visiting fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) based in Tokyo, Japan. He is also a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada. Additionally, he is the Director and co-founder of the Ottawa-based Council on International Policy. Miller is also a Senior Fellow on East Asia for the Asian Forum Japan, based in Tokyo.
Speaker Biography

2018 Prospective Student Open House
2018-03-02 13:00 - 16:30
The Balsillie School welcomes prospective students to tour the campus, and meet faculty, alumni and current students.
Agenda

On-Street Sex Work and Transgender Politics in Mexico City: Intersections of Gender, Class, and Labour
2018-03-01 15:30 - 17:00
Photo “Sex Work Is Worthy as Any Other Job”, credit: Oralia Gomez-Ramirez
This talk examines the sociopolitical concerns and everyday lives of trans women in contemporary Mexico City. While not all transpeople are sex workers, a sizeable number of low-income trans women work as sexual labourers on the streets of Mexico City. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2009 and 2014 with trans activists and trans street vendors who mostly offer sexual services, Dr. Gómez-Ramírez discusses how on-street sexual labour of low-income transpeople is not – but should be – considered critical to trans activist demands for legal rights and social recognition in Mexico. This talk explores the ways in which gender, class, and informal on-street vending shape the circumstances, livelihoods, and aspirations of low-income trans women. By looking at symbolic and material tensions between trans sex workers and trans activists in Mexico City, this talk contributes to rethinking common understandings about the key issues that affect transpeople today.
About the speaker
Dr. Oralia Gómez-Ramírez is a visiting researcher in the Department of Global Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is a qualitative researcher and evaluator in the social and health sciences. Oralia recently completed her doctoral studies in Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

Migration and Belonging: Critical Geographies of the Utopian Imagination
2018-03-01 12:00 - 13:30
Two decades ago, scholars and practitioners were optimistic that borders would vanish or become irrelevant. This optimism was premature. Today, borders are deadlier than ever, and migrants continue to be excluded from social participation and belonging. To overcome these deadly and exclusionary policies and practices, Dr. Bauder suggest, requires exploring alternative possibilities that link migration with fresh imaginaries of community, citizenship, and belonging. These imaginaries can range from the immanently practical to the “utopian.”
This presentation marks the release of the paper version of Dr. Bauder’s book Migration Borders Freedom (Routledge).
About the speaker
Harald Bauder is a Professor of Geography at Ryerson University. He is the Director of the Graduate Program in Immigration and Settlement Studies and the founding Academic Director of the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement. He received his PhD from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1998.
This event is co-sponsored by the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC).

The Resistance Dilemma: How the Climate Movement’s Strategy Threatens the Clean Energy Transition
2018-02-15 12:00 - 13:30
Watch the recording of this talk here.
Battles over new fossil fuel infrastructure have played an increasingly important role in the environmental movement. Frustrated by the lack of concerted government action to address the climate crisis, environmental activists have taken to focusing on blocking the approval or construction of new facilities. Place-based resistance has emerged to confront a variety of fossil fuel infrastructure, including coal-fired power plants and fracking. This talk focuses on resistance to the expansion of the oil sands in northern Alberta, a vast deposit of unconventional oil that gives Canada its ranking as having the third largest holder of oil reserves. This resistance strategy has slowed fossil fuel expansion, but has also created new challenges to the transition to clean energy. By legitimizing place-based resistance strategies, the climate movement’s strategies choices may have the unintended consequence of creating more formidable obstacles to the transition to a clean energy economy necessary to combat the climate crisis. The talk summarizes the campaign and oil sands pipelines, and its impliciations for the social acceptance of clean energy infrastructure.
About the speaker
George Hoberg, professor in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC, specializes in environmental and natural resource policy and governance. His research interests include environmental policy, energy policy, forest policy, and more generally the design of policies and institutions to promote sustainability. His current research focuses on the clean energy transformation. He has published on the role of science in policy-making and international constraints on domestic policy autonomy. He has also written books on BC and Canadian forest policy, environmental policy in the US, toxic substances regulation, and edited two books on comparative Canada-US policies and the US influence on Canada. He is writing a book on the resistance to oil sands pipelines and the challenges and opportunities of the clean energy transformation.
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Cosmopolitan Culture and Migration in Ecuador: Intersections of Class, Ethnicity and Gender in the Quito Food Truck Scene
2018-02-14 12:00 - 13:30
This paper explores the formation of consumerist cosmopolitanisms and migration through complex social and cultural practices of consumption in Quito’s food truck scene. The food truck scene is a relatively new development in Ecuador’s culinary landscape, shaped by Venezuelan migrants, in an attempt to establish a new, niche market in food consumption. Focusing on the interactions between consumers and owners of food truck brands in Quito, this empirical study examines how the urban food scene is negotiated by food truck owners, workers, and consumers in these highly stylized spaces. Using a wide range of cultural strategies, food truck brand managers (many of whom are Venezuelan migrants), tap into a set of cosmopolitan imaginaries about consumers, aesthetics, and consumption to shape a festive, global experience of eating out a defined food truck patio environment. However, on the consumption side, far from matching pre-conceived notions of “cosmopolitan consumers”, held by food truck owners, cultural, gender, and class boundaries demonstrate a high degree of fragmentation in the ways in which Ecuadorian consumers participate and identify with these new urban spaces. The paper will highlight the diverse, nuanced, conflicting ways in which consumerist cosmopolitanisms are performed in Quito’s food truck scene.
About the speaker
Cheryl Martens lectures in Sociology at Universidad San Francisco de Quito and holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Manchester. She has lectured at universities in Argentina, Ecuador, Japan, Slovakia and the United Kingdom and is currently visiting Lecturer for the PhD program in Social Sciences at the National University of Cuyo, Argentina. Her research and publications concentrate on the Sociology and Political Economy of communication and everyday life, media policy, digital activism, well-being and corporate-social partnerships. Her recent publications include “Questioning Technology in South America” in Thesis Eleven (2017) and two co-edited collections: The International Political Economy of Communication: Media and Power in South America (Palgrave MacMillan, 2014) and Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives (Fordham University Press, 2016).

Elon Musk, President of Mars?
2018-02-12 19:00 - 21:00
Who owns Outer Space? Could Elon Musk become President of Mars? How would one negotiate a treaty with aliens? Space is becoming a very busy place, with 90 orbital launches occurring in 2017 alone. Many of the governance challenges that currently exist on Earth will soon exist in Space. Yet the unique conditions of Space, including extremes of danger, distance and time, will necessarily require fundamental changes to the conduct of international relations and the content of international law.
About the speaker
Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. His work focuses on Outer Space, the Arctic, climate change, armed conflict, and Canadian foreign and defence policy. Dr. Byers has been a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Professor of Law at Duke University. He has also taught as a visiting professor at the Universities of Cape Town, Tel Aviv, and Novosibirsk. Dr. Byers is the author, most recently, of International Law and the Arctic (Cambridge University Press), which won the 2013 Donner Prize. He is a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail newspaper.
Free parking for this event is available in the rear of the building, off Father David Bauer Drive. The entrance to the building is located off Erb Street West, and is connected to the parking lot via a walkway on the east side of the building.

Euro Area Reform: Why and How
2018-02-12 12:00 - 13:30
Register Now via Eventbrite

The WatPEG/Global Political Economy Research Cluster at the BSIA and the Centre for International Governance Innovation invite you to join us for a daytime lecture on reconciling market discipline and risk sharing in the euro area featuring CIGI Senior Fellow Beatrice Weder di Mauro.
This event will be preceded by a light lunch.

About the speaker
Beatrice Weder di Mauro is a senior fellow with CIGI’s Global Economy Program. Beatrice has provided high-level policy advice to key financial institutions and European governments in the areas of financial crisis, international capital flows, financial governance and sovereign debt restructuring.

Life in the Public Service: A Graduate's Experience
2018-02-09 12:00 - 13:30
Brodie Ross, Senior Policy Officer with the Department of National Defence will provide his insight and experience in navigating the job market after graduation, life in the public service, the Policy Officer Recruitment Program and a career in the Policy Group at National Defence.
About the speaker
Brodie Ross is a graduate of both the Wilfrid Laurier Political Science program (2007) as well the Masters of International Public Policy program (2008). He is currently a Senior Policy Officer with National Defence where he has worked since 2009. During his time with National Defence he has held a variety of posts, including in Parliamentary Affairs, Cabinet Liaison, NATO Policy and with the Canadian Joint Operations Command. He also has international experience with a brief posting to Canada’s Joint Delegation to NATO in 2011 as well as to Kuwait in 2014/15 as the deployed Policy Advisor to the Commander of Joint Task Force – Iraq during the reconnaissance mission and first rotation of OPERATION IMPACT, Canada’s contribution to the Global Coalition against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. Since May 2015 he has been with the Directorate of Policy Development where he was the co-lead analyst and pen for Canada’s Defence Policy Review which culminated in the June 2017 publication of Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada’s Defence Policy.

America’s Self-Defeating Sovereignty Obsession and Its Implications for the Liberal World Order
2018-02-08 12:30 - 14:00
Determination to defend U.S. sovereignty has been the most consistent theme in President Donald Trump’s otherwise chaotic foreign policy, as evinced by his attitude toward the Paris Agreement, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and U.S. border security. However, his actions are based on a false premise that U.S. sovereignty is under siege, and a mistaken understanding of what “sovereignty” actually means in an age of global interdependence.
Presenting the arguments of his new book, The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America with the World, Stewart Patrick will discuss the deep historical roots of America’s obsession with preserving its constitutional independence and freedom of action from alleged external incursions and constraints, from the founding of the republic through the debate over the League of Nations to the current day. This instinct—which was in abeyance since 1945, has re-emerged since the end of the Cold War, reaching its apotheosis under Trump—with disastrous results for U.S. national interests and the fate of the liberal international order.
About the speaker
Stewart M. Patrick is James H. Binger senior fellow in global governance and director of the International Institutions and Global Governance (IIGG) Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His areas of expertise include multilateral cooperation on global issues; U.S. policy toward international institutions, including the United Nations; and the challenges posed by fragile and post–conflict states. Patrick is the author of The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America with the World, as well as Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security. He also writes the blog, The Internationalist.

2017-18 GAC Oral Briefing Session
2018-02-02 10:15 - 14:45
Graduate Fellows at the Balsillie School update Global Affairs Canada representatives on the progress of their policy briefs.
This event is by invitation only.
Agenda

"Here One Cannot Live, But It Is Not Worth Living Elsewhere": Rethinking Illiberalism Through the Politics of Displacement of Roma in Orbán’s Hungary
2018-02-01 12:00 - 13:30
Scholars of democratic regime theory, as well as nationalism studies have examined at length the state-centric and ideological drivers of the recent European ‘illiberal turn’ and its discontents. What necessitates further examination, and what this project proposes to do on a broader scale, is to address how, or if, contemporary illiberal politics forge new political subjectivities and citizen associations that affect informal institutional ties (i.e. kinship, family); and produce asymmetries in sub-regional economies that allow or impede interest making at local scales. My work argues that studies of states and societies undergoing immanent capture, or consolidation into autocratic regimes, necessitate multi-dimensional perspectives that begin with the plurality of livelihoods, interests, and contradictions that arise within everyday life. In other words, how are “transitions” to an ‘illiberal’ or ‘authoritarian’ state perceived, symbolized and lived through? And how are these politics acutely felt, made sense of, ignored, resisted, or adapted to by certain citizenries and segments of society?
This dissertation project is informed by participant observation in Hungary’s northeastern provinces, with a focus on the cultural concepts circulating housing, property, and security-development politics in the post-industrial city of Miskolc. Through a set of fieldsights and narratives, Patrick Ciaschi will present how targeted Roma and Gypsy inhabitants and neighborhoods become microcosms of national state level tensions: where EU level integration/resettlement and local level eviction and ostracism campaigns coincide; where factional fault lines between various humanitarian, right wing vigilante and civil rights groups intersect; and where Roma and Gypsy inhabitants consider asylum in Canada as a necessary way to seek life elsewhere.
About the speaker
Patrick Ciaschi is a Visiting Scholar at the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC) and PhD Candidate, Politics, at The New School for Social Research.

Censored Success: How to Prevent a Banking Panic; the Barings Crisis of 1890 Revisited
2018-01-25 12:00 - 13:30
Financial histories have treated the Barings Crisis of 1890 as a minor or pseudo-crisis, presenting no threat to the systems of payment or settlement and readily managed by following Bagehot’s LOLR rule. New evidence reveals that Barings Brothers, a SIFI, was a deeply insolvent institution. Just as its true condition was revealed and a full-scale panic was about to ignite, the Bank of England stepped in; but it did not respond as Bagehot recommended. While lending freely at a high rate on good collateral to other institutions, the Bank organized a pre-emptive lifeboat operation. Barings was split into a good bank that was recapitalized and a bad bank that had a prolonged but orderly liquidation supported by credit from the Bank. A financial crisis was thereby avoided, while steps were taken to mitigate the effects of moral hazard from this discretionary intervention. Contrary to the historical consensus for the pre-1914 era, central banks did not follow a strict Bagehot rule but exercised discretion when faced with the failure of a giant financial institution. Their success has led to a reading of history that has censored lessons in effective approaches to halting incipient crises.
About the speaker
Eugene N. White is Professor of Economics at Rutgers University and a Research Associate of the NBER. He has written extensively on stock market and real estate booms and crashes, conflicts of interest, deposit insurance, banking supervision, the microstructure of securities markets and war finance. In addition, to numerous university conferences and seminars, he has lectured at many central banks and has recently testified before the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). He is currently at work on studies of the evolution of the New York and Paris stock exchanges, real estate bubbles, and bank supervision.

Our Climate is Nuclear
2018-01-18 12:00 - 13:30
This talk explores how the concept of ‘global climate change’ emerged only recently, from a surprising source: the sciences and technologies tracing radioactive fallout from nuclear bombs detonated during the Cold War. The global climate, therefore, is not the natural or immutable scientific object that we take for granted today as a permanent fixture of nature. Rather, it is the conceptual echo of mushroom clouds that once fomented a ‘global climate change’ wrought by nuclear winter.
About the speaker
Dr. Scott Hamilton is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-19) researching crises of of global governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. He specializes in International Relations, continental philosophy, and global environmental politics.

PhD Dissertation Defence: Navigating Risks Across Borders
2018-01-16 09:00 - 12:00
Navigating Risks Across Borders: The Lived Experiences of Central American Women Migrants
Carla Angulo-Pasel
PhD in Global Governance
Chair: Logan McLeod
Advisor: Kim Rygiel
Committee: Jenna Hennebry, Alison Mountz, Judith Nicholson
External: Nancy Hiemstra, Stoney Brook University
Notice of Doctoral Dissertation Examination
