Junior Fellow Conference

New Stakeholders, New Solutions?

Addressing Global Problems in an Age of Emerging Powers

Thursday, April 23 2009 - Washington, DC

G20

The balance of power in the international system is shifting in fundamental ways. The beginning of this century has witnessed the birth of “emerging powers”: countries whose interests and influence in the global order can no longer be ignored by the West. Few would dispute that these stakeholders will wield greater authority in the coming decades.

But alongside this trend is the reality of global problems. A global economic system in crisis, the dire consequences of climate change, and the future of nonproliferation all demand the cooperation of stakeholders.

What are the implications of newly empowered states for problems that affect every state? Will the old global powers seek to work with the new stakeholders or will they fight the trend through containment and counterbalancing?

This year’s Junior Fellows Conference will try to answer these questions by examining the role of emerging powers in three pressing issues: the evolving global economic system, the nuclear nonproliferation regime, and climate change. The opening and closing keynote addresses will be delivered by Thomas Fingar and Anne-Marie Slaughter, respectively. Dr. Fingar was the former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and directed the NIC’s Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, today’s leading report on the emergence of new powers and the role they will play in revolutionizing the international system. Dr. Slaughter is the current director of policy planning at the U.S. State Department and served as the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University from 2002 to 2009.