Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/06/2024
16:00 - 18:30
Location
Press Club Brussels Europe
Categories
EUROPE IN THE WORLD
Balancing Values, Geopolitics and Geoeconomics
In a Fragmenting World.
WHAT ROLE FOR EUROPE?
A Conversation with Sir Michael Leigh and Ambassador Dr. Len Ishmael
Speaker: Sir Michael Leigh Academic Director Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna
Host: Ambassador Dr. Len Ishmael Head Expert Groups & Global Affairs BDA
This event is the second in a three-part series examining this era of crises – a global pandemic and wars in Europe and the Middle East against the backdrop of a climate crisis – and the ensuing geopolitical tensions which are deepening divides between the West and the rest of the world. The Western-led liberal world order which presided over decades of stability, is being challenged. Free trade, open markets, global supply chains are being disrupted and the continued benefits of globalization are uncertain, as geopolitics and geo-economics collide. Mature Western democracies are facing their own period of internal upheaval and strife.
This second conversation will explore how this period of crises is affecting Europe’s geopolitical and geo-economic position relative to the USA, China, Russia, Middle Powers and the Global South, and how current tensions affect Europe’s capacity to address present and future challenges. With the rise of populism in the EU itself, among other challenges, important questions arise regarding Europe’s ability to sustain its role as a provider of good governance and effective regulation – and its influence and power as a global actor. The third session (July 9th) will examine the implications of this period of Great Power Rivalry on globalization and trade and what this means for countries of the Global South for whom trade is an important tool of development.
We hope that you will join us!
Please confirm attendance to: delia.barbu@vub.be by Wednesday June 5th, 4PM CET. Brussels
For those unable to join us in person kindly use the link below to join the live streaming event: FOLLOW THE CONFERENCE ONLINE
PROGRAM
16:00 Welcome & Introduction of Speaker: Dr. Len Ishmael
16:05 Conversation with Sir Michael Leigh
17:00 – 18:15 Open Discussion
Sir Michael Leigh is the academic director of the MA programs in European public policy and global risk at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy (SAIS-Europe). He is a distinguished visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States. Leigh has written and lectured on the future of Europe, Brexit, energy, enlargement, Turkey, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and neighbourhood policy. He has facilitated simulated negotiation and scenario-building exercises for Bruegel and SAIS-Europe. Leigh has been a guest lecturer at the Naval War College, Dartmouth College, Brigham Young University, Université Catholique de Louvain, the London School of Economics, and the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Leigh’s current roles follow over thirty years in EU institutions, including as a cabinet member for several Commissioners and as director in the task force for the EU accession negotiations. He became director-general for enlargement at the European Commission in 2006, after three years as external relations deputy director-general, overseeing European Neighbourhood Policy, relations with Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Mediterranean countries. Earlier, Leigh was the chief negotiator with the Czech Republic and other candidate countries. He also worked on the development of the single market and the common fisheries policy. Leigh began his career as a lecturer in international relations at the University of Sussex and assistant professor of international relations at SAIS Bologna. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University and a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ambassador Dr. Len Ishmael is the Global Affairs Advisor of the Brussels Diplomatic Academy and Head of the Expert Groups. She is a visiting Professor of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Mohammed 6 University (Morocco) affiliated with the MSc Program and the Joint HEC Paris/ Public Policy School Executive Program. She is a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Scholar of the German Marshall Fund of the United States of America and a Senior Fellow of the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS). She is the former Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Belgium and European Union, and past President of the 79-member African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels and Commissioner on the UN/Lancet Covid-19 Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is a former Director & Head of the Regional Headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean; Director General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, Alternate Governor of the World Bank and Director for the Foundation Leadership for Environment & Development (New York) of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is The Fletcher School Tufts University GMAP Endowment Fellow and member of The Fletcher School GMAP Advisory Council. Ambassador Ishmael is an international speaker on relations between the West and the Global South and the author of several publications on the Global South, Geopolitics, Africa-EU relations, China, and the Trans-Atlantic relationship. Her most recent book as editor and co-author entitled: Aftermath of War in Ukraine, the West vs the Global South? was published by the PCNS in 2023