CAMPUS NEWS: Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo shares direction for Columbia SIPA's new Institute of Global Politics
Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo (Photo/Linette and Kyle Kielinski)
By Emily Muller
On September 7, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) unveiled its plans for the Institute of Global Politics (IGP), a nonpartisan center dedicated to integrating academic and professional expertise to craft policy solutions for contemporary global challenges.
Simultaneously, the Institute introduced a roster of 14 Carnegie Distinguished Fellows, including former heads of state and high-ranking policy officials. The Fellows are scheduled to visit SIPA during the 2023–2024 academic year to collaborate with faculty on policy reports, participate in campus-wide events, and engage with students. Concurrently, 35 students from various schools across Columbia University were designated as Student Scholars to work with the Fellows and the Institute’s Faculty Advisory Board.
The Institute revolves around five areas of impact: geopolitical stability, democratic resilience, climate and sustainable development, inclusive prosperity and macroeconomic stability, and technology and innovation.
IGP will also feature several speaker series, including the Spotlight and Across the Aisle interview series, with a focus on fostering constructive debates, regardless of political orientation.
The Morningside Post obtained an exclusive interview with Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo, who co-leads the initiative alongside its Chair, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to discuss the new Institute.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You recently started teaching “Inside the Situation Room” alongside Secretary Clinton, and I saw you both on “Morning Joe” discussing the course and the new Institute of Global Politics this morning. How has this significant period of change, and the subsequent media attention, been for you and Secretary Clinton?
First of all, it's been an amazing experience, and I'm honored to be teaching next to Secretary Clinton. As a scholar of foreign policy, this is the best thing. To have somebody to teach this material with who was in the Situation Room with all the vantage points that she brings is just so unique and special.
Secretary Clinton is used to the media attention. She's very excited about her role as a professor and as part of this Columbia community. This is what you saw on Morning Joe; she talks about it with so much pride and excitement because she is very committed to what we're doing here in the classroom and also at the Institute.
For me, the media attention has been an interesting experience. I feel this is a great opportunity to talk about the wonderful things we're doing here and to make sure that young people who are thinking about graduate programs will look at this and they will see that we are doing exciting things. We're bringing the academics with the policy together. It is very unique. We're doing this both in the way we teach “Inside the Situation Room” and through the Institute. We bring the community of scholars and policymakers together.
I hope it inspires people to come and join our community and see that we're doing some things that are pretty thrilling, and to see two women who are in the field of security and foreign policy—still a field that is dominated by men at the top. Maybe there are young women looking at this and thinking, this is inspiring. The media attention is really just to be able to get the incredible things that we're doing here out there. Otherwise, I think it's part of the job.
You mentioned that IGP is intentionally founded and led by women. How does this commitment to diversity influence the Institute's work, and what steps are being taken to amplify the voices of women and other marginalized communities, such as Black and Indigenous POC, LGBTQIA individuals, and those with disabilities, in the fields of international relations and global politics?
This is part of how we're thinking about diversity. Obviously, it's intentional when we say that because we will study issues that impact women disproportionately. For example, in terms of climate change we see a disproportionate effect on women versus men. We just had a faculty member, Doug Ullman, publish a piece about the disproportionate burden of the coronavirus pandemic on women, particularly career women, compared to men.
We are looking at everything thinking about gender. We know that disinformation affects women much more than men, but also in very different ways. We want to study these issues and we want to pay attention to gender in everything we're thinking about. We're also thinking about gender in a local to global context, so we're looking at women in Iran, and we're bringing Shabana Basij-Rasikh as the leader of a girls' school in Afghanistan. We have women representation not just in the leadership but significant representation in the students, scholars, and in the fellows.
Speaking of diversity, gender is only one dimension that we're focusing on. We also have two other important dimensions. One is geographical. From the beginning, the Secretary said that what is unique about SIPA is that it's a truly global school, probably it's the most global policy school of all the schools. As a result, we have echo chambers. We are in a US-centric approach, and sometimes we don't even know that we are living in it. What we've tried to do is approach topics that are geographically global in nature.
We have Frank Mugisha, who's coming from Uganda, talking about LGBTQ rights in Africa. We have Shabana Basij-Rasikh coming, talking about women's rights and girls' rights to education in Afghanistan. We have Maria Ressa coming from the Philippines, working on misinformation and freedom of press in East Asia. We have real diversity in terms of geographic location. Perspectives from the Global South are ones that you're going to hear from again and again. That's very important.
The last thing I would say is we have also a commitment to political diversity. The idea is that we are here to bring views from across the political spectrum in the United States, bringing Republicans and Democrats to engage with one another and disagree in a respectful and civil way. This is also exemplified by the fellows we're bringing; we have several who are Republicans and conservative, and we have some that are Democrats as well.
This is also present in our events. The Across the Aisle series is going to be the forum where we are debating things. The Lavine-Mendelson Civil Discourse Series is where we're going to hold your workshops and other events that foster this kind of civil engagement and disagreement.
Lastly, I mentioned LGBTQ rights in Uganda are going to be part of what our fellows are going to work on, not just in Africa but beyond.
IGP boasts an impressive roster of Distinguished Fellows, including prominent figures such as Stacey Abrams and Maria Ressa. Can you describe the process involved in identifying and recruiting these accomplished individuals to join the Institute?
I still can't believe that we were able to get them; this was really a wish list. It started with the process of soliciting suggestions from our faculty. At the time, we couldn't even say it was for the Institute of Global Politics. It was so early. We didn't even pass the [University] Senate at that point. We put the names that came up more than once on a list and then we brought it before a small group, which we now call the IGP Faculty Board, for approval.
The Secretary and I, together with the faculty, really looked at the list and thought about the topics that SIPA covers to make sure that we had a presentation of different policy challenges. We wanted to look at diversity of the fellows in terms of the sectors that they're coming from; some are coming from nongovernmental organizations, some from the private sector, some from government, some are global to geographical ones. It was a process of putting together a lot of different thinking about different criteria.
Looking back, the people we really wanted to get, everybody was really excited about from the beginning. We just didn't know whether or not we would be able to get them. They're all very busy, they are very prominent. The best part was to hear the “yes, yes, yes” and their enthusiasm about coming here. That was recognition that SIPA and Columbia is a place they want to come and engage with.
On October 3, you will host the Inaugural Summit of IGP with special guests including Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and Rt Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern. What can we expect from this event?
This is our inaugural summit. We’re going to have an annual event, but this one is extra special. We wanted to feature the key signature speaker series or events we're doing in IGP, and hold two of them. One is Across the Aisle, where we're scheduled to have a conversation between two governors. One is Republican, one is Democrat. The other feature series is the Spotlight Interview; you saw this last year with Nancy Pelosi, that Hillary interview. This time it was Jacinda; it's really more of a sit-down.
The other ones are panels; they're on AI, women and diplomacy, and the global challenges in the global economy. Those are areas that the Institute is going to focus on, and we wanted to signal from the beginning.
We're going to have a major women initiative, likely coming out in March. This is very important for the institute, so we have a panel on women and diplomacy. We're going to have a major focus on AI and democracy, so we're signaling that with a panel that brings together people from different industries. Then, we want to focus on issues of a global and economic nature and we're doing this with our star faculty.
First of all, it's going to be a celebration of what we've accomplished in a very short period of time. It’s also a big kickoff that says what we're going to be doing and focusing on, and that this is the level of events you should expect to see with really interesting people from a combination of different sectors.
With a focus on promoting civil discourse, what strategies or activities does IGP employ to facilitate productive discussions?
I want it to be clear to everybody why we're doing this. This is a school that is all about training the next generation of leaders. The next generation of leaders are going to find themselves in a polarized society, and they still have to make policies, reach compromise, and reach across the aisle in order to bring people together. They need to work with people they disagree with; otherwise, they're not going to get anything done. It’s a skill to learn how to listen, to learn how to engage, to learn how to be uncomfortable, but still not lose your temper or leave the room but engage and persuade.
You are here paying a lot of money for tuition, and our duty is to teach you. We can't teach you this unless we also model this to you. What we're going to do is select people that bring diverse views and facilitate a conversation that talks about areas of fundamental disagreement and works toward a path forward. Are we going to get it right all the time? Is it always going to be the kind of exchange we hope that speakers will have? Probably not, but we really think it's important, and we're going to do our best because the easiest thing is to say ‘let's stay in our silos and let's stay in our echo chambers.’ If we do that, we're not doing you a service and we're not doing the world a service.
Then, we're going to bring speakers to smaller workshops to work on those skills of debating, persuading, and listening. That's going to be exciting and it's going to push students a little bit outside their comfort zone sometimes, but as I said, it's good for you. It trains you to be more resilient, more strategic, and more efficient in how you're articulating and conversing with others.
How do you intend to involve SIPA students, particularly those who may not be IGP Student Scholars, in IGP and its mission?
It is my hope, and the hope of Secretary Clinton, to have IGP be the home to as many students as possible. We really want this to be a place that they feel is a part of their experience at SIPA. Part of the responsibility of the Student Scholars is to be ambassadors, spread the word to other students, and talk about the opportunities that they have.
Events or skill-based workshops that the Distinguished Fellows come and provide are not going to be credit workshops, but we would love for students to come in and enjoy conversations with our fellows. We want the students to ask us for ideas for topics that they want us to engage and to have ideas for speakers and potentially for fellows. We want them as part of the process.
The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School or at the University of Chicago are very different from what we're doing, but there are some similarities. Those institutes work well because they are engaging with students all the time. The students really are a big part of the Institute, and so I would love to see students in all of the events and workshops and activities that we do.
What are you most looking forward to in the coming year of IGP?
I'll start with, for the fellows who are coming, who chose to take time from whatever they're doing and come spend time at Columbia—to fall in love with SIPA and with what we do here—it is important for me that this experience will be meaningful to them. I look forward to seeing the real engagement between them and the faculty, our students, and our community.
What I hope is that we will take the brand power of the academy, the brilliance of SIPA and passion of our students, and use it for really important impactful work that can put fresh ideas and evidence-based policies out there for consideration. We'll have conversations that lead to legislation and real policies that come from expertise, evidence, and collaboration between the academy and policymakers. If we can do that, it will redefine the role of policy schools in academia.
Emily Muller (MIA ‘24) is the Editor in Chief of The Morningside Post.