CIGI experts available for comment on Canadian G8 and G20 Summits

Media Advisory

June 24, 2010

Waterloo, Canada – June 18, 2010 – Experts from The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) are available for comment and analysis on the upcoming G8 and G20 summits taking place in Canada from June 25 -27.

Fred Kuntz, CIGI Senior Director of Communications and Public Affairs, and other CIGI communications staff, who will be stationed in the media centre at the summit, can help direct inquiries about CIGI and its research. CIGI’s Communications office will be open to assist with media interviews from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday, June 26 and Sunday, June 27 (as well as during business hours in the week leading up to the summits).

CIGI Experts

Manmohan Agarwal CIGI Senior Visiting Fellow

Topics: health and social governance; international economic governance; shifting global order;

India and more broadly on the role of developing countries

Languages: English, Hindi, Bengali

 Alan S. AlexandroffCIGI Senior Fellow

and Co-director of the G20 Research Group at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto

Topics: Dr. Alexandroff leads CIGI’s Global Institutional Reform (GIR) Workshop designed to evaluate the adequacy of institutional reform proposals for the international system.

Language: English

Note: based in Toronto

Colin BradfordCIGI Senior Fellow

and Non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution

Topics: financial regulatory reform; bank tax; framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth (FSSBG); G20 peer review involved in the FSSBG mutual assessment process; IMF reform; different positions of industrial vs. emerging market members of the G20; difference between G8 enlargement and the G20 replacing the G8 as the global steering committee; different positions of Europe vs. the U.S. on IMF reform

Languages: English, Spanish, French

Gregory ChinCIGI Senior Fellow

and Faculty Associate of the York Centre for Asian Research at York University

Topics: China’s and the East Asian countries’ response to the international financial crisis; the limits to the Chinese currency's role as an international currency; collective responses to the balance of payments challenges; remaking the Bretton Woods system and other global economic architecture; collective interests of the new G5/emerging powers grouping

Language: English

Jennifer Clapp CIGI Chair in Global Environmental Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs

Topics: Food security and the current global food situation; international agricultural trade and the WTO; trade and the environment

Language: English

Stephen ClarksonCIGI Senior Fellow

and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto

Topics: United States’ and Canada’s diminishing importance on the world stage; Canada’s clout vis-à-vis the United States and within the new G20; transborder governance; economic relations between Canada, the United States and Mexico

Languages: English, French, German, Spanish

Andrew F. CooperCIGI Distinguished Fellow

and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo

Topics: architecture and evolution of the G20; national perspectives of members and non-members to the G20; celebrity diplomacy; the rising economic and diplomatic power of BRICSAM countries; global health; global governance

Language: English

Language: English

John Curtis CIGI Distinguished Fellow

Topics: Insight into factors and to policies both in Canada and its G-20 partners to stimulate and sustain their economies in a balanced way to improve longer-term growth and human well-being; matters relating to trade (WTO, NAFTA, Canada-EU, APEC, the Transpacific Partnership); protectionist measures as a result of the financial crisis; performance of the global economy; International economic governance, including the WTO, and Canada-US relations.

Language: English

Note: based in Ottawa

Paul HeinbeckerCIGI Distinguished Fellow

and Director of the Laurier University Centre for Global Relations

Topics: G20 and G8 summitry; Canadian foreign policy (U.S., Germany, UN, Turkey, the Middle East); arms control and disarmament; climate change; American foreign policy

Languages: English, French, German, Turkish

Note: based in Ottawa

Eric HelleinerCIGI Chair in International Political Economy at the Balsillie School of International Affairs

Topics: international financial standards; international financial regulation; the history of the Bretton Woods system"

Language: English

Bessma MomaniCIGI Senior Fellow

and Associate Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Waterloo

Topics:  stimulus programs in the Middle East and the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and others); Saudi positions taken at the G20; trade liberalization and growth measures in the Middle East; IMF, specifically, quota and governance reforms

Languages: English, Arabic

Daniel SchwanenCIGI Special Advisor – Programs to the Acting Executive Director

Topics: G20 framework for economic coordination; links between the financial markets and the real economy; macro-economic imbalances (fiscal and current account); impact of the global financial crisis and responses to it in North America, the EU, Japan and Australia

Languages: English, French

Pierre SiklosCIGI Senior Fellow

and Professor of Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University

Topics: international economic governance; macroeconomics with a focus on inflation; central banks; financial markets

Languages: English, Hungarian

Gordon SmithCIGI Distinguished Fellow

and Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.

Topics: G20 and the relationship to the G8

Link to bio page: http://www.cigionline.org/person/gordon-smith

Language: English

Note: based in Victoria, BC

John WhalleyCIGI Distinguished Fellow

and Professor of Economics with the Centre for the Study of International Economic Relations at the University of Western Ontario

Topics: environment and resources; health and social governance; international economic governance; international law; institutions and diplomacy; shifting global order

Language: English

David Welch Interim Director and CIGI Chair of Global Security at the Balsillie School of International Affairs

Topics: security-related issues

Language: English

For more information about CIGI and its experts and research, visit:

Complete list of experts: www.cigionline.org/experts

G20-focussed web page: www.cigionline.org/g20

 MEDIA CONTACT:

Mary-Lou Schagena, Communications Specialist

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)

Telephone: 519-885-2444, ext. 238  | Email: [email protected]

 The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is an independent, nonpartisan think tank on international governance challenges. Led by experienced practitioners and distinguished academics, CIGI supports research, advances policy debate, and generates ideas for multilateral governance improvements. CIGI's interdisciplinary work includes collaboration with policy, business and academic communities around the world. 

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The opinions expressed in this article/multimedia are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of CIGI or its Board of Directors.