21st Century Trust - 2006 Conferences & Events

Advertised Synopsis
The huge, ill-defined complex of inter-related economic, technological and cultural changes which goes under the name of globalization has been trumpeted as either the solution to a vast range of problems or an uncontrolled juggernaut threatening many of 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 itself
•       who, in the developed and developing worlds, really will win
            and lose from these changes
•       how they might best contribute to, rather than detract from,
           development and poverty reduction
•       the state of international efforts to deepen global integration
•       the sources and effect of anti-globalization protests
•       some of the concerns to which globalization is giving rise:
                challenges to the ability of states to govern
                environmental risks
                how best to integrate poorer economies into the global
                        one
One technique for considering these issues will be scenario building. Such an approach allows an integrated assessment of disparate strands of a question and generates outlines of a series of possible futures which can illuminate the opportunities and dangers ahead.

Advertised Synopsis
Recent advances in genetic science – human, animal and plant – have been dramatic in recent years, and more are promised for the coming decades, which are likely to be among the key developments of the 21st century. It is time to review both the science and the debates which surround it about how we best establish ethical boundaries while nurturing creativity in research and application, and, in the light of this, assess how well we are setting the direction of public policy in Europe and the world at large, and developing the relationship between science and society. Topics will include: what can realistically be expected from genetic science in the coming decade; the ongoing debates which link ethics, risk and benefit (such as stem-cell research, cloning, the use of GM crops, xenotransplantation, and the enhancement of animals or even humans); how public engagement, governance, and accountability in these areas can best be improved and structured; issues of the ownership of individual and population genetic information, and the proper balance between its use and the privacy of individuals; as well as how best to encourage dynamic, responsible research, whether public or private, addressing needs both at the national and global level.

3. Study tour to Ukraine:
What have been the consequences of the Orange Revolution?
(In collaboration with the John Smith Memorial Trust
and in partnership with Asquith & Granovski Associates)

Kiev and Crimea

25 September - 3 October 2006

Tour Leaders

Baroness Smith	John Smith Memorial Trust
John Lotherington	21st Century Trust

Speakers

Professor Valentin Yakushik	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Dr Mychailo Wynnyckyj	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Anastasia Leukhina	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Dr Natalia Shulga	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Dr Andriy Meleshevich	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Dr Myroslava Antonovych	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Dr Alexander Demianchuk	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Dr Myhailo Kirsenko	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Kateryna Maksym	University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
Andrey Kurkov	Novelist, author of Death and the Penguin
Vitaliy Kuchynsky	Director, Democratising Ukraine Small Project Scheme
Yuliya Kovalevskaya	Member of the Ukrainian Parliament
Olena Lukash	Member of the Ukrainian Parliament
Dr Alexei Plotnikov	Member of the Ukrainian Parliament
Ivan Popesku	Member of the Ukrainian Parliament
Tania Popova	All-Ukrainian Association of the Internet
Dr Serge Azarov	Lucky Net
Olexiy Koval	Inter TV
Thomas Eymond-Laritaz	Director, the Pinchuk Foundation
Dr Victor Nebozhenko	Political scientist, Director of ‘Ukrainian Barometer’
Ihor Mityukov	Formerly Minister of Finance and Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK
Vasyl Shevchenko	Deputy Chairman, the Ukrainian State Committee for TV and Radio Broadcasting

Advertised Synopsis
In 2004 the Orange Revolution was heralded as a decisive step forward in securing democracy in Ukraine, bringing corruption under control, and ushering in new relationships with Russia, other European countries and the international community in general. This study tour is intended to explore what has been achieved politically, economically and socially since the revolution, what remains to be done, and how perceptions have changed now that the immediate euphoria of victory on one side of the political divide, and the sense of defeat on the other, have dissipated. A further purpose of the tour is to consolidate links between Ukraine and other countries, particularly the UK, to exchange ideas and views of the world, to explore possibilities of development, and forge new links among the Fellows of both the 21st Century Trust Fellows and the John Smith Memorial Trust. We are most grateful to Asquith & Granovski Associates for their generous support of this study tour..

Summary of all Conferences

Brief Description
The purpose of the meeting is to identify the best strategies, given the new realities arising from emerging economies, to enhance sustainable development working through civil society, business, governments, and global governance. The leading case study will be China, examining the relevant issues from the point of view of government and the economy and that of civil society. Different possible futures will be assessed, and the meeting will feature a scenario-building exercise exploring risks.

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2. The state, the market and social entrepreneurs:
building alliances in meeting social needs
(with the generous assistance of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation)

London, UK
10 - 11 March 2006

Case study: Tour of Coin Street

Iain Tuckett Group Director, Coin Street Community Builders

Social entrepreneurs and profit: what can engagement in the market give and what might it take away?

Ian Charles Stewart Chairman, SevenPeaks Capital Ltd

Craig Cohon CEO & Founding Partner, Globalegacy International

The social entrepreneur as hero: what can – or cannot – be achieved through focusing on individual change-makers?

Charles Handy Author, most recently of The New Philanthropists: Making a Difference

Rowena Young Director of the Said Business School Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs and the state: what is the potential in the relationship? What are the hazards?

Geoff Mulgan Director, The Young Foundation

Gerard Lemos Lemos and Crane, and Deputy Chair, British Council

Case study: Slum Jam – meeting social needs in Nairobi

Cezary Bednarski Architect

Learning from the past, looking to the future: how might social entrepreneurship develop in the coming decades?

Dr Pamela Hartigan Executive Director, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

Brief Description
Social entrepreneurship is of growing significance as a dynamic response to problems in societies which are hard to address through established institutions. Although difficult to pin down, and overlapping with areas like social enterprise and civil society, it can be defined as the adoption of an entrepreneurial approach in identifying and finding novel solutions for unmet social needs. Infinitely varied in practice, it occurs within sectors – including government, business, and NGOs – as well as through co-operative ventures between actors from any or all of these. Looked to in some places as a way to bring private sector inventiveness to bear on issues usually ignored by the market, it is distrusted in others – especially where it takes a for-profit form – as a creeping commercialization of areas appropriate either to government or NGO-based solutions. This conference will look critically at the phenomenon, and the extent to which it does offer a more creative way ahead in building flourishing societies. The Trust would like to thank Coin Street Community Builders and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for hosting this event.

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3. What is the future of entrepreneurship?: national comparisons
(with the generous assistance of Deutsche Bank and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

Deutsche Bank Headquarters, Frankfurt, Germany
6 - 7 April 2006

Entrepreneurship’s Changing Role

Sir Geoffrey Owen Senior Fellow, Institute of Management, London School of Economics, former editor Financial Times

Entrepreneurship in the UK and Germany: What’s life really like at the coalface

Dr Rebecca Harding Senior Fellow, London Business School

Transatlantic differences: Who does it better and why?

Matthew Bishop US Business Editor, The Economist

Dr Ansbert Gadicke Founder & General Partner, MPM Group

The practitioners’ views: what are the prerequisites for a thriving entrepreneurial culture

David Soskin CEO, Cheapflights

Dr Wolfgang Soehngen CEO, Paion

The impact of finance structures and strategies on entrepreneurial success

Dr Clemens Börsig Chief Financial Officer, Deutsche Bank

Brief Description
Entrepreneurship is seen as key to economic success, and it is increasingly recognised that social entrepreneurs are vital also to other aspects of community life. Entrepreneurship in the United States is put forward by some as the role model to follow, but how far is that transferable into different social and cultural contexts? At this seminar Germany and the UK will be taken as case studies of entrepreneurship in Europe. What is the essential character of entrepreneurship now and in what ways does it appear to be changing in the future? Are there ways change should be encouraged further through education or other means at the national or European level? Does an increasing emphasis on entrepreneurialism bring with it dangers as well as dynamism? The Trust would like to thank the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Deutsche Bank for their generous support of this event.

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4. Homegrown Terrorism in Europe Today:
Roots and Responses
(in cooperation with Cumberland Lodge)

Château Klingenthal, near Strasbourg
15 - 17 September

What are the ideological roots of jihadi terrorism in Europe? Why do some European-born young Muslims find the ideology so attractive?

Professor George Joffe King’s College, London

What is the scale and extent of the terrorist threat in Europe today? How is it likely to develop in the future?

Dr Peter Neumann Director, Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College London

The Contemporary Debate: Uncertainties, Dilemmas and Limits

Paul Schulte Senior Visiting Fellow, Advanced Research and Assessment Group, UK Defence Academy

What can be done by states, Muslim communities, and civil society at large in Europe, to reduce the appeal of jihadi terrorism?

Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College, London

Brief Description
One distinction between terrorists and other criminals is adherence to an ideology which both motivates and justifies, in the perpetrators’ minds, various outrages in pursuit of a set of ends. This conference will examine the thinking which underlies the actions of groups such as Al Qaeda and those that see themselves as its affiliates in Europe, as a precursor to considering how best to address the threat they pose. Questions will include: What is the nature and history of the terrorists’ ideology? What is its relationship to modernity, which it professes to reject but with whose totalitarian pathologies it has much in common and whose tools it readily adopts? Why is it so attractive to some young Muslims in Europe that they would take their own lives in support of it as well as those of their fellow citizens? What have been the enduring reactions to the Madrid and London bombings among Islamic and non-Islamic communities in Europe, and how can they best respond to the set of ideas which underlie the violence? Along with the criminal prosecution of terrorists, what can and should communities do in terms of preventative action?

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The Meaning of the 21st Century -
Technology, environment, development, security: how do we foster the leadership necessary to ensure ‘survivability’ in an age of extremes?

US Congress, Washington DC
27 - 28 October 2006

The meaning of the 21st Century

Dr James Martin Business consultant, author and lecturer, and founder of the James Martin 21st Century School, Oxford University

The leadership challenge: how can leaders and institutions, responding to shorter-term political and economic pressures, ensure survivability in the future?

The Hon Robert Walker Chairman, Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, formerly Congressman and Chairman of the House Science Committee

Dr Joseph Duffey Senior Vice President, Laureate Education and formerly Asst US Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs

Bottom lines and long term risks: in what ways can and should business leaders be preparing better for the future?

Matthew Bishop The Economist

The 21st Century, the security challenge and the 'meaning' of technology

Professor Christopher Coker London School of Economics

Filling the Hobbesian Gap: Layers of Security in the 21st Century

Jerry Howe The Olive Group

Sustainable development: what have we achieved? What is there still to do?

Jane Nelson Center for Business and Government, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Brief Description
At the start of the 21st century, humanity faces several interlinked and pressing crises relating to environmental degradation, uneven economic development, and burgeoning threats to security, globally and regionally. Individually or collectively these crises have the potential to undermine the developed world’s comfortable lifestyles as much as de-railing development in the rest of the world. At the same time, a number of foreseeable technological innovations may be crucial in resolving these crises and, beyond that, hold the long-term promise of almost unimaginable improvements to the human condition - although the use of some new technologies present their own threats. The conference will look at the inter-relationships of these issues and explore from where the leadership to address them might come. As James Martin, author of The Meaning of the 21st Century, and our keynote speaker, puts it ‘The 21st Century is an extraordinary time – a century of extremes. We could create much grander civilizations, or we could trigger a new Dark Ages’.

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