Morgan Hitzig

Implementing TRIPP: The MOU should not be seen as an end product, but as an affirmation of Washington’s continuing interest and commitment to invest political capital, financial resources, and diplomatic creativity into rebuilding connectivity across one of Eurasia's most disputed regions. My latest: https://lnkd.in/emj3R8Bd

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The action doesn't stop! The potential Supreme Court review of #IEEPA this week could affect U.S. tariffs across the region, as well as framework trade agreements with #Argentina, #Ecuador, #ElSalvador, and #Guatemala https://lnkd.in/eWDjC-aX

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Here comes the second round of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's Section 301 investigations, this time targeting forced labor across 60 economies. https://lnkd.in/eJcu8BTe

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It’s time to challenge the "sanitary" nature of the conversation surrounding responsible investment in the defense industry. While the financial sector is making strides in mapping how weapons are designed, manufactured, and exported in line with international law, a profound and uncomfortable gap remains in the narrative: the human experience of "downstream use and misuse." Companies often “complete” their due diligence processes at the point of sale, satisfied by a legal export license or a technical compliance framework. Yet, the true test of "responsibility" doesn’t happen in corporate HQs. It happens in the field, where abstract concepts of "kinetic impact" translate into the lived reality of systematic destruction, civilian deaths, human suffering, and psychological trauma. If we’re to be truly responsible investors, we can't allow our analysis of portfolio companies to remain clinical. We need the courage to look at the consequences of these products once they leave the factory floor. With those consequences now documented more clearly than ever, a lack of evidence is no longer an excuse. For those looking to bridge the gap between ESG metrics and human reality, I highly recommend two recent episodes from the BBC’s The Global Story. These reports bring a necessary, often searing clarity to the intersection of business and foreign policy in a time of deep disruption. In the first episode, Merlyn Thomas of BBC Verify and Yale Professor Oona Hathaway dissect the fallout of a U.S. airstrike on an Iranian school that killed 168 people, including 110 children. It’s a sobering look at "unintentional" military strikes and the mounting legal and ethical questions facing states and companies globally. In the second, featuring veteran correspondent Fergal Keane, the true scale of this responsibility becomes clear. For 40 years, Keane has reported from the world’s most brutal conflicts. He shares a deeply personal reflection on the mental cost of conflict, speaking not just as a witness to the trauma of innocent victims, but as a man who has faced his own battle with PTSD. His reporting reminds us of a staggering reality: more than 1 in 5 children globally are now living amid conflict. As Keane observes: "When wars begin, no matter where they are, children are the ones who have the least ability to protect themselves. They are the ones who, under international law and all the conventions that armed forces are meant to operate by, should be most protected—but that just doesn't happen." If we want to understand the real-world footprint of our portfolios and the companies upon which we depend for financial performance, we must listen carefully to these stories. True guidance for investors isn’t found in spreadsheets or toolkits—it’s found in understanding the civilian harm, generational trauma, and legal accountability that follow every deployment of force. I’ve included the links to both episodes of "The Global Story" in the comments below.

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As with every good thing, there will always be those who try to create problems. The NJFP programme is a transformative & transparent initiative by the Federal government of Nigeria, sponsoredby the EuropeanUnion and Implemented by UNDP Nigeria. Do not pay any processing fees to anyone. Also, note that on-boarded Fellows must never share their monthly salaries with any one. Report all forms of fraud or extortion via available channels.

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Proud to share my new work on how to use new US attention to Latin America, and the region's receptivity to working with the US, to build a secure, prosperous hemisphere resistant to drugs, populism and predatory extrahemispheric U.S. adversaries: "Towards a New Strategy for Engagement in the Americas,” just published by Opidata: https://lnkd.in/e7HRt3SG

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The Senate is debating the SAVE America Act this week — legislation that would significantly impact mail voters. Before senators vote, they should look at the data.   In a piece for the Brookings Institution with Samara Angel and Randi Wright, we examined voting data across all 50 states. Here is what we found:   🔹 Mail ballot fraud is extraordinarily rare. Across the 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 general elections, we found an average mail voting fraud rate of just 0.000043% (about four cases per 10 million mail ballots cast).   🔹 Universal vote-by-mail systems (which are under scrutiny) show the smallest share of the already vanishingly small fraud total.   🔹 Restrictions on mail voting impact disproportionately specific groups: voters with disabilities, elderly Americans, military personnel overseas, students, lower-income voters, and voters of color.   🔹 Universal vote-by-mail has been shown to increase turnout by roughly 2%, reduce some racial and economic disparities in participation, and cut county election administration costs.    In 2024, the U.S. Postal Service processed over 99.2 million mail ballots. That is not a fringe voting method. It is essential to American elections and millions of voters.   The SAVE America Act's mail ballot ID provisions address a problem that the data shows does not exist. What our data and that of other research does show is that these restrictions would make it meaningfully harder for millions of eligible Americans to vote.   Free, fair, and secure elections are a pillar of our democracy. Legislation that erects new barriers for those who depend on mail ballots doesn't protect elections. It could undermine them.   https://lnkd.in/eYHye6TQ

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