COVID and the Global Order

The new virtual discussion series is co-sponsored by the Yale Law School Center for Global Legal Challenges & the Jackson Institute.

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. In the process, it has placed new stresses on an already fragile global order. In the early days of the pandemic, the inability of the World Health Organization to stem the spread of the virus led many to question the efficacy of global institutions to address global threats. Many nations tried to prevent the spread of the virus by shutting their borders to travel. The failure of a coherent global response has laid bare how much global institutions had come to rely on a United States that, in this instance, abdicated its role as the world’s indispensable nation. This series will ask how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the global order and whether these effects will last long after the pandemic itself is finally over. 

Events in the Series

October 8, 2020 | The Future of U.S. National Security

More than 180 attendees tuned in for the Oct. 8 discussion, “The Future of U.S. National Security,” part of the “COVID and the Global Order” series. Speakers included:

  • Jake Sullivan, Brady-Johnson Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy and Martin R. Flug Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School; former Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden
  • Victoria Nuland, Brady-Johnson Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy at Yale University; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and Ambassador to NATO

Oona A. Hathaway, the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law and Counselor to the Dean at the Yale Law School, moderated the discussion. 

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October 14, 2020 | Global Migration and Movement Across Borders

More than 100 attendees tuned in for the October 14 discussion, “Global Migration and Movement Across Borders,” featuring: 

  • Monette Zard, Allan Rosenfield Associate Professor of Forced Migration and Health, Director of the Forced Migration and Health Program, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
  • Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Distinguished Transatlantic Fellow, co-Founder, and President Emeritus, Migration Policy Institute

Cristina Rodriguez, the Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law at Yale Law School, moderated the discussion. 

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October 29, 2020 | Nationalism vs. Cosmopolitanism

More than 180 attendees joined the October 29 discussion, “Nationalism vs. Cosmopolitanism,” featuring: 

  • Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Professor of Philosophy Emerita at Yale and Senior Research Fellow and Professor Adjunct of Law at Columbia
  • Michael Lind, Professor of Practice, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas

Samuel Moyn, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and a Professor of History at Yale, moderated.

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November 19, 2020 | The Global Economic Order

The series concluded on November 19 with the discussion, “The Global Economic Order,” featuring:

  • Oriana Bandiera, Sir Anthony Atkinson Chair in Economics and Director of STICERD, LSE
  • Guy Ryder, International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General
  • Mark Van Der Weide, General Counsel, Federal Reserve Board

Daniel Markovits, the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School, moderated the discussion.

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