Breaking Boundaries: A podcast from Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Many deepfakes are designed to spread disinformation or cause confusion and mistrust, and therefore are a threat to UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions. How do we combat deepfakes, and can technology help us in any way to address this global challenge? Annelise Riles talks about this topic with V.S. Subrahmanian, one of the world's leading experts on the role of AI in national and global security.

Combating climate change, and its impacts, is at the heart of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. More specifically, public education is key to addressing UNSDG number 13, which is climate action. In this episode, Spencer Glendon PhD. talks about his efforts to create a public utility for climate change through his nonprofit climate literacy initiative, Probable Futures.

The impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine is far-reaching with some scholars arguing that the conflict threatens progress on all of the UNSDGs, especially UNSDG 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. In this episode, international law expert Oona A. Hathaway, discusses legal recourse to prosecute Vladimir Putin and other top Russian leaders for the crime of aggression, a move that many say is essential to restore international world order. 

Three members of Northwestern University’s delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) reflect on their experiences at the event, which was held November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Niloufar Sarvian is a PhD candidate in Earth and planetary sciences at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Regan Seckel is a JD candidate in the Pritzker School of Law and Reynaldo Morales, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Northwestern University with a joint faculty appointment with the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and the Buffett institute for Global Affairs.

In this episode, two foreign career diplomats explain why facilitating communication and cooperation between their homelands and the communities of Chicago is essential, and the role of local diplomacy in addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 17, which is partnership for the goals. The current Consulate General of the Republic of Argentina in Chicago, Beatriz Vivas, and former Deputy Consul General of the Korean Consulate in Chicago, Woong-ghee Cha, share their insights.

Former Ambassador Susan Jacobs spent much of her career in diplomacy focused on international children's issues, including a position as the United State’s first Special Advisor for International Children's Issues, helping to uphold The Hague Conventions on adoptions and abductions. In this episode, Jabobs joins Annelise Riles to talk about her career in the foreign service, as one of the first married women to become a foreign service officer, and her work as it relates to United Nations Sustainable Development goal number 16, which includes targets related to protecting children.