Contemporary trends reflect growing forms of contestation and fragmentation in the international system. Armed conflicts, political and economic crises, fast-paced technological transformations and the revival of great power competition are straining both the spirit and the practice of multilateral cooperation.
International objectives, from sustainable development to the fight against climate change and the governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI), are meanwhile slipping from the global agenda, just as the implications of these transformations are growing harder to ignore.听
Amidst a rapidly transforming international environment, the International Relations and Global Politics (IRGP) program at the American University of Rome (AUR), in cooperation with the IRGP Student Club, is pleased to host a three-day international conference in March 2025 to take stock of these present complexities and reflect on the implications of a slowly emerging multipolar system.
Structured around a series of academic presentations and roundtable discussions, as well as field trips to Rome-based International Organizations and a range of student-led debates, the conference will gather 70-80 participants from a range of Rome- and Europe-based Universities to tackle this multifaceted problem from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives.
Specific themes will include progress and backsliding on the UN鈥檚 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the broader UN reform agenda, the promise and perils of harnessing big data and AI for food security, as well as multilateral efforts to combat climate change.
All these aspects will be contextualized in the growing fragmentation of the international system amidst a hesitant revival of block alliances and a parallel fraying of international law and human rights frameworks amidst new and ongoing conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
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Agenda
DAY ONE -听WEDNESDAY MARCH 12 |
|
| 09:00 |
Registration & Welcome Refreshments |
| 09:40 |
Opening Ceremony |
| 10:00 |
Keynote Speech: The EU Navigating the Global (Dis)Order |
| 10:45 |
Q&A Session |
| 11:00 |
Refreshment Break - Auditorium Garden. |
| 11:30 |
Round Table Discussion: The Crisis of International Law & the |
| 12:30 | Q&A Session |
| 12:45 |
Lunch Break - AUR Main Campus Garden |
| 14:30 |
Lecture: Multipolarity and International Peace & Security: Prospects and Scenarios |
| 15:15 | Q&A Session |
| 15:40 |
Lecture: World Politics: Drifting Towards Anarchy and Remilitarization |
| 16:25 | Q&A Session |
| 16:40 |
Refreshment Break - Auditorium Garden |
| 17:00 |
IRGP (International Relations and Global Politics Club) Session |
| 18:40 |
Aperitivo - AUR Main Campus Garden |
DAY TWO -听THURSDAY MARCH 13 |
|
| 09:00 |
Student Delegation Field Trips.听 |
| 13:00 | Lunch Break - AUR Main Campus Garden |
| 14:30 | Group Photo听- AUR Main Campus Garden |
| 15:00 |
Student Break Out Rooms 鈥� Debriefing on the meetings |
| 16:15 |
Refreshment Break - AUR Main Campus Garden |
| 16:30 |
Student-led Plenary Discussion听 |
| 17:45 |
Closing Remarks听 |
| 18:00 |
Aperitivo - AUR Main Campus Garden |
DAY THREE - FRIDAY MARCH 14 |
|
| 09:00 |
Registration & Welcome Refreshments |
| 09:30 |
Lecture: Demographic Shifts and Global Ageing: Implications for International Order |
| 10:15 | Q&A Session. |
| 10:30 | Refreshment Break - Auditorium Garden |
| 11:00 |
Keynote Speech: The US and Multilateralism: Past and Present听 |
| 11:30 | Q&A Session. |
| 11:45 |
Lecture: The EU and the Middle East |
| 12:30 | Q&A Session. |
| 12:45 | Lunch Break - AUR Main Campus Garden |
| 14:15 |
Round Table Discussion: Food Security and Climate Emergency: Prospects & Challenges |
| 15:45 |
Refreshment Break - Auditorium Garden |
| 16:15 |
Student Debate: Multilateralism versus Multipolarity: The Case of the Environment |
| 17:30 | Film Screening. |
| 19:00 |
Aperitivo & Closing Ceremony听 |
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For further information, please reach out to the Scientific Coordinator, Professor Andrea Dess铆 at a.dessi@aur.edu