2016 – A World Without Borders

Crises and conflict increasingly transcend traditional boundaries, both intangible and concrete.

Yet our world is increasingly interconnected and these borders are increasingly permeable, redrawn and reimagined. Flows of people, ideas, & capital are growing. Financial crises, epidemics and the borderless world of modern cyberspace, have challenged conventional understandings of transnational public threats, and how they may be overcome. Refugee crises and the redrawing of national borders in Ukraine, the Levant and the South China Sea have accelerated conversations about border controls and the extent to which actors, both state and non-state, can take the shaping of nations into their own hands. Yet, one common thread – a question – runs through each of these cases: In a world in which boundaries seem to loosen and constrict and to expand and disappear almost simultaneously, what is the role of the international community in mitigating the threats that a world with(out) borders has created?

Borderless Threats

This panel seeks to investigate three divergent topics – Health Epidemics, Cyber Space, and Finance & Trade – that share one common theme: their ability to transcend national borders.

What can be learned from past epidemics? Do we need more cooperation between states in creating vaccines that can combat epidemics and bioterrorism? Should more resources be allocated to involve medical communities and support hospital associations in their attempts to meet these challenges?

In parallel, we address the growing need for cyber security in protecting corporate & consumer data and in strengthening national security. Is cyber war-fare a soft threat or can it lead to conventional war- fare?

Lastly, what geopolitical role does nance & trade play? How does one nation’s reliance on another impact its decision making? Are nancial and trade sanctions the new weapons of choice in containing agonistic states?

Borders In Flux

This panel addresses the potential redrawing of state borders across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Part I: China and Russia looking to redraw state boundaries.

Did the United States’ supposed pivot to Asia propel China to enforce its conjectural claim over the South China Sea? Will Japan’s collective advocacy for a new national charter and larger military impel
it to occupy the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands? How do we de ne Russia’s overtaking of Crimea and its interference in the Ukraine? Is President Putin simply emulating the U.S.S.R vision? To what extent is NATO willing to tolerate Russia’s aggression?

Part II: On Daesh.

How has Daesh in uenced the world’s perception of redrawing borders? To what extent is Daesh willing to ignore conventional geographic divisions and pursue new territory? Is the redrawing of states imminent in satisfying regional groups – Sunni, Shia and Kurds?

Borders Rising

Con icts and poverty have precipitated the worst refugee crisis the world has seen since WWII: Over 4 million Syrians have left the country, in a refugee crisis that has spread to neighboring countries and to Europe. From Afghanistan and Somalia, 2.5 and 1.1 million, respectively, remain displaced.

Yet, in addition to solidifying international solidarity, the ow of displaced peoples has also raised questions: about regional responsibility, international border controls and national security.

This panel seeks to examine how state boundaries, in the Middle East, Europe and North America have responded to the rapid influx of people and how, the international community can respond to ensure the safety of refugees and international borders.