To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
The ITU is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies. It allocates global radio spectrum and satellite orbits, develops the technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect, and strives to improve access to ICTs worldwide.
Houlin Zhao was elected ITU Secretary-General at the 19TH Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, Korea, in October 2014. He took up his post on 1 January, 2015.
From 2007 to 2014, he served as ITU's Deputy Secretary-General, where he effectively assisted the ITU Secretary-General, in close cooperation with the other elected officials of the Union, to manage the implementation of the ITU Strategic Plan and the operations of the ITU Secretariat, in particular with a view to increasing the transparency and efficiency of the organization.
He was responsible for implementing important innovations including the promotion of a new category of membership open to the global academic community and internal efficiency measures such as the increased use of remote participation systems. In addition, he focused closely on membership-driven priorities including maintaining and extending ITU's commitment to accessibility, to multilingualism, and to broad multistakeholder participation in the work of the Union.
Prior to this Mr Zhao served in the elected role of Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) from 1999 to 2006. During his two terms of office he spearheaded the introduction of new efficiency measures to improve ITU's standards-making environment through fostering even closer cooperation with industry members, while strengthening the promotion of ITU's leadership in global ICT standards development.
As ITU's 19th Secretary-General, Mr Zhao is committed to further extending ITU's community by encouraging more industry members and academia from around the world to join the ITU family. He has also initiated a more open-door policy to welcome other stakeholders and partners, as well as promoting the greater involvement of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the work of the Union.
Lunch will be provided; seating is on a first come, first served basis.