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Einaudi Center for International Studies

War and Stagflation Threaten Global Economy as Pandemic Recovery Slows

federal reserve bank
April 27, 2022

Eswar Prasad, SAP

“The Fed is at real risk of losing control of the inflation narrative and could be forced to tighten even more aggressively than it has signaled, raising the risk of a marked slowdown in growth in 2023,” says Eswar Prasad, professor of international trade policy and economics. Prasad is also quoted on Marketplace about President Biden requiring infrastructure bill materials to be made in the U.S. 

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Topic

  • Development, Law, and Economics

Program

Central Bank Digital Identity

April 27, 2022

Eswar Prasad, SAP

Eswar Prasad, senior professor of trade policy and professor of economics, told the British Parliament’s House of Lords Economic Affairs “Committee that the UK has an effective payments system and there is no strong consumer case for a British CBDC.” But he also noted that “one could still make the user case in terms of the CBDC catalyzing additional innovation”. 

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Topic

  • Development, Law, and Economics

Program

A Violent Crisis

subway new york
April 27, 2022

Jamein Cunningham, Global Public Voice

“It’s too early to say,” says Jamein Cunningham, assistant professor of public policy. “But it’s nice to have numbers that at least, relative to this time last year, suggest it might be easing.” 

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Topic

How The Global Food Shortage Helps US Farmers

wheat
April 27, 2022

Chris Barrett, IAD/SEAP

“It will be interesting to see what happens in the real wheat belt in North Dakota and Minnesota,” says Chris Barrett, professor of applied economics and policy. “They still have some time to decide what to plant. A deciding factor might be wheat prices shooting up.” 
 

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From Ithaca to Oslo

Laidlaw scholar Melanie Marshall photographs insects in a field
April 25, 2022

Laidlaw Scholar Melanie Marshall ’24

Marshall's work as a Laidlaw scholar incorporates research, leadership training, and a summer leadership-in-action experience in Norway.

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Institute for African Development Global Africa Monthly Webinar Series: Covid 19 Diagnosis and Vaccine Challenges: What Strategy for Africa?

April 29, 2022

10:00 am

IAD Global Africa Monthly Webinar Series

Friday, April 29, 2022
@10:00am - 12:00pm EST/2:00pm - 4:00pm GMT

Register:

Introduction of the Series
N’Dri Assie-Lumumba
Professor, Africana Studies
Director, Institute for African Development

Discussant: Dr. Kouame KOUADIO, PhD Researcher, Environmental and health Department, Eco Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur of Côte d'Ivoire

Professor Mireille Dosso, MD, PhD, Professor of Microbiology, Director of the Institut Pasteur of Côte d'Ivoire

Dr. Hervé Albéric Adjé Kadjo, MD, PhD, Head of the Respiratoy Viruses Unit, Institut Pasteur of Cote d'Ivoire

Richard Njouom, PhD, Head of the Virology Department, Centre Pasteur of Cameroon

Attoh Touré Harvey, MPH, Head of Immunization Service, National Institute of Public Hygiene, Cote d'Ivoire

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Program

Einaudi Center for International Studies

Institute for African Development

Bartels Explainer

Leymah Gbowee, Bartels 2022, mobilized women to protest ongoing conflict in Liberia.
April 21, 2022

How did Leymah Gbowee's protests lead to lasting peace?

Naminata Diabate outlines the movement's tactics and explains how womens' protests helped end the Liberian civil war.


This year's Bartels lecturer, Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee, led an interfaith women's peace movement that played a pivotal role in bringing warlords to the peace table and ultimately ending Liberia's bloody 14-year civil war in 2003. The movement's historic achievement earned Gbowee the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. She continues her work as a global leader and activist for peace and women's rights.

"We need to specify that both a sex strike and the threat to strip naked are not nonviolent forms of protest."

On this page: Naminata Diabate describes the tactics used by Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, the interfaith women's peace movement Gbowee led, and explains how the protests helped end the civil war. Diabate is an associate professor of comparative literature in the College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Institute for African Development's faculty steering committee.

Coming May 3: Reserve Your Free Ticket Today!

Bartels 2022 Leymah Gbowee banner


A Conversation with Naminata Diabate

What types of protests did Gbowee and the peace movement she led carry out?

Leymah Gbowee and the interfaith women wrote countless letters to major stakeholders, organized vigils, fasting, meetings, deliberations, sit-ins, dancing and chanting, a sex strike—and finally threatened to strip naked. Most importantly, they deployed determination to bring peace to their country.

Naminata Diabate with a stack of her book
Diabate at a Cornell Store signing. Her book, Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa, won the 2021 Best Book Award from the African Studies Association.

Were these nonviolent protests?

We need to specify that both a sex strike and the threat to strip naked are not nonviolent forms of protest. In fact, they constitute the most violent types that women in specific communities (such as the ones Leymah Gbowee and her comrades worked in) can deploy against their menfolk, and by extension, their societies.

A sex strike—which we see organized around the world and even in the United States—is not peaceful because it reverses the gender expectation of the female body as available for procreation, male sexuality, and pleasure, and relatedly, it opposes procreation, which can endanger the life of the community.  

As for defiant self-exposure—another name I use for naked protest—it constitutes the last resort in specific circumstances that allegedly cause the targeted males a myriad of misfortunes, including shame, impotence, infertility, incurable diseases, and literal or social death.

What were the protesters trying to accomplish?

With multiple strategies, both violent and nonviolent, the women tried to attract the attention of the international community and force the warring parties and strongmen such as Charles Taylor to understand the suffering of the Liberian people—and to bank on the women’s unfailing determination to bring about peace.

How was this group of women able to succeed against strongmen like Taylor?

This grassroots group of women was able to succeed against the warring factions and strongmen thanks to their unwavering resolve to matter as peace brokers in their country’s journey through war and toward peace. Additionally, their resourcefulness in deploying multiple conflict management tactics—both modern and indigenous—to make a difference remains remarkable.

Why do you think their protests were effective?

The women’s protest tactics were effective because they refused to be muzzled. Their journey was strewn with violent counterattacks, including verbal abuse, humiliation, dismissal, physical brutality, and even death threats. Although they were at times weakened, these exceptional women always came back with more tactics to achieve visibility. The stakeholders, including Charles Taylor, could not but work with these women who refused to go away.


Don't miss the Bartels World Affairs Lecture with Leymah Gbowee on May 3: Reserve your free ticket today!

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