21st Century Trust - 2005 Conferences & Events

1. Politics and Ethnicity: communities, the state and managing changing relationships
(In Cooperation with the Trudeau Foundation)

Lord Durham famously described what would become Quebec as ‘two nations warring in the bosom of a single state’, a phrase which could apply in myriad locations worldwide. Durham’s nineteenth-century solution – assimilation – has been widely resisted, especially by minority communities. The problem, however, remains and has become increasingly acute over the last 15 years in what, in some parts of the world, has been an era notorious for ‘ethnic cleansing’. The relationship between communities is of prime concern now as states are reconstructed after conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as the crisis in Darfur has unfolded. The relationship between the state and diverse communities is also under renewed scrutiny in many parts of the West. Even in countries such as the Netherlands, so long renowned for its liberal consensus, the political ground has been shifting on this issue. There is therefore renewed urgency in questioning how to balance the rights of diverse minority and majority religious and ethnic groups (nations, so to speak) within a state, in a world where the nation-state is still a fictive norm in and around which institutions are built. What are the problems and strengths inherent in the concept of minority rights as distinct from individual rights? When is multi-culturalism the best approach? Or how far are its critics right that it tends to institutionalize, or even increase existing divisions, and give power within communities to leaders who are not necessarily representative? Through case studies, the conference will consider different strategies – both of the state and of groups – as to claims on state attention and resources, and the impact of these on the country as a whole. This latter question is complicated in many states by a growing split between cosmopolitan urban areas and more mono-cultural rural ones, with even the possibility of the ‘horizontal’ territory, the nation state, losing out to ‘vertical’ conurbations, increasingly autonomous cities. Finally, the conference will assess the significance of hybridity - newly developing cultural syntheses, accepting neither the ‘one-way street’ of assimilation into a majority culture nor the boundaries of multi-culturalism - and the set of issues which it in turn may bring to the fore.

2. The Battle against HIV/AIDS:
thinking further ahead
(In Cooperation with Cumberland Lodge)

Despite a huge increase in the resources deployed against HIV/AIDS recently, controversy still rages about almost every aspect of this battle. This conference will examine the obstacles to effective action and explore sustainable strategies to over-come them. What are the lessons from the crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and are they being communicated there and to areas where the epidemic is at an earlier stage? Governance, both international and national, is of central importance. Within states how can administrative failures or complacency be addressed, without foreign support being viewed as interference or even shadow imperialism? Where are the crucial weaknesses in healthcare infrastructure, and are more integrated approaches redressing these? Money is key, but so is how it is raised or deployed. Could donors be more effectively coordinated? Will the proposed International Finance Facility alter the funding landscape, and could other initiatives be encouraged? Religious beliefs, culture and social norms play a major role in addressing human sexuality. What can faith communities achieve, or must differing moral vantage points inevitably lead to distraction from fighting the virus? How might civil society and business be more effectively mobilized? Despite advances, is policy-making appropriately dealing with issues of gender and the vulnerability of women to HIV/AIDS? As to treatment, what are the limits of generic drugs? Where can or should long-term resources be deployed to enable science and technology to speed up work? But is there an opportunity cost in boosting spending on HIV/AIDS, particularly with respect to other diseases or the entire healthcare system, and what is the appropriate place for HIV/AIDS on the development agenda? Finally, are our horizons too short term to address what will be sustainable in this battle through to 2015 and 2025?

Senior Fellows:
Dr Shereen El Feki, Healthcare Correspondent, The Economist
Robin Gorna, HIV/AIDS Team Leader, DFID

The huge, ill-defined complex of economic, technological and cultural changes called globalization has been trumpeted as either the solution to a vast range of problems or a juggernaut threatening the world’s poorest individuals and countries. This conference will bring together parliamentarians and individuals from other key areas to discuss, inter alia, the nature of the phenomenon; who, in the developed and developing worlds, will win and lose from these changes; and how they might best contribute to, rather than detract from, development and poverty reduction. It will also look at international efforts to deepen global integration; the sources and effect of anti-globalization protests; some of the concerns to which globalization is giving rise – ranging from challenges to the ability of states to govern, through environmental risks, to how best to integrate poorer economies into the global one – and attempts to address such issues. One technique for considering these issues will be scenario building, which allows an integrated assessment of disparate strands of a question and generates a series of possible futures which can illuminate opportunities and dangers ahead.