Invisible threats loom over the futures of today’s youth: climate change, cyber instability, international armed conflicts, global inequality, the erosion of trust. At the Graduate Institute, students note the need to engage and intersectionally untangle the weaving threads of different disciplines that influence global geopolitics and our daily lives alike. The Geneva Debate aims to become the city’s preeminent student debate on current affairs and global development. 

With the on-going situation in Ukraine, the long-term (and long debated) association of nuclear energy with climate action, and the recently observed insecurity of nuclear sites in times on conflict, The Geneva Debate proposes the following motion:

In the Context of the War in Ukraine, and consequent turbulence in Energy Geopolitics: The House Regrets the Stigmatisation of Nuclear Energy.

On 18 October 2022, two teams of three students from the Graduate Institute will engage in an hour-long debate at Maison de la paix in front of an in person audience and a distinguished panel of judges. A 30-minute post-debate analysis will follow, which will allow debaters and members of the jury to reflect the Graduate Institute's culture of seeking to understand complex problems and contemporary situations that define this day and age. 

Can International Geneva lead as a global beacon of hope for peace and development in an era of radical uncertainty? The Geneva Debate answers in the affirmative. Almost a hundred years after the founding of the Graduate Institute, a group of students will seek to create a new space for conversation and reflection in our institution that responds to the challenges, solutions and ideas that will shape our footprint as future leaders in the XXI century.

Debaters

Side Government 

• Cäcilia Riederer, Second Year, Masters in International Affairs
• Hinah Mian, Second Year, Masters in Development Studies
• Alessandra Leopardi Medina, Interdisciplinary Masters – Human Rights and Humanitarianism 

Side Opposition

• Myrtle-Cleona Priddy, First Year, Masters in International and Development Studies
• Stefano Colacino, First Year, Interdisciplinary Masters – Human Rights and Humanitarianism
• Bharghav Bhamidipati, First Year, LLM in International Law

Jury Members: 

• Professor Anna Leander, Chair and Professor, Department of International Relations and Political Science. 
• Professor Thomas Biersteker, Curt Gasteyger Chair in International Security and Conflict Studies.
• Dmitry Grozoubinski, Executive Director, Geneva Trade Platform. 

Student Jurists: 

• Ryan Abraham, First Year, Interdisciplinary Masters – Global Health. 
• Sohini Chakrabarti, First Year, Interdisciplinary Masters – Gender, Race, and Diversity.