Monday, February 24, 2025
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST
The Georgetown Americas Institute is pleased to host Jorge Argüello, former Argentine ambassador to the United States, for a presentation of the book The Challenge of the American Countries at the G20 (2024), compiled by the ambassador and featuring sherpas to the presidents of the five American G20 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States), along with distinguished academics from those countries. The book, a collaboration between CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, Fundación Embajada Abierta, and Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE), delves into the most pressing issues for the Americas in the post-globalization era, including inequality, a lack of leadership, and international conflict. This discussion will explore the role of American countries in the G20 and what can be done to strengthen regional cooperation. The conversation will be moderated by Alejandro Werner, GAI’s founding director, and include opening remarks by Christian Asinelli, corporate vice president of strategic programming at CAF-Development Bank of Latin America.
Featuring
Jorge Argüello is a lawyer with a law degree from the University of Buenos Aires and a master’s degree in administration and public policy from the University of San Andrés. He is the president of the Embajada Abierta Foundation. He was the permanent representative of Argentina to the United Nations, ambassador to Portugal and Cape Verde, and twiceambassador to the United States of America. In 2011, he served as chairman of the Group of 77 + China, and between 2019 and 2023, he was Argentina’s sherpa in the G20. He has been national congressman on two occasions, city councilman and member of the Constitutional Convention for the City of Buenos Aires, and served two terms as a Buenos Aires city legislator.
Christian Asinelli is the corporate vice president of strategic programming at CAF-Development Bank of Latin America. Asinelli leads the strategy of sovereign financing, technical assistance, generation, and dissemination of knowledge, with a focus on environmental sustainability, gender, inclusion and diversity, physical and digital infrastructure, social development, and urban development, as well as the organization's relationship agenda for its countries and the incorporation of new members. He has previously served as undersecretary for the evaluation of externally financed projects with the chief of the Cabinet of Ministers of Argentina, deputy of the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, and alternate national director of the state modernization project for the chief of the Cabinet of Ministers. He has also been active in the leadership of the Partido Justicialista of Buenos Aires.
Alejandro Werner is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he was undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and held several positions in that ministry and the Central Bank. He also taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in economics from ITAM.