Economic Diplomacy Initiative

Please join the Belfer Center and Center for Business and Government’s Economic Diplomacy Initiative for a conversation with Wendy Cutler and Kelly Ann Shaw on the future of U.S. trade policy. The next U.S. administration will encounter many challenges in international trade: rising unilateralism and protectionism, the threat of tit-for-tat tariffs, and weakened bilateral trade relationships and multilateral institutions. In this timely discussion, senior officials from the Obama and Trump administrations will debate what is next for the U.S.-China trade war, the future of the WTO, and ultimately how the U.S. can continue its global leadership of trade policy after the 2020 presidential election. The conversation will be introduced by Aditi Kumar, Executive Director of the Belfer Center, and moderated by Professor Robert Lawrence.

Please click here to register and receive the Zoom meeting link. 

Join the Economic Diplomacy Initiative (EDI) for a conversation with Roland Cloutier, Global Chief  Security Officer at TikTok. Cloutier will discuss how TikTok's data, cybersecurity, and Chinese ownership have emerged as focal issues for U.S. companies and policymakers alike. The discussion will be jointly moderated by Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director of the Belfer Center, and Aditi Kumar, Executive Director of the Belfer Center.

Join the Belfer Center's Economic Diplomacy Initiative (EDI) for a conversation with Yan Xuetong, Distinguished Professor and Dean of the Institute of International Relations at Tsinghua University, on the evolution of U.S.-China digital and technological competition. The event will be moderated by Aditi Kumar, Executive Director of the Belfer Center, and Chris Li, Research Fellow with EDI.

Click here to register to receive the event's Zoom link. 

Given recent events, how can U.S. policymakers understand and manage the drawbacks and vulnerabilities that arise with global economic networks that entangle the U.S. and China? What limits do global supply chains, information networks, and global financial systems pose to such efforts? How should policymakers modernize Cold War-era international rules of the road to bridge the economic and security policy divide? Join the Belfer Center and Center for Business and Government’s Economic Diplomacy Initiative for a conversation with Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman on the prospects for decoupling between the American and Chinese economies. The discussion will be jointly moderated by Aditi Kumar, Executive Director of the Belfer Center, and Ali Wyne, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

The World Bank expects over 90% of countries to be in recession in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Advanced economies will shrink by 7%, and developing economies by 2.5%. An additional 100 million people around the globe will fall into extreme poverty because of the virus. Some developing markets will face sovereign debt crises as they struggle to contain the economic fallout.

As the global economic outlook deteriorates, the World Bank, other multinationals, and central banks around the world continue to debate the most effective policy responses to combat the global health and economic crises.

Join World Bank Chief Economist Dr. Carmen Reinhart in conversation with Lawrence H. Summers and Nicholas Burns on economic diplomacy in the time of COVID-19.

Will digital money disrupt the ways that countries, institutions, and people interact? A global tension is bubbling to the surface - China is moving ahead with its own digital yuan, the Libra Association is creating a supra-national currency, and the Federal Reserve is battling to maintain the primacy of the U.S. dollar. On top of all this, COVID-19 has prompted contactless payments, global downturns have spurred governments to issue checks directly to citizens, and private companies have pushed into minting their own currencies.

Please join the Economic Diplomacy Initiative for a conversation with Martin Mühleisen on the International Monetary Fund’s response to COVID-19 and the key decisions and challenges ahead.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed an economic crisis unprecedented both in scope and uncertainty about its severity and length. Global GDP is projected to fall by 3% in 2020, hitting advanced and emerging economies alike. After receiving over 90 emergency financing requests and expressions of interest in early April, the IMF has recently increased its emergency financing facilities to expand access limits for all Fund members. This crisis is far from over, and the IMF will continue to play a key role in global economic recovery during the months ahead.

Join us for “Digital Currency Wars: A National Security Crisis Simulation,” a live simulation of a White House National Security Council meeting during a major national security crisis.

Watch recap here.

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs will host a lunch with Clete Willems, former White House Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economics on "US-China Trade Policy: Views from a Former White House Negotiator" in the Belfer Library (L369).

In partnership, the Future of Diplomacy Project, the Institute of Politics and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs welcome former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker for a conversation with Nicholas Burns on the Economy, Global Challenges and America's Future.