This year’s International Security Forum summit (ISF 2020) hosted an array of diverse experts to discuss strategic challenges. Owing to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, the event was held virtually.
The opening address was given by Rutgers Law School Distinguished Professor Jean-Marc Coicaud, a jurist and political theorist who was the Director of the United Nations University and earlier served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General.
Bertrand G. Ramcharan, formerly the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a.i. from 2003 to 2004 with the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General and the Deputy High Commissioner from 1998 to 2003, delineated a dynamic new form of international cooperation for the protection of human security.
J. Christopher Giancarlo, an eminent attorney appointed as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission by President Donald J. Trump and confirmed by the Senate on 3 August 2017, in office until 15 July 2019, spoke about digital currency and its security implications.
Antoni Macierewicz, the Senior Speaker of the Polish Parliament, who had been the Minister of National Defense from 2015 to 2018 and the Minister of Internal Affairs from 1991 to 1992, evinced the geopolitical situation, emphasizing the implications of the Smolensk air disaster.
Uchenna Ekwo, a Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Coal City University and a Research Associate Professor in Mass Communications at the City University of New York, proclaimed the pressing need for peace journalism in the present era.
Turning to nuclear weapons policy, CUNY School of Law Professor Seth Shelden, the United Nations Liaison for ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition, explained the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the work done by ICAN in universalizing this pact.
ISF 2020 was moderated by the President of the International Security Forum, Edmund Janniger.