Over two years, our Carnegie Ethics Fellows have been meeting with professionals across the international affairs field to learn about ethical decision-making, develop their capabilities, and become examples of values-driven responsible leadership. The Fellows have also been working on group projects around emerging ethical issues: water ethics, AI in healthcare, ethics of economic and national security, and the ethics of AI in humanitarian response. 

For their culminating experience, the Fellows will host the Carnegie Ethics Fellows Symposium on October 15, 2026, a day-long conference to discuss their projects, alongside experts working on these topics. We invite you to attend to learn more about these emerging ethical issues.

The Symposium will feature four 60-minute panel discussions and audience Q&A, with a brief intermission between each.

Thursday, October 15: 

Panel 1: 8:30-9:30am ET
Water as a Right or Commodity? Ethical Frameworks for Allocation Decisions 

Panel 2: 10:30-11:30am ET
Redefining the Frontline: AI, Ethical Healthcare, and Non-State Power 

Panel 3: 1:00-2:00pm ET
A New National Security Architecture: An Economic Security & Strategic Investment Framework for the Western Hemisphere 

Panel 4: 3:00-4:00pm ET
Their Data, Whose Decision? The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Humanitarian Response

For more on the Carnegie Ethics Fellows, visit Carnegie Council’s website to read their final projects, access their classroom resources, and view their Spotlight series.

Select your sessions

Learn more about each session

Water as a Right or Commodity? Ethical Frameworks for Allocation Decisions  

Run Time: 8:30am-9:30am ET

Fellows: Nadav Avihay, Ruth Nashipae Muigai, and Harsh Suri 

Access to safe, affordable, and reliable water is increasingly threatened by the combined pressures of climate change, rapid urbanization, population growth, infrastructure underinvestment, the expanding demands of water-intensive industries, and most recently—data centers.  Meanwhile, existing allocation frameworks are failing communities that are least equipped to advocate for themselves.  

To address this pressing ethical issue, this panel will bring together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss how societies should balance private economic interests against the public's right to clean and sustainable sources of water. Panelists will explore how communities can meaningfully participate in water governance decisions, what obligations companies bear before and after entering a watershed, and what governments must do to uphold water as a human right, not merely an economic input. 

Opening Remarks:  

Moderator:   

Panelists:   

  • Janice Beecher, Commissioner, Connecticut PURA; Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University 
  •  Daniel A. Zarrilli, Chief Climate & Sustainability Officer, Adjunct Professor of Climate, Columbia University 

Redefining the Frontline: AI, Ethical Healthcare, and Non-State Power   

Run Time: 10:30am-11:30am ET

Fellows: Rebecca Distler and Kathy Kim  

Global health systems face a projected shortfall of 11 million workers by 2030. At the same time, a new class of AI-enabled tools is moving from pilots into clinical workflows. This is unfolding as the majority of these technologies are developed and deployed by non-state actors, such as technology companies, philanthropic organizations, NGOs, and private providers.

These developments raise a new set of ethical and governance questions: Who determines when an AI system is clinically “ready?” What counts as sufficient evidence in different contexts? And how should responsibility be shared when these systems are introduced at scale, often by non-state actors?

This panel examines AI adoption in healthcare as a problem of shared moral risk and explores how authority, accountability, and oversight must evolve as this emerging technology becomes a more central part of global health systems.

Opening Remarks:

Moderator:

Panelists:   

A New National Security Architecture: An Economic Security & Strategic Investment Framework for the Western Hemisphere  

Run Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm ET

Fellows: Joshua Acosta and Denver Barrows 

As industrial policy and tools of economic statecraft have gained more prominence in the national security hierarchy for the United States, issues pertaining to democratic values and ethics must be closely examined. Latin America offers the most instructive example for this shift, as nations like Argentina and Chile align their economic security posture with Washington; the three largest economies—Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia—refuse to comply; and Venezuela has seen the overthrow of its leader, followed by economic coercion of its remaining government.

This panel will bring together experts of Latin America and economic statecraft to examine what is needed to ensure economic security and democracy processes run parallel to each other, not in competition. What would be the impact of an American sovereign wealth fund? What kind of economic security framework would demonstrate accountability and democratic governance consistent with the values and interests of the Western Hemisphere?

Opening Remarks:  

Moderator:   

Panelists:  

  • Will Freeman, Fellow for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations   
  •  Peter S. Goodman, Global Economics Correspondent, The New York Times 
  • Jodi Vittori, Professor of Practice and Global Politics and Security Concentration Co-Chair, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Their Data, Whose Decision? The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Humanitarian Response

Run Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm ET

Fellows: Nicholas Bayer, Molly Schaeffer, and Alex Urwin 

As AI rapidly transforms our world, humankind has begun to identify both significant opportunities and complex ethical challenges across sectors—this is seen perhaps most clearly in the field of humanitarianism. AI has the potential to improve humanitarian action: it can help responders anticipate crises, allocate resources more efficiently, and reach vulnerable populations faster. But these benefits come with significant ethical risks—not only within the algorithms themselves, but within the data those algorithms rely on and generate.

This expert panel will examine critical questions around ensuring data privacy in the use of AI for humanitarian purposes, including how to determine when a technology should be used, whether and how to responsibly collect personal data, and how to ensure that an ethical framework can be applied during key decisions made at fast pace with limited resources. 

Opening Remarks:  

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Panelists: