The New Global Order Hosts its First Symposium on International Affairs 

3 March 2024, Rome, Italy. On March 2, The New Global Order (TNGO) hosted its first Symposium on the State of Global Affairs and Disinformation. The online event aimed to foster and enrich the discussion on pressing contemporary issues across every continent, focusing on taking stock of the global status of geopolitical affairs in an age of disinformation. 

The event kick-started with opening remarks from The New Global Order’s Founder and Executive Director, Giacomo Di Capua, followed by a key-note speech “Global Disinformation amid Conflict, Innovation, and Citizen Science” by Ahmed Medien, a systems engineer, a data scientist, and a global convener on the subjects of credibility online/information integrity, who gave attendants an overview of topics such as disinformation, misinformation, and governance of speech online and digital spaces. After the key-note speech, the Symposium featured approximately 30 presenters, divided into morning and afternoon sessions, speaking on topical issues such as climate diplomacy in a multipolar world, international security challenges, post-pandemic challenges for the political economy of central and southern Africa, disinformation in global affairs, and post-election policy priorities for the European Union.  

Moreover, the Symposium aimed to serve as an intellectually enriching space where participants could network, upskill, and acquire novel knowledge on the thematic focus. To that purpose, the event offered four skill-building workshops on Conceptualizing Justice and Security in the Arctic Region, with Judy Boyd, senior fellow at The Arctic Institute; Democratizing Feminist Foreign Policy with Déborah Rouach, co-founder and co-director of the Gender in Geopolitics Institute; AI and Disinformation by Natalia Stanusch, PhD candidate at ASCA, University of Amsterdam; and Unveiling Decolonization: Climate Change, Food and Indigenous Knowledge with Rosy Antúnez (Institute for Women in Migration), Maureen Duru (Founder and Director of The Food Bridge), and Banji Chona (artist, researcher and curator). 

The Symposium also held a panel discussion on Inflation in the Global South, with Elin Roberts (founder of the Latin America Watch at London Politica), Alex Pietrantoni (Latin America Affairs Director at TNGO), Tobias Belgrano (political analyst, former analyst at London Politica and Director of Latin American Affairs Department at TNGO), Rawlings Onserio (Latin America Affairs Deputy-Director at TNGO), Marco (Latin America Research Analyst at London Politica), and Alejandra Palacios Jaramillo (Fulbright Scholar, head of outreach for StoryHeights in Boston).

Through the symposium, The New Global Order sought to create a financially accessible and high-quality space for students, young researchers and professionals to present their original research to an international audience, with our symposium representing 6% of the cost of the average online academic conference. Committed to making the space truly accessible for all, The new Global Order offered a Young Leader Scholarship and Community Engagement and Empowerment Scholarship (CEES).

The symposium registered 52 participants for the entire conference and more than 70 registered attendees for the workshops and panel.

We extend our gratitude to all speakers, presenters, and TNGO members involved in the organization of the symposium. We congratulate Vladislav Malashevskyy and Domenico Vito for winning the “Best Poster” category as well as Olenka Sánchez (Right), Andrea Carrión (Center), and Camila Zapata (Left) for winning the “Best Presentation” category.

Sánchez, Carrión, and Zapata’s research explored paradiplomacy as a potential solution to the complex challenges facing the Amazon ecosystem. With traditional state-centered governance models struggling to effectively protect this vital region, examining alternative approaches like paradiplomacy —international relations conducted by sub-state actors— has the potential to provide valuable new strategies for Amazon conservation and sustainable development. In this sense, the study examined how paradiplomatic initiatives by subnational governments, in collaboration with NGOs and international agencies, can complement traditional conservation efforts. It analyzed the current status of cooperation among Amazonian countries and offered a novel perspective on multilevel environmental governance in this critical region. By highlighting both the potential and challenges of paradiplomacy in the Amazon context, this research piece provided insights that could inform future policy approaches and conservation strategies. For the public, this means a potential new path forward in protecting the Amazon —one that leverages local and regional actors to overcome some of the limitations of national-level policies and international agreements.