Carnegie Council Podcasts – Details, episodes & analysis

In this special episode of "Ethical Articles," Carnegie Ethics Fellow Christine Jakobson reads the article "Artifical Intelligence and Election Integrity in 2024," written by herself together with Fellows Travis Gidado and Hinh Tran.

You can access the full projct here: https://carnegiecouncil.co/cef-ai-democracy

This project was produced by a working group from the inaugural Carnegie Ethics Fellows cohort reflecting nearly two years of convenings, collaboration, and research. Each report in this special series examines a critical issue at the intersection of ethics and international affairs. The Carnegie Ethics Fellowship aims to develop the next generation of ethical leaders across business, government, academia, and non-governmental organizations.

More than half of the world's population is under 30 years old, yet young people are significantly underrepresented in key policymaking spaces. As the world confronts a multitude of existential challenges, fresh perspectives, greater transparency, and increased accountability are needed inside the halls of power now more than ever.

In the keynote event for Global Ethics Day 2024, this panel discussion and audience Q&A featured young leaders from around the world discussed how we might enhance youth participation and intergenerational collaboration in civic life to tackle the most pressing issues at the intersection of ethics and international affairs.

For more on this event, please go to: https://carnegiecouncil.co/empowering-civic-leaders

From the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to UN Security Council gridlock and escalating climate and migration crises, multilateral institutions face unprecedented tests. Amid these challenges lies a unique opportunity for a new generation of transformational leaders to emerge—driven by civic duty and the values of the UN Charter.

In this special roundtable discussion hosted by Council President Joel Rosenthal, Tufts University's Professor Abiodun Williams, former director of strategic planning for UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, draws upon his extensive experience to speak about the essential leadership traits and strategies needed to drive institutional change and benefit those they serve. Williams' latest book, Kofi Annan and Global Leadership at the United Nations, sets out the challenges that the secretary-general managed at a time of great change, and charts his ambitious efforts to reform and adapt the UN to the needs of the 21st century. 

For more from Williams, read his recent Online Exclusive "Global Justice in a Turbulent World" for the Ethics & International Affairs journal website.

For more, please go to: https://carnegiecouncil.co/global-leadership-williams

Please see below the names and affiliations for those who offered questions during the event:

21:45 – George Shadrack Kamanda, Carnegie Ethics Fellow; Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the UN

29:43 – James Ketterer, Center for Civic Engagement, Bard College

34:39 – Eddie Mandhry, Trustee, Carnegie Council 

38:51 – David Passarelli, United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR)

46:25 – Giovanni Bassu, New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

48:31 – Tinatin Japaridze, Eurasia Group

For Women's History Month, The Doorstep is highlighting steps being taken for greater global gender equality—a proposition that United Nations Secretary General António Guterres recently stated is "300 years away." What can societies do to increase the pace of change? The first lady of Iceland, author and entrepreneur Eliza Reid, joins co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to speak about Iceland's successes in attaining equality for all women and what cultural and policy frameworks can be exported to other countries in order to promote gender equality.

What does "infrastructure for families" (ascribed to Senator Elizabeth Warren) mean on the ground? What challenges are most pressing? How can the media be a better "window on the world"?

Now is the moment to extend human rights to encompass cognitive rights proposes Duke Law School's Professor Nita A. Farahany in her just-published book The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Clearly in the Age of Neurotechnologies. She introduces the vast array of devices already deployed that can sample various forms of brain activity. In her book and in this far-reaching Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast with Carnegie-Uehiro Fellow Wendell Wallach, Farahany outlines how even limited cognitive information collected by neurotechnologies can be combined with other data to enhance self-understanding or manipulate your attitudes or state of mind.

For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

New thinking is needed to ensure high-quality nature-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) offers genuine and long-lasting benefits to the climate and biodiversity, says Amy Luers, global director for sustainability science at Microsoft Corporation during a C2GTalk.

Large-scale removal through CDR technologies lies further ahead, although most of the basic technologies already likely exist. While Luers is not in favor of pursuing solar radiation modification, she says "I am very much in favor of enhancing our understanding of the risks and opportunities it presents, the governance challenges, and how decisions are made around this."

For more, please go to C2G's website.

At the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December, President Joe Biden signaled that "Africa's success is the world's success" and promised visits by his senior leadership, including most recently First Lady Jill Biden, who traveled to Namibia and Kenya on a five-day trip. With 1.4 billion people, 43 percent living in urban centers, and a median age of 19, Africa is host to rising investment, growing private wealth and innovative tech and service sectors. The New School's Sean Jacobs, founder and editor of Africa is a Country, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to break down what is happening on the ground and the importance of the U.S. re-engaging Africa as the role of BRICS is re-imagined over the next decade.

For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

In the last few years, democracies around the world have experienced dangerous brushes with authoritarianism. Countries such as the U.S., Brazil, and Sri Lanka saw their institutions bend but not break under the weight of illiberal forces. This virtual panel builds upon a special roundtable of essays on healing and reimagining liberal constitutional democracy published in the most recent issue of Ethics & International Affairs, the quarterly journal of Carnegie Council.

For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Building on a recent article from Anja Kaspersen and Wendell Wallach, Chatham House's Kate Jones says in this Ethics Article that human rights need to be central to a reset of technology and artificial intelligence governance.

To read this full article, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Alex S. Vindman, former director for European affairs at the National Security Council, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to assess how the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war has affected U.S. global and domestic priorities. Will President Biden's historic visit to Ukraine's capital and meeting with President Zelenskyy further strengthen the Western alliance and consolidate U.S. policy towards Ukraine? What more can Ukraine expect from its allies? And in the end, what does victory for Ukraine—and the U.S.—look like?