Dr. John Mathiason, Professor at Cornell Institute of Public Affairs addresses the GPODS fellows
Dr. John Mathiason delivered a talk titled: ‘The Four Problems of the Apocalypse and How International Organizations Will Solve Them.’ On topics with prevalent relevance in contemporary times, Prof. Mathiason focused on 4 key tenets: Pandemics, Climate Change, Nuclear Weapons, and Cyber-Security. He first addressed key similarities between all these issues, and their impact on humanity as a whole. He went on to speak about how regimes are at the forefront of any kind of problem-solving mechanisms for humanity-based issues, in which international institutions are crucial actors.
He began by addressing the issues of pervasive pandemics where he revealed that due to traveling and a ‘borderless’ society, diseases have become more transferable. He then went on to explain the current international consensus that exists on tackling such diseases. Speaking on Climate Change, he highlighted and laid emphasis on the increasing emissions and multilateral treaties — such as the UNFCCC, IPCC, and Paris Agreement.
Similarly, highlighting the issues that may arise out of Nuclear Weapon use, Professor spoke about the IAEA and other regimes and structures that promote global cooperation in this arena. Anecdotally, he brought out the issue of Iranian nuclear proliferation and a lack of international consensus on the same. Due to states’ refusal to accept that Iran tests nuclear material for energy related purposes — there are hardships in getting this world community on the same page. Prof. Mathiason also spoke about his own experience in interviewing employees of the IAEA after the Second Iraqi War. These employees told him that IAEA rules and guidelines — which have since been changed — prevented proper them from checking places which weren’t denoted as ‘Nuclear.’
Next, he moved onto Cyber-Security issues relating to warfare and false information. However, here he addressed a lack of consensus and agreement between states on Rules and State Responsibility — and how this causes issues in the long run when conflicts arise. He also alluded to a paper of his from 1998, where he spoke of how full and widespread internet access is not possible to be cut all throughout a country such as Myanmar.
In the last parts of his talk, Prof. Mathiason spoke of potential issues that can be used to tackle the aforementioned ‘problems of the apocalypse.’ Good policy analysis, work on what states should do, and development of rules are some arenas in which Prof. Mathiason has posited work in pandemics and climate change, but confessed that it needs urgent improvement in cyber-security.
One of concluding statements aptly summarizes his talk: “You’ve got to have these institutions unified.” The Professor rightly advocated that nations, the UN, and nonprofits must come together collectively to tackle these issues.
About the GPODS fellowship:
The Global Policy, Diplomacy and Sustainability (GPODS) is a program for public policy practitioners, business professionals, energy and climate change experts, entrepreneurs, academicians, scholars and strategic analysts to act as a launchpad for their careers. Currently we have fellows from five different countries namely USA, France, UK, Israel, Italy and 40+ world leaders as mentors from 15 different countries
About the speaker:
Prof. John Mathiason is an adjunct professor at the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs. Serving as the board chairman of the Deft Edge Corporation, formerly Associates for International Management Services, he provided advice and training to international organizations and non-profit institutions on results-based planning and evaluation. His clients ranged from the United Nations Development Group, the United Nations Division of Social Policy and Development, the IAEA, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, UN Office of Drugs and Crime, and other reputed organizations. He has also consulted the government of Panama, the Equal Opportunity Commission of Hong Kong, and the Swedish International Cooperation Agency. He was also the team leader of the review of the management and accountability system of the UN Development System.