The Future of the Internet in the Wake of Charlie Hebdo and Increased Government Surveillance Online

Monday, May 18, 2015

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Governments have a special responsibility among stakeholders to make the Internet secure. However, the Snowden revelations revealed that many governments, including the US, use the Internet to monitor, spy on and attack other governments, organizations, individuals and businesses. In March, we also learned that that China is using the Great Cannon, a new malware tool to censor information. These revelations have stimulated a global backlash against pervasive Government data collection, Internet surveillance, and government use of malware. Netizens are increasingly worried about Internet stability and security.

Our panel will discuss how increasing surveillance and use of malware could impact the future of the Internet, including:

  • Increased pressure from law enforcement for backdoors to encryption;
  • Increased calls for data localization (as in France);
  • International pressure influencing the IANA transfer;
  • Less legal emphasis/protections on privacy at national levels;
  • Less trust in government policies and strategies to maintain Internet stability
  • The threat of Internet fragmentation.

Panelists:

Bruce Schneier, Security Technologist and Author. Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by The Economist. He is the author of 12 books – including his latest best-seller Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Survive – as well as hundreds of articles and essays, and many more academic papers. His influential newsletter “Crypto-Gram,” and his blog “Schneier on Security,” are read by over 250,000 people. He has testified before Congress, is a frequent guest on television and radio, served on several government technical committees, and is regularly quoted in the press.

Chris Riley, Senior Policy Manager, Mozilla. M. Chris Riley is a Senior Policy Engineer at Mozilla, working to advance the open Internet and Web through public policy analysis and advocacy, strategic planning, coalition building, and community engagement. Prior to joining Mozilla, Chris worked as a program manager at the U.S. Department of State on Internet freedom, a policy counsel with the non-profit public interest organization Free Press, and an attorney-advisor at the Federal Communications Commission. Chris holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He has published scholarship on topics including innovation policy, cognitive framing, graph drawing, and distributed load balancing.

Organizers:

This event is organized by Dr. Susan Aaronson and Kyle Renner of the Institute for International Economic Policy and David Vyorst of the Greater Washington DC Chapter of the Internet Society and is part of a larger seminar series. We are grateful to an anonymous donor for their support of these seminars, and would also like to thank our co-sponsors at the Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute.

The DC Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-DC) aims to build a better internet for the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia community. The chapter strives to promote open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people worldwide. ISOC-DC brings together individuals from within the DC area, as well as abroad, to engage in events, discussions, and information exchanges to advance these goals.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Cosponsored by:

Working for All? New Ideas and Innovative Strategies to Enhance Economic and Social Benefits in Trade Agreements

Thursday, May 14, 2015

9:00am to 5:00pm

 

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

How Can TTIP benefit workers and promote employment? Read Professor Susan Aaronson’s latest paper.

The US, Canada, and Mexico agreed to the first labor rights provisions in NAFTA, which went into force in 1993. Some 22 years later, the bulk of the world’s economies, from Albania to Zimbabwe, participate in a trade arrangement with labor rights provisions, whether through a free trade agreement, a preferential trade arrangement, or in an investment agreement. Since 2008, 41 out of 93 new trade agreements included labor provisions and over 60 per cent of the trade agreements concluded in 2013 and 2014 included labor provisions.

But there is a lot that we do not know about these agreements. Scholars, policymakers, labor rights activists, and the business community do not know if these provisions are effective in improving working conditions. Moreover, in instances where they have been effective it is unclear why and what has been the role of the different stakeholders?

How can trade agreements promote employment, enhance the link between economic and social benefits and achieve sustainable development? How can the interconnectedness between economic, social and environmental objectives be protected and promoted? Which complementary policies are key to inclusive growth and help in capitalizing opportunities from trade openness?

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

 

Co-Sponsored by:

View the Schedule

Conference Agenda

8:30 – 9:00 – Registration and Breakfast

9:00 – 9:30 – Welcome and Opening Remarks

  • Dr. Jay Shambagh (Director Institute for International Economic Policy)
  • Nancy Donaldson (ILO Washington DC)
  • Carol Pier (Deputy Undersecretary, International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor)

9:30 – 11:00 – Session I: Decent work for all? How to bridge the gap between the social and economic dimensions of trade agreements?

  • Moderator: Marva Corley (ILO)
  • Rudi Delarue (European Commission)
  • Lance Compa (ILR, Cornell University)

11:00 – 11:15 – Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:45 – Session II: Roundtable: To ensure that trade agreements work for all, can we achieve coherence within and among trade agreements?

  • Moderator: Anil Verma (University of Toronto)
  • Pierre Bouchard (Bilateral and Regional Labor Affairs, Canada)
  • Silvia Formentini (Trade and Sustainable Development, EC)
  • Kevin Kolben (Rutgers University)
  • Pablo Lazo Grandi (Permanent Mission of Chile to UN in Geneva)

12:45 – 2:00 – Lunch

2:00 – 3:30 – Session III: What evidence do we have that trade agreements are working for all? How do we measure the effectiveness of labor provisions in FTAs?

  • Moderator: Jan Van Hove (University of Leuven)
  • Raymond Robertson (Macalester College)
  • Bill Gibson (University of Vermont)
  • Werner Raza (Austrian Foundation of Development Research)

3:30 – 3:45 – Coffee Break

3:45 – 5:15 – Session IV: Roundtable: What innovative ideas with regard to the promotion of labour rights and improvement of working conditions can be explored to ensure that trade agreements do work for all?

  • Moderator: Susan Aaronson (Elliott School of International Affairs, GWU)
  • Ms. Xiaoyan Qian (Chinese Embassy, Washington DC)
  • Tonia Novitz (University of Bristol)
  • Thomas Zielke (RGIT)
  • Ariel Meyerstein (USCIB)
  • Celeste Drake (AFL-CIO)

5:15 – 5:30 – Closing Remarks

IMF Africa Regional Economic Outlook Discussion

Thursday, May 7, 2015

8:45am to 12:30pm

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

8:45 – 9:00 – Opening remarks

  • Jay Shambaugh (GWU), Céline Allard (IMF)

9:00 – 10:00 – Session I: Overview of Recent Economic Developments in Africa

10:00 – 10:15 – Coffee Break

10:15 – 11:15 – Session II: How Can Sub-Saharan Africa Harness the Demographic Dividend?

11:15 – 11:30 – Coffee Break

11:30 – 12:30 – Session III: Sub-Saharan’s Trade Integration in the Global Economy: Progress and Ways Forward

12:30 – Conclude

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Cosponsored by: