In response to these turbulent times, Just World Educational is launching a new project that explores the global implications of the current crisis in Ukraine.
After consultation with the board of Just World Ed, our recent board member the international jurist Professor Richard Falk and Just World Ed President Helena Cobban have decided to co-host a series of biweekly webinars in which, with a revolving cast of guests, they will explore the effects this crisis is having on a world order that has already started to see massive, “tectonic”-level shifts in the balance of power.
We are thrilled with the list of potential guests who have already committed to coming onto one or more episodes of this project. They include:
- Peace activist Medea Benjamin
- Tricontinental Institute Director Vijay Prashad
- Global strategic-affairs expert Lyle Goldstein
- Amb. Chas W. Freeman, Jr.
- Author and activist Bill Fletcher, Jr.
- International rights expert Marjorie Cohn
We’re receiving other expressions of interest from potential invitees at a fabulous rate — and we haven’t even finished sending out the invitations yet!
Clearly, this is a topic that smart and visionary people from a variety of fields consider to be of urgent concern. We are now working to design a series of great conversations, involving probably two guests each episode, that between them will deal with the myriad of sub-themes involved: the threat of global nuclear war; the need for urgent and smart diplomacy; equity issues between “Western” powers and the nations of the Global South; how to reform and strengthen the international system, and so on.
Our first session, on Wednesday, March 2, will feature Vijay Prashad and Lyle Goldstein for what is sure to be a very thought-provoking and wide-reaching discussion! We’ll be able to get some military “ground truth” on the situation in and around Ukraine from Lyle, a strong globalist perspective from Vijay, some reflections on how the current crisis impacts the post-Cold War “world order” from Richard and from both the others… And who knows where else the conversation might go?
Register for Wednesday’s session here. That one registration will give you access to all the biweekly sessions between March 2 and Monday, March 28.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian peace-and-justice activist, the Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He is the author of thirty books, including The Darker Nations, and Karma of Brown Folk. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.
Lyle Goldstein is Director of Asia Engagement at Defense Priorities. He earlier served 20 years as Research Professor at U.S. Naval War College, where he founded and led the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI). Lyle speaks both Chinese and Russian and is currently writing a book on China-Russia relations. He has earlier published seven books, including Meeting China Halfway (Georgetown UP, 2015).
Be sure, too, to check out this preliminary article Helena authored last Thursday, “Where to now, the ‘world order’?” about the global dimensions of the Ukraine crisis.
We’ve seen a large number of other thought-provoking and relevant writings recently that wrestle with aspects of this topic. Among the best of these are: the piece that Katrina vanden Heuvel had in The Nation that same day, and this piece, that Phyllis Bennis had on the FPIF website on February 25.
We’re sure that all of you have been bombarded with a plethora of articles, reports, and opinion pieces about the Ukraine crisis. That’s why Richard and Helena thought that inviting one or two good people to join each of our public, in-depth, online conversations could help everyone dig deep into the complex global dimensions of this crisis.
Please join us for our inaugural session/episode, this Wednesday!
And be sure to tell your friends about these timely and informative conversations, too! You can use these links to do so.