Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Globalization 2.0, Continental Vision, and the Future of North America

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Please join Belfer's Homeland Security Project for a lunch seminar featuring Alan Bersin, former Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  

Starting in the 1990’s, globalization and the idea of North America germinated and then grew up together. The pandemic a generation later—coupled with the geopolitical splintering of the post World War II international order now underway— has brought the first phase of each to an end. As Globalization 2.0 and North America 2.0 (with USMCA) take shape – in dim outline as yet – new and important opportunities (e.g. the near shoring of  manufacturing supply chains) as well as challenges (e.g. surging migrant mobility) are emerging at the North American regional level. Whether and how these opportunities are capitalized upon, or not, by the United States  and its neighboring partners in Canada and Mexico, likely will determine the level of prosperity for all of them and the scope of future influence of U.S. leadership in the world. This vision posits a continental North American Region that extends from Colombia to the Arctic and from Bermuda to Hawaii. 

This event is open to all Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students. RSVP is requested.

Date: Time: - Location: Belfer Building - Bell Hall, 5th Floor
Alan Bersin

Speaker Bio

Inaugural Fellow of the Homeland Security Project, Alan Bersin previously served as Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He also was the U.S. attorney in San Diego for the Southern District of California and served as “border czar” during the Clinton administration. 

Bersin has also held numerous distinguished state and local government positions, including serving as California’s Secretary of Education, Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego, and Chairman of the San Diego Airport Authority. He received his A.B. from Harvard College (magna cum laude), attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and received his J.D. from Yale Law School. 

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North America 2.0 | Forging a Continental Future 

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