In the middle of a Duke-centered inauguration weekend, a small crowd of panelists and spectators gathered in the Bryan Center Saturday morning maintained a distinctly global focus. Five faculty members and scores of observers convened in the Von Canon Room at 9:30 a.m. for the “Global Challenges” panel, which focused on globalization and its impact on many diverse fields, ranging from economics to the environment.
The panel consisted of Nan Jokerst, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Scott Silliman, professor of the practice in the School of Law; Research Professor of Economics Gianni Toniolo and Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology Stuart Pimm. Bruce Jentleson, director of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, moderated the discussion, which enumerated the problems and opportunities presented by the increasingly globalized world.
In their remarks, each of the panelists singled out a particular challenge in their fields, with Jentleson and Silliman focusing on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the ensuing changes in international relations.
“I think the lasting effect of that day was that foreign policy... became something that was [an everyday issue],” Jentleson said. “The great challenge we face is to deal with the Sept. 11 agenda and the Sept. 10 agenda.”
Jokerst, a microsystems design expert, followed Jentleson and discussed the positive and negative potential for technology in the global age, focusing on the way in which technology has and will continue to change the way we live.
“Science and technology are pervasive in our lives,” she said. “Will we recognize ourselves in the future? Will we recognize our society? Will we recognize our government? Hopefully we will recognize our environment.”
Jokerst cited the specific example of “smart dust”—tiny particles that can measure anything from barometric pressure to military movements—as an example of technology that can both help and challenge our society. Jokerst said this technology has limitless potential for tasks like curbing violent attacks, but it could conceivably present a problem in terms of invading civil liberties. “Where does societal security end and personal privacy start?” she asked.
Silliman followed up in a similar vein, claiming that legal precedents are ill-equipped to handle the change from previous wars—governed by nation-states—to President George W. Bush’s more decentralized war on terrorism.
“The events of the last several years have virtually outstripped the ability of the law to deal with them,” he said.
Silliman said the current American doctrine of preemption could be turned back against it, and America must be conscious of the global impact of the precedents it sets.
Toniolo emphasized the role of universities like Duke in addressing global problems by emphasizing both theoretical knowledge and pragmatic grounding like language education. He called “the understanding gap” between trade partnership and true comprehension of other cultures the main economic problem in the age of globalization. “We must produce professionals, specialists who also have the intellectual capacity to grasp the effects of their own techniques,” Toniolo said.
Pimm, the conference’s final speaker, echoed Jokerst’s concern about the rapidly changing global environment. After discussing such specific issues as the depletion of fisheries and global warming, Pimm dared Duke to produce leaders who can untangle the global challenges he and his fellow panelists had described.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if a decade from now senior political leaders could [attain their position] not by never going to Europe, South America or China but by coming to Duke and learning about the world,” he said.
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