2024 Graduation Speaker: Ian Bremmer

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Ian Bremmer, renowned political scientist, will be the featured speaker at SIPA’s graduation ceremony, taking place on May 13, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. on the South Lawn of Columbia University’s Morningside Campus, as announced by Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo.

•   Watch SIPA’s graduation ceremony (Class Day) live: May 13, 7:30 p.m.

Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group and its subsidiary, GZERO Media. He is an expert in the geopolitics of yesterday, today, and tomorrow and he helps his audience — be it CEOs, heads of state, or the curious public — make sense of the world around them.

In 1998, Bremmer established Eurasia Group, the world’s leading geopolitical risk advisory firm, which now has offices in eight global cities from New York to Tokyo, and a network of experts and resources across 90 countries.

In 2017 Bremmer launched GZERO Media, a digital media company that provides intelligent and engaging coverage of international affairs to a broader audience through various platforms, including television, videos, newsletters, and podcasts.

Bremmer is an independent voice on global issues. He is the host of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, a global affairs program that airs weekly on US public television. He is also the foreign affairs columnist and editor at large for Time magazine as well as a frequent guest commentator on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. He’s published eleven books including the most recent New York Times bestsellers The Power of Crisis and Us vs. Them.

In recent years, his thought leadership has centered on the geopolitics of AI. In his 2023 TED talk, Bremmer spoke on our three new world orders — with a focus on the digital world order — and what that means for policymakers, citizens, and democracy more broadly. Bremmer serves as rapporteur of the UN High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, which was formed last year to develop recommendations for the international governance of AI.

Additionally, Bremmer teaches a course at SIPA on political risk analysis called Applied Geopolitics. He joined the faculty in 2020 and was previously a professor at New York University.

“Ian Bremmer is one of our finest public intellectuals, and a model for SIPA graduates in so many ways,” Yarhi-Milo wrote in a letter to the SIPA community. “In this time of global unrest and uncertainty, his clear-eyed observations about world affairs are an invaluable resource for experts and nonexperts alike. His entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to advising leaders on complex world events are an inspiration. He is brilliant, funny, and engaging — which is why I’m so thrilled to have him share his wit and wisdom with our Class of 2024.”

Bremmer earned a doctorate in political science from Stanford University and received his bachelor's degree in international relations from Tulane University.

In her announcement, Yarhi-Milo thanked SIPA students, including leaders of the SIPASA student government, for their input on the selection.