Panel Discussion Series: American Election 2024

The 2024 US presidential election is yet another critical election in which the US electorate faces the choice between two largely competing continuity candidates - in Democrat Kamala Harris (with Biden) and Republican Donald Trump (with his first administration). Yet, if victorious, Harris will become the nation’s first ever woman president, the first Black woman to occupy the White House, and the first of South Asian heritage.

The election campaign has already seen twists and turns and nothing suggests that the pattern won’t continue now that we are just a few weeks from the November poll. President Biden’s withdrawal placed Harris in the hotseat, while increasing levels of political violence are symbolised by two attempts at assassinating Trump.

Death threats against election officials, judges, and prosecutors across the US, but especially in so-called ‘swing states’, are intensifying, security measures being ramped up. A question, almost unthinkable, is being asked by serious observers: will there be a peaceful transfer of power? The events of 6 January 2021 – the Trump-orchestrated insurrection- continue to hang over the country.

Globally, the US is continuing its policy of armed and diplomatic support for the Ukraine war, the illegal Israeli war on Palestinians in Gaza, which has already spilled over into Lebanon and Syria, and threatens to engulf the region in another military conflagration.

While the numbers on the US economy are strong, Americans – especially younger and minority voters – report high levels of financial insecurity and a sense of doom about the future. The country is politically polarised – even factionalised – and most voters have already decided on their choice. And it’s going to be a very close election. Yet, pollsters report that something like 6% of voters in 6 swing states will determine the election outcome.

The election has been cast by many as a contest between democracy and dictatorship, multilateralism under Harris and unilateral America First-ism under Trump, between commitment to the liberal international order and greater levels of US retrenchment from international institutions, between strategies to mitigate climate change to climate change denial and full-throated backing for fossil fuel corporations.

Whichever way the election goes, the outcome will have highly significant effects on the peoples of the United States and the rest of the world. Despite claims of the eclipse of the West by the ‘Rest’, the United States remains the world’s pivotal power. 2024 is about to see the most consequential election of what has been a monumental 12 months of elections on a global scale.

In this context, the Finsbury Institute, City International Policy Studies, and the Research Group on Global Disorder are hosting three panel discussions to focus on some of the most significant issues raised by the US election.

The panels

The state of US democracy and what the world can expect of Trump 2.0

29th January 2025 17:00 - 18:30

Panel members: Inderjeet Parmar (Chair); Andrew Payne (City St George's); Fernando Pizarro (Journalism); Daniela Vieira Secches (PUC Minas, Brazil); Lindsay Newman (Eurasia Group)

Commentaries from the panel:

• Dr Lindsay Newman (Geopolitics Expert, Columnist GZero Media): Trump is Back with a Bang
• Fernando Pizarro (City St George’s, University of London): Trump’s war on media intensifies
• Dr Andrew Payne (City St George’s, University of London): Trump is at the Peak of His Power—But It Won’t Last
• Professor Daniela Vieira Secches (PUC Minas, Brazil): State of US Democracy after 2024 Elections and Latin America

What the US elections mean for the world

13th November 2024 17:00 - 18:30

Panel members: Andrew Payne (Chair); Lea Hellmuller (City St George's); Ahmed Waheed (NUST/Roads Institute, Pakistan); Bobby Banerjee (Bayes Business School); Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson (LSE); Inderjeet Parmar (City St George's)

Commentaries from the panel:

• Dr Lea Hellmuller (City St George’s, University of London):  Reflections on the Election Outcome and Its Impact on Journalism
• Dr Ahmed Waheed (Roads Initiative; NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan): US-Pakistan Relations and the Continuity of Policies
• Professor Bobby Banerjee (Bayes Business School): Pensive reflections on Trump 2.0
• Professor Inderjeet Parmar (City St George’s, University of London): Despite the gloom, there is also hope after the 2024 US elections

The future of US foreign policy

16th October 2024 17:00 - 18:30

Panel members: Andrew Payne; Inderjeet Parmar (Chair); Maria Ryan (Nottingham); Zeno Leonie (KCL); Hilde Restad (Oslo/UT Austin)

Commentaries from the panel:

• Dr Andrew Payne (City St George's, University of London): Foreign Policy and Wars are on the November Ballot
• Maria Ryan (University of Nottingham): Election 2024 and US foreign policy
• Hilde Restad (Oslo/UT Austin): Three Foreign Policy Camps Show Bipartisan Support for the Liberal International Order is Waning
• Dr Zeno Leonie (KCL): Leading a small fortress West