Members of The Common Good had the special opportunity to attend the Athens Democracy Forum, a pivotal conference addressing the impact of the current feeble state of democracy on our world and on businesses alike.
The Athens Democracy Forum was hosted by New York Times Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen and programmed by editorial board member Serge Schmemann, and was held by the Democracy and Culture Foundation, an independent nonprofit entity, in association with The New York Times. The conference coincides with the Arraiolos Group meeting, bringing together various European Union heads of state in Athens.
The theme was “Reinventing Democracy: New Models for Our Changing World”.
The key topics that were discussed include:
We and Them: The Tectonic Plates of Nationalism and Multiculturalism
The Echo Chamber and the Agora: The Use and Abuse of New and Social Media
The Cost of Inequality: Where Has All the Money Gone?
Back to Basics: What Must Be Done to Restore Faith in Democracy
The 2019 Athens Democracy Forum gathered acclaimed speakers including:
Prokopios Pavlopoulos, President of Greece
Michael Higgins, President of Ireland
Juan Manuel Santos, Former President, Republic of Colombia
Bernard-Henri Levy, French Philosopher
Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner
Wole Soyinka, Poet and Nobel Literature Laureate
Eleni Kounalakis, Lieutenant Governor, State of California
HE Laura Chinchilla, Former President of Costa Rica
Margot Wallstrom, Foreign Minister of Sweden
Ivan Krastev, Centre for Liberal Studies
Maria Schmidt, Advisor to PM Victor Orban
George Papandreou, Former Prime Minister of Greece
Jay Weatherill, Industry Professor, University of South Australia
Kassem Eid, Palestinian-Syrian Refugee
Sergei Karaganov, Russian Council of Foreign Policy
Anna Diamantopoulou, Former EU Commissioner
Katharina Schulze, Leader of the Alliance ‘90/The Greens in Germany
Ory Okolloh, Activist & Managing Director, Luminate Africa
Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Youth Envoy
Paul Polman, Former C.E.O., Unilever and Co-Founder & Chair, Imagine
Kostas Bakoyannis, Mayor of Athens
Annika Savill, Executive Head UNDEF
