Balsillie School of International Affairs

Rethinking Environmental Security Book Launch
2022-05-13 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Toronto) | Hybrid, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
This thought-provoking book explores how the global ecological crisis profoundly challenges conventional meanings of environmental security and raises important questions about how states and other institutions now face the future.
Simon Dalby provides unique insights into the traditional search for security in terms of using firepower to dominate states and environments, and how this is now endangering people across the globe. Whereas earlier concerns about nuclear firepower focused on the security dilemmas it posed, Dalby offers a new perspective into the existential threats to civilization presented by the combustion of fossil fuels. Propounding that the constraint of firepower in both senses is now key to a flourishing human future, the book calls for international relations scholars to rethink many of the central premises in the field and formulate new policies that focus on the necessity of ecological flourishing to provide meaningful security in a climate disrupted world.
Visionary and inspiring, Rethinking Environmental Security will be a critical read for scholars and students of international relations, climate change, environmental governance and regulation, and political geography and geopolitics. Its novel ideas will also be beneficial for policy makers and practitioners in these fields.
About the speaker
Simon Dalby is a Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His published research deals with climate change, environmental security and geopolitics.
He is author of Anthropocene Geopolitics: Globalization, Security, Sustainability, (University of Ottawa Press, 2020) and Security and Environmental Change (Polity, 2009), and co-editor of Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (Routledge 2019), and Reframing Climate Change: Constructing Ecological Geopolitics (Routledge 2016).

PhD Dissertation Defence: “Political Culture: An Unexplored Factor in Climate Change Policy”
2022-05-12 14:00 - 17:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Alex Suen‘s dissertation defence.
Abstract
As climate change continues to ravage the world, mitigation efforts continue to be insufficient to rise to the challenge. Inaction on climate change has been traditionally explained by economic incentives, but some of the variability in climate policies cannot be explained by economics alone. Some variations could be accounted for by the deeply rooted national political culture of Anglo-settler colonies. This political culture may inhibit the willingness of such states to cooperate on climate change. In this thesis, I describe the political philosophy of the Anglo-settler colony, and the histories of domination of its white settlers over the indigenous peoples of the territories they conquered. I trace the process of settler colonialism of three countries: The United States, Canada, and Australia. The political culture of settler colonialism could intersect with the governmental structure and ideology of liberal democracies, that inhibits the national desire to cooperate on climate change internationally and implement effective policies domestically. To analyze this connection, I employ discourse analysis on a selection of opinion articles from newspapers of record between 2009-2016 for the three countries. I propose that these articles serve as a system of social reinforcement, wherein elite demands to limit mitigation efforts are recirculated, normalized, and entrench the hegemony of settler colonialism vis-à-vis climate change policy and diplomacy. Understanding these histories and processes could have important implications for the future of climate change.
Supervisor: Dr. Simon Dalby
Committee: Dr. Angela Carter and Dr. Imre Szeman
Internal/external: Dr. Andrew Herman
External: Dr. Peter Jacques, University of Central Florida
There are limited spaces available to attend the defence. Email events@balsillieschool.ca if you would like to attend.

PhD Dissertation Defence: “From a ‘Cheli’ in Nepal to a ‘Khadama’ in the Arabian Gulf Countries: the Local‐Global Entanglements and Gendered Labour Migration Governance”
2022-05-11 13:00 - 16:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Hari KC‘s dissertation defence.
Abstract
This dissertation explores: In what ways does gender operate as a governing code in Nepal’s labour migration governance? This question is answered in three specific ways. First, it explores how the gender codes in the Nepali society conjoin global forces to create structural conditions for women’s transnational labour migration. Second, it examines how the Nepali state – within the regional/global geopolitics – embraces the gendered labour migration policy to produce, reproduce, and perpetuate the gender codes. Third, it explicates the ways in which women migrating for domestic work in the Arabian Gulf countries resist and subvert the gender codes while being implicated in the entangled precarity. The research also deliberates on the migrant rights politics and activism that attend to the entangled precarity faced by the Nepali women migrant domestic workers. The dissertation proposes the “gendered local‐global entanglements” as a conceptual framework to explore the ways in which the local and global forces and processes are deeply enmeshed and embedded in: 1) women’s transnational labour migration; 2) the gender discriminatory labour migration policy; and 3) the production of entangled precarity faced by women migrant domestic workers.
First, the dissertation explicates women’s transnational labour migration for domestic work in the light of four‐pronged sociocultural and economic processes and their gendered implications, intersecting with multiple other axes of oppression. Further, the dissertation describes Nepal as a quasimigration brokerage state while embracing an “exception to neoliberalism” labour migration policy toward women migrant workers. Such a policy is embedded in the notion of a “masculine sovereignty” which emanates from the patriarchy that conceives women as vulnerable. In contrast to women’s vulnerability, this research unmasks the vulnerability of the Nepali state, as reflected through its “sandwiched sovereignty” that refers to a fragile geopolitical position, resulting from a concurrent pressure from and complicity with global forces and its debilitating bargaining power. Finally, the dissertation explores the ways in which the gendered labour systems and patriarchal ideologies in Nepal and the Arabian states are enmeshed in producing the entangled precarity. These findings are based on roughly five months of ethnographic fieldwork in Nepal, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates and engagements with women migrant domestic workers, including state and non‐state actors.
Supervisor: Dr. Jenna Hennebry
Committee: Dr. Margaret Walton-Roberts and Dr. Alison Mountz
Internal/external: Dr. Jonathan Crush
External: Dr. Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, University of Southern California
There are limited spaces available to attend the defence. Email events@balsillieschool.ca if you would like to attend.

Before the UN Sustainable Development Goals
2022-05-11 11:30 - 13:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, provide a blueprint for the global community to address pressing global challenges, from hunger to climate change. Before the UN Sustainable Development Goals: A Historical Companion (OUP, 2022) tells the decades- or centuries-old backstory of each of the 17 SDGs, with a focus on the global human connections, governance tools and frameworks, and the actors involved in past efforts to address sustainable development challenges. Fanzo, Gutmann, and Gorman will speak about the book, with a focus on the histories of SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 9 (industry, innovations and infrastructure), SDG 15 (life on land), and SDG 17 (global partnerships).
About the speakers
Jessica Fanzo is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University
Martin Gutmann is University Lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland. Previously, he was a senior lecturer and Managing Director of the ETH Zurich Swiss School of Public Governance
Dan Gorman is Professor, University of Waterloo at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Critical Conversations: "The Bad and the Ugly: Internet Governance in an Era of Disinformation"
2022-05-10 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
From communications, to media, to entertainment and social connection, the internet has become ubiquitous across the globe; an important, and some would say essential, part of modern life. However, what happens when the tremendous power and reach of the internet is misused and abused through propaganda, lies, and disinformation campaigns? How — and should? — the internet be governed, and by whom? Join us for this panel of Critical Conversations, where leading global experts will explore the nuances and dangers of digital rights violations, governance, and the definition of, and control over, truth, on the internet today.
About the speakers
Samantha Bradshaw is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Program on Democracy and the Internet and the Digital Civil Society Lab. Her fellowship work will examine the gender dimensions of disinformation, and how harassment and misogyny are used to suppress the political participation of women online. Samantha has published in leading academic journals, including New Media & Society, Internet & Policy, Internet Technology & Regulation, and the Columbia Journal of International Affairs. Her research and public writing has also been featured by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, the Globe and Mail, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg Magazine.
Mark Raymond (@ProfMarkRaymond) is the Wick Cary Associate Professor of International Relations and the Director of the Cyber Governance and Policy Center at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Social Practices of Rule-Making in World Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). His work appears in various academic journals including International Theory, the Journal of Global Security Studies, Strategic Studies Quarterly, The Cyber Defense Review, the UC Davis Law Review, the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. He is also the co-editor of Organized Chaos: Reimagining the Internet (Waterloo: CIGI, 2014). He has contributed policy commentary to outlets including Lawfare and The Monkey Cage. He was a Senior Advisor with the United States Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and has testified before the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, and participated in the Internet Governance Forum. He is an External Affiliate of the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University, and was previously a Fellow with the Center for Democracy and Technology as well as a Carnegie Fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Moderated by Ann Fitz-Gerald, Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs.

MiFOOD Inception Workshop: Precarity, Exclusion and Migrant Food Insecurity in Cities of the Global South
2022-04-20 08:30 - 2022-04-21 12:10 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The MiFOOD Inception Workshop will allow partners to present their research plans targeting Workstream 1 of the MiFOOD project on Precarity, Exclusion and Migrant Food Insecurity in Cities. The workshop aims to facilitate dialogues and community building among partners, address research challenges, and discuss future activities.
The workshop will take place over two days and is hosted by the Hungry Cities Partnership and MiFOOD project.
Agenda MiFOOD Inception Workshop Programme April 2022

Measuring Food Security in the Time of COVID-19
2022-04-14 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
As the Russia-Ukraine crisis unfolds, the world is facing new threats to global food security which will exacerbate the dire situation caused by two years of COVID-19 pandemic and related economic recession. The 2021 UN State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World estimates that close to one third of the world’s population suffered from moderate to severe food insecurity in 2020, up by 320 million people in just one year. Food insecurity will have to continue to be a top priority for governments, at a time when resources to provide relief are dwindling. Simple yet reliable tools, metrics, and indicators to accurately measure food insecurity and to track, monitor, and assess the impacts of mitigation measures will be more important than ever to ensure that populations receive the support they need in these challenging times. The presentation will provide a brief overview of available indicators to measure different dimensions of food security and for different purposes, focusing on population level measurement.
About the speaker
Marie T. Ruel is Director of the Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Dr. Ruel has worked for more than 35 years on policies and programs to alleviate poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries. She has published extensively on topics related to maternal and child nutrition, infant and young child feeding practices and related indicators, urban food security and nutrition, and on the linkages between agriculture, food systems, nutrition, and health. Dr. Ruel has served on various international expert committees, including with the National Academy of Sciences, the International Zinc in Nutrition Consultative Group, the Micronutrient Forum, and the WHO – STAGE on Maternal, Newborn, Child & Adolescent Health and Nutrition. Dr. Ruel received the American Society for Nutrition Kellogg Prize for lifetime achievement in nutrition in 2019. She holds a PhD in International Nutrition from Cornell University.
MiFOOD is hosting a series of webinars on various topics about migration and food security that highlight the progress of the project. These webinars include conceptual discussion, empirical findings and policy analysis. Through these webinars, we intend to build a community with various stakeholders for knowledge sharing, deepen the understanding of the complex intersections between migration and food security, and facilitate the discussion of effective policy interventions. Follow the MiFOOD Twitter (Moving on Empty), Like the MiFOOD Facebook page to be notified about upcoming webinars.

‘The Crisis Within’: Poverty and Food Insecurity Among Zimbabwean Migrants in South Africa in the Age of COVID-19
2022-03-31 09:00 - 10:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
There has been an exodus of Zimbabweans from their country in the past two decades due to a prolonged economic crisis, underlain by an unstable political environment. Hence, the majority of people leaving Zimbabwe are largely economic migrants, seeking better livelihoods in neighbouring countries. While South Africa is the most preferred destination because of its relatively more developed and stable economy, not all migrants secure jobs or engage in meaningful livelihood activities. Recent economic challenges in the South African economy means that competition for jobs is stiff, and migrants inevitably fare much worse on the job market. Facing such hardships, how do these migrants meet their food needs?
This study examined the food security of Zimbabwean migrants in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Study findings show that, though most migrated to escape poverty and hunger in their country, the majority were equally deprived and facing a food security crisis in South Africa. Most migrants were constructing livelihoods in an informal sector which has become more restrictive and even dangerous for migrants to operate in. The migrants’ food security crisis was worsened by the advent of COVID-19 and accompanying restrictions which made it difficult to engage in economic activities, in an environment where most were ineligible to access the various funds put in place to help households lessen the impact of the pandemic.
About the speaker
Godfrey Tawodzera is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Namibia. He has previously worked at the University of Limpopo, the University of Zimbabwe, the Catholic University of Mozambique, and in the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town. Godfrey has been involved in numerous studies on food security and migration and has published extensively in these fields with particular focus on South Africa, Zambia and in Zimbabwe.
MiFOOD is hosting a series of webinars on various topics about migration and food security that highlight the progress of the project. These webinars include conceptual discussion, empirical findings and policy analysis. Through these webinars, we intend to build a community with various stakeholders for knowledge sharing, deepen the understanding of the complex intersections between migration and food security, and facilitate the discussion of effective policy interventions. Follow the MiFOOD Twitter (Moving on Empty), Like the MiFOOD Facebook page to be notified about upcoming webinars.

Global Insights: "Democracy, Dictatorships, and Social Movements"
2022-03-24 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Freedom House reports that democracy has been in decline for 16 consecutive years. They estimate that only about 20 percent of the world’s population lives in free countries today. Populist leaders and their movement have gained electoral victories in what were considered stable, consolidated democracies. Authoritarian regimes have become more skilled at repressing challengers both at home and abroad. At the same time, social resistance to authoritarianism and populism is on the rise. Fighters for democracy and their movements display great courage in resisting some of the most powerful and resilient of authoritarian regimes, risking imprisonment and death. The recent re-invasion of Ukraine has strengthened democratic alliances. In this month’s episode of Global Insights, panelists will discuss the current state of democracy and authoritarianism, as well as the implications of contemporary social movements for both.
Panelists
Brandon Dickson is a current MAGG and incoming PhD student at the Balsillie School of International Affairs University of Waterloo. His research interests are focused on the intersection of education and politics in international settings and have been funded by both SSHRC and NSERC.
Abbas Imam is a student at Balsillie School of International Affairs and is affiliated with the Conflict and Security Research Cluster as a Support Officer. His broader research interests include food security and health in fragile and conflict affected states.
Anastassiya Perevezentseva is a doctoral candidate at the School of International Service, American University, and a Princeton Dissertation Scholar. Her research focuses on contentious politics, populism, and democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2021, Anastassiya co-published an article with James Bryan on elite response to protest in Russia in Democratization. Prior to her doctorate, she has served as a youth representative of a UN DPI associated NGO.

Resilient Ukraine? The Battle of Democracy v. Autocracy and the War's Impacts on the Global Order
2022-03-17 10:00 - 11:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The STEM for Global Resilience research cluster is delighted to have Ambassador Thomas M.T. Niles speak to us on the current crisis in Ukraine. Over the course of his career, Ambassador Niles was the US ambassador to Canada, Greece, and the EU, as well as serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada with earlier postings in Belgrade and Moscow. He brings a deep knowledge of the underlying issues at stake in the war against Ukraine. Ambassador Niles played a central role in shaping key strategic and diplomatic interventions in a variety of international crises and possesses first-hand knowledge and experience about the complex relationships between Ukraine, the US, EU, Canada, and Russia.

Ecological Rights, Constitutionalism and Democracy
2022-03-16 12:00 - 13:30 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The Environment and Resources (ERRC) Research Cluster at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) is pleased to host a virtual panel discussion on the intersection of ecological rights and democratic institutions.
The starting point for the discussion is the increasing attention to the development of environmental / ecological rights within domestic and international governance practices. One manifestation of this trend is entrenching substantive environmental rights in constitutional documents and increasing resort to rights-based litigation to require governments and private actors to address environmental harms. In countries where they have been adopted, such measures are correlated with stronger environmental laws, more participatory decision processes and smaller ecological footprints. Rights-based approaches may also provide an alternative avenue for action where recalcitrant governments are slow to take steps in the face of mounting ecological threats. Yet, the move to establish a rights-oriented approach to environmental governance has profound democratic implications, as the potential effect of rights-based approaches is to constrain the ability of democratically elected governments to pursue certain policy pathways and to empower courts to play a significant role in shaping environmental and economic policies. This panel, featuring globally recognized legal experts in the field of environmental rights, will explore the challenges and opportunities that arise at the nexus of democracy and environmental rights.
The panel discussion will be followed by an opportunity for discussion and questions with audience members.
Panelists
Randall S. Abate is the inaugural Rechnitz Family and Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy, and a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Sociology, at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. He also serves as the Director of the Institute for Global Understanding at Monmouth, and teaches courses in domestic and international environmental law, climate justice, constitutional law, and animal law. Professor Abate has published six books—and more than thirty law journal articles and book chapters—on environmental and animal law topics, with a recent emphasis on climate change law and justice. He is the author of Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
John Knox is the Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International Law at Wake Forest University, in North Carolina, where he teaches and writes on human rights law, environmental law, and their relationship with one another. From 2012 to 2015, he served as the first United Nations Independent Expert, and from 2015 to 2018, as its first Special Rapporteur, on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In that role, he submitted a series of reports to the UN Human Rights Council on the application of human rights law to environmental issues, including climate change and the conservation of biological diversity. In 2018, he concluded his mandate by presenting Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment to the United Nations, and by calling upon the UN General Assembly to recognize the human right to a healthy and sustainable environment.
Dayna Nadine Scott is Associate Professor & York Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice in the Green Economy. Her research interests focus on contestation over extraction; exercises of Indigenous jurisdiction over lands and resources; the distribution of pollution burdens affecting marginalized communities and vulnerable populations; gender and environmental health; and the justice dimensions of the transition to a greener economy. Professor Scott is currently the co-Principal Investigator, with Professor Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark of the University of Victoria’s Center for Indigenous Research and Community-led Engagement (CIRCLE), of a project funded by the SSHRC New Frontiers in Research Fund called “Jurisdiction Back: Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism, which explores how the “just transition” to sustainable economies can be imagined and infrastructured to restore Indigenous jurisdiction, laws and governance systems.

2022 Prospective Student Open House
2022-03-15 09:00 - 10:45 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
By Invitation Only
The Balsillie School welcomes prospective students to meet virtually with the School’s Director, Program Directors, current students and graduates to learn about all the unique opportunities on offer at the School.
Agenda

The Russian Invasion of Ukraine: A Catastrophe and its Implications
2022-03-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Ukrainians are fighting for their independence and the future of their country against a brutal assault by the Russian state. This panel will reflect on the implications of Russia’s invasion for Ukraine and the world. This event is co-hosted by the BSIA, IMRC and the Department of Global Studies at Laurier.
Panelists
Ivan (John) Jaworsky is Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo. His research interests include dissent and its legacies in the post-Soviet region, regional issues and inter-ethnic relations in Ukraine (with a focus on Crimea and the Crimean Tatars), and civil-military relations in Ukraine.
Oksana Dudko is the Petro Jacyk Postdoctoral Fellow in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Oksana is a historian and curator whose research explores the history of 20th-century Europe with a special focus on violence, gender, and the cultural history of Ukraine, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
Jörg Broschek is Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Comparative Federalism and Multilevel Governance and Associate Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research explores how federations like Canada or Germany and more encompassing systems of multilevel governance like the European Union adjust to new international and domestic challenges.
Derek Hall is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Balsillie School at Wilfrid Laurier. He researches global political economy, political ecology, and critical agrarian studies with particular attention to Japan and Southeast Asia.
Tom Deligiannis is an instructor in the Department of Global Studies at Laurier specializing in peace and conflict studies. Tom’s research focuses on the conflict impacts of human induced environmental and change.
Tara Bedard is Executive Director of the Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership and was previously a senior leader with a European public interest law organization working on human rights and social policy implementation with intergovernmental institutions and national governments. She has over 20 years of experience working in migration, forced displacement and refugee matters.
Moderated by Tanya Richardson, associate professor in the Department of Global Studies and the Anthropology Program at Wilfrid Laurier University. During the past two decades, she has carried out ethnographic research in Ukraine about topics such as such as placemaking practices in Odesa, nature conservation, and apiculture.
Image: “May that Nuclear War Be Cursed” (1978). By Maria Primachenko (1909-1997) a folk artist from the village of Bolotnya located 30 km from the Chornobyl Power Plant. On February 27, Russian forces destroyed a museum which held 25 of her paintings.

How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate
2022-03-08 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country’s rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. Dr. Weber’s book uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms that shaped China’s path. In the first post-Mao decade, China’s reformers were sharply divided. They agreed that China had to reform its economic system and move toward more marketization – but struggled over how to go about it. Should China destroy the core of the socialist system through shock therapy, or should it use the institutions of the planned economy as market creators?
With hindsight, the historical record proves the high stakes behind the question: China embarked on an economic expansion commonly described as unprecedented in scope and pace, whereas Russia’s economy collapsed under shock therapy. Based on extensive research, including interviews with key Chinese and international participants and World Bank officials as well as insights gleaned from unpublished documents, the book charts the debate that ultimately enabled China to follow a path to gradual reindustrialization. Beyond shedding light on the crossroads of the 1980s, it reveals the intellectual foundations of state-market relations in reform-era China through a longue duree lens. Overall, the book delivers an original perspective on China’s economic model and its continuing contestations from within and from without.
About the speaker
Isabella M. Weber is a political economist working on monetary theory, China, global trade and the history of economic thought. She is an Assistant Professor of Economics and the Research Leader for China of the Asian Political Economy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Her first book How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate is the winner of the Joan Robinson Prize 2021 and the International Studies Association Best Interdisciplinary Book Award and has been recommended on best book of 2021 lists by the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, Project Syndicate, ProMarket and Folha de S.Paulo among others. For her work on the rise of economics in China’s recent history she has won the International Convention of Asia Scholars’ Ground-breaking Subject Matter Accolade and the Warren Samuels Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in History of Economic Thought and Methodology. Previously she was a Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has been the principal investigator of the ESRC-funded Rebuilding Macroeconomics project What Drives Specialization? A Century of Global Export Patterns. Isabella holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research, New York, and a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and was a visiting researcher at Tsinghua University. German born, she studied at the Free University of Berlin and Peking University for her B.A.

Discussion: The Invasion of Ukraine and the International Response
2022-03-07 12:00 - 13:30 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The Conflict and Security Research Cluster invites the BSIA community to an informal discussion on the invasion of Ukraine on Monday, March 7th at 12pm. The session will be led by Dr. Veronica Kitchen and Dr. Timothy Donais, and will aim to assess various dimensions of the ongoing situation, from refugees and migration to human and arctic security to the future of NATO. Our goal will be to produce an explainer for the Conflict and Security website.
Please note that this event is open to the BSIA community only.

Sustainable Waterloo Region's Lifestyle Changes
2022-03-04 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
This event is open to faculty, students, postdocs and staff at the Balsillie School.
Sustainable Waterloo Region’s Program Manager, Rebecca Garlick, will be joining us to provide some useful tips for reducing your personal impact on the planet. If you are interested in learning more about some suggested lifestyle changes, please join us on March 4th.
About the speaker
Rebecca Garlick is the Program Manager for the Regional Sustainability Initiative, a program offered by Sustainable Waterloo Region. In this role, Rebecca works with businesses across Waterloo Region, both public and private, and helps them to set targets and goals to integrate sustainability into their businesses.

Inclusivity in Mediation and Peacebuilding: UN, Neighboring States, and Global Powers
2022-03-03 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Webinar link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83005893373?pwd=[REDACTED]
The event provides an opportunity to discuss key features of a new book by Dr. Daisaku Higashi of Sophia University in Tokyo, entitled Inclusivity in Mediation and Peacebuilding: UN, Neighboring States, and Global Powers, which was published in January 2022. The book is published as part of the “Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS)” book series. While this book emphasizes the importance of inclusive processes in post-conflict peacebuilding, it also illustrates the importance of mediators taking flexible approaches to inclusivity, highlighting the crucial balance between the need to engage with conflicting parties to make an agreement feasible and to include multiple parties to make peace sustainable. The book is based on field research in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Timor-Leste and Yemen. In a review of the book, Prof. Thomas Weiss at City University of New York wrote, “’The more the merrier’ is the usual approach for mediation and peacebuilding, but Daisaku Higashi’s wide-ranging field research identifies the pay-offs from a far more nuanced approach to inclusivity. His compelling recommendations are tailored for the UN, regional organizations, neighbors, and major powers.”
About the speaker
Dr. Daisaku Higashi is a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, specializing in mediation and peacebuilding. From 1993 to 2004 he worked for NHK, Japan Public TV station, as a program director and produced numerous TV documentaries. He then completed his PhD in political science at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He worked for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from December 2009 to December 2010 as a team leader for reconciliation and reintegration. In January 2011, he started working for the University of Tokyo as an associate professor. He also served as a Minister-Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN from August 2012 to August 2014, with the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in his portfolio. After returning to the University of Tokyo, he transferred to a tenured position at the Center for Global Education at Sophia University in 2016. He has been frequently assigned by Japanese Foreign Ministers to visit Iraq and South Sudan to advise on peacebuilding. His publications include Challenges of Constructing Legitimacy in Peacebuilding: Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone and East Timor (Routledge 2015).

Balsillie Lecture: "Multipolar or Multiplex: Rising Powers, the West and the Rest"
2022-03-01 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Webinar link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86048601191?pwd=[REDACTED]
The debate over the future of world order is far from settled. Some analysts are still in denial about the end of “unipolarity” or the era of US hegemony. Others see the emergence of a US-China bipolarity. Most policymakers and academics see the emergence of “multipolarity”, invoking the pre-World War II Europe-led international order. Yet, none of these captures the complex make-up and dynamics of the emerging world order. The rise of non-Western powers, and the decline of the US, are creating a new world ordering that is best described as “multiplex”. This lecture will highlight the key features of the multiplex world, focusing on the role of rising powers as well as the changing nature of institutions and ideas that will shape conflict and stability.
About the speaker
Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. He is the first non-Western scholar to be elected (for 2014-15) as the President of the International Studies Association (ISA), the largest and most influential global network in international studies. Previously he was a Professor at York University, Toronto and University of Bristol, U.K. He is currently a Honorary Professor at Rhodes University, South Africa, and Guest Professor at Nankai University, China. He was the inaugural Boeing Company Chair in International Relations at the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University, Fellow of Harvard’s Asia Center and John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Christensen Fellow at Oxford. His books include Re-imagining International Relations: World Orders in the Thought and Practice of Indian, Chinese, and Islamic Civilizations (Cambridge 2022, with Barry Buzan), The Making of Global International Relations (Cambridge 2019: with Barry Buzan) and Constructing Global Order (Cambridge 2018); The End of American World Order (Polity 2014, 2018). His essays have appeared in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Asian Studies, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Peace Research, International Affairs, Perspectives on Politics, and World Politics. He has written op-eds for Financial Times, International Herald Tribune (now International New York Times) Washington Post, Times of India, Australian Financial Review, and other newspapers around the world, and appeared on news media such as CNN International, BBC TV and BBC World Service Radio. He has received two Distinguished Scholar Awards from the ISA, one in 2015 from its Global South Caucus for his “contribution to non-Western IR theory and inclusion” in international studies, and another in 2018 from ISA’s International Organization Section that recognizes “scholars of exceptional merit…whose influence, intellectual works and mentorship will likely continue to impact the field for years to come”. In 2020, he received American University’s highest honor: Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award.

Global Insights: "COVID-19 and its Impact on Equality"
2022-02-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Webinar link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85252978216?pwd=[REDACTED]
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected different members of society in different ways, aggravating pre-existing cleavages within countries whether along lines of class, race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, and/or ability. But it has also created space for confronting the structural barriers standing in the way of people’s full participation in their communities. In this month’s episode of Global Insights, graduate students will discuss not only the ways in which the pandemic has exacerbated inequality, but the opportunities for creating a more equal, inclusive and accessible world.
About the panelists
Sarah Murray is a PhD Candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research focuses on disability rights and global governance.
Philip Oke-Thomas is a master’s student studying International Affairs: Global Governance, Politics, and Security at American University’s School of International Service. Philip focuses particularly on global governance and democracy in Africa.
Benjamin Skinner is a Master of Global Governance student at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
Rohil Vaidya is pursuing a master’s in International Relations at the University of Warwick. He is currently working with Global Insights as a research assistant. His interests include tracing identity discourses in religiosity and populism, and their effects on foreign policy, with a focus on the South Asia as a site of identity anxieties shaping global politics.
Moderated by Scott Hamilton, Balsillie School of International Affairs

Positioning Academic Research for Policy Relevance
2022-02-11 12:30 - 14:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The desire to make a difference through policy-relevant research remains a key motivation for many researchers. This session focuses on the do’s and don’t of policy research, how scholars interested in shaping policy should position themselves, and the inevitable trade-offs involved in ‘speaking truth to power’.
Featuring
Ann Fitz-Gerald, Balsillie School of International Affairs
Tracy Snoddon, Lazaridis School of Business and Economics
John Kotsopoulos, Global Affairs Canada
Aaron Shull, Centre for International Governance Innovation
Chair: Timothy Donais, Faculty Research Ambassador (Governance and Policy)
Co-hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University.

Navigating Academic Research in a Pandemic: Successes and Failures Two Years On
2022-02-10 12:00 - 13:30 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Carleigh Cartmell and Kristen Csenkey are doctoral candidates in the Global Governance program at Balsillie School of International Affairs with an interest in Conflict and Security studies. Through this workshop, Carleigh and Kristen will share their experiences and challenges and how they have had to adapt to the ‘remote’ forms of research due to the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years.
Chair: Dr. Veronica Kitchen
Presentations
Kristen Csenkey is a PhD Candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI). She is an expert in cyber governance. Her PhD supervisors are Drs. Bessma Momani and Alistair Edgar. Kristen focuses on the management of emerging technology and innovation in Canada and the implications for future conflict in the world.
“A Note on Remote Methods: Situated Immersion and What Happened When I Brought My Fieldwork Home”
The pandemic and its associated restrictions have impacted how some researchers conduct fieldwork. The switch to ‘remote’ methods has contributed to a reconfiguration of the boundaries between ‘private’ and ‘public’ and ‘home’ and the ‘field’. Instead of seeing ‘remote’ methods as a barrier or associated with a spatially distant field via video-mediated digital technologies, Kraemer (2021) sees this ‘situated immersion’ as an opportunity to understand and expand relations and possibilities of knowing. Drawing on this concept, I reflect on my own experiences in navigating ‘remote’ social practices through digital contexts, negotiating the boundaries of space, place, and gender, and rethinking remoteness and fragmentation in fieldwork.
Carleigh Cartmell is a PhD candidate in the Global Governance program at Balsillie School of International Affairs. Carleigh completed a Master’s degree in International Studies from Durham University. Her thesis compared the intelligence sharing patterns between the EU and the Five Eyes. She then went on to work as a Scheduler and then Rotation Consultant with Alberta Health Services. After almost two years, she decided to go back to school to pursue her research passions
“Facing the Pandemic Blues: Struggles and Adaptations of a PhD Dissertation during a pandemic”
The field of intelligence has long been depicted with images of lone spies in crisp suits with a licence to kill, or of the brilliant man toiling away in solitude to solve an intelligence problem no one else can. These images monopolize the way intelligence is depicted, do they however, reflect the reality of the either the field or its scholarship? Carleigh’s dissertation is focused on creating a feminist theoretical lens for intelligence studies in theory, popular culture, and practice. For this talk, Carleigh will discuss some of her methods and methodological choices, as well as discuss having to adapt those in the wake of a global crisis.

When Things (Don’t) Fall Apart: Is Incoherence Still Productive in a Post-American Financial Order?
2022-02-08 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
It is difficult to find much to celebrate about the messy, contradictory post-American era in global financial governance. Controversially, I suggest that today’s incoherence includes productive and even transformative moments for countries of the global south and east. My argument draws on the work of Albert Hirschman, inveterate pragmatist, opponent of all “isms”, and champion of “possibilism.” Incoherence has created space for experimentation and innovation in a world marked by uncertainties, while generating new exits from noxious national and global policy environments. At a time when many on the right and the left yearn for a return to institutional coherence, we should be mindful that any new “ism” could reproduce the development policy constraints associated with the neoliberal era.
About the speaker
Ilene Grabel is Distinguished University Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies of the University of Denver. Her book, When Things Don’t Fall Apart: Global Financial Governance and Developmental Finance in an Age of Productive Incoherence (The MIT Press, 2017), won the 2019 European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy Robinson Prize, the 2019 International Studies Association International Political Economy Best Book Award, and the 2018 British International Studies Association International Political Economy Book Prize. Grabel has conducted commissioned research for the Division of Globalization and Development Strategies and UNCTAD/G-24, the Human Development Report Office of the UNDP; International Poverty Centre for Inclusive Growth of the UNDP; United Nations Women, for which she wrote a “think piece” on permissive multilateralisms; the UN University/World Institute for Development Economics Research; and the NGOs Action Aid, Third World Network, and “New Rules for Global Finance.”

Critical Conversations: "Saber Rattling and Red Lines: NATO, Russia and the Threat of War in Ukraine"
2022-02-03 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Link to webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87410884859?pwd=[REDACTED]
The United States has warned the world that Russia’s military build-up of more than 100,000 troops at Ukraine’s borders constitutes “the largest mobilisaton” in Europe in decades. A heated exchange this week in the UN Security Council saw Russia accuse the West of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine.
Join us for the latest “Critical Conversations” expert panel to learn more about the current crisis and whether tensions will further escalate or become defused in the short to medium term.
Speakers
Alexander Lanoszka researches and writes on issues relating to alliance politics and theories of war, with particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. He is an assistant professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Previously, he taught at City, University of London and held fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College. His most recent book is Military Alliances in the Twenty First Century (Polity, 2022).
Leigh Sarty is a Scholar in Residence at Global Affairs Canada, where he previously served at the Embassy in Moscow (Second Secretary, 1996-1999, Deputy Head of Mission 2012-2016) and in Beijing, where he headed the Political Section from 2003 to 2007. At GAC HQ, he was Director for East Europe and Central Asia (2007-2012) and Director-General of the Bureau of European Affairs (2016-2018). He holds an M.A. from Carleton (Soviet Studies, 1985) and a PhD from Columbia University (Political Science, 1991). His current work focuses on Russia-China-Canada relations, with special reference to the rules-based international order.
Jill Sinclair has been a member of Canada’s defence, international security and foreign policy community for most of her professional career. As part of the Strategic Joint Staff at the Dept of National Defence, she was appointed by the Chief of Defence Staff and Deputy Minister as Canada’s representative to the Ukraine Defence Reform Advisory Board. Jill worked with Chief Military Personnel and the Canadian Defence Academy as Executive Director Strategic Leadership and Engagement. She served for seven years as Assistant Deputy Minister Policy, DND after an appointment as Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet at PCO’s Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat, and acting Advisor to the PM for a period. She joined government as a Foreign Service Office, with postings in Prague, Havana and the Middle East as Canada’s envoy to the Middle East Peace Process. In addition to international crisis and issue management, Jill has developed and led strategic public policy initiatives in the area of national and international security, human security, national defence, non-proliferation and disarmament as well as defence governance and reform. In particular, she led the Ottawa Process to Ban Landmines and Responsibility to Protect (R2P). She has extensive experience as an international negotiator at the UN, NATO, OSCE as well as regional organizations.
Moderated by Ann Fitz-Gerald, Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Is the UN Security Council Broken?
2022-01-31 12:00 - 13:30 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Russia’s recent veto of a draft UN Security Council Resolution linking climate change to international security has underlined the growing dysfunction and paralysis within the world’s most important institution for managing international peace and security. While geopolitical tensions, especially among the so-called ‘P3’ (China, Russia and the United States) have been in the ascendancy for at least a decade, their impact on the efficacy of Security Council decision-making is now such that it is worth asking whether the world is reverting to cold war geopolitics, and what the consequences of such a reversion might be. In a context where Security Council reform appears to be somewhere between unlikely and impossible, this panel will assess current dynamics within the Council, the prospects for reversing the disturbing trend towards dysfunction, and the risks to global security of failing to do so.
Panelists
Guillermo Rishchynski, retired Canadian diplomat and former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations (2011-16)
Caroline Dunton, PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa and former Leger-Cadieux Fellow at Global Affairs Canada; her research focuses on Canadian foreign policy and the politics of campaigns for the UN Security Council
Alistair Edgar, BSIA and Laurier faculty member, and former executive director of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS)

Migrating Climates and Climate Migration: Discussing The Climate-Migration Nexus and Refugee Law in Canada
2022-01-20 12:00 - 13:30 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The Migration, Mobilities, and Social Politics (MMSP) Research Cluster and the Environment and Resources (ERRC) Research Cluster at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) are pleased to host a joint virtual event on the nexus of climate change and migration. This panel will discuss new developments and debates regarding the climate migration nexus, and how the growing pressures from large scale environmental change are shaping our understanding of migrants’ rights and migration policy. A particular focus will be how the climate crisis may be affecting Canadian migration and the implications for refugee law and policy.
The panel will last for an hour followed by a Q&A and discussion afterwards.
Panelists
Elisabeth Gilmore, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carleton University, and she focuses on the economic costs and societal impacts of climate change, including the implications of climate risks on public budgeting, service provisioning, and institutional and political stability. She is a Lead Author for the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and an Associate Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
Robert McLeman, Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, his research is on the human dimensions of environmental change, with particular attention to the relationship between environment and human migration. He was a contributor to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (Chapter 7: Health, wellbeing and the changing structure of communities).
Warda Shazadi Meighen, Partner with Landings LLP and Adjunct Professor with University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She holds a graduate degree from the University of Oxford where she focused on refugee, migration and international refugee law, and is the Canada Co-Chair of the International Justice Circle at Human Rights Watch.

Market Economy Status and China's Contestation of the International Trade Order
2022-01-14 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Market economy status matters in the politics of international trade because it expresses tacit ideas and background knowledge about the moral purposes of international trade. I argue that China’s classification as a “non-market economy” was seen as symbolizing economic inferiority and an outsider position in the international economic order. China’s attempt to revise its classification leads to struggles over the international trade order as other states strike back to characterize its domestic economic practices as illegitimate because they are aimed at increasing state power. In this talk, Dr. Chia examines the official rhetoric and texts that surrounded China’s 2016 WTO dispute settlement case against the European Union, which sought to force other states to treat it as a “market economy” under anti-dumping rules. He finds that China construed the dispute as a symbolic issue of inclusion and recognition of its economic modernity. The EU and other parties responded by construing China’s domestic economy as a mercantilist danger to the international community deserving of continued stigmatization.
About the speaker
Colin Chia is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on the contestation and politics of global governance and international orders, particularly over the issues of state sovereignty, international trade, and economic development.
His dissertation project, “Setting the World Stage: Social Positioning and International Order Contestation”, examines clashes over social hierarchies and visions of international order in the post-Cold War period. It outlines how politics around concepts of sovereignty and intervention, and their implications for international social hierarchies, influenced the formal adoption of the Responsibility to Protect, the Crimea annexation crisis, and the eurozone crisis in Greece. He received a PhD in Government from Cornell University.

International Launch of Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) SSHRC Partnership Grant Project
2021-12-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Webinar link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wmiIhn7-QmypGV3jYypasA
Migration within the Global South now exceeds that from South to North and migrants and refugees also make up a significant proportion of the estimated two billion people globally who are highly food insecure, a number exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The connections between migration and food security are central to the new MiFOOD Project led by researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) and the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA), and implemented by the Hungry Cities Partnership. MiFOOD poses several key questions: To what extent is migration a response to food insecurity? Does migration lead to better food security outcomes for migrants and their dependents? What policy interventions might mitigate migrant food insecurity in migration corridors and destinations?
The seven-year MiFOOD Project is supported by a $2.5 million Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council (SSHRC) and contributions from partners of $6.2 million for a total funding envelope of $8.7 million. MiFOOD will link teams of faculty and graduate student researchers at WLU, the BSIA, and the IMRC with the University of Waterloo, the University of Fraser Valley and colleagues at six other Canadian universities, three UK universities and university partner teams in China, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Qatar, Singapore and South Africa. MiFOOD will also work closely on research and knowledge mobilization activities with several international organizations including the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
Program
About the speakers
Marie Ruel, Director, Health Poverty and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Marie McAuliffe, Head, Migration Research Division, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Isaac Luginaah, Canada Research Chair, Western University
Shirin Rai, Director, Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre for International Development (WICID), Warwick University
Register Via Zoom

Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services among Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees in Ecuador
2021-11-29 12:30 - 14:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Since 2015, more than 5.5 million Venezuelans have fled the economic collapse of Venezuela, according to UN estimates. As a neighbouring country, Ecuador has become a main destination and transit country for Venezuelan migrants. More than 450,000 Venezuelan migrants currently live in Ecuador, and given the challenges faced in accessing humanitarian visas in Ecuador, Venezuelan migrants are exposed to complex social, political, and economic hardships, which are undermining their right to basic healthcare. Within this context, sexual and reproductive rights are especially limited. This presentation will discuss the results of a national study, funded by the International Organization for Migration and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health on migrant access to sexual and reproductive health and gender based violence services in five cities in Ecuador. Initial results demonstrate evidence of unmet family planning needs, inadequate access to maternal health services, and lack of awareness about gender-based violence services, which in many cases are exacerbated by xenophobia and gender discrimination within the healthcare, social services, and justice systems.
About the speaker
Dr. Cheryl Martens is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Sociology and History at the University of San Francisco Quito. She is co-investigator and the Quito project leader for the Hungry Cities Partnership project: Migration and Food Security in the Global South (MiFood). Her latest work focuses on Venezuelan migration and temporary shelter (Care, 2021) and sexual health, and gender-based violence service provision in Ecuador, as well as digital activism and sustainable communication in Latin America (Palgrave, 2020).

Governing In the New World Disorder
2021-11-25 11:00 - 12:30 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
If you have been following closely the political, cultural, and socio-economic trends since the end of the Cold War, You may have come to the conclusion that our world appears is increasingly ungovernable. The Post-Cold War period has been marked by the intensification of hyper-globalization, with all its attendant negative effects. We are now living in what can only be called an “interregnum”; a period that signals a transformation from one world order to the next. It is a period of turbulence, uncertainty, flux, and confusion. Folks, we are in the midst of a “new world disorder”.
The institutions of global governance — created 75 years ago to manage and address the global problems we encounter, and to steer us into a future that is more peaceful, stable, equitable, just, sustainable and prosperous – those institutions, are “decisions frozen in time.” Dr. Knight argues that the extant institutions of global governance, including but not limited to the UN, were created at a historical juncture when sovereignty-bound entities (i.e., Westphalian nation-states) reigned supreme. Today, those institutions are being forced to operate in a turbulent complex interdependent, and “intermestic” era in which sovereign-free (i.e., non-state) and sovereignty-bound actors compete and jostle for position on the global stage. The clear lines of demarcation that separated what goes on within the state, from what goes on outside the state have become so blurred that governing institutions are having a difficult time dealing with the transnational challenges of the 21st century.
This talk will ask: how do we conceive of a governance arrangement in our world during this time of turbulence, flux, and uncertainty? What would a new world order look like without hegemonic steering?
About the speaker
W. Andy Knight, Ph.D., FRSC, is Professor of International Relations in the Political Science Department at the University of Alberta and past Chair of the Department. He is the former Director of the Institute of International Relations (IIR), The University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad & Tobago, and co-founder and the former head of the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC). Professor Knight serves as Co-editor in Chief of both African Security journal and International Journal — two globally prestigious peer-reviewed academic publications. During his secondment in the Caribbean, Knight established the Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy and he was co-editor of a highly regarded and award-winning journal — Global Governance from 2000 to 2005. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC).
Knight has written several books on the United Nations, Global Politics, and the Responsibility to Protect. One of his most recently published books is the award-winning, Female Suicide Bombings: A Critical Gendered Approach, with Tanya Narozhna (published by the University of Toronto Press). His ongoing research and publications address issues of global health governance, global health security, Children and war, and the vulnerabilities and resiliency of small island developing states (SIDS). In March 2021, Professor Knight was awarded the University of Alberta’s highest honour – the University of Alberta Distinguished Professor. He is currently the 2021-22 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in International and Area Studies at Yale University.

Uncertain Waiting, Uncertain Methodologies: Anthropology of Asylum and Borders
2021-11-22 12:30 - 14:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The prospect for Middle Eastern LGBTQ refugee resettlement has grown increasingly dim since 2015, as the United States and Canada have cut their refugee quotas and tightened their asylum policies. Today, many LGBTQ applicants, stuck in transit countries in the Global South for years, are increasingly reaching out to Canadian queer NGOs and church groups to seek private sponsorship as one of the last few available resettlement paths.
Drawing on her ethnographic research and community collaborations with Iranian LGBTQ refugees in Turkey awaiting resettlement to North America, Dr. Sari’s talk will discuss the contemporary trends in queer asylum, including global border closures, lengthening waiting times for refugees, and an increasing shift from public to private-sponsored refugee resettlement. It will also ask: How do anthropological engagements with refugees under circumstances of uncertain waiting, forced immobility, and human rights violations raise ethical, political, and methodological questions for the discipline of anthropology? How do questions of accountability, transparency, and commitment inform the methodological and ethical orientations of anthropological research on asylum and borders? And how can anthropologists create alternative methods of research and collaboration in restrictive and exploitative conditions?
About the speaker
Elif Sari holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology (Cornell 2021) with a concentration in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and is the Martha LA McCain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto. Sari’s scholarship lies at the intersections of transnational sexualities, migration, waiting, humanitarianism, and queer and critical race theory with a specific focus on the Middle East and its diasporas.
