As the new Administration charts its international blueprint for action, global issues loom large on the U.S. foreign policy agenda. These trans-border issues transcend bilateral and even regional concerns. Most of them -- health, environment and science matters, democracy promotion, trafficking in persons, corporate social responsibility -- reflect what Professor Joseph Nye has aptly called "soft power." Their impacts on the global environment are very real.
Over the last decade, the National Intelligence Council has written a series of significant assessments highlighting global trends and warning that, unless properly addressed and managed by U.S. policymakers, have the potential to foster instability and regional conflict and thus, harm U.S. national security interests. The most recent report, "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World," concludes that in 2025, the international system will be almost unrecognizable due to the rise of various non-state actors, growing energy, food and water constraints and global health problems.
The Global Issues Seminar Series on Tuesday April 7th, will examine opportunities and challenges for the United States and “Polar Diplomacy: The Future of the Arctic and Antarctica.”
Dr. Borgerson will discuss how U.S. national interests are affected by the opening of the Arctic. The opening of a new waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is akin in historic significance to the opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869. With this sea change will come the rise and fall of international seaports, newfound access to nearly a quarter of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and gas reserves, and a recalibration of geo-strategic power.
Mr. Hughes will discuss the achievements and challenges of the Antarctic Treaty 50 years after its signing.
