The week of September 18th was the central week for UN activity – the High Level Week - with the opening of the 78 UNGA’s. Many Heads of State attended and there was a series of summits during the week including the High Level Panel Forum’s (HLPF) SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Summit, the Climate Ambition Summit and a ministerial gathering for the Summit of the Future that is planned for next year’s High Level Week. So it was a real pleasure to invite back CEIP’s Stewart Patrick into the Virtual Studio to talk about this critical UN week. What advances occurred and the continuing challenges for multilateralism. 

Stewart Patrick is senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). His primary areas of research focus are the shifting foundations of world order, the future of American internationalism, and the requirements for effective multilateral cooperation on transnational challenges. Stewart is an expert in the history and practice of multilateralism, He is the author of three books, including: The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America with the World; Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security; and The Best Laid Plans: The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War. He has authored many articles, essays, chapters, and reports on problems of world order, U.S. global engagement, the United Nations and other international organizations, and the management of global issues. 

[The SDGs – “Adopted in 2015, the SDGs are a set of 17 goals that, combined, seek to improve health and wellbeing, reduce inequalities and exclusion, and ensure a just transition toward environmentally sustainable societies for all of the world’s inhabitants.” ]

Summit Dialogue S2, Ep 1: Stewart Patrick on the Impacts and Outcomes of UNGA78 High Level Week

The US-China relationship has been marked by growing competition and rivalry. Nevertheless, the two have made efforts to stabilize the relationship notably with the meeting between Presidents Xi and Biden at the margins of the APEC Summit in San Francisco in 2023. More recently, the ministers of defense have met at the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue. Secretary Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun agreed to work toward better communications to stabilize military relations and avert crises, according to a statement from the Defense Department. The United States and China will “convene a crisis-communications working group by the end of the year.”

So, what is the current state of the US-China relationship today and how are the two reshaping the global order in the face of US-China relations? Joining me in the Virtual Studio is Pascale Massot to discuss the state of the US-China relationship.

Pascale is an associate professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is also non-resident Honorary Fellow, Political Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, and a Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. She also has served as the Senior Advisor for China and Asia in the offices of various Canadian Cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Pascale is the author of “China’s Vulnerability Paradox: How the World’s Largest Consumer Transformed Global Commodity Markets” (Oxford University Press, 2024).


Her research interests include the global political economy of China’s rise and impact on the liberal international order, China’s impact on global extractive commodity markets, including debates around de-risking, Canada-China relations, Canadian public opinion on China and China narratives more broadly, as well as the advent of Indo-Pacific strategies around the world.

Shaking the Global Order S2, Ep 19: Pascale Massot on the state of US-China Relations

It is with great pleasure that I welcome back into the Virtual Studio, Homi Kharas. I wanted to explore with him the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the halfway point for their completion. I was looking for his assessment of current progress especially after he, John W McArthur, and Odera Onyechi published a new Report at Brookings: “How is the world doing on the SDGs? Four tests and eight findings”. 

Also, I wanted to get his views of what we can expect at the upcoming UN Summit of the Future, scheduled for September 22nd and 23rd in New York during the High Level Panel Week. This Summit is the second of two Summits called for by the current UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 

Homi is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development, housed in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. In that capacity, he studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, including aid to poor countries, the emergence of the middle class, and global governance and the G20.

His most recent co-authored/edited books are: “The Rise of the Middle Class: How the Search for the Good Life Can Change the World” (2023), “Breakthrough: The Promise of Frontier Technologies for Sustainable Development” edited with John McArthur and Izumi Ohno (2022) and “Leave No One Behind: From Summits to Solutions: Time for Specifics on the Sustainable Development Goals" edited with John McArthur and Izumi Ohno (2019).

Summit Dialogue S2, Ep 6: Kharas on the Sustainable Development Goals and UN Summit of the Future

Season 3—The current state of global relations: An introduction by Alan Alexandroff

US-China relations during the Biden administration have been marked by competition and rivalry. Many of the aspects of US-China relations of the first Trump presidency were retained by the Biden administration. We have now returned to President Trump. What are we likely to see now in US foreign policy under a second Trump presidency; what will be US-China relations going forward? To explore all this I invited back into the Virtual Studio my good colleague Yves Tiberghien.

Yves currently is a Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research, Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research, and Director of the Center for Japanese Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Yves recently completed a study leave and was a visiting scholar at the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science (2023-2024). Yves specializes in comparative political economy and international political economy with an empirical focus on China, Japan, and Korea. His latest book is The East Asian Covid-19 Paradox, August 2021.

Come join Yves in the Virtual Studio to examine these issues.

Shaking the Global Order S3, Ep 1: Tiberghien

Join Professor Alan Alexandroff as he interviews fellow academics, policymakers, and former officials about global governance and the contemporary global order.

New tracks tagged #global summits