On 17 February, the United Nations University will host a conversation with award-winning author and acclaimed journalist Paul Blustein at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo. Blustein’s three-decade career as a leading international economics correspondent for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post provides him with an unmatched perspective on the history and trajectory of the global economic and financial landscape.
Blustein will join UNU Rector David Malone to look at the principal economic and financial institutions meant to be guiding and managing global economic cooperation, and preventing systemic shocks (which manifestly failed in recent years). They will focus their discussion on the International Monetary Fund, G-20, and Financial Stability Board, but will also touch on other international economic organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, as well as on contemporary strains in emerging economies and on the unfinished business of the European Union’s recovery.
For anyone wishing to understand the global financial system and the institutions that govern (or fail to govern) it, Blustein’s is an essential voice. As an author of four books, he has consistently excelled at leveraging his in-depth, behind-the-scenes reporting to distill complex economic issues into approachable narratives for both expert and non-expert audiences.
The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation: attendees are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation — and at the reception that will follow, where audience members are cordially invited to enjoy the food and drinks that will be served, while exchanging ideas and making new contacts.
Please note that this event will be in English only; no Japanese interpretation will be provided.
This event is free and open to the public, but advance registration (by 14 February) is required. Please click on the REGISTER button above to access the online registration page.
For those interested, a recent lecture by Paul Blustein on this topic can be viewed on YouTube.
About the speaker
Paul Blustein has written about economic issues for more than thirty years, first as a reporter at leading news organizations and later as the author of several critically acclaimed books. He is currently affiliated with the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Brookings Institution. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, he spent most of his career reporting for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His work has won several prizes, including business journalism’s most prestigious, the Gerald Loeb Award.
Blustein’s reporting and research have taken him to more than forty countries on six continents. He lives in Kamakura, Japan, with his wife, Yoshie Sakai, and is the father of four children. A recent professional interest, following his experience of living through the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, is the Fukushima nuclear accident, which he has written about in several publications. For more information see http://www.paulblustein.com/about-paul/.