The Vortex Book Launch Event

Monday, April 25th, 2022
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET
via Zoom

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Watch the event here

IIEP was to invite you to this event, co-sponsored by the Humanitarian Action Initiative (HAI), the Master of Arts in International Affairs (MAIA) program at the Elliott School, and the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. Authors Jason Miklian and Scott Carney presented and hosted a discussion of their new book, The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War and Liberation. It is a timely book that tells the story how a storm that killed half a million people in 1970 is an omen for the worst case scenarios of our collective climate change nightmare. This incredible true story is told through the eyes of a soccer star turned soldier, a Miami weatherman, a drunken and genocidal President, a Boston teacher turned aid worker and a student turned revolutionary who all played crucial roles in Bangladesh’s birth. Drawing upon more than 1,000 sources and interviews compiled over five years, The Vortex shows why every new megastorm is a roll of the dice that can obliterate existing political order and rip societies into conflict.

Professors Marcus D. King and Deepa Ollapally (George Washington University) provided discussant remarks.

About the Speakers:

Jason Miklian, Ph.D., is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development and Environment, University of Oslo. Miklian has published over 60 academic and policy works on issues of conflict and crisis, based on extensive fieldwork in Bangladesh, Colombia, India, and the Congo. He serves on the United Nations Expert Panel on Business and Human Rights, has won several awards for his academic publications, and serves as an expert resource for various government knowledge banks in the US, UK, EU and Norway. Miklian has also written for or been cited in an expert capacity by the New York Times, BBC, The Economist, Washington Post, Financial Times, France 24, The Guardian, The Hindu (India) and NPR.

Scott Carney is an investigative journalist and anthropologist, as well as the author of the New York Times bestseller What Doesn’t Kill Us. He spent six years living in South Asia as a contributing editor for WIRED and writer for Mother Jones, NPR, Discover Magazine, Fast Company, Men’s Journal, and many other publications. His other books include The Red Market, The Enlightenment Trap and The Wedge. He is the founder of Foxtopus Ink, a Denver-based media company.

About the Discussants:

Deepa Ollapally is is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, and Asian regional and maritime security. She is Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program that tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia. Dr. Ollapally is currently working on a funded book, Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indian Ocean Region, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She is the author of five books including Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford, 2012) and The Politics of Extremism in South Asia (Cambridge, 2008). Her most recent books are two edited volumes, Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (Routledge, 2017), and Nuclear Debates in Asia: The Role of Geopolitics and Domestic Processes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Dr. Ollapally has received grants from the Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Asia Foundation for projects related to India and Asia. Previously, she was Associate Professor at Swarthmore College and has been a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London and at Columbia University. Dr. Ollapally also held senior positions in the policy world including the US Institute of Peace, Washington DC and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, Diane Rehm Show and Reuters TV. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

Marcus D. King is a John O. Rankin Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Elliott School’s Master of Arts in International Affairs Program. King previously served as Director of Research and Associate Research Professor. As a professor, Dr. King draws on experience in public service, research, and the private sector. He joined the Elliott School in 2011 from the research staff of CNA Corporation’s Center for Naval Analyses where he directed studies on security, resilience, and adaptation aspects of climate change. He was also Project Director for the CNA Military Advisory Board (MAB), an elite group of retired admirals and generals constituted to provide recommendations and reports on how these topics affect U.S. national security. From 2003 to 2006, King was Research Director of the Sustainable Energy Institute; and Senior Manager for Energy and Security Programs at a private consultancy. During the Administration of President William Clinton, he held Presidential appointments in the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he represented the United States for negotiation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Office of the Secretary of Energy where he directly supported the Deputy Secretary and participated in negotiations on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy with the Russian Federation. Dr. King served as a globalization planning fellow in Georgetown University’s Office of the President and as an adjunct assistant professor. He is a member of the Center for Climate and Security’s Advisory Board. His present research focuses on identifying ties between water scarcity and large-scale violence. King is a regular contributor to radio, television and print media.