Georgetown Americas Institute

Agenda

9:15 - 9:45 a.m. | Registration and Breakfast

9:45 - 10:00 a.m. | Welcome Remarks
Robert Groves, Interim-president Georgetown University

10:00 - 11:30 a.m. | The New Political Order: The View from Around the Globe
Joel Hellman, Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Manuel Muñiz, Provost, IE University
Daniel Byman, professor, Department of Government, Georgetown University

Moderator: Amna Nawaz, PBS Newshour

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. | China’s World View

Minxin Pei, Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow Department of Government International Relations, Claremont McKenna College

Moderator: Thomas Banchoff, Vice President for Global Engagement, Georgetown University

12:30 - 2:30 p.m. | Lunch

2:30 - 3:30 p.m. | Keynote Remarks: Technology and Global Inequality in the Age of AI
Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, Head, Global Economics and Management Group Faculty Chair, Sloan Fellows Programme, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024 recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, former chief economist, International Monetary Fund

Moderator: Alejandro Werner, Founding Director, Georgetown Americas Institute

3:30- 5:00 p.m. | The New Economic Order
Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, Head, Global Economics and Management Group Faculty Chair, Sloan Fellows Programme, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024 recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, former chief economist, International Monetary Fund
Laura Alfaro, Chief Economist, Inter-American Development Bank
Alexia Latortue, Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow, CGD and Former Assistant Secretary for International Trade and Development, United States Treasury Department
Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University

Moderator: Alejandro Werner, Founding Director, Georgetown Americas Institute

5:00 - 5:15 p.m. | Coffee Break

5:15 - 6:15 p.m. | Shifts in Geopolitics and Trade: What Next for Latin America and the Caribbean
Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico, Director of the Program for the Study of Globalization at the Yale University Jackson School of Global Affairs and Professor in the Field of International Economics and Politics

Interviewer: Moises Naim, Distinguished fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Author of Charlatans (2025); Host, Efecto Naim

Featuring

Laura Alfaro is the Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is also a faculty research associate in the NBER International Finance and Macroeconomics Program and the International Trade and Investment Program. She served as minister of national planning and economic policy in Costa Rica from 2010 to 2012. Alfaro is co-editor of the Journal of International Economics and the World Bank Research Observer. She has published articles in journals such as the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Political Economy, and Journal of International Economics, as well as Harvard Business School case studies, on topics in international economics and in particular international capital flows, foreign direct investment, sovereign debt, trade, and emerging markets. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles. She received a B.A in economics with honors from the Universidad de Costa Rica and a 'Licenciatura' from the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile.

Thomas Banchoff is vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University, where he also serves as professor in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service and director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, which he founded in 2006. His books include The Jesuits and Globalization: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Challenges (2016, with Jose Casanova); Embryo Politics: Ethics and Policy in Atlantic Democracies (2011); Religious Pluralism, Globalization, and World Politics (2008); and Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism (2007). His essays have appeared in Commonweal, The Tablet, The Washington Post, and other outlets.

Daniel Byman is a professor in the School of Foreign Service (SFS) with a concurrent appointment with the Department of Government. Professor Byman is also the director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is an editor at Lawfare and served as a member of the Department of State's International Security Advisory Board. Dr. Byman was director of Georgetown's Security Studies Program and Center for Security Studies from 2022 to 2025 (and from 2005 to 2010) and Vice Dean of the SFS undergraduate program from 2015 to 2020. He also led a Georgetown team in teaching a "Massive Open Online Course" (MOOC) on terrorism and counterterrorism for EdX. From 2002 to 2004 he served as a professional staff member with the 9/11 Commission and with the Joint 9/11 Inquiry Staff of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Before joining the Inquiry Staff, he was the research director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation. Previous to this, Professor Byman worked as an analyst on the Middle East for the U.S. government. His latest book is Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism (Oxford, 2022). He is also the author of Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad (Oxford, 2019); Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2015); A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism (Oxford, 2011); The Five Front War: The Better Way to Fight Global Jihad (Wiley, 2007); Deadly Connections: States that Sponsor Terrorism (Cambridge, 2005); Keeping the Peace: Lasting Solutions to Ethnic Conflict (Johns Hopkins, 2002); and co-author of Things Fall Apart: Containing the Spillover from the Iraqi Civil War (Brookings, 2007) and The Dynamics of Coercion: American Foreign Policy and the Limits of Military Might (Cambridge, 2002). Professor Byman has also written extensively on a range of topics related to terrorism, international security, civil and ethnic conflict, and the Middle East. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, as well as academic journals including World Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and International Security. 

Robert Groves held the position of executive vice president and provost from 2012 to 2024. He is also the Gerard J. Campbell, S.J. Professor in the Math and Statistics Department as well as the Sociology Department at Georgetown University. Groves is a social statistician who studies the impact of social cognitive and behavioral influences on the quality of statistical information. His research has focused on the impact of mode of data collection on responses in sample surveys, the social and political influences on survey participation, the use of adaptive research designs to improve the cost and error properties of statistics, and public concerns about privacy affecting attitudes toward statistical agencies. Prior to joining Georgetown, from 2009 to 2012, he was director of the U.S. Census Bureau (presidential appointment with Senate confirmation), a position he assumed after being director of the University of Michigan Survey Research Center, professor of sociology, and research professor at the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. He has authored or co-authored seven books and scores of peer-reviewed articles.

Joel Hellman became dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in July 2015 after 25 years working on some of the most complex issues of governance, conflict and the political economy of development. He served at the World Bank in many senior roles including chief institutional economist, director of the Center for Conflict, Security and Development in Nairobi, Kenya where he led the Bank’s engagement with fragile and conflict-affected states around the world, and coordinator of the Bank’s response in Indonesia to the devastating Asian Tsunami. He was the senior political counselor at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. As a scholar, Dr. Hellman was a political science professor at Harvard University and Columbia University focusing on the politics of economic reform. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he is a graduate of Williams College. He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a M.Phil. from Oxford University.

Simon Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is head of the Global Economics and Management group. At MIT, he is also co-director of the Stone Center Initiative and a research affiliate at Blueprint Labs. In 2024, Johnson received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, joint with Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.” From 2007 to 2008, Johnson was chief economist and director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. He currently co-chairs the CFA Institute Systemic Risk Council with Erkki Liikanen. He is a research associate at the NBER and a Fellow at CEPR. Johnson was previously a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., a cofounder of BaselineScenario.com, a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisors, and a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. From July 2014 to early 2017, Johnson was a member of the Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research (OFR), within which he chaired the Global Vulnerabilities Working Group. From February 2021 to March 2025, Johnson was a member of the board of directors of Fannie Mae, where he was vice chair of the audit committee, vice chair of the compensation committee, and a member of the risk and capital committee.

Alexia Latortue is a distinguished non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development. She most recently was the Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for international trade and development at the United States Treasury Department under the Biden-Harris Administration. In this role, she was the top policy advisor on climate, environment and infrastructure; development finance and policy; trade and investment; and technical assistance. Alexia conceptualised and led the implementation of an initiative to evolve the multilateral development banks to be fit for purpose to help countries address 21st century global challenges. She also spearheaded a strategy for using public finance to mobilise private capital into emerging markets. This was Alexia’s second time at Treasury after first serving under the Obama-Biden Administration as principal deputy assistant secretary for international development policy. Previously, Alexia served as the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s deputy CEO and managing director for corporate strategy. She was a member of the executive committee at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), where she drove a new strategy focused on climate, inclusion, and digital solutions and led work preparing for an incremental expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to that, Alexia spent 10 years at the World Bank, working on financial inclusion and her last position was deputy CEO of CGAP. She also has had experience in private sector development-related positions, including with Development Alternatives, Inc.

Manuel Muñiz is the provost of IE University in Madrid and the chair of the Board of Trustees of IE New York College. Dr. Muñiz served as dean of IE’s School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs (SPEGA) from 2017 to 2024. From June 2023 to January 2025, Dr. Muñiz served as president of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA). From 2020 to 2021, Dr. Muñiz was state secretary (vice minister) at the Spanish Foreign Ministry. In this capacity he led the strategy and foresight unit at the Ministry as well as the economic diplomacy team, and the communications department, including the Office for Diplomatic Information. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Club of Madrid and a council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Lastly, Dr. Muñiz is a recipient of a number of awards and recognitions including the Grand Cross of Spain’s Order of Merit, the Trilateral Commission’s David Rockefeller Fellowship, the Atlantic Council’s Millennium Fellowship, and the Eisenhower Fellowship. Dr. Muniz holds a Master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a DPhil (Ph.D.) in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Moisés Naím is a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a best-selling author, and an internationally syndicated columnist. Naím was the editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine for fourteen years. During his tenure, Foreign Policy won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence three times. He is author of many scholarly articles and more than ten books on international economics and politics. His 2013 book, The End of Power, a New York Times bestseller, was selected by the Washington Post and the Financial Times as one of the best books of the year upon release. His earlier book, Illicit, continues to be widely cited for its pioneering analysis of the globalization of transnational criminal networks. In 2018, he published his first novel Two Spies in Caracas. He is also the host and producer of “Efecto Naím,” an Emmy-winning weekly television program on international affairs that airs throughout the Americas on DirectTV (NTN24). Naím’s experience in public service includes his tenure as Venezuela’s minister of Trade and Industry in the early 1990s, director of Venezuela’s Central Bank, and executive director of the World Bank. He was a professor of business and economics and dean of IESA, Venezuela’s main business school, and also taught at John Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington. Naim holds a Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctor Honoris Causa in International Affairs from American University. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and an honorary member of Venezuela’s Academy of Economic Sciences.

Amna Nawaz is the co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour. At the NewsHour, Nawaz has reported on politics, foreign affairs, education, climate change, culture and sports. In 2020, she made history as the first Asian American and first Muslim journalist to moderate a U.S. presidential debate. Nawaz joined NewsHour in 2018 as a correspondent and later served as senior national correspondent and primary substitute anchor before being named co-anchor in January 2023, alongside Geoff Bennett. Prior to joining the NewsHour, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News. Earlier, at NBC News, her work appeared on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Dateline NBC, MSNBC, and MSNBC.com. She was NBC’s Islamabad Bureau Chief and Correspondent for several years. Nawaz began her career as a Nightline Fellow at ABC News. In addition to a Peabody Award for the NewsHour’s “The Plastic Problem,” Nawaz was also honored with an Emmy Award for the NBC News Special “Inside the Obama White House,” a Society for Features Journalism Award, and was a recipient of the International Reporting Project fellowship in 2009. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she captained the varsity field hockey team, and later earned her master's degree from the London School of Economics.

Minxin Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker ‘72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College.  In 2019 he was the inaugural Library of Congress Chair on U.S.-China Relations. Prior to joining Claremont McKenna College in 2009, he was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served as its director of the China Program from 2003 to 2008. He was an opinion columnist for Bloomberg (2023 to 2024) and the author of From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union (1994); China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy (2006); China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay (2016); The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China (2024); and The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism (2025). Minxin received his Ph.D. in government at Harvard and taught at Princeton University (1992 to 1997). He is the recipient of the National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, the Robert McNamara Fellowship of the World Bank, and the Olin Faculty Fellowship. His op-eds and columns have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Financial Times, Nikkei Asian Review, Project Syndicate, the Economist, Bloomberg, and many other publications.

Eswar Prasad is the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University. He was previously chief of the Financial Studies Division in the IMF's Research Department and, before that, was the head of the IMF's China Division. Prasad received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His research has spanned a number of areas including labor economics, business cycles, and open economy macroeconomics. His extensive publication record includes articles in numerous collective volumes as well as top academic journals. He has co-authored or edited several books and monographs on financial globalization, China, and India. His current research interests include the macroeconomics of globalization, the relationship between growth and volatility, and the Chinese and Indian economies. Many of his research papers and quotes from his speeches have been cited extensively in the international press. He has contributed op-ed articles to the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal Asia and various other newspapers. He has testified before the Senate Finance Committee and the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services (both on China), and his research has been cited in the U.S. Congressional Record.

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.

Ernesto Zedillo is the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; professor in the Field of International Economics and Politics; professor of International and Area Studies; and professor Adjunct of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He served as President of Mexico from 1994 to 2000. He is a member of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders using their collective experience and influence for peace, justice and human rights worldwide, and is chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health. He serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy; the Kofi Annan Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age; the United Nations High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs; and the Board of the International Finance Forum based in China. He is on the Selection Committee of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity and the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Formerly he served as chair of the Board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute and co-chair of the Inter-American Dialogue. From 2005 to 2011 he was chair of the Global Development Network and from 2008 to 2010 he served as chair of the High-Level Commission on Modernization of World Bank Group Governance. He is a member of the Group of 30, a consultative group on international economic and monetary affairs. In 2011 he was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the School of Economics of the Natìonal Polytechnic Institute in Mexico and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. His edited volumes include: Trade in the 21st Century: Back to the Past? (2020); Africa at a Fork in the Road: Taking Off or Disappointment Once Again? (2015); Rethinking the War on Drugs through the US-Mexico Prism (2012); Global Warming: Looking Beyond Kyoto (2008); and The Future of Globalization: Explorations in Light of Recent Turbulence (2008).