Members of the Council’s Emerging Leaders Class of 2016 will discuss how mental health services, social security, and health care are adapting to address 21st century needs. Each year the Council selects the best and brightest mid-career leaders in Chicago to join its Emerging Leaders Program. The program culminates with participants reporting on issues they identify as critical and sharing their findings and recommendations with Council audiences. This is the second of three presentations of reports from the Emerging Leader Class of 2016.

China’s economic growth in the last 30 years has been impressive—yet cracks have started to form, requiring tough decisions from the government and the private sector. While the country still presents numerous investment opportunities and provides multibillion-dollar profits to global companies, its economy is plagued by corruption, market volatility, and mounting debt. What does the future hold for China and companies operating inside its border? Drawing from a wealth of academic research and interviews with dozens of company executives and policymakers, Arthur Kroeber details what everyone needs to know about China’s economy.

Dr. C. Raja Mohan, a leading strategic thinker and commentator on international security, defense, and Asian strategic issues, will visit the Chicago Council on Global Affairs as its inaugural Marshall M. Bouton Asia Fellow. The fellowship was established by the Council’s board of directors to honor Marshall M. Bouton, who served as president of the Council from 2001 to 2013 and is a recognized expert on India and Asia. Each year a prominent scholar, former senior policymaker, or public intellectual known for contributions to Asia’s economic and political development and/or international relations is invited to spend one week as a visiting fellow at the Council on Global Affairs.

Today, one in every four children under the age of five in the world—nearly 170 million in total—is physically or mentally stunted. In the past few years, devastating food crises and new research on the economic and social costs of childhood hunger have inspired an international movement to end malnutrition in the first 1,000 days, from conception to a child’s second birthday. Proper nutrition during these 1,000 days can profoundly influence an individual’s ability to grow, learn, and work, and determine a society’s long-term health and prosperity. Through compelling stories of new mothers and babies in Uganda, India, Guatemala, and Chicago, award-winning journalist and anti-hunger advocate, Roger Thurow, brings the 1,000 days to life and illuminates the science, politics, and progress of the movement to end childhood malnutrition. Thurow, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, discusses his new book, The First Thousand Days, with international development experts Tom Arnold and Catherine Bertini.

The global human rights movement isn’t what it used to be. In the past, human rights were those that needed to be protected from totalitarian regimes, cruelty in war, and other natural and man-made atrocities. Today, these problems still exist, but there are new challenges. Privacy from government surveillance. Drone warfare. Climate change. What have we learned from past human rights challenges and how can we apply these lessons going forward? How can governments, corporations, and individuals better protect human rights in this new era?

Almost everyone today agrees that the Arab uprising has failed. But Marc Lynch argues it has not failed—it has only just begun. While the protest wave has passed, the conditions which drove it have only strengthened and Lynch believes there will be no return to stability anytime soon. He suggests we should expect more upheaval, more state failures, more sudden regime collapses, more insurgencies, and more proxy wars. Informed by commentators and analysts from the Arab world, Lynch offers a clear distillation of the Arab uprisings, a new framework for understanding the politics of the Middle East, and advises most importantly: where do we go from here?

HIV, Ebola, Malaria, and recently the Zika Virus in Brazil have pushed the healthcare system to its limits in many parts of the world. The World Health Organization estimates there is currently a shortage of over 7 million healthcare workers in the world–which means preventable outbreaks often become defining moments in a community. Especially in resource-limited countries, international organizations are forced to move from crisis to crisis without the ability to invest in the future of the local healthcare system. What are the best methods of educating and training doctors, nurses, and midwives who can then work towards building a healthy future for their community? How are public-private partnerships working to prioritize areas where investment is crucial, and what are the timelines for delivery?

The European Union is a house of cards threatening regional stability and global prosperity, argues Yanis Varoufakis. The flawed architecture of the EU’s institutions, which struggled to develop an effective or coordinated response to the Eurozone crisis, has never been addressed. Rather than reforming governance or enhancing democracy, Varoufakis contends that Europe’s leaders defended the status quo, while administering a punishing course of austerity on the EU’s weaker members. As a result, he believes, Europe will continue to see rising inequality and extremism, while remaining wholly unprepared for the next crisis. What are the key lessons from the Eurozone crisis? And what can global leaders and citizens do to build a more just, democratic, and sustainable economic system?

Members of the Council’s Emerging Leaders Class of 2016 will discuss their reports on the intersecting challenges facing global cities. Each year the Council selects the best and brightest mid-career leaders in Chicago to join its Emerging Leaders Program. The program culminates with participants reporting on issues they identify as critical and sharing their findings and recommendations with Council audiences. This is the first of three evenings of presentations from the Emerging Leader Class of 2016.

More than two years after the Kyiv protests, the crisis in eastern Ukraine threatens to settle into a frozen conflict between the central government and separatists. While the Minsk II ceasefire agreement appears to have tempered the violence, a permanent resolution seems elusive. Meanwhile, relations between Russia and the West remain tense—and increasingly complicated by Russia’s intervention in Syria. Veteran journalist and scholar Marvin Kalb offers a timely reassessment of the conflict’s origins by turning an eye to the deeply intertwined history between Ukraine and Russia—a history, he argues, that must inform the way forward. What stands in the way of a durable peace? What remains to be done by the West? Join Marvin Kalb for a discussion on Ukraine’s past ghosts and future hopes.