This past month the Centre for International Security Studies (CISS) held the inaugural CISS Global Forum, a two-day event that began with an evening roundtable at the University of Sydney, followed by a full day workshop to discuss peace and security under uncertainty.

The Global Forum series was designed to respond rapidly and critically to new and pressing global issues. This year’s Forum focused on assessing the impact of uncertainty on peace and security from the interstices of philosophy and politics, science and the humanities, journalism and history.

The event opened with a roundtable on the evening of April 27th at the University of Sydney’s Quadrangle, which featured four global experts: Lene Hansen (University of Copenhagen), Rita Abrahamsen (University of Ottawa), Michael Williams (University of Ottawa) and Thomas Biersteker (Graduate Institute of Geneva), who spoke on peace and security under uncertainty from the perspective of world politics.

On April 28th, a group of local and international academics from across multiple disciplines gathered for a full day workshop at the scenic Quarantine Station in the Sydney harbour to tackle the question of uncertainty from the perspectives of physics, philosophy, history, economics and international security.

In his opening remarks, James Der Derian, Director of CISS and Project Q said, “There is a very urgent need for the University to grapple with the question of uncertainty right now because of global levels of fear and anxiety.”

Professor Der Derian also published this article on The Conversation discussing the post-truth response in the age of Trump and refers to the themes of uncertainty explored at the Global Forum.

All proceedings were recorded and will be available to view online. Here is a trailer of the Global Forum with full panel recordings available here soon.

[vimeo 219448613 w=640 h=360]

The Global Forum series is organised by the Centre for International Security Studies and sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, the School of Political and Social Sciences and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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