Editor BGF

9:00 EST/15:00 CET, 23:00 JST, February 19, 2021

Organizers: The Boston Global Forum and Michael Dukakis Institute

The Moderator

Douglas Frantz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and former Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD. Frantz served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs in the Obama administration. He was an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times. Frantz graduated from DePauw University and earned a M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

The Keynote Speaker 

Governor Michael Dukakis

Chairman of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation

Co-Founder and Chairman of The Boston Global Forum

Co-founder of AIWS.net and the AIWS City

Co-Author of Social Contract for the AI Age

The three-term Governor of Massachusetts and the 1988 Democratic nominee for President of the United States, Distinguished Professor of Northeastern University and UCLA 

Michael Stanley Dukakis culminates a half-century career dedicated to public service, political leadership, fostering the careers of young leaders, and scholarly achievement.

Together with Nguyen Anh Tuan, this former Massachusetts governor, has established The Boston Global Forum as a globally recognized think tank noted for developing peaceful solutions to some of the world’s most contentious issues.

Panelists:

Professor Nazli Choucri

Co-author of Social Contract for the AI Age

Member of Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers

Board Member of Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation

Board of Leaders of AIWS City (AIWS.city)

Professor of Political Science of MIT

Nazli Choucri is Professor of Political Science of MIT. Her work is in the area of international relations, most notably on sources and consequences of international conflict and violence. Professor Choucri is the architect and Director of the Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD), a multi-lingual web-based knowledge networking system focusing on the multi-dimensionality of sustainability. As Principal Investigator of an MIT-Harvard multi-year project on Explorations in Cyber International Relations, she directed a multi-disciplinary and multi-method research initiative. She is Editor of the MIT Press Series on Global Environmental Accord and, formerly, General Editor of the International Political Science Review. She also previously served as the Associate Director of MIT’s Technology and Development Program.

The author of eleven books and over 120 articles, Dr. Choucri is a member of the European Academy of Sciences. She has been involved in research or advisory work for national and international agencies, and for a number of countries, notably Algeria, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. She served two terms as President of the Scientific Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformation (MOST) Program.

President Vaira Vike-Freiberga

President of Latvia (1999-2007)
World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid (WLA-CdM) Member, Co-author of Social Contract for the AI Age, Board of Leaders of AIWS City

Vaira Vike-Freiberga played a significant role in achieving membership in the EU and NATO for her country and was Special Envoy on UN reform. Vice-chair of the Reflection group on the long-term future of Europe, and chair of the High-level group on freedom and pluralism of media in the EU in 2011-12. Member of two High-level groups on European security and defense in 2015, and of the High-level Team of Advisors to the UN ECOSOC on UN development in 2016. Co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

Dr. Vike-Freiberga is a member, board member or patron of 30 international organizations and five Academies; Honorary Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University. She has published extensively and is much in demand as speaker. Recipient of many Awards, Orders of Merit and Honorary Doctorates.

Born in Riga, she started her schooling in refugee camps in Germany, then lived in Morocco and Canada, obtaining a Ph.D. at McGill University (1965). After a distinguished career as Professor of psychology and international scholar at the University of Montreal, she returned to her native country in 1998 to head the Latvian Institute. Less than a year later she was elected President by the Latvian Parliament and re-elected in 2003.

Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija

Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2001-2002)
World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid (WLA-CdM) Member

Co-author of Social Contract for the AI Age, Board of Leaders of AIWS City

Professor Dr. Zlatko Lagumdžija was Prime Minister, Acting Prime Minister, twice Deputy Prime Minister, twice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a Member of the Parliament and the leader of the largest multi-ethnic political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 2015. Member of Club de Madrid-The World Leadership Alliance and World Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founder of the Shared Societies and Values Foundation Sarajevo. Since 1989, Dr. Lagumdžija is professor of Management and Information Technologies at University of Sarajevo, and visiting professor of different universities in Europe, Asia and America. Member of numerous International Boards and Missions. Ambassador for Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations of ISESCO.

State Minister Yasuhide Nakayama

State Minister of Defense, Japan

Mentor of AI World Society Innovation Network (AIWS.net)

Yasuhide Nakayama is a Japanese politician representing the Liberal Democratic Party, elected in December 2003 as a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and was re-elected in the December 2015 and 2017 elections. Mr Nakayama is the current State Minister for Defense in the Japanese cabinet.

Career

• Secretary to the Minister of Construction
• Advertising Agency Employee
• State Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Director, Committee on Economy, Trade and Industry, HR
• Chief Director, Special Committee on North Korean Abduction and Other Issues, HR
• Director, Committee on Security, HR
• Director, Public Speeches Division, LDP
• Director-General, Information Bureau, LDP
• Chief Secretary, Research Commission on Security, LDP

Ms. Merve Hickok

Founder of AIethicist.org

Senior Researcher at Center for AI & Digital Policy

Co-author of “Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values Report: AISCI-2020”

Merve is an independent consultant & trainer focused on capacity building in ethical and responsible AI and governance of AI systems. Merve is a founding editorial board member of Springer Nature AI & Ethics journal: one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2021; Fellow at ForHumanity Center; a regional lead for Women in AI Ethics Collective; and a member in a number of IEEE & IEC work groups that set  global standards for autonomous systems.

Session the Quad Group, AIWS Social Contract and solutions for world peace and security

Speakers:

Governor Michael Dukakis, Chairman of the Boston Global Forum (US),

Defense State Minister Yasuhide Nakayama (Japan),

Senator Kimberley Kitching, Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Reference Committee (Australia),

Ambassador P.S Raghavan, Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board (India)

Moderator: Mr Sandis Šrāders, LATO’s Board Member

Theme: The Quad Group, AIWS Social Contract and solutions for world peace and security

The Quad Roundtable is a special side event of the Riga Conference 2020, Session Quad Roundtable” the Quad Group, AIWS Social Contract and solutions for world peace and security”, co-organized by the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation (LATO) and the Boston Global Forum.

Time and date: 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm (Riga time), November 12, 2020 , Virtual Roundtable.

Concept notes:

The Quadrilateral Initiative – informally named the Quad – first began in May 2007 with a meeting between the US, Japan, India and Australia in the Philippine capital Manila.

The informal grouping, championed by Japan’s then prime minister Shinzo Abe, was viewed by analysts as an attempt to step up co-operation in the face of a rapidly rising China.

Prime Minister Suga told reporters he would seek to “promote a free and open Indo-Pacific” and also “build stable relations with neighbouring countries including China and Russia”.

So when Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo greeted each other in front of a bank of American and Japanese flags on October 6, 2020 in Tokyo, they exchanged what was surely the longest fist bump in their nations’ seven-decade alliance, a nearly 15-second joining of knuckles.

US State Secretary Pompeo’s remarks on October 6 evening, he said that the Quad’s members needed to protect their people from China’s “exploitation, corruption and coercion,” and he blamed China for a cover-up of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. A statement about Mr. Pompeo’s meeting with the Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, described their discussions of “China’s malign activity in the region.”

On 16-18, September, the World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid and the Boston Global Forum co-organized the Policy Lab “Transatlantic Approaches on Digital Governance: A New Social Contract in the Age of AI”, in which presidents, prime ministers, distinguished thinkers, and scholars discussed the Social Contract for the AI Age, and saw it as significant standards for world politics and economy in the 21^st century.

How can the Quad Group support and maintain peace and security? What is the role of each member?

How can the Quad contribute to peace and security in the European, Atlantic, and Baltic regions?

How can democratic governments support and use the Social Contract for the AI Age as standards for international relations and for peace and security?

How can democratic governments recognize and implement the Social Contract for the AI Age?

                                   Agenda

14:30   Opening Remarks, Mr Sandis Šrāders, LATO’s Board Member

14:35   Presenter, Professor Nazli Choucri

14:40   Keynote Speech of Governor Michael Dukakis

15:00   Keynote Speech of State Minister Yasuhide Nakayama

15:20   Keynote Speech of Senator Kimberley Kitching

15:40   Keynote Speech of Ambassador P.S Raghavan

16:00   Q&A, Moderator by Mr Sandis Šrāders,

16:25   Concluding, Mr Sandis Šrāders

16:30   Thank you and next steps, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan

Riga Time

Bios of Keynote Speakers:

Michael Stanley Dukakis

Chairman of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation;

Co-Founder and Chairman of The Boston Global Forum;

Co-founder of AIWS.net and the AIWS City

Co-Author of Social Contract for the AI Age

The three-term Governor of Massachusetts and the 1988 Democratic nominee for President of the United States, Distinguished Professor of Northeastern University and UCLA 

Michael Stanley Dukakis culminates a half-century career dedicated to public service, political leadership, fostering the careers of young leaders, and scholarly achievement.

Together with Nguyen Anh Tuan, this former Massachusetts governor, has established The Boston Global Forum as a globally recognized think tank noted for developing peaceful solutions to some of the world’s most contentious issues.

Kimberley Kitching

• Senator for Victoria
• Parliament of Australia, Co-chair of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC),
• Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability
  Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate
• Chair, Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee

Before being sworn in as a Senator in November 2016, Kimberley practised as a lawyer, worked as a manager in several private companies in information technology and human resources, was a senior adviser to the Treasurer of Victoria and the Victorian Minister for Industry, Trade, Major Projects and Information Technology, was a Melbourne City Councillor and the General Manager of the Health Workers Union in Victoria where she helped restore good governance and financial strength.

Yasuhide Nakayama

• State Minister of Defense, Japan
• Mentor of AIWS.net

Yasuhide Nakayama is a Japanese politician representing the Liberal Democratic Party, elected in December 2012 as a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and was re-elected in the December 2015 and 2017 elections. Mr Nakayama is the current State Minister for Defense in the Japanese cabinet.

Career

• Secretary to the Minister of Construction
• Advertising Agency Employee
• State Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Director, Committee on Economy, Trade and Industry, HR
• Chief Director, Special Committee on North Korean Abduction and Other Issues, HR
• Director, Committee on Security, HR
• Director, Public Speeches Division, LDP
• Director-General, Information Bureau, LDP
• Chief Secretary, Research Commission on Security, LDP

Ambassador P.S. Raghavan

Ambassador Raghavan is Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board, which advises India’s National Security Council on strategic and security issues.

As a career diplomat, he has served as India’s Ambassador to Russia, Czech Republic and Ireland. He had other diplomatic assignments in USSR, Poland, UK, Vietnam and South Africa.

He was an advisor to the Prime Minister of India (2000-2004) on foreign affairs, defence, national security, nuclear energy and space.

He founded, and was the first head of, the Development Partnership Administration, which coordinates India’s economic partnership programmes abroad, with an annual budget of over US$ 1.5 billion.

He was Chief Coordinator of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi (2012). From 2012 to January 2014, he was Special Envoy of Government of India to Sudan and South Sudan.

Bio of the Moderator:

Mr Sandis Šrāders

Board Member of the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation

Dr. Sandis Šrāders is a Fellow and Lecturer in Russian Military and Strategic Studies at the Baltic Defence College (Tartu, Estonia). His research interests cover such areas as American foreign policy, small states and international political economy, and transatlantic relations. Dr. Šrāders has assumed a variety of different roles. He has
served as Secretary-General and now holds the position of the member of the board of the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation. Until 2014 and further assumed the role of Board Member of LATO since 2014. He has been a project coordinator for the German Marshall Fund of the United States in the Baltic States (2013-2015). In this capacity he
was responsible for the accumulation of intellectual capital for the Latvian Presidency at the Council of the EU in 2015 by selecting experts, organising meetings and leading the final publication that addresses the EU’s Eastern Partnership. One of his more recent positions was Director of Strategic Projects, Sales and Advertising at Latvijas
Radio (2018-2020). He is the author of the recent (2020) book “Small Baltic States and the Euro-Atlantic Security Community”.

Bio of the Presenter:

Nazli Choucri

Board Member of the Boston Global Forum
Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Nazli Choucri is a Boston Global Forum board member and Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her work is in the area of international relations, most notably on sources and consequences of international conflict and violence. Professor Choucri is the architect and Director of the Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD), a multi-lingual web-based knowledge networking system focusing on the multi-dimensionality of sustainability. As Principal Investigator of an MIT-Harvard multi-year project on Explorations in Cyber International Relations, she directed a multi-disciplinary and multi-method research initiative. She is Editor of the MIT Press Series on Global Environmental Accord and, formerly, General Editor of the International Political Science Review. She also previously served as the Associate Director of MIT’s Technology and Development Program.

The author of eleven books and over 120 articles, Dr. Choucri is a member of the European Academy of Sciences. She has been involved in research or advisory work for national and international agencies, and for a number of countries, notably Algeria, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. She served two terms as President of the Scientific Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformation (MOST) Program.