Sylvie Bermann is French Ambassador to Moscow, who has previously served in London and Beijing. She is the author of China in Deep Waters (2017), a penetrating analysis of China’s current political situation. Yan Lan is Chairman and CEO of Greater China and Lazard Asia (HK) Ltd. She is the author of The Yan Family (2018), winner of a major prize in France, a sweeping account of her family’s rise through the turbulent history of twentieth-century China at the highest levels – and what it means today.

Britain and other western democracies are belatedly waking up to the threats posed by states such as Russia and China. Both countries use influence operations against adversaries, deploying tactics that fall short of traditional armed conflict in which the digital dimension is central. Hacking and leaking operations such as those conducted against the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 (and similar operations in France and Germany) are one example. Industrial cyber-espionage — theft of intellectual property — as carried out by China is another.

Abstract:

In my talk at the Israel Studies Seminar, I will present my doctoral research which occupies the intersection between modern Jewish history, climate and environmental history, the history of knowledge, and colonial history. My dissertation focuses on the role of climate – both as an abstract concept and a concrete condition – in shaping and reshaping Jewish national, racial, cultural, and spatial identity both in Europe and in Palestine during the first half of the twentieth century.

The character of wars is changing. Today, wars between nation-states have largely disappeared and armed conflicts between states and belligerent non-state actors have become predominant. But has the international community found the right answers to deal with such intrastate armed conflicts? Schulenburg will argue, no. In a future world of 11 billion people, intra-state conflicts are likely to increase. Finding better answers to address this is becoming, and will continue to be, ever more pressing. But would this be possible in a world of increasing great-power rivalries?