08:30 – 09:45 | Opening session
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
Our goal is to help to improve governance, in all its aspects, in order to foster the emergence of a world that is more open, more prosperous, more just and respectful of the diversity of States and nations.
Didier Burkhalter
Federal Councillor, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland
Globalisation cannot bring about progress if it is perceived as a risk, if it moves too swiftly and if it benefits only the few. Making progress, and not merely moving forward, is the key.
09:45 – 11:00 | Plenary session 1
Global economic order at the Crossroads
Virginie Robert
Foreign desk editor, Les Echos
We are indeed at a crossroads, and one of the questions is that, in the light of the new dangers facing our world, whether global governance is adequate.
John Lipsky
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS); former First Deputy Managing Director, IMF
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a filling-out of the multilateral institutions that formed the basic financial and economic architecture of the post-World War Two era.
Il Sakong
Chairman of the Institute for Global Economics, former Finance Minister of Korea
The G20 was not meant to be a formal global institution; it was an informal “steering committee”, so to speak, for the world, to exert collective leadership for global economic affairs.
Motoshige Itoh
Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, Advisor to the Prime Minister
The IMF, the World Bank, GATT and the WTO are still very important, but it has to be admitted that the world community has become much more sophisticated now than when it was established.
Mario Monti
Chairman of the High Level Group on Own Resources, European Commission, former Prime Minister of Italy
I believe Europeans are thought by many to be sinners through an excess of virtue, particularly by the Americans and others.
Debate
11:00 – 11:30 | Coffee-break
11:30 – 12:45 | Plenary session 2
The future of central banking
Arthur Rutishauser
Editor-in-Chief, SonntagsZeitung
When I heard the news that we had terrorist attacks in Mali, I wanted to know from someone who has a lot of experience of economies whether he thinks that the terrorist attacks we have seen in Europe will impact the European and global economies.
Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President, ECB
From the very beginning the Euro, as a currency, was considered with great scepticism, and I was a witness of that in America and Asia before the Euro was created.
Jacob Frenkel
Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30), Former Governor of the Bank of Israel
Historically speaking, the creation and management of the Euro is a fantastic development, a huge change, and of course the effort to maintain and strengthen it is in place.
Marek Belka
President, National Bank of Poland
We should remember that Europe has taken and absorbed, broadly successfully, tens of millions of immigrants, or refugees if you prefer, in the last few decades.
Jacob Frenkel
Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30), Former Governor of the Bank of Israel
What is unique about [the G-30] is that it is composed primarily of current and former central bank governors. The reason I mention this is that, after so many years since the beginning of the crisis, it was time to take stock and see what we have learned.
Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President, ECB
It is not surprising that those who were on the front line were the central bankers, who had to cope with absolutely exceptional circumstances, and very fortunately they were up to their responsibilities […].
Mugur Isarescu
Governor of the National Bank of Romania, Former Romanian Prime Minister
Since they are elected, politicians enjoy democratic legitimacy. In hard times, but for limited periods, technocrats could step in and I have been in such a situation myself.
Marek Belka
President, National Bank of Poland
Fortunately, the world is not like theoretical models, and we have a lot of leeway to choose both the level and dynamics of interest rates, to prevent unwanted inflows and outflows of capital […].
Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President, ECB
We paid a terrible price in the crisis for not respecting the framework. The framework is there and it was reinforced by the crisis, so it has to be respected.
Jacob Frenkel
Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30), Former Governor of the Bank of Israel
The European project in its historical dimensions is one of the biggest projects of modern humanity, because it has much wider implications beyond currencies.
Marek Belka
President, National Bank of Poland
We think that the procrastination is probably more destabilising, even for those countries that are more fragile than we are, than the increase itself.
Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President, ECB
It is absolutely normal that the central banks are concentrating on their own problems.
Mugur Isarescu
Governor of the National Bank of Romania, Former Romanian Prime Minister
Regarding capital movement, there is volatility and unpredictability; it is very difficult to predict capital movement.
Jacob Frenkel
Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30), Former Governor of the Bank of Israel
As was indicated, Europe is in a different phase of the cycle. The US started its actions early on. Europe started its actions a bit later.
Debate
13:00 – 14:30 | Lunch debate
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Attiyah
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar
Our region is very important to the world. […] Our stability and prosperity is important to each and every one of you here attending today, and to your countries, for so many reasons.
Debate
14:45 – 15:30 | Plenary session 3
Washington’s view of the political and geopolitical implications of November 13th attacks in Paris
Jim Hoagland
Contributing Editor to The Washington Post
There are, of course, echoes of 9-11 in what has happened in Paris. It will change the way France looks at things and acts, just as it changed the ways the US looked at the world and reacted.
Nelson Cunningham
President, McLarty Associates; former Special Advisor to President Clinton
The horrific events in Paris and what has followed will accelerate the narrowing of the fields of candidates on both the Republican and Democratic sides.
Debate
15:30 – 16:30 | Plenary session 4
Trade Agreements from the Viewpoint of Middle Powers
Kemal Dervis
Vice President and Director of Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution, former Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey
[We] have to remember that at the end of the day the two arenas of politics and economics are linked, and a well-functioning world economy is another way to create hope, employment and jobs, and also to ease tensions which in the end will help the cause of peace.
Bark Taeho
Professor at Seoul National University, former Minister for Trade, Republic of Korea
The multi-lateral trading system is really in great trouble and maybe it is now at a kind of critical crossroads. In response to that I think many parts of the world are moving for more bilateral FTAs, so far but very recently many countries are participating in a larger kind of scale that we call mega-regional trade agreements.
Jonathan T. Fried
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO; former Associate Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade ; former Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, Canada
The challenge of the trading system is to smooth the way in effect from the producer directly to the consumer and all the barriers along the way, not just at the border but throughout the stream of commerce.
Bark Taeho
Professor at Seoul National University, former Minister for Trade, Republic of Korea
Korea has very many different FTAs including very big FTAs with the United States and the EU, but our consumers are complaining because we are not getting many benefits. The reason is that our distribution sector is not very competitive.
Jonathan T. Fried
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO; former Associate Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade ; former Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, Canada
In the light of the WTO’s success in dispute settlement and in forcing a code of rules within a limited universe, we tend to put too much weight on the WTO as the solution to everything.
Debate
16:30 – 17:30 | Plenary session 5
Do Firms have a Nationality?
Nicolas Barré
Managing Director, Les Echos
Charles-Édouard Bouée
Chief Executive Officer, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
When you look at geopolitics, when you look at the economy, you see that, at the end of the day, there is still something behind companies. There is a nationality.
Nelson Cunningham
President, McLarty Associates; former Special Advisor to President Clinton
Despite companies wanting to be local, it is impossible for them to run away from their national origins and from the flags that they carry.
Tadakatsu Sano
Attorney-at-law at Jones Day; Former Chief Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
Because of the globalised capital market we do not know who really owns each company. Even though the company name is originally from the United States or France or Germany or somewhere else, you still do not know who owns and controls it.
Nelson Cunningham
President, McLarty Associates; former Special Advisor to President Clinton
We learned then that the most important thing is actually not to be with an institution that is too big to fail, but rather to be with an institution that has its home in a country that is too big to fail.
Charles-Édouard Bouée
Chief Executive Officer, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
I think the link between companies and their mother country’s government is, paradoxically, of growing importance. And it is reciprocal.
Nelson Cunningham
President, McLarty Associates; former Special Advisor to President Clinton
There is tremendous pride in the US for having had a leading role in the Internet’s development, and the Internet has obviously been a magnet both for investment in the US, and for foreigners coming to the US.
Tadakatsu Sano
Attorney-at-law at Jones Day; Former Chief Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
I think that China wants to create its own independent regime even in the fields of Internet, ICT and technology. One reason is because they use a completely different language than some others.
Charles-Édouard Bouée
Chief Executive Officer, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
I think that any company, any institution has its own peculiarities at the beginning. Like human beings, companies have different styles, created by the founder or the founders.
Debate
17:30 – 18:00 | Coffee-break
18:00 – 19:30 | Plenary session 6
The future of the Middle East
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
Elisabeth Guigou
President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French National Assembly
We have a common enemy, an ideology of death and destruction that clearly has nothing to do with Islam, but takes Islam hostage. We must confront this foe together because, if we do not, I fear it will continue to thrive.
Youssef Amrani
Royal Cabinet, Morocco
We as Moroccans think that respecting the independence, the unity and the territorial integrity of states is essential. We cannot create more states, because more states means more vacuums, more ISIS, and more movement.
Mona Makram Ebeid
Egyptian Senator and Member of the Senate Constitutional Committee
What reforms are needed to make Egypt’s security sector effective, accountable and in line with international human rights?
Vitaly Naumkin
Scientific Director of the Oriental Studies Institute, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
We have to understand the future of the Middle East not only through the lens of terrorism and extremism but also through the lens of this crisis and how to solve it.
Jim Hoagland
Contributing Editor to The Washington Post
Public opinion in the U.S. largely supports the President’s policies in the Middle East. […] But people are war-weary and eager not to get more deeply involved, and the President for his own reasons has augmented that support.
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
I would like to ask each of you to answer yes or no to the question whether the Iranian nuclear agreement is good news from the perspective of the reduction of the degree of chaos in the Middle East.
Bernard Siman
Senior Fellow, Geopolitical Information Service AG
The regional state actors have clearly taken the position of abandoning the globalist agenda and the global game in favour of a classical zero-sum power struggle in their own back yards.
Debate
20:30 | Dinner debate
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
Patrick Pouyanné
Chief Executive Officer and President of the Executive Committee, Total
I think it would be useful to recall some facts about oil and gas, starting with the geography of oil and gas reserves and production. You’ll understand why oil and gas are intertwined with geopolitics in the countries I am going to mention.
Debate
08:00 – 09:30 | Plenary session 7
Security in Asia in a Historical Perspective
Dominique Moïsi
Special Advisor, Ifri
Kim Hak-Joon
President of the Northeast Asian History Foundation; Chairman of the Asia Journalist Association, Republic of Korea
[…] Northeast Asia. It is the one and only sub-region where the world’s four major powers, that is, the US, Japan, China and Russia, can easily meet and interact and their respective interests compete.
Mayankote Kelath Narayanan
Former Governor of West Bengal, India
[…] Asia also provides an example that stability is not the natural state as far as the global strategic environment is concerned. Peace, everywhere, tends to be highly elusive.
Yukio Okamoto
Founder and President of Okamoto Associates, Inc., former Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan
Security and the fate of Asia is an integral part of a world in which Europe is one of the key members.
Igor Yurgens
Chairman of the Management Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development, professor of the Higher School of Economics, Russia
Russia is still in search for its Asian soul. It found its European soul many centuries ago, but then it felt offended by our European friends, felt betrayed in the sanctions period […] and rushed to Asia.
Zhang Yunling
Professor of International Economics, Academy Member and Director of International Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS)
Regional security should be based on multiple institutions, on consultation, on self-restraint, and on more functional institutional arrangements to make the situation stable.
Debate
09:30 – 10:00 | Coffee-break
10:00 – 10:45 | Plenary session 8
Peaceful coexistence of religions?
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
Lionel Zinsou
Prime Minister of Benin
Le Bénin est, en Afrique de l’Ouest, un des pays qui voit une coexistence des religions extrêmement féconde et traditionnellement extrêmement apaisée, extrêmement pacifique, ce qui n’était pas une évidence.
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
Devant cette asymétrie entre la profondeur historique et le risque d’une destruction […], il n’y a pas de tâche plus importante, qui est de notre responsabilité à tous, que d’empêcher à tout prix pareil désastre.
10:45 – 12:00 | Plenary session 9
Food and water security
Kemal Dervis
Vice President and Director of Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution, former Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey
In terms of moving beyond poverty, without progress in ending hunger and food insecurity, we will never succeed in providing not only economic but social security and stability.
Mostafa Terrab
Chairman and CEO, OCP Group
We need a global approach on the agricultural front, with a strong focus on Africa. Africa can help feed the world, so to speak.
Arkebe Oqubay
Minister and Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia
When food security is linked to the broader human security issues, it is important that we consider whether Africa could be part of the problem or the solution. I am a firm believer that Africa could be part of the solution.
Kostas Stamoulis
Director, Strategic Programme Leader, Food Security and Nutrition, FAO
Urbanisation will mean that some of the stresses on water resources will come from competition between agricultural water and water for other uses, including municipality water.
Panelists debate
Debate
12:15 – 13:45 | Lunch debate
Thierry de Montbrial
President and founder of the WPC
Thomas Bagger
Head of Policy Planning, German Federal Foreign Office
What is clear, I think, is that we have a renewed sense of the fragility of the European integration project, that it is not something that inevitably only moves forward in some teleological fashion.
Peter Hill
Director, Strategy, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Are we under threat? Well, clearly, we face more threats than we probably have at any time in the history of the European Union, but how you deal with threats is a large part of how real those threats are.
Justin Vaïsse
Director of the policy planning staff, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
I think that the reasons to be worried are well founded. If we look back 15 years ago, when we see Europe’s ambitions and Europe’s burst of enthusiasm in the 1990s, we are obviously in a very, very different place.
Panelists debate
Debate
14:00 – 14:45 | Plenary session 10
Israeli-Palestinian dialogue
Jim Hoagland
Contributing Editor to The Washington Post
Itamar Rabinovich
President of the Israel Institute, Distinguished Global Professor at New York University (NYU) and Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution
It is vital for us to separate from the Palestinians and to have a two state solution. This means a Palestinian state as a nation state of the Palestinian people and Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, coexisting peacefully with one another.
Manuel Hassassian
Ambassador from Palestine to the United Kingdom; former representative at the Ministry of Higher Education and at the Association of Arab Universities
Today, the struggle between Palestinians and Israelis is a struggle for existence and it is also the struggle to maintain the national identity, the geography and the demography of the Palestinian people.
Panelists debate
Debate
14:45 – 16:00 | Plenary session 11
The global challenges of the digital technologies
Francois Barrault
Chairman of Idate/DigiWorld Institute; former CEO of BT Global Services and a BT Group PLC board member
Not only has this digital transformation changed the way we live, but it has changed many aspects, like knowledge. For many years, knowledge has been an asset that people kept for themselves. Now, knowledge is something that people share […].
Patrick Nicolet
Member of the Group Management Board, Capgemini
Big Data is primarily what is generated by connected devices. Another term used in our industry is the Internet of Things. Just to give you two numbers, in 2010, there were 12.5 billion connected devices.
Fyodor Lukyanov
Editor in Chief, Russia in Global Affairs
If we look at […] the approach to this dilemma between freedom and security, what is more connected to the spread of the digital world and the Internet? This dilemma is absolutely the same in Russia as it is anywhere else and we see that trends are more or less similar to trends that we can see in the Western world.
Mari Kiviniemi
Deputy Secretary-General, OECD, former Prime Minister of Finland
In order to be able to use the potential of digital technolgoies in the 21st century, keeping the Internet open and accessible is absolutely key.
Susan Liautaud
Vice Chairman of the London School of Economics and Political Science Council and Court of governors, Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Center of Philanthropy and Civil Society
Digitalisation […] has infiltrated all of the other global risks that come out in our discussions in this conference […]. When we are dealing with the ethics of digitalisation, by definition, we are also dealing with the ethics of all of these other risks.
Debate
16:15 – 19:15 | Parallel workshops
Workshop #1 – Energy
Bertrand Badré
Managing Director and Group Chief Financial Officer, World Bank
Energy is fundamental to economic growth and sustainable development. […] Energy underpins progress in all areas of development. When countries lack reliable, sustainable sources of energy, people and economies suffer.
Olivier Appert
President, Conseil Français de l’Energie; former President, IFP Energies Nouvelles
The recent decline in the oil prices has been dramatic, by 50% in just a few months, and the question is, is it temporary or structural?
Masood Ahmed
Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department
I will not talk about the impact on the oil importing countries, because it is small and predictable. They all benefit a little bit from lower oil prices, but it does not change their outlook dramatically. However, for the oil exporting countries, it does have a dramatic impact.
Tatsuo Masuda
Visiting professor at the NUCB Graduate School
Every time oil prices dropped in the past, they naturally rebounded. I would like to be able to say that history may repeat itself, but my evaluation is not this time. This is because of the energy transition taking place due to risks to the climate.
Antoine Rostand
Senior Advisor, Schlumberger
The US are now producing enough gas to supply their own market, at a very competitive price. Gas is replacing coal, which is leading to a significant reduction in US carbon emissions. The US are now in a position where they can cover the global LNG market for anything between 20 and 50 years.
Debate 1
Pierre Sigonney
Chief Economist, Corporate Strategy Department, Total
There was already a crisis 7 years ago, with a strong drop in 2008, but it was very short, and it was due to the fall in demand. Today, it is quite different. It is much more a supply-crisis, because there has been in recent years a strong increase in light tight oil supply in the US.
Nobuo Tanaka
Former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency; President, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation
There is something interesting about the newest world energy outlook, which was revealed recently, about two weeks ago. The growth happens in Asia, in developing economies, and India, not China, will bring the largest increases up to 2040.
Lee Hye-Min
G20 Sherpa, Ambassador for International Economic Affairs, Republic of Korea
Energy is fundamental to economic development. That is the reason why it is important for G20 countries to talk about energy issues in order to help address the energy challenges of today and the future.
Debate 2
Conclusion
Workshop #2 – Economy and Finance
Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President, ECB
The external observers and investors were keen to mention that, despite the slowdown of the emerging economies […], it does not prevent them from remaining the major source of global growth in the years to come, and projections for 2020 are still flattering.
First part
Global economy and various visions of it
Globally, the most likely outcome is for continued moderate growth, but it is worth noting that if the IMF’s base case forecast is correct, global growth will remain slightly below its medium- and long-term average. In this case, the outlook isn’t terrible, but it certainly is not great.
Second part
Monetary policy
Was the unconventional monetary policy effective overall? Asking the economists in main central banks, they would say it was, and they would point to the lowering of interest rates throughout the whole interest rate curve; there is no doubt about it.
Third part
G20 Financial Stability Board, financial supervision, rules, regulations, standards and codes
The global imbalances have still been considerably reduced, but you will tell me that they have been reduced under pressure of the crisis, not that it was a deliberate ex ante action. However, I would not say that this process has been useless.
Conclusion, Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President, ECB
Workshop #3 – China
Park In-Kook
President of the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies; Co-chairman of the Beijing/Shanghai Forum
The rise of China is no longer news at all. […] But the rise of China’s economy also raises the question of whether the world is headed towards harmony and co-prosperity – or doomed to fall in the Thucydides Trap.
Jia Qingguo
Dean of the School of International Studies of Peking University
When people talk about China US relations, many argue that the relationship is heading for conflicts and confrontation and you can find a lot of conflicts to illustrate that point. […] However, that is just part of the story.
Zhang Yunling
Professor of International Economics, Academy Member and Director of International Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS)
One [priority] is to deepen domestic reform, moving from building a market towards the market deciding. That is a fundamental change and it means that you need to change the role of the Government and the risk structure that is SOEs and many assets of the deepening of reform. This is a very hard work for China.
Richard Cooper
Professor of International Economics at Harvard University
I think that the potential for cooperation is very strong and it is a question of skillful management in both Beijing and Washington to realise that potential. It is happening now in a number of areas and there are many possibilities going forward.
Qiao Yide
Vice President & Secretary General, Shanghai Development Research Foundation
I will not address the Chinese issue today but rather will give an alternative perspective to address some reasons for the cognition gap between Chinese decision makers and international economists and investors on specific issues […].
Bark Taeho
Professor at Seoul National University, former Minister for Trade, Republic of Korea
There are many reasons why we are not able to produce the outcome here and one is that the big trading nations, such as the United States and China, cannot find any common ground to conclude the negotiations.
Michel Foucher
Chair of applied Geopolitics at College of World Studies; Former French Ambassador to Latvia; Former Director of the policy planning staff of the French Foreign Ministry
As regards the European perspective, it seems to me important to understand the Chinese view before coming to any conclusion.
Debate
19:30 – 20:00 | Cocktail
20:00 | Gala dinner
08:00 – 08:45 | Reports from parallel workshops
Marie-Claire Aoun
Director of the Center for Energy, Ifri
The workshop revealed […] the different perceptions we all have from the effects of this oil prices decline. One American participant told us that we should cheer up. […] Oil prices decline does not seem however to be a good news for international oil companies who are struggling to adapt their costs to these new conditions.
Daniel Daianu
Member of the Board of the Central Bank of Romania; former Finance Minister of Romania
One has to accept the reality that the forecasts, which have been invalidated for years by dynamics, show that there will be lower economic growth rates in the immediate period to come. What does this indicate? There is still much that gives us food for thought, and one has to link it with what some people have called secular stagnation and the lack of investment.
Park In-Kook
President of the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies; Co-chairman of the Beijing/Shanghai Forum
The issue on China is too diversified and with too much magnifications. [Our] four items were: […] characteristic features of Sino-American relationship, […] the New Silk Road Initiative or One-Belt-One-Road, […] the Chinese stock market crash this summer and its impact [and] the internationalization of the Renminbi […].
08:45 – 09:45 | Plenary session 12
Health and global governance
Christian Bréchot
President of the Institut Pasteur
We are living in the context of a new era of technology. Technology is transforming biomedical science, and we know this. It has a major impact for surveillance, for monitoring.
Bertrand Badré
Managing Director and Group Chief Financial Officer, World Bank
It is not surprising that [the] decline in poverty goes hand in hand with accelerated improvement in health.
Louise Fresco
President of Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Health is linked to the way we function as a planet. Pathogens have always been there […]. Therefore, I will argue that unless we link pathogens, or health more generally, to the ecosystem, we will not really get a grip on these issues.
Debate
09:45 – 11:30 | Plenary session 13
Climate and Environment
Introduction, Richard Cooper
Professor of International Economics at Harvard University
Laurent Fabius
French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development
As you know, our main goal is to reach an agreement between governments, all governments, that will limit global warming from greenhouse gas emissions to two degrees or, if possible, 1.5 degree, by 2100.
Yukari Niwa Yamashita
Board Member, Director, The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ)
450ppm scenario is an ideal target which we may ultimately need to aim at but for more practical point of view, it may be more pragmatic to consider various scenarios and options other than only the 450ppm scenario. Just like our diet target, we need to be more realistic.
Bruno Lafont
Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors, Lafarge Holcim Group
Most European companies, or the bulk of European industry, is in favour of a global agreement as soon as possible and is probably also in favour of an agreement which goes beyond what COP 21 will do.
Jean-David Levitte
Distinguished fellow, Brookings Institution and member of the International Advisory Board of the Atlantic Council of the United States; Former Senior Diplomatic Adviser and sherpa of President Nicolas Sarkozy
We are the first generation aware of the fact that global warming poses an existential threat to our planet’s future. We are also the last generation that can come up with a decisive solution to that existential threat.
Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo
Chancellor, Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
We do have a special responsibility towards the Earth, for it is a gift that God created for humankind; we must therefore preserve and protect it as our own home because this is where we live.
Debate
11:30 – 12:15 | Plenary session 14
Iran and Middle East
Hossein Amirabdollahian
Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Countries, Iran
The current transitional period of Middle-East requires new security order and the secret of new security order of Middle-East are efficient inbreeding policies, collective role-playing of governments and considering legitimate demand of people.
Q & A
12:15 – 13:45 | Plenary session 15
Europe’s refugee crisis
Karl Kaiser
Director emeritus of the German Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard University
Very often, one says of the present exodus that it is the biggest since the great flow of refugees immediately after World War Two. That comparison is only partially correct […]. The new flow is very different.
Haïm Korsia
Chief Rabbi of France
The refugee issue is essential. It is even vital, insofar as there are two levels, in my opinion. The first is a political level, and others on this panel will be able to talk about that much better than I can. But there is also an individual level.
Kemal Dervis
Vice President and Director of Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution, former Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey
Claiming that there is a solution to what is happening, to the drama we are experiencing today, is unfortunately impossible. We must talk about how we have reached this point and what the underlying causes are.
Vuk Jeremic
President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD), former President of the UN General Assembly, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia
The refugee crisis is perhaps the most serious crisis that Europe has come to face since the end of the Second World War. The very foundations—of values, institutions, and tenets—of the European construct are in danger as a result of this.
Sergei Karaganov
Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the non-governmental Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Russia
We have to understand the magnitude of the problem. It is not just Syria, but Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries down the list, and then there is Africa. We have a problem of several million people and maybe even more than several ready to come.
Hubert Védrine
Former French Foreign Minister
Migratory flows will continue growing worldwide. It is absolutely necessary for the departure countries, the transit countries and the arrival countries to move towards co-management.
Debate
14:00 – 15:00 | Lunch
15:00 – 16:45 | Plenary session 16
Final debate
Dominique Moïsi
Special Advisor, Ifri
Ce qui m’a frappé dans cette huitième édition de la World Policy Conference, c’est un certain nombre de moments […] où nous avons parlé d’identité et où je me suis rendu compte que le grand péché du monde occidental n’était pas nécessairement l’arrogance, mais tout simplement le manque de curiosité.
Ribal Al-Assad
Founder and Director of the Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria and Chairman of the Iman Foundation
We should not be focusing on the brand name. ISIS is only a brand. We should go after the underlying, poisonous ideology and all groups who share it.
Meir Sheetrit
Member of the Israeli Knesset
I have come to the conclusion that the best way to achieve peace is through the Arab initiative, or what is called the Saudi Initiative. […] The Saudis came out with an initiative which in my opinion is very courageous and also very wise.
Miguel Angel Moratinos
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain
I think Europe has something to say in the global governance that is taking shape. We have got a responsibility, and the best way to make our voices heard in this new world is by listening, identifying problems and addressing all the complexity you have mentioned several times in various talks.
Bilahari Kausikan
Ambassador-at-Large and Policy Advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore
I heard Asia described as being divided into two blocks. One is the China led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) block and the other is the US led Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) block. This is at best a caricature and in fact, it is profoundly misleading.
Narendra Taneja
Chairman, Energy Security Group of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
In my opinion, this will be Africa’s century, and countries like India, China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia will play a big role in helping that happen.
Renaud Girard
Journalist at Le Figaro, Editor at Questions Internationales
War has changed since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, when the signatories sincerely, but vainly, hoped to ban war as the continuation of politics by other means once and for all. Now it has many faces, all of them, of course, bearing the scars of history.
Dominique Moïsi
Special Advisor, Ifri
Let us not get trapped by our own emotion. Let us distinguish between the reality and the way we want it to be. In a way, it is a summary of everything we said during this eighth edition of the WPC.