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Peace Picks | July 13 – July 17, 2020

Notice: Due to recent public health concerns, upcoming events are only available via live stream. 

• COVID-19 in the Middle East: An Opportunity to Improve Public Health? | July 13, 2020 | 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM EST | Atlantic Council | Register Here
  
  The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed fault lines in public health systems in the Middle East, where public health institutions vary widely. In Gulf states, citizens receive high quality health care, but the same is not true of foreign worker populations. Middle income countries in the region offer good health services to those who can afford them, while those who cannot have less or no access. In countries like Yemen and in Syria’s worn torn towns, nothing resembling a functioning health system, public or private, exists. The difficulty of supplying health services to refugees and displaced persons presents yet more difficulties. All this is not new, but the COVID crisis has afforded an opportunity to examine how access to health care plays out in a crisis. More importantly, the crisis can help guide domestic policymakers and international partners toward immediate and longer-term actions to improve public health delivery and prepare for the next crisis.
  
  The Rafik Hariri Center and the United Nations Development Program’s Regional Bureau for Arab States are pleased to co-host a virtual discussion with experts who will not only discuss why the response to the pandemic has met with varying degrees of success, but will also address how policymakers and other stakeholders can better confront public health challenges of all kinds.
  
  Speakers:
  
  Dr. Adel Abdellatif: Deputy Regional Director, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program
  
  Dr. Lina AbiRafeh: Executive Director, Arab Institute for Women
  
  Dr. Ali Mokdad: Director of Middle Eastern Initiatives and Professor of Global Health, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington
  
• The United States, Russia, and China in the Time of Pandemic | July 13, 2020 | 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM EST | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | Register Here
  
  The United States’ unipolar moment in the world—if it ever truly existed—is long gone. Instead the United States confronts a rising China and resentful Russia, both determined to check, if not roll back, U.S. influence regionally and globally. The pandemic will reinforce these trends and likely usher in a period of even greater competition and tension.
  
  How should the United States respond to overt and covert challenges from Moscow and Beijing? And how important is growing strategic China-Russia cooperation on economic and security in this equation? Competition and tension seem all but inevitable, pushed forward by the domestic drivers of foreign policy. But are there prospects for détente or even meaningful episodic cooperation between the United States, China, and Russia on the issues that divide them?
  
  Speakers:
  
  Evan A Feigenbaum: Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment
  
  Eugene Rumer: Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment
  
  Susan Thornton: Senior Fellow, Yale Law School
  
  Aaron David Miller: Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment
  
• COVID-19’s Economic Impact on Women | July 13, 2020 | 4:00 PM EST | Atlantic Council | Register Here
  
  COVID-19 is a crisis like no other – and it is having a calamitous effect on women’s economic well-being. Please join the Atlantic Council for a conversation on how the coronavirus is disproportionately impacting women’s earning and income and worsening economic inequality around the world. Our experts will look at how COVID-19 is devastating women’s employment and entrepreneurship, as well exacerbating workplace and household challenges such as education, wage gaps, informality, childcare and domestic violence. During the panel the experts will discuss how policy options or business practices could mitigate these adverse consequences and promote greater gender equality as nations recover and rebuild.
  
  Speakers:
  
  Gina E. Wood (Welcoming Remarks): Vice President, Foundational & Institutional Giving, Atlantic Council
  
  Raj Kumar (Moderator): President & Editor-in-Chief, Devex
  
  Ambassador Kelley E. Currie: Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, U.S. Department of State
  
  Dr. Nicole Goldin: Senior Fellow, Global Business & Economics PRogram, Atlantic Council
  
  Henriette Kolb: Head, Gender Secretariat, International Finance Corporation, World Bank
  
• Status and Priorities for Lebanon’s Political Transition | July 14, 2020 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM EST | Middle East Institute | Register Here
  
  Lebanon is on the brink of collapse due to its domestic economic and political crises, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Another failed state in the Middle East would negatively impact strategic US interests. Lebanon requires a thorough reorientation towards stability and renewed socio-economic sustainability, which entails fundamental domestic reforms and targeted international support led by the US. The Middle East Institute (MEI) and the American Task Force for Lebanon (ATFL) are pleased to co-host the public launch of a joint policy paper, Recommendations for a Sustainable Bilateral Relationship.
  
  What are the strategic interests the US has in Lebanon’s stability, and how can the US support Lebanese prosperity? Is the Lebanese government’s new financial recovery plan sufficient for the US to initiate support for the government? In what ways can the US best support a strong future for Lebanon?
  
  Speakers:
  
  Ambassador Edward Gabriel (Co-Moderator): President & CEO, American Task Force for Lebanon
  
  Paul Salem (Co-Moderator): President, Middle East Institute
  
  Jean AbiNader: Policy Director, American Task Force for Lebanon
  
  Congressman Darin LaHood: U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois’ 18th District
  
  Paul Raphael: Founding Chair, Lebanese International Finance Executives
  
  Mona Yacoubian: Senior Advisor to the Vice President of Middle East & Africa, United States Institute of Peace
  
• Election Integrity & Security in the Era of COVID-19 | July 17, 2020 | 2:00 – 4:15 PM EST | Brookings Institution | Register Here
  
  The threats that disinformation and foreign interference in U.S. elections pose are not new phenomena. In 2016, Russian interference exposed critical vulnerabilities in the United States’ digital election infrastructure, and its information operations sowed political divisions across America. Now, modifications to democratic processes due to the coronavirus pandemic make the task of safeguarding the integrity and security of the 2020 presidential election even more crucial.
  
  How will inevitable adjustments to voting practices, due to COVID-19, affect the security of U.S. elections? What measures should we pursue to dissuade our adversaries from attempting to interfere? Are we adequately prepared to counter new tactics, techniques, and procedures they might employ? And what can the federal government do to ensure that every state and county has the means to conduct a fair and secure election?
  
  Speakers:
  
  Keynote
  Christopher C. Krebs: Director, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  
  Panel 1: Safeguarding Election Security
  Fiona Hill (Moderator): Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution
  
  David Becker: Executive Director, Center for Election Innovation & Research, Brookings Institution
  
  Mark Harvey: Former Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director for Resilience Policy, National Security Council
  
  Susan Hennessey: Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
  
  Panel 2: Adapting to New Disinformation Tactics
  Chris Meserole (Moderator): Deputy Director, Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative, Brookings Institution
  
  David Agranovich: Global Threat Disruption Lead, Facebook
  
  Alina Polyakova: President & CEO, Center for European Policy Analysis, Brookings Institution
  
  Laura Rosenberger: Senior Fellow & Director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, German Marshall Fund of the United States
  
  Gavin Wilde: Senior Analyst, Department of Defense