In this video, EWI President & CEO Cameron Munter talks about a new direction for diplomacy as the 21st century presents a wide array of new global challenges.

“As we often say at the EastWest Institute, just as wars are too important to be left to the generals, diplomacy is way too important to be left just to the diplomats,” says Munter.

In the 21st century, Munter says, many problems defy simple state-to-state solutions such as refugees, climate change, nuclear proliferation, cybersecurity and counterterrorism. “You need to have participation by a number of people and how do you organize that? That’s what we discuss when we get together and talk about diplomacy.”

On March 15-17 in West Sussex, the EastWest Institute collaborated with UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Wilton Park to organize a series of in-depth exploration of this new diplomacy. The expert exchange, called “New Diplomacy”, brought together 50 practitioners to delve into new approaches to decentralized diplomacy. Among the participants were senior diplomats, representatives from business, media, foundations, multilateral and regional bodies, academia, alumni networks and diaspora.

“I’m very pleased that the EastWest Institute can be the leader in pushing for the new diplomacy, pulling together different people and different types of institutions, so that when we address problems, we’re not doing it alone,” notes Munter.

The full report by Wilton Park can be accessed here.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the European Commission and in collaboration with the EastWest institute, will present the Arab Human Development Report 2016 (AHDR): Youth and the Prospects of Human Development in a Changing Reality, on Thursday, April 6, 2017 in Brussels. Watch the livestream here.

The event in Brussels aims to highlight the opportunities and challenges that are outlined in the ADHR. The formal launch and presentation of report will be followed by a panel discussion involving representatives of the EU institutions, the United Nations, the Islamic Development Bank and Middle East experts and analyst, with a focus on youth and conflict prevention as an entry point to the discussion.

The Arab Human Development report is a holistic and comprehensive overview of the situation of youth and the prospects for human development in a constantly changing environment and reality that started with the wave of protests across the region in 2011. The point of departure of the report is the demographic fact that the current youth generation is the largest youth cohort this region has had over the past 50 years, making up 30% of its population of 370 million. The report argues that Arab countries can achieve a great leap forward in development, reinforce stability and secure such gains in a sustainable manner, if they adopt policies that give youth a stake in shaping their societies and put them at the center—politically, socially and economically.

The AHDR 2016 calls upon Arab countries to invest in their young people and empower them to engage in the development process as an urgent and critical priority in its own right and prerequisite to achieving sustainable development—a call that is particularly timely as Arab countries embark on formulating their plans to meet the goals of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The report also calls for a youth-oriented development model that focuses simultaneously on building young people’s capabilities and expanding opportunities available to them, considering the achievement of peace and security at national and regional levels as a prerequisite for a future fit for youth.

The discussion will aim to make the link between the current priorities of the European Union, the individual institutions, and member states, and the opportunities and challenges posed by the situation of youth in the Arab region.

The focus of the discussion will be on the following areas of the ADHR 2016:

• The Effects war and violent conflict on youth
• Public services in health and education
• Exclusion, mobility, and migration
• Education and transition to work
• Looking forward: building on the youth’s capabilities and expanding their opportunities

Providing a cost-benefit analysis for target audience:

• Provide financial figures to outline the best and worst case scenarios in cases of intervention and nonintervention from the side of the EU.
• Address demographic change and rapid urbanization in the Maghreb and the effect on possible migration patterns, using concrete figures and forecasts.
• Link demographic shifts and state and institutional fragility to aid in early conflict anticipation
• What solutions and actions are required from the EU side to avoid worst case scenario?

The patterns of migration and profile of young migrants to the Western OECD countries will be of high interest for the EU, in light of the large influx of refugees in 2015-2016. Given the complexity of conflicts and lack of sustainable solutions, it is expected that refugee and migration waves will continue in the years ahead. The AHDR examines youth’s reasons to migrate and possible exclusion factors, and envisages the role of migration policies in receiving or sending states, before emphasizing the role of inclusion in the migration process. Better understanding of the problems and challenges in sending states can help the EU in its cooperative efforts with regional governments to counteract the reasons (root causes) for conflict and migration, and presenting a cost-benefit analysis with potential ‘worst-case scenarios’ can serve as an alarm signal.

Agenda for the event in Brussels:

Presentation of the Arab Human Development Report

Mr. Adel Abdelllatif, Senior Strategic Advisor, Bureau for Arab States, UNDP

Discussion Panel

Mrs. Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director General, DG DEVCO

Mr. Maciej Popowski, Deputy Director General, DG NEAR

Mr. Mourad Wahba, Regional Director of the Bureau for Arab States, UNDP

Mr. Ahmed Hariri, Regional Manager - Middle East, Islamic Development Bank

Ms. Rosa Balfour, Acting Director of the Europe Program, German Marshall Fund

Moderator

Mr. Kawa Hassan, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, EastWest Institute

Event details and Registration.

On March 13, 2017, the EastWest Institute (EWI), in concert with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), convened the first ever conference on prospects for infrastructure cooperation between the United States and China. This conference, held in Beijing, brought together a U.S. delegation comprising investment and infrastructure experts—some of whom have advised the Trump administration on infrastructure—with Chinese counterparts from a number of private sector and state-owned enterprises. Discussion throughout the conference focused on the policy priorities of the Trump Administration; the Trump administration’s vision for the development of U.S. infrastructure; the current state of U.S.-China relations; and opportunities, challenges and recommendations for U.S.-China infrastructure cooperation.

While in Beijing, the U.S. delegation also met with senior representatives from the Communist Party of China and officials from a number of Chinese governmental ministries and agencies involved in infrastructure, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Commerce; the Ministry of Finance; and the National Development and Reform Commission. The delegation also met with officials from the Embassy of the United States in Beijing to share key outcomes from the meetings with Chinese officials. Throughout both the conference and official meetings, the delegates raised a number of proposals and recommendations for the Trump-Xi presidential summit at Mar-a-Lago in April.

The conference highlighted various opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, including Chinese investment in U.S. infrastructure projects and potential U.S.-China infrastructure cooperation in third-country (and especially emerging) markets. Participants from the two sides agreed that both the Trump administration’s prioritization of revitalizing U.S. infrastructure as well as the opportunities for Chinese investment in U.S. infrastructure create the potential for enhanced, mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

Discussion session at CICIR.

Click here to download event report. 

“I think it’s important to remember it doesn’t do us any good to vilify the Russians and push them into the corner,” said McConnell, as quoted by The Hill.

“They don’t respond well to that. We need to figure out how to talk to them and engage with them, but at the same time, as you said, take them very seriously — it’s a very serious threat to our country.”

The hearing, which took place on March 23, was aimed at moving forward legislation to respond to the evolving cyber threat landscape and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) civilian cyber defense mission. 

Read the full article on The Hill here.

To watch video from the hearing and read McConnell's statements at the hearing, click here.

Cameron Munter appeared on the David Webb Show on March 21 to discuss a variety of current issues, particularly the state of the European elections taking place this year and the future of diplomacy.

"I think what we've seen is that the Europeans are very much off balance by what's happened in the United States despite Brexit, despite other trends in Europe. The scene that you saw in the big gatherings like Davos and the Munich Security Conference is that the style of the Trump change has really caught the traditional Europeans off guard. That doesn't mean they know what's going to happen. What concerns them is that there's not a clear policy line that they can follow or at least that they think they can recognize in the past." 

Click here to listen to some of Munter's comments from the show.

In discussing cyber espionage, Michael Chertoff said that "the Russians are pretty much No.1 in terms of using criminal organizations as partners." Chertoff noted that there is an "unholy alliance between criminal hackers operating in Russia and the Russian intelligence services." 

Russia's outsourcing of its hacking has enabled them to "obfuscate their role in carrying out these kinds of cyber attacks" by "having criminals as cutouts." 

Click here to read the full story on USA Today.

Revelations that Russian intelligence agents penetrated the computer systems of Yahoo three years ago is hardly news to someone like Marina Kaljurand.

As the Estonian ambassador to Russia in 2007, she contacted officials there after a cyberattack against her country, which Estonia blamed on Russia. The denial-of-service assault effectively shut down the websites of the former Soviet republic’s parliament, newspapers and banks by overwhelming the sites with Internet traffic rerouted from other servers.

As you can imagine, she didn’t get far.

“It was a one-sided conversation,” said Kaljurand, who’s attending a cybersecurity conference in Berkeley this week. “There was no response from Russia.”

Click here to read the full story on San Francisco Chronicle.

Click here to read about the Summit.

Discussing threats to the American electoral system, McConnell noted that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "did not pay enough attention to the cyber risk" of voter fraud during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

"There are no security standards at this point, and it is possible that there is a need for regulation," he added, regarding the state of the DHS. While it has become increasingly challenging to secure voting sytems, McConnell said that some type of regulation should be implemented "sooner rather than later." 

Click here to read the full article on ICT publication GCN.