GGD Forum

This forum is a space for shared reflection around the key themes of the Georgetown Global Dialogues. Georgetown faculty and students interested in contributing should contact globaldialogues@georgetown.edu.

Conversations

Calling Out Cruelty

Confronting Powerlessness

Fraternity and Solidarity

Can We Resist the Appeal of Technological Utopias?

How Can We (Re)imagine Human Fraternity?

Where Is Moral Authority in Today’s World?

Towards a Cosmopolitanism of Repair

The Specter of Plunder Neoliberalism

Our New, Non-Polar World

Cracks in Concrete

Against All Odds

Degrowth as the Imperative in the Age of the Polycrisis

October 8, 2025

Calling Out Cruelty Blog Post

The adoration of brute force and exercise of crude power have become hallmarks of governance in both democratic and autocratic settings. A hyper-masculine culture invested in spectacular displays of strength threatens social progress and peace everywhere. What are the insidious ways in which our tolerance for cruelty and Social-Darwinist thinking has increased, and what can we do to foster alternative values such as love and compassion?

Reflections

GGD Fellows

Cruelty and Its Cures

By: Nesrine Malik

The Face of a Child

By: Hisham Matar

Scholars and Practitioners

In Defense of Defense

By: David Little

The Common Good in the Face of Cruelty

By: Paul L. Heck

Calling Out Cruelty? Please Hold

By: Randall J. Amster

Students

The Quiet Revolution: Choosing Compassion in a World That Worships Power

By: Tony Mwambali Cirhulwire

The Logic of Elimination

By: Christina Pan

Polished Speeches in Broken Systems

By: Linda Uzoamaka Christopher

The Essence of Real Power

By: Salma Bayoumy

Ordinary Cruelty

By: Jacob Gardner

The Politics of Numbness

By: Jemimah Hyelazira Golo

August 31, 2025

Confronting Powerlessness Blog Post

The sense that things are spinning out of control—that democracy and solidarity are failing as wars proliferate while the climate crisis and the artificial intelligence revolution take over—has generated a widespread feeling of powerlessness. Writers and thinkers who insist on alternatives to our current path need to find new ways to work, think, and be together. How can communities that are both international and inclusive of younger generations be created and sustained?