On December 5, 2011, a distinguished panel of experts convened for the purpose of drawing lessons for first responders from the experiences of the Haiti earthquake of January 12, 2010, and from the East Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Haiti, an impoverished developing country whose governance and logistical infrastructure were devastated by the earthquake, was forced to rely almost entirely on international responders. Japan, a wealthy developed country with ample domestic capacity, responded largely with its own resources. Nevertheless, the experiences of responders in both cases evinced interesting and important commonalities

When it comes to world leaders who’ve tackled debt and deficit woes, these two know of what they speak. So when Paul Martin and Ernesto Zedillo opened on a pessimistic note as they discussed the European debt crisis, it brought the severity of the situation into sharp relief for the capacity crowd at the new CIGI Auditorium.

“Like humanitarianism, politics is an imperfect project,” Dr. James Orbinski said, as he kicked off this year’s Signature Lecture Series at The Centre for International Governance Innovation.

“The one thing that hasn’t changed is that you still have to find people and tell their story,” CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti said as part of Muzzled Media -- The Global Challenge, CIGI's annual media panel.

What began as an analysis of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF's) internal surveillance operations quickly morphed into “an exercise of making sure we’re not asleep at the wheel.” That was the message delivered in a keynote address by Ruben Lamdany, deputy director of the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), as part of CIGI’s signature lecture, “Groupthink and Overconfidence: Predictive Failures in the Global Economic Crisis.”

Does the world’s population need to liberate itself from the “tyranny” of global goals in order to progress in international development? This question and others were debated at "Beyond 2015 – Development Goals for the World," where leading experts addressed the future of aid after the Millennium Development Goals expire.

Though humanitarian grounds will never be the sole justification for violating the principle of state sovereignty, historical legacy is emerging as an important consideration for states weighing the costs of intervention, guest speaker Aly Verjee told an audience at CIGI.

Pakistan continues to occupy a serious place in the minds of Canadians, Anatol Lieven explained during a Signature Lecture at CIGI on April 8. With an estimated population of over 200 million people, the country serves as a temporal reminder of the war in Afghanistan, and is also “organically linked” by the large Pakistani diaspora that now calls Canada home.

In a lecture at the University of Ottawa, Thomas A. Bernes outlined the role of the International Monetary Fund in the global financial crisis. As a former director of the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office, Bernes also offered a unique perspective on the need for accountability and good governance across the global financial system.