“The pessimism that flows from our analysis, our observation, and our lived experiences can — must, and should be — overcome by the optimism of our thought, our action, our creativity, and our courage,” Naidoo said. “This is a moment for brutal honesty.”

He said that’s why his talk was titled “Creative Maladjustment,” a concept put forth by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to link the internal struggles of individuals to the social forces around them. Naidoo said, “There are some things in our society and in our world that make me proud to be maladjusted.”

For example, he said it’s not wise or healthy to “adjust” oneself to racial segregation and discrimination, or economic conditions that take necessities from the underprivileged only to luxuriously benefit the wealthy. “If anybody thinks that COVID was the worst disease you lived through, I submit to you that the worst disease we face as humanity is a disease called ‘affluenza.’ Affluenza is a pathological illness where rich and poor alike have been led to believe that the most important thing to give you a decent meaning in life is more and more material acquisitions.”

Intersectionality, culture, creativity

Naidoo said that humanity needs to embrace the idea of ‘intersectionality,’ or recognizing that all these different social and environmental issues are interconnected. One can’t just focus on oneself without considering how everything is tangled up together, so we have to address challenges in more unified ways.

‘Cultural emergence’ — the process of letting diverse cultural perspectives and voices guide us in finding solutions — is another important concept, Naidoo said. Societies can benefit from listening to indigenous and ancient knowledge and understanding their traditional practices and wisdom. Such communities have been living in harmony with nature for centuries, and much can be learned from them, he said.

Another transformative concept is ‘artivism,’ or where arts and activism come together as social and cultural movements. Facts and figures (while critically necessary) are useful, but ultimately, people also need storytelling, music, and the visual arts to drive home the urgency of the environmental crisis and spur constructive action. “We need to reach people’s hearts and bodies as well as we do their heads,” he said.

He explained that people are overstimulated with the constant onslaught of information every day. So, art has the power to move and have lasting effects on cultures that get deeply entrenched, so long as this dynamic is used in positive ways. 

New paths forward after conflicts

“We need to redesign much of the current system that we have, whether it be economics, whether it be energy or transportation. And so, the notion of creative maladjustment is a clarion call,” said Naidoo, who also referred to the military build-ups in the U.S. and elsewhere. “Sadly, we are spending even more money on military expenditures.”

He quoted President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961: “‘In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.’”

Naidoo spoke of lost or hijacked opportunities for true societal change after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the protests against the Iraq War in 2003, the economic crises of 2008-09, the Arab Spring movements in the early 2010s, and the emergence from the COVID global pandemic in 2020. “These were moments where we could have learned a lot.”

For instance, he said, in the post-COVID era, the conversations among those in power were about system recovery, system protection, and system maintenance when what was actually needed was system innovation, transformation, and redesign. He cited a 2002 RAND study commissioned by the CIA that concluded that the biggest threat to peace, security, and stability in the decades ahead will not come from terrorism or conventional threats but from the impacts of climate change. 

“If you look at the Syrian war and some of the conflicts in Africa now, the hand of climate change is alive and well in many of those conflicts. Within this context, we have to recognize that we are dealing with a particular unique moment in history where we've seen a convergence of multiple crises,” Naidoo said.

‘Knowledge that resonates’

On messaging, a new approach needs to be considered, he said. “Sadly and somewhat ironically, it’s the likes of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump who appear to better understand this truth.” We don’t need to lie, Naidoo said, but we just need to communicate thoughtfully and impactfully and not send a barrage of communications exclusively rooted in science and jargon while ignoring the heart and human emotions.

“Our challenge is to center our narratives in a way that not only speaks to the head but also touches the heart. By blending the power of evidence with the art of storytelling, we can create profound impacts on individuals and communities. We must strive to communicate knowledge that resonates with people’s emotions, values, and aspirations,” Naidoo said.

Michael McFaul, director of FSI, said, “Kumi gave a fantastic Payne lecture this week at FSI, one of the most thought-provoking talks I have attended in a long while. His unique set of experiences, coupled with his deep convictions, reflective mind, and unique ability to touch both the mind and the heart, make him a special leader in the world — exactly the kind of person for whom the Payne Lectureship was intended.”

“We're thrilled to have Kumi in residence with us at CDDRL this year,” added Kathryn Stoner, the center’s Mosbacher Director. “The insights he shared on transformative change and the climate crisis are invaluable, and his call for creative maladjustment challenges us to rethink our strategies, inspiring us to pursue a brighter future.”

Payne lecturers are chosen for his or her international reputation as leaders, with an emphasis on visionary thinking, practical engagement, and important perspectives on the global community and its challenges. As the Payne Distinguished Lecturer, Naidoo is also teaching a seminar to the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students across FSI’s centers.

Follow the link for a full transcript of "Global Threats: What's at Stake and What We Can Do About It."

Reform the Electoral College |  Didi Kuo

One of the major problems people feel right now in American politics is that their voices aren’t heard. We live in what my colleague Francis Fukuyama calls a "vetocracy," meaning there are a lot of veto points in our system.

In a lot of other democratic institutional configurations, you have rule by the majority. But in the United States, we have an institutional configuration that allows a very small group — for example, 15 people in the House of Representatives — to hold up government in various ways. We see this in dramatic examples on the national level, but it also trickles down to the local level where you see it in issues like permitting hold-ups.

Reforming the Electoral College would be a very direct way of changing that vetocracy. The United States is one of the only advanced democracies that has this indirect system of elections. If all the votes counted equally and all the presidential candidates had to treat all of us the same and respond to us equally in all 50 states, it would do a lot to show the power of the popular vote and realign us more closely to the principle of majoritarianism that we should seek in our institutions.

Allow Taiwan to License Weapons Production |  Larry Diamond

My recommendation is deterrence, deterrence, deterrence. It is not inevitable that the People's Republic of China is going to launch an all-out military assault on Taiwan. But if the United States does not do more to make that a costly decision, the likelihood it will happen are exponentially higher.

Deterrence works. The United States deterred the Soviet Union from moving against West Berlin and much of Europe for decades. But it only works if you have a superior force.

To that end, the United States needs to pre-position more military force in the region. There's now a $12 billion backlog of weapons that Taiwan has ordered and paid for but hasn't received yet. That’s because the American defense production system is completely broken. This is the same reason why we can’t get weapons to Ukraine at the pace we need there.

This issue could be fixed, at least in part, if we licensed the production of some of these weapon systems directly to Taiwan. Their ability to build plants and produce these systems is much more agile than our own, and so licensing the rights to production would dramatically increase the deterrence factor against China, in addition to deepening our cooperation with allies throughout the region.

Pursue Climate Mitigation AND Adaptation |  Marshall Burke

There are three things we can do in response to climate change: we can mitigate, we can adapt, or we can suffer. We’re off to a good start, but we have decades of long slog ahead of us to get that right. And it's not just us; even if we do a good job, we depend on other countries to also do a good job. The Biden administration has already been engaged on some of that front, but there’s more work to do there.

And even with our best efforts, we are not going to be able to move as fast as we want or mitigate our greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as we need to avoid climate change. So, we're going to have to live with some climate change, which means adaptation. And if we can't adapt, then we're going to suffer. 

The key point is that we are very poorly adapted to today's climate, much less the climate we're going to have 30 or 50 years from now. The West Coast and California are prime examples of this. There have been monumental wildfire seasons there the last few years, and there are significant negative health impacts from smoke exposure. I see it in my own home, even as someone who studies this and should know better and do more to reduce those risks.

The point is, we're really poorly adapted to the current climate, and things are going to get a lot worse. We need to focus on mitigation; it’s still really important and we need to get it done. But at the same time, we need to figure out how to adapt and live with the changing climate that we're going to experience.

Weapons for Ukraine, Sanctions on Russia |  Michael McFaul

When I was in Kyiv this September, I had a chance to meet with President Zelenskyy, and he pointed out an absolutely crazy reality. Companies in the United States and Europe are still making tens of thousands of dollars in profits from selling various technologies that ultimately end up in Russia. It’s getting in through places like Hong Kong and Kazakhstan and Belarus and Georgia, and it allows Russia to keep waging its horrific war.

At the same time, the United States is spending millions of dollars to arm Ukraine with systems to shoot down the Russian rockets that were built using the components they got from the West. That’s completely illogical, bad policy. I know it’s hard to control technology, but we have to find a better way than what we’re doing right now. If you're an American taxpayer, that is your money being wasted.

That means more and better weapons for Ukraine, faster. And that means more and better sanctions on Russia, faster. That is the way to speed the end of this war.

Be Confident in America |  Amichai Magen

Just a few short years ago, we were all talking about the decline of the United States. I think that is far from inevitable. People speak about the 20th century as the “American Century.” The 21st century can also be the American Century. It's in our hands.

Be bullish on America. Be confident in America. Rediscover the spirit of America for adaptation and innovation and entrepreneurship. We need to wake up from the break we’ve taken from history in the post-Cold War era and rally once again in our spirit, our research, and our intellect.

We need to find new solution structures to the great challenges of our era: environmental challenges, AI, biotechnological challenges, nuclear challenges. And we can do it. China is on the verge of demographic decline and economic decline. Russia is a very dangerous international actor, but it is not a global superpower. We must reinvent the institutions and the alliances that we need for the 21st century in order to make sure that we continue a journey towards greater peace and prosperity for all of mankind.

The entire discussion, including the audience Q&A, is available to watch on FSI's YouTube channel. To stay up to date on our content, be sure to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications.