Council on Foreign Relations

This symposium is organized with the support of the Consulate General of Mexico in New York and the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York on the occasion of the Bicentennial of Mexican Independence and the Centennial of the Mexican Revolution.

Symposium Rapporteur Report: 200 Years of U.S.-Mexico Relations

On Wednesday, May 19, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) held a multisession, half-day symposium in Washington, DC, on the implications of rising powers for global governance.

This event was made possible through generous support from the Robina Foundation.

Symposium Summary

The United States faces a series of difficult policy and strategic questions with respect to its participation in the upcoming International Criminal court (ICC) Review Conference at Kampala, Uganda. The conference will consider the addition of the definition of the crime of aggression as well as a restriction on the rights of states to opt out of the Court's jurisdiction over war crimes. The conference may also consider proposals that the United States strongly opposed in the 1998 Rome negotiations. This Council Special Report will recommend primary and secondary objectives for the United States at the conference and suggest steps the Obama administration should take to best empower American negotiators to achieve those objectives.

The goal of the series is to examine the changing landscape of global health governance in the context of emerging powers, empowered non-governmental actors, and shifting health priorities. A number of questions will be discussed, including: What effect will the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases have on the economic growth of India and China? Can the WHO maintain a central role in global health governance, with competition from other actors (e.g., World Bank, WTO, MNCs,  Gates Foundation) and the proliferation of  new initiatives not housed by WHO (e.g., Global Fund)? How will the emerging powers (e.g., China, India, Brazil) and the rising nonstate actors affect the international community's ability to set priorities and define the upper limits of acceptable action? How does the entrance of health into the realm of "high politics" affect our way of handling  transnational health threats?

Four roundtables will take place throughout the winter and spring in New York and Washington, DC.

This roundtable series is sponsored by the International Institutions and Global Governance program and made possible by the generous support of the Robina Foundation.

This roundtable series brings together senior financial experts from the private sector and the academic world to discuss ideas presented by a guest speaker on a pressing topic in international economics.

The United States has a fundamental stake in a more effective UN system—that is, improving the UN's many specialized agencies, departments, and programs. In the Making Multilateralism Work workshop series, the International Institutions and Global Governance (IIGG) program will engage U.S. and UN officials on practical steps to improve the UN system's performance in priority areas, including international peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and human rights. Each workshop will culminate in a meeting report and a briefing memo with recommendations for the U.S. government.

This workshop series is made possible by the generous support of the Robina Foundation.

This roundtable was made possible by the generous support of MSD.

• Symposium Overview (PDF, 76K)
• Speakers' Biographies (PDF, 82K)

Introduction and Welcome: Peter Navario, Council on Foreign Relations

This project is made possible by a generous grant from the Robina Foundation.

As nations across the world face the realities of unprecedented population aging, this series examines the resulting policy challenges. As large numbers of people age into retirement at the same time, what will it mean for health, work, and financial security? Are governments ready for this coming demographic trend? Similarly, are global institutions such as the G8 and G20 prepared to face the global implications of  a graying world? This series of discussions will serve as a venue for policymakers, scholars, business professionals, and journalists to exchange ideas and reach conclusions on the challenges presented by what has been characterized as a "slow-burning fuse."

This workshop was cosponsored by Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Asahi-Shimbun.

Widely acclaimed as the most respected and credible source of news in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region, the Asahi Shimbun is one of Japan's oldest and largest national newspapers, with a daily circulation of over eight million. Based in Tokyo, its overseas network includes five general bureaus covering America from Washington DC, Europe from London, the Middle East from Cairo, Asia from Bangkok, and China from Beijing, with an additional bureau newly opened in Havana, Cuba, in 2007. It has a presence in about 30 locations worldwide with 53 correspondents. The company has a news website, Asahi.com.

This event has also been made possible by the generosity of the following corporate sponsors of CFR's Japan program: Canon USA, Mitsui & Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Mitsubishi International Corporation, Sony Corporation of America, and Toyota Motor North America.

In collaboration with the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Global Health Program at CFR helped create the UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention. The commission was supported by a Scientific Advisory Panel chaired by Laurie Garrett, which provided intellectual leadership and scientific backing. The goal of the commission and scientific advisory panel was to advance the "prevention revolution" called for by UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, and provide a road map for generating the necessary political will at the highest levels to overcome the cultural, gender, and resource barriers to reaching zero new HIV infections.

The call for a "prevention revolution" comes amid three major changes that have occurred in the last year in the HIV pandemic: (1) the global financial crisis has slowed the rate of growth in support of HIV treatment costs for poor countries, raising concern that continued expansion of the global epidemic will outstrip donor support of treatment; (2) changes in U.S. foreign assistance programs have placed greater emphasis on disease prevention and program accountability; (3) two dramatic research breakthroughs have demonstrated that it is possible to slow the spread of HIV sexually through use of a new formulation of vaginal microbicides, and through daily oral dosing with anti-HIV drugs. Combined, these changes mean that preventing further expansion of the global pandemic is imperative, and it is possible.

For ten months the scientific panel, chaired by Laurie Garrett, analyzed evidence for new strategies to control HIV, presenting the Commission with the Declaration and Statement for its approval. Commission cochairs--both Nobel laureates--Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Rev. Desmond Tutu, will now lead the commissioners on a global HIV prevention campaign.

The declaration and statement below, written by Laurie Garrett and the Scientific Advisory Panel, were released on December 1, 2010, World AIDS Day, and call on world leaders to act swiftly and accelerate the decline in new HIV infections and spark the prevention revolution.

• Declaration of the UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention

• Statement in Support of the Declaration of the UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention

This event was made possible thanks to the generous support of ExxonMobil for CFR's Women and Development Series.

Welcome and Introductions

Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Lorie D. Jackson, Director, Women's Economic Opportunity Initiative, ExxonMobil

The Asia and the World roundtable series examines the global implications of the rise of Asian power. For a thousand years, Asia was the engine of the global economy, a locus of science and innovation, a center of ideas and intellectual ferment, and the nexus of global power. After a long hiatus, Asia's major powers have now reemerged on the global stage, but their interaction with one another, and with the United States, on important issues and challenges is unsettled and evolving. Speakers and participants analyze the reemergence of China and India as global players, the changing role of Japan on the international stage, and efforts to reshape the international architecture to accommodate the rise of China and India, in particular. Sessions also consider the ways in which greater involvement in the world, not just their immediate neighborhood, is changing the strategic, economic, and political calculations of major countries in East, Central, and South Asia. Meetings look at the tensions, opportunities, and constraints that will determine whether and how the United States can forge partnerships with major Asian powers on issues of global scope. Other sessions may examine timely issues that arise in Central Asia, such as connections to the international oil and gas market, international institutions, and the global economy.

This monthly meeting series seeks to organize focused discussions on plausible short to medium term contingencies that could seriously threaten U.S. interests. Contingency meeting topics will range from specific states or regions of concern to more thematic issues and will draw on the expertise of government and nongovernment experts. The goal of the meeting series is not only to raise awareness of U.S. government officials and the expert community to potential crises but also to generate practical policy options to lessen the likelihood of the contingency and to reduce the negative consequences should it occur. A summary memo of the resulting recommendations will be distributed to participants and important policymakers.

This series is made possible by the generous support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.