The World Peace Forum (WPF) special video conference on “Post-Pandemic Era: China and the World” opened on Tuesday.
Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong, who is also Chairman of the forum, delivered the welcoming remarks at the opening session of the two-day virtual conference of the forum, which is China’s first non-governmental high-level forum on international security initiated by Tsinghua University in 2012.
In his speech, President Qiu said the World Peace Forum, like many other international forums, had to be held online this year due to the ongoing pandemic, as he thanked leading academics, influential political leaders and former top diplomats, among others, attending the forum’s online gathering from different parts of the world to discuss ways to deal with major security challenges the international community faces in the post-pandemic era.
“In the face of this major common threat to humanity, unfortunately and unexpectedly, the international community has been extremely slow to form a unified front and make coordinated and effective responses. On the contrary, world politics is witnessing intensified polarization, irrationality, uncertainty, and instability,” he said.
As an international platform on security issues, the World Peace Forum, he said, would like to make its own contribution by offering a platform “to sit down and talk to each other” and “to do something to prevent disorder.”
“Now that the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be putting the world politics into an undesired trajectory, we think it is our responsibility to convene this special conference, provide a platform for leading international strategists to freely interact, and try to find effective prescriptions to problems threatening world peace,” he said.
Pointing out the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s prediction of the likelihood of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression due to the pandemic, he emphasized the importance of coordinated international efforts to overcome the current crisis.
“Tsinghua is convinced that universities should be committed to social responsibility. We also attach great significance to international cooperation,” he said while elaborating some of the recent efforts made by the university to promote international cooperation and exchanges including the establishment of the Vanke School of Public Health, which is dedicated to reinforcing the nation’s public health emergency management systems and safeguarding global public health security, and the launching of a special dialogue with the theme of “Online Education in the COVID-19 Response and Beyond” in collaboration with UNESCO.
“In the upcoming four panels, we look forward to distinguished speakers’ invaluable ideas on how to generate a favorable environment and a common resolve to tackle the challenges,” he added.
Following Qiu’s remarks, the first day of the conference saw two panel discussions. While Li Li, Deputy Secretary-General of the World Peace Forum moderated the first panel on the topic “World Order after the COVID-19 Crisis,” four panelists--Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Harvard University, USA, Alexander A. Dynkin, President of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russia, Volker Perthes, CEO and Director, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Germany, and Yan Xuetong, Dean of the Institute of International Relations, Tsinghua University--shared their thoughts.
Prof. Allison, who is also the author of the book “Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?” thinks rivalry between great powers like China and U.S will continue even after the pandemic but at the same time cooperation will also continue as “coronavirus provides a vivid reminder that each nation, China, the U.S. and every other nation, faces external threats it can't defeat itself by acting alone.”
Prof. Dynkin from Russia argued that the leading centers of power currently have neither a well-formed understanding nor a clear view of a desirable future world order. “Maybe the post-covid world would have some features of 'no poles', as scholar Richard Haas pointed out quite long ago,” he added.
Prof. Perthes from Germany said that anti-globalist sentiments which were already getting popular in some parts of the world will further gain ground in the post-pandemic world, leading to deglobalization and more fragmentation of the international security order.
Prof. Yan of Tsinghua believed that there will be no global leadership in the coming decade. According to him, the coming world order will be an “order of bad faith” mainly because of the lack of global leadership. “However, I am still optimistic about the future,” he said.
The second panel discussion on “Artificial Intelligence in the Post- Pandemic Era” was moderated by Liang Zheng, Vice President of the Institute for AI International Governance, Tsinghua University, with Xue Lan, Dean of Schwarzman College of Tsinghua, Professor Stuart Russel of Computer Science and Smith-Zadeh Professor in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, USA, Zhang Yaqin, Chair Professor of AI Science, Dean of Institute for AI Industry Research, Tsinghua University, Wendell Wallach, Consultant of the Hastings Center, Chair of the Technology and Ethics Studies, Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Yale University, USA, and Max Tegmark, Professor at MIT and President of the Future of Life Institute, USA as the five panelists. The panelists shared the use of AI in the ongoing COVID-19 responses in different countries and discussed how AI will be at forefront of the fight against future global health crises.
The two-day conference will conclude on Wednesday night. The last day of the conference, which starts at 19:10 Beijing time, also features two panel discussions, followed by the closing session. The first panel discussion will focus on “Asia-Pacific Security after the COVID-19 Pandemic,” while the second panel will discuss on “China-US Relations in the Post-Pandemic Era.”
Writer: Sangeet Sangroula
Editor: Guo Lili, John Olbrich
