Our World IX

Our World

28 leading minds examine the role of faith in modern society.

Our World X

Digital
Edition

Editorial

In February 2018, Kay Goldsworthy was ordained Archbishop of Perth, and became the world’s first female archbishop in the Anglican Communion. In March, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury; the was the first time a chemical weapon has been used in Europe since the WWII. In April, Kim Jong-un became the first North Korean leader to cross the Demilitarized Zone since its creation in 1953. His meeting with Donald Trump in June, was the first time in history a US president met a North Korean head of state. It was also in June that women in Saudi Arabia were for the first time permitted to drive. Distressingly, in August, the strongest sea ice in the Arctic was observed to be breaking up for the first time.

Presented by New Europe newspaper

Listen More and Better to Put International Co-Operation Back on Track

The author Gore Vidal once remarked that there was not a single human problem that could not be solved if people did as he...

José Ángel Gurría

Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Time to Focus on European Public Goods

For over a decade, articles and op-eds about Europe have been framed from the perspective of crisis, and, every outlook for the year ahead...

Martin Selmayr

7th Secretary-General of the European Commission

Overcoming The Trust Deficit

A prosperous, secure and united Europe will not be delivered to us on a silver platter. We will have to fight for it more than...

Dimitris Avramopoulos

European Commissioner for Migration

Transatlantic Relations: Difficult Decisions Ahead

As the son of European immigrants to the United States, I’m proud to call myself an Atlanticist; my heritage has given me an enduring...

Gordon D. Sondland

United States Ambassador to the European Union.

Humanity’s Finest Work of Art

In times like these, when we are overwhelmed by the speed of changes around us and we feel a certain loss of overview and...

Giovanni Buttarelli

European Data Protection Supervisor.

Values Shape Ethical Choices

I can’t think of a time in history when the need for ethics and integrity mattered so much. As former U.S. Supreme Court Justice...

David Huntley

Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of AT&T Inc.

The EU is Not Enough

Are you afraid of flying? To some degree everybody is. Does the thought of turbulence make you fasten the seat belt that little bit...

Adina Vălean

Member of the European Parliament since 2007

Europe: From Project to Project(ing) a Common Future

Europe is stuck. Stuck between a newly muscular, dystopian and uncompromising version of the American dream and Xi Jinping’s ‘Chinese dream’ for the ‘great...

Julia Harrison

Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting.

Political Polarization: Is there an Antidote?

Political polarization, in very general terms, refers to the divergence of political views, attitudes, and beliefs and is often associated with ideological extremes. More...

Erica Lutes

Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission

Globalization at a Crossroads

Whether or not one realizes it, 2018 may have been a historic turning point. Poorly managed globalization has led to nationalist “take-back-control” movements and...

Gordon Brown

Former Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom

The Editor Writes

Living Other People’s Dreams, and Knowing When to Start a Revolution

7,676,147,823 That’s how many human beings are alive on this earth, at this very moment. Compared to that figure, there are very few people in...

Alexandros Koronakis

Editor of Our World, and Editor of New Europe newspaper.

The European Union: Past, Present, Future

The World Needs Europe

As we usher in a new year, the future direction of the European Union has never been more important, both for Europe and for...

Jean-Claude Juncker

President of the European Commission.

Spizenkandidat Process: A Step Forward Towards European Democracy

The campaign for the 2019 European elections began on the 8th of November in Helsinki when the European People’s Party (EPP) elected Manfred Weber...

Antonio López-Istúriz White

Secretary General of the European People’s Party.

A Common European Defence Policy as Response to Today’s Challenges

The security environment of the European Union is more volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous than at any time since the end of the Cold...

David McAllister

Member of the European Parliament for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.

The Future of Agriculture in the EU

Specificity of the agricultural sector The basic and inherent function of agriculture is the production of food. Agricultural activity also generates many goods and...

Czesław Siekierski

Member of the European Parliament since 2004

Another Europe is Feasible

In a few months, millions of Europeans will go to the ballot box to choose members of the next European Parliament. This is not...

Louka T. Katseli

Co-Chair of the Independent Commission on Sustainable Equality (ICSE).

EU Asylum Policy: The Ball is in the Council’s Court

As rapporteur for the revision of the Dublin III regulation, which decides which member state is responsible for reviewing the asylum application of each...

Cecilia Wikström

Member of the European Parliament since 2009

Europe as a People’s Project?

For almost two decades, there has been a widespread, intensifying belief that without greater involvement of citizens the European Union would be condemned to...

Alberto Alemanno

Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at HEC Paris

Carte Blanche or Tabula Rasa?

2019 will be a year, unlike any other. People across Europe head to the polling stations and cast their votes for the next European...

Emma Brown

President of ecpa2.0 (European Centre of Public Affairs 2.0) .

A New Direction for EU Telecoms Policy?

On 4 December 2018, the Council approved a new legislative framework for the telecommunications sector in the EU, referred to as the European Electronic...

Peter Alexiadis & Tony Shortall

Peter Alexiadis is the founding partner of the Brussels office of Gibson, Tony Shortall is Director of Telage, a consultancy in the field of telecommunications economics and regulation.

The European New Year

During the last weeks of 2018 European politics has reached a turning point. An array of events during this time leaves one in anticipation...

Javier Zarzalejos

Director for the Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies, FAES

A New Europe

In 2019 we want more than never a real New Europe. New Europe means the opportunity of developing new challenges focused on Change and...

Francisco Jaime Quesado

General Manager of the Innovation and Knowledge Society in Portugal

Interview

Shaping Europe’s Present and Future

As the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini has overseen EU foreign and security policy since...

Federica Mogherini

By Mark Leonard, Mark Leonard is Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Social Evolution: From Humanity to Society

Why We Try So Hard to Escape Our Humanity

In my mind one of the defining elements of being human is the ability to care about others — not merely to say that...

Dan Ariely

Author and the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University.

The Question We Must Keep Asking

Many of the problems in the world today, when one reflects upon them, call for an answer to an ancient question: What is it...

Ai Weiwei

Artist based in Berlin.

The Soothing Virtue of Solidarity

Article 2 of the treaty of Lisbon recalls what is commonly referred to as the “founding values” of the European Union. It states that...

Jimmy Jamar

Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Belgium

How Perceptions of Women Leaders Influence Society and What We Can Do About It

Evidence is fundamental in public policy and social progress. To achieve equality between women and men, we need to understand values, perceptions and attitudes....

Silvana Koch-Mehrin

resident and Founder of the Women Political Leaders (WPL),

The Importance of True Free Enterprise and Responsible Democracy in the 21st Century

How a person conducts his/her life is directed and controlled by his overall philosophy and beliefs about life and living. Whatever your philosophy and...

Alexander Alemis

CEO of Family Dental Care, one of the largest dental groups in Chicago.

Empowering Women in the Digital Age

Digitalisation and the advancement of technology have presented a vast array of innovative and dynamic opportunities for female economic empowerment, and chances for a...

Shanu Hinduja

Chair of Geneva-based Hinduja Bank (Switzerland) Ltd,

The Second Coming of Fascism?

Throughout 2018, analogies between today and the 1930s became alarmingly commonplace. Hortatory books such as former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s Fascism: A...

Michael Burleigh

Historian and author

The New Old Populism

For the better part of a century, populism was widely regarded as a distinctly Latin American phenomenon, a recurring political plague on countries such...

Sebastián Edwards

Professor of International Economics at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Reviving Civil Disobedience

With populism and authoritarianism on the rise around the world, there has been considerable talk of “resistance,” especially in the United States. A rather...

Jan-Werner Mueller

Professor of Politics at Princeton University

The Migration Narrative: Shifting the Focus

Migration has been, along with Brexit, one of the most prominent subjects discussed in the EU in recent years. Always high on the agenda,...

Foteini Kalantzi

A.G. Leventis Research Officer at SEEXOX

Children – Our Primary Consideration

Children are the future of Europe. We must cherish them and we also owe them binding obligations, whether or not they are European citizens. ...

Nuala Mole

International Human Rights Lawyer, is the founder of The AIRE Centre.

Our Digital World: Evolution and Revolution

Mapping the Internet’s Uncharted Paths

The Internet is a globally shared resource with ever-increasing importance to and influence on society. Today, more than 3.9 billion people use the Internet...

Göran Marby

CEO and President of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Harnessing the Fintech Revolution

Innovation drives progress by disrupting the status quo and forcing established players to raise their game. But innovation can also be destructive if it...

Agustín Carstens

General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements.

Preparing Europe for the Fifth Industrial Revolution

In the last three years, the European Union has been giving a fight for the future. It is a systematic effort of the European...

Eva Kaili

Member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists

‘Digital’ – The New Normal

If we can sum up digital technology, innovation and disruption in one sentence then this will be Heraclitus’ old time truth that “The only...

Eva Maydell

Member of the European Parliament for Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) since 2014.

Regulating the Disrupters

The leading tech giants – such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google – explicitly set out to disrupt much of the world’s industrial and...

Jean Tirole

The 2014 Nobel laureate in economics

Digital Disruption’s Silver Lining

Technology is often oversold as either a panacea for the world’s problems or an unshakeable curse inflicting disruption and displacement on the most vulnerable....

Mark Suzman

Chief Strategy Officer and President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Great Reconstruction

If the “Great Disruption” of 2018 is to be overcome, the world will need a new framework for global cooperation. After World War II,...

Klaus Schwab

Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

How People and Technology are Defining the Future of Work

In my roles as the CEO of Cogni, a lifestyle banking service, and the President of the think tank Le Jeunes du Monde, I’ve...

Archie Ravishankar

Founder and CEO of Cogni.

Doing Business in the Great Disruption

How should companies respond to the Great Disruption? When surveying the global backlash against the economic and political status quo, they must recognize that...

Mark Cliffe

Chief Economist and Head of Global Research of the ING Group.

Harnessing the Digital Revolution for Sustainable Development

Financial digitalization – the digital revolution’s system-level transformation of the entire financial ecosystem – could catalyze global efforts to finance sustainable development. According to...

Maria Ramos and Achim Steiner

Maria Ramos is CEO of Absa Group Limited. Achim Steiner is Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

New Narratives: On Society, Politics, Poverty, and War

Presented by the New Direction Foundation

One World

In 2018 the Nobel Peace Prize was shared between Dr Denis Mukwege and Nadia Nurad. Dr Mukwege has done incredible work treating thousands of...

Gavin Williamson

British Secretary of State for Defence

Taking Trump Seriously – and Lifting Our Own Game

Nearly two years into his presidency, much of the world is still having trouble coming to grips with Donald Trump, the most unconventional US...

Tony Abbott

Australia’s 28th Prime Minister from 2013 to 2015.

Making Poverty History

Statesmen and women always have many and varied issues vying for their prioritsed attention. But there is one which remains constant and one which...

Syed Kamall

Member of the European Parliament, Co-Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group

Europe’s New Roadmap for a Healthier Pregnancy

The death of Lady Sybil during childbirth in the BBC period drama ‘Downton Abbey’ highlighted the risky business of pregnancy caused by pre-eclampsia. Every...

Asif Ahmed

A British entrepreneurial scientist whose laboratory was the first to signal the importance of vascular protective factors in pregnancy complications.

Azerbaijan – EU: New Horizons of Cooperation to Achieve

Situated at the crossroads of different cultures, religions and civilizations, Azerbaijan is traditionally a multinational, multicultural and multilingual country. The territory of modern Azerbaijan...