The NESA Center hosted a virtual Washington Seminar discussion titled “Redefining Security After COVID-19” on 13 August, 2020. NESA Assistant Professor Brianne Todd moderated the panel comprising of Professor Nora Bensahel, Egyptian Member of Parliament Dalia Youssef, and Professor Noha Bakr. Select officials and staff from NESA region partner-country embassies, and those from the embassies partner countries adjacent to the NESA region, attended the discussion.
Topics included the pandemic’s future on the US role in global security, North Africa’s pandemic response, and Egypt’s shifting security priorities. COVID-19 has fundamentally shifted countries’ policies towards human security; the US, and most other countries, face a difficult philosophical decision between continued multilateral cooperation or increasing isolationism. Although future security policy greatly depends on 2020 election results, details of further US budget reform remain of great interest.
The Washington Seminar discussion series is a flagship NESA Center program designed to provide senior diplomatic officials from the NESA region and U.S. partner countries with a forum for candid and substantive discussion on issues of critical importance to national and regional security.
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