Executive Seminar: New & Emerging Security Challenges
From 6–17 December 2021 – the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA Center) conducted an Executive Seminar on “New and Emerging Security Challenges.” Leading academics and practitioners presented on a variety of non-traditional security threats, including climate change, pandemics, cyber security, human trafficking, migration, and non-state actors.
Course Director NESA Center Distinguished Professor Dr. Hassan Abbas welcomed the group and started off the seminar, followed by NESA Center Academic Dean Dr. Roger Kangas and NESA Center Director LTG Terry A. Wolff, USA (Ret.). Discussions were moderated by NESA faculty members Dr. Hassan Abbas, Dr. Michael Sharnoff, Anne Moisan, and David Des Roches.
The seminar consisted of 17 interactive sessions where NESA Center experts, as well as several external experts, were invited to discuss and engage with seminar participants in a virtual environment. Topics discussed included conceptual framework of non-traditional threats, environment, and demographic issues, readiness to deal with future pandemics, use of drones by non-state actors, disinformation campaigns, artificial intelligence, cyber security, the evolving nature of new and emerging security challenges, a variety of strategies to address these threats, and shared best practices based on their related professional experiences.
A faculty-guided discussion concluded the seminar, which focused on the nexus of non-traditional security threats and the role multilateral cooperation, education, and how technology can play in addressing such threats. Around 60 participants from 23 countries participated in the two-week seminar.
Speakers from top left: Dr. Hassan Abbas (Distinguished Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Roger Kangas (Academic Dean, NESA Center), LTG Terry A. Wolff, USA (Ret.) (Director, NESA Center), Dr. Mely Caballero-Anthony (Professor of International Relations Head of Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies; President’s Chair in International Relations and Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies), David Des Roches (Associate Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Rockford Weitz (Professor of Practice, Director of the Fletcher Maritime Studies Program, Entrepreneur Coach, The Fletcher School at Tufts University), Anne Moisan (Associate Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Michael Sharnoff (Associate Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Adil Najam (Inaugural Dean, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies; Professor of International Relations and Earth & Environment, Boston University), Dr. Marcus King (John O. Rankin Associate Professor of International Affairs; Director, M.A. Program in International Affairs, George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs), Dr. Yanzhong Huang (Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations), Dr. Allen Badeau (Chief Technology Officer, Senior Vice President and Director, NCI Create Lab), Dr. Vivian Walker (CPD Faculty Fellow, Executive Director, U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, Center on Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California), Dr. Al Naqvi (CEO, Professor, American Institute of Artificial Intelligence), Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown (Director – Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, Co-Director – Africa Security Initiative, Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, The Brookings Institution), Dr. Michael Brown (Professor of International Affairs and Political Science, George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs), Honorable Ali Jalali (Distinguished Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa (Research Associate, SOAS South Asia Institute, Research Associate Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD), South Asia Institute, University of London), Dr. Kelly M. Greenhill (Research Fellow, International Security Program; Former Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School), Anila Duro (Adjunct Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY), Dr. Genevieve Abdo (Visiting Fellow, The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington), Dr. George Perkovich, Ken Oliver and Angela Nomellini Chair, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Dr. Denise Natali (Director, Center for Strategic Research and Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University)
The views presented in this article are those of the speaker or author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its components.
