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Event description and registration

After decades of being relegated to the periphery of China’s geostrategy, the regions of what is now collectively termed the Global South – Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East – have become an essential component of China’s external engagement and foreign policy. China is now a central player in the economic and technological development of countries across the developing world, with significant implications for these countries’ trajectories as well as their relations with the United States and other developed democracies. At the same time, China’s growing influence in these regions is increasingly hampered by systemic factors, including China’s slowing economy, raising questions about China’s bid to lead the Global South and shape the narrative on the global development agenda. These dynamics all play out against the backdrop of escalating Sino-US strategic economic, security and technological rivalry, and transnational security threats like pandemics, climate change, and terrorism.

This conference will tackle these issues and more, with a particular focus on convening a diverse group of experts from the Global South as well as from the private sector and US and allied governments to kickstart innovative and collaborative policy solutions to mounting strategic rivalry in the Global South and that help ensure engagement with China serves the interests of developing countries.

Please register via the registration box on this page to express your interest in attending this conference! Due to space constraints, in-person registration is now closed. Please visit this page on the day of the event to participate virtually.

Speakers

Keynote speakers

Speakers

Agenda

February 21

08:30 a.m. – 09:00 a.m.  |  Introduction

FEATURING

R. Scott Appleby, Marilyn Keough Dean, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

Tod D. Wolters, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (fmr.), US Air Force | Distinguished Fellow, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council

Joshua Eisenman, Associate Professor of Politics, Keough School of Government, University of Notre Dame

David Shullman, Senior Director, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

 

09:05 a.m. – 09:30 a.m.  |  Keynote address

FEATURING

Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State

 

 

09:35 a.m. – 10:35 a.m.  |  China’s aims in a shifting global order

FEATURING

Bilahari Kausikan,  Chairman, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore

Paul Nantulya, Research Associate, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University

Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow, China Studies, The National Bureau of Asian Research

Michael Schuman, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

MODERATED BY: David Shullman, Senior Director, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

10:40 a.m. – 11:25 a.m.  |  Regional lightning talk: Africa

FEATURING

Joseph Asunka, Chief Executive Officer, Afrobarometer

Paul Nantulya, Research Associate, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University

Oscar M. Otele, Nonresident Fellow, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

MODERATED BY: Rama Yade, Senior Director, Africa Center, Atlantic Council

11:35 a.m. – 12:35 p.m.  |  Development and finance

FEATURING

Samantha Custer, Director of Policy Analysis, AidData

W. Gyude Moore, Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development

Veda Vaidyanathan, Associate Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi

Wawa Wang, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

MODERATED BY: Jeremy Mark, Nonresident Senior Fellow, GeoEconomics Center, Atlantic Council

12:50 p.m. – 01:50 p.m.  |  Lunch book talk

FEATURING

Joseph Asunka, Chief Executive Officer, Afrobarometer

Joshua Eisenman, Associate Professor of Politics, Keough School of Government, University of Notre Dame

 

01:55 p.m. – 02:55 p.m.  |  Governance and rights

FEATURING

Victoria Tin-bor Hui, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame

Bulelani Jili, Nonresident Fellow, Cyber Statecraft Initiative, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council

Rana Siu Inboden, Senior Fellow, Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, The University of Texas at Austin

Christopher Walker, Vice President for Studies and Analysis, National Endowment for Democracy

MODERATED BY: Johanna Kao, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council | Regional Director for Asia, International Republican Institute

03:00 p.m. – 03:45 p.m.  |  Regional lightning talk: Latin America

FEATURING

Victoria Chonn-Ching, Nonresident Fellow, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, Atlantic Council

Parsifal D’Sola, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

Evan Ellis, Research Professor, Latin America Studies, US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute

Margaret Myers, Director, Asia & Latin America Program, Inter-American Dialogue

MODERATED BY: Pepe Zhang, Senior Fellow, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, Atlantic Council

04:00 p.m. – 05:00 p.m.  |  China’s discourse power

FEATURING

Sarah Cook, Senior Advisor for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Freedom House

Kenton Thibaut, Senior Resident Fellow, China, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council

Emeka Umejei, Media Scholar, Center for Analysis of Authoritarian Influence

MODERATED BY: Joshua Eisenman, Associate Professor of Politics, Keough School of Government, University of Notre Dame

05:00 p.m. – 06:00 p.m.  |  Reception

Beverages and light refreshments provided

February 22

08:45 a.m. – 09:20 a.m.  |  Keynote address

FEATURING

Daniel Twining, President, International Republican Institute

09:20 a.m. – 10:05 a.m.  |  Regional lightning talk: Asia

FEATURING

Douveri Henao, Founder and CEO, Legacy Group

Richard Heydarian, Senior Lecturer, Asian Center, University of the Philippines

Susan Ostermann, Associate Professor of Global Affairs, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

MODERATED BY: Amy Searight, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Security Initiative, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council

10:10 a.m. – 10:55 a.m.  |  Technological rivalry and the Global South

FEATURING

Ngor Luong, Nonresident Fellow, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

Elina Noor, Senior Fellow, Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Conrad Tucker, Director, CMU-Africa and Associate Dean, International Affairs-Africa, Carnegie Mellon University

Chris Schroeder, Co-Founder, Next Billion Ventures | Chairman, The German Marshall Fund

MODERATED BY: Rose Jackson, Director, Democracy & Tech Initiative, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  |  Regional lightning talk: MENA

FEATURING

Jonathan Fulton, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs, Atlantic Council

Andrea Ghiselli, Assistant Professor, School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University

Dawn Murphy, Associate Professor, National Security Strategy, National War College, National Defense University

MODERATED BY: Jonathan Panikoff, Director, Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs and Senior Fellow, GeoEconomics Center, Atlantic Council

12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.  |  Luncheon keynote

FEATURING

Michael Schiffer, Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia, USAID

1:20 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.  |  Forging a more effective US approach in the Global South

FEATURING

Simon Littlewood, CEO, SDG Global Group

Daphne A. McCurdy, Senior Advisor, Office of China Coordination, US Department of State

Naz El-Khatib, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, US International Development Finance Corporation

MODERATED BY: David Shullman, Senior Director, Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.  |  The Allied Alternative in the Global South

FEATURING

H.E. James Roscoe MVO, Deputy Head of Mission to the US, British Embassy Washington

H.E. Axel Dittmann, Deputy Chief of Mission, German Embassy Washington

MODERATED BY: Jörn Fleck, Senior Director, Europe Center, Transform Europe Initiative, Atlantic Council

2:30 p.m.  |  Concluding remarks

FEATURING

Joshua Eisenman, Associate Professor of Politics, Keough School of Government, University of Notre Dame

 

Revisit the 2022 China-Global South Conference

In 2022, in partnership with Notre Dame University’s Pulte Institute for Global Development hosted a virtual conference on China and the Global South.

This conference is part of the China-Global South Initiative, a joint project by Notre Dame and the Atlantic Council to work with local partners to better understand and respond to China’s strategic intentions, methods, and ultimate political and economic impacts in the Global South. This effort seeks to leverage both organizations’ capacity for generating deep insights into the domestic drivers of China’s external behavior and nuanced understanding of ground realities across the Global South via direct engagement with regional stakeholders. In doing so, the CGSi addresses an area which remains understudied despite the numerous ways China’s role across the Global South will shape the future of the rules-based international order and affect US interests.

View our 2022 Conference

Keough School of Global Affairs

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