Inaugural Theme Year

Throughout the year, the International Institute (II) and its 16 centers and programs will host a range of events exploring the theme of “Sovereignty.”

Of paramount importance in the building of the modern international order, sovereignty has been a beleaguered concept for some time in an increasingly borderless world. It now faces a full-on crisis in the context of weakening supranational institutions, resurgent imperialisms, ongoing wars, climate change, and the AI revolution.

The year-long program will cover topics ranging from food sovereignty and indigenous borders in Latin America, transnational criminal activity and victimization in Southeast and East Asia, US-Africa relations, America's role as a force both for and against global democracy, the impact of the US-Israel war in the Middle East on Ukraine, and the geopolitics of sovereignty surrounding Taiwan.

10/1: Lecture & Performance (Center for Japanese Studies)

Living Ainu Art: Community, Nature, and Intergenerational Knowledge through Song and Dance

Kanako Uzawa, Hokkaido University

12:00–1:30 p.m. | 1010 Weiser Hall

Co-sponsor: Department of Dance 

10/5: Distinguished Lecture (Weiser Center for Europe & Eurasia)

Europe's Coalition of the Willing, Ukraine, and the Future of NATO

François Heisbourg, International Institute for Strategic Studies

5:00–6:30 p.m. | 1010 Weiser Hall

10/6: Lecture Series (Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies)

Bad Romance in Southeast Asia: China-Linked Cyber-Scamming, Variegated Govotolerance, and the Geopolitics of Criminality along China's Belt and Road

Tom Narins, University at Albany

12:00–1:00 p.m. | 555 Weiser Hall

10/7: Lecture (Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies)

When Everyday Life Becomes an Event: Mobility in the Georgia-Abkhazia Conflict Zone

Görkem Aydemir-Kundakci, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

12:00–1:20 p.m. | Virtually on Zoom; register and join: https://myumi.ch/mVV9g

10/12–10/13: Conference (African Studies Center)

Shifting Tides: The U.S.-Africa Relationship Amid Global Competition

Hajer Gueldich, African Union and University of Carthage; Ebenezer Obadare, Council on Foreign Relations; Susan D. Page, University of Michigan; Boubacar Bocoum, World Bank; Eghosa Ekhator, University of Derby; Olanrewaju Suraju, HEDA Resource Centre; Bilal Butt, University of Michigan; Benedito Machava, Yale University; Kamissa Camara, University of Michigan; Shakirah Hudani, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Omotade Akin Aina, Carnegie Corporation of New York; Murithi Mutiga, International Crisis Group; Chidi Blyden, Culturally Bound and Georgetown University; Olufunmilayo Arewa, George Mason University; Anita Plummer, Howard University; Laura Beny, University of Michigan

8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. | 1010 Weiser Hall

Collaborators: Ford School of Public Policy; University of Michigan Law School