Upcoming Events

What does it mean to build AI in the public interest — and can openness help get us there? Join IGP Technology & Democracy Initiative Codirector Camille François and IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow Audrey Tang for a conversation on the need for greater openness in AI in this contested moment — not as a naive ideal, but as a practical necessity for public trust, security, and democratic oversight. The conversation will draw on François and Tang’s work across trust and safety and digital democracy to explore why participatory approaches are now more essential than ever.

Cosponsored by IGP’s Technology & Democracy Initiative and the Technology Policy and Innovation Concentration at Columbia SIPA.

Join Linda Robinson, CFR senior fellow for women and foreign policy and best-selling author of books on hybrid warfare, for a discussion of her new book Women in Power: Fighting for Democracy in an Age of Authoritarianism. In it she examines the governing approaches that modern women leaders are using to defend democracy and build domestic resilience. Robinson offers case studies of women in power around the world—from the Balkans and Taiwan to New Zealand and Barbados— who are using diplomatic, informational, military and economic tools to strengthen their countries amid a global crisis of democracy. 

Speakers:
Linda Robinson, Author, Women in Power: Fighting for Democracy in an Age of Authoritarianism; Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
Rachel Vogelstein, Associate Professor of Professional Practice; Codirector of IGP’s Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative; Faculty Codirector of Human Rights, Gender, and Equity Concentration, Columbia SIPA (moderator)

This event is organized by IGP’s Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative and co-sponsored by the HRGE Concentration at Columbia SIPA.

The world has a wealth of knowledge and tools to prevent, detect, and rapidly halt outbreaks. Yet the collective will to confront the inevitable and growing threat of infectious diseases is not keeping pace. Against a backdrop of weakening international cooperation, declining global health financing, unresolved inequities, and an erosion of trust, this event brings together senior leaders, scholars of geopolitics, finance, and health, and former practitioners to consider what has changed since COVID-19, what gaps remain, and how multilateral cooperation can be strengthened to prevent health emergencies and pandemics.

The conversation is especially timely during a week when world leaders meet at the UN to consider how to better tackle pandemic threats.

Cosponsored by ICAP Global Health and the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Register for the Livestream

For today’s leaders and policymakers, the global energy transition and climate change are increasingly informing decisionmaking at the highest levels around the world. On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this year during Climate Week NYC, the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA will host a high-level program featuring conversations on a range of pressing issues, including climate security, the energy transition, and related energy and climate policy shifts and priorities of policymakers domestically and around the world. A networking cocktail reception will follow the program.

The program will feature:
- Opening Remarks from Jason Bordoff, Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA
- The release of a new report from the Task Force on Global Resilience and Climate Security, a collaborative partnership between CGEP and the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University SIPA.
- Other featured speakers and programming to be announced.

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Five years after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, women and girls face systemic exclusion from public life, including prohibitions on education, bans on travel without a male chaperone, and severe restrictions on employment. Join the IGP Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative a discussion of ongoing human rights abuses against Afghan women and girls and their fight for freedom—including an excerpt from Rule Breakers, a powerful film that documents the story of the Afghan Girls’ Robotics Team, which competed against the odds—followed by a panel discussion on the way forward featuring Roya Mahboob, the team’s founder and coach.

Cosponsored by IGP's Ann F. Kaplan Women's Initiative.

AI slop isn't going away – what does that mean for the US midterms?

As the 2026 US midterms approach, AI-generated content (and particularly slop, the low-grade content optimized for broad distribution and engagement) is no longer a peripheral nuisance but a structural feature of the information environment voters need to navigate. This public roundtable, as a follow-up to Columbia’s Slop Salon and published proceedings, brings together leading researchers and practitioners to unpack the stakes: how synthetic content is produced and distributed at scale, how it interacts with platform incentives and moderation gaps, and what its proliferation means for electoral integrity and democratic trust in this contested moment.

Opening Remarks:
Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Journalist; Professor of Professional Practice, IGP Faculty Advisory Board Member, IGP’s Technology & Democracy Initiative Codirector, and Inaugural IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow, Columbia SIPA

Speakers:
Ryan Beiermeister, Partner at Founders Fund; Former VP of Product Policy at OpenAI
Renée DiResta, Associate Research Professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy
Isabel Linzer, Policy Analyst at Center for Democracy & Technology
Aidan Walker, Creator-in-Residence at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Camille François (moderator), Assistant Professor of Practice of International and Public Affairs; Codirector of IGP’s Technology & Democracy Initiative, Columbia SIPA

October 7, 2023 forever changed the dynamics of the Middle East, the global conversation about Israel and Palestine, and the lives of so many in the region and beyond.

Three years later, Jaser AbuMoussa and Jonathan Dekel-Chen — two fathers from Gaza and Israel whose families and communities have endured profound loss — have chosen to reach across the divide.

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IGP presents James P. Gorman, Chairman of The Walt Disney Company and Chairman Emeritus of Morgan Stanley, in conversation with IGP Faculty Policy Director Secretary Jacob J. Lew.

Full details and registration opening soon. Check back here for updates or sign up for our newsletter to get notified directly.

Book talk with Maria Ressa, Professor of Practice of International and Public Affairs; Codirector of IGP’s Technology & Democracy Initiative, Columbia SIPA

Full details and registration opening soon. Check back here for updates or sign up for our newsletter to get notified directly.

Book talk with Kim Ghattas, former IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow and Emmy Award-winning journalist, analyst, author of Black Wave, and contributing writer for The Atlantic.

Full details and registration opening soon. Check back here for updates or sign up for our newsletter to get notified directly.