The program will feature a keynote by Miquel Centeno (Princeton University) alongside interdisciplinary panels with University at Buffalo faculty and guest speakers. Presenters will share draft manuscripts in advance to support discussion-based sessions and the development of an edited academic volume. Aligned with The Baldy Center's mission, the conference will promote interdisciplinary dialogue on pressing issues at the intersection of law and social policy, generate collaborative research initiatives, and contribute to broader academic and policy debates on global systemic risks.

Keynote: The Fragility of Democracy in a Systemically Risky World
Speaker: Miguel A. Centeno, Professor and Vice-Dean, Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs 
A leading scholar on war, state formation, and global systemic risk, Centeno's work provides a foundational framework for understanding the intersection of conflict, governance, and development. His major publications include War and Society (Polity, 2016), Global Capitalism (Polity, 2010), States in the Developing World (Cambridge UP, 2017), and, State and Nation Making in the Iberian World (Cambridge UP, 2013; 2018).

Conference presenters are already familiar with the economic and social dangers of global systemic risk. Conference discussions will concern the political ramifications of these threats, and the central sources of tension between GSR and politics: First, the apparently slow pace of democratic change leads to frustrations when fast answers are (apparently) needed;  Second, we have the human phenomenon of the delusion of control. Homo sapiens do not like uncertainty and we gravitate toward systems and personalities that can (once again, apparently) guarantee stability. Global systemic risks present occasions when the deliberations and checks and balances of democracies appear most frustrating. Authoritarian claims to resolve problems quickly and efficiently may also pull populations away from faith in their own ability to govern. 

Conference presenters include, among others:

Christopher Chase-Dunn will deliver a talk on “Democracy/Autocracy cyclical trend since 1789 and 21^st century warfare and global warming risks”. At the University of California-Riverside, Chase-Dunn is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Research on World-Systems.

Mabel Berezin, Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology and Director of the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University. She is a comparative sociologist whose work explores challenges to democratic cohesion and solidarity in Europe and the United States;

Victor Nee, Frank and Rosa Rhodes Professor of Economic Sociology, and Director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society

Brandon Hoffman, The New York Times Photojournalist, will offer a visual and empirical account of war-related environmental destruction in Ukraine, highlighting the emerging legal and policy debates surrounding ecocide. As a prominent photojournalist, his recent work documents the environmental devastation of Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion.

Natalia Yanukovych, PhD (Sumy National Agrarian University in Ukraine) will offer commentary on Hoffman's  presentation. Yanukovych, currently a Fulbright scholar at the University at Buffalo, specializes in ecocide.

UB provides resources and general information to welcome visitors to our region:

• VISIT UB
• VISIT BUFFALO AND THE NIAGARA FRONTIER