Download Professor Heinz Wolff's Introductory Paper
Merton College, Oxford
24 March - 1 April 2000
Professor Heinz Wolff | Brunel University |
The future for science in the risk society
Dr Frank Furedi | University of Kent |
Getting it right and getting it wrong: science and regulation
Professor Ortwin Renn | Centre of Technology Assessment, Baden-Württemberg |
The media and the communication of complex ideas
Jeremy Laurance | The Independent |
Responding to public anxieties: government
Professor Derek Burke | Adviser to the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee |
Responding to public anxieties: corporations
Graham Ford | PA Consulting, London |
The appetite for risk
Professor John Adams | University College London |
Worlds apart: risk, rationality and political culture
Professor Sheila Jasanoff | Harvard University |
Science driven by commerce - can it be trusted?
Dr John Hammond | Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd |
Dr Douglas Parr | Chief Scientific Adviser to Greenpeace |
The absolute safety culture and its dangers
Bruno Porro | Head of Risk and Reinsurance, Swiss Re, Zurich |
Calculating risks, taking decisions - Case study I: nuclear power
Professor John Gittus | Consultant on nuclear safety |
Calculating risks, taking decisions - Case study II: global warming
Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen | University of Hull |
Discussant for both case studies
Professor Dennis Anderson | Imperial College, London |
Advertised Synopsis
With the galloping advance of scientific knowledge, humans have never been so capable of changing their own condition and that of their environment - for good or ill. This has generated debate over a range of policy issues: the safety of genetically-based treatments in medicine and agriculture; the future of nuclear power generation; the international response to global warming; the reaction to health scares such as mad cow disease; even the adverse social implications of technological change. The villains have been variously identified as greedy businessmen, mendacious politicians, venal scientists and neo-Luddite activists with eccentric scientific support. But central to all such debates are attitudes toward risk. Human life has always involved the assessment, taking and minimization of risks. The pursuit of scientific and technological advance is no exception. However, in an age where public trust of society's institutions and their representatives - academic as much as political or religious - has declined markedly, the voice of science lacks the authority it once held to sway public opinion, especially when it speaks in specialist language incomprehensible to the layman. At the same time political discourse has entrenched the concept of universal human rights. Thus, although in the West at least prosperity and life expectancy have reached unprecedented levels, people everywhere seem to be increasingly intolerant of exposure to risk from the activity of others. This conference will look at the processes whereby governments weigh benefits against imponderable risks in making decisions; why even expert committees seem to err so frequently in assessing future dangers; the extent to which the state should take over through regulation the individual's traditional role in assessing personal risk; how and to what degree it should limit what science is allowed to do; and how to raise the level of public understanding so as to permit better informed debate.
(In Assocation with The Tokyo Foundation)
Download Sir John Boyd's Introductory Paper
Download Professor Heizo Takenaka's Introductory Paper
Keidanren Guest House, Near Mount Fuji, Japan
12-20 May 2000
Sir John Boyd | Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, British Ambassador to Japan 1992-95 |
Professor Heizo Takenaka | President of The Tokyo Foundation |
Hopes and Fears for the Asia-Pacific Region
Edward Neilan | Syndicated Columnist; Senior Fellow, Heritage Foundation |
Will there be a renewed Asian economic model?
Professor Heizo Takenaka | Senior Fellow |
The challenges to development
Dr Sayuri Shirai | Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University |
How will China change?
Herbert Levin | Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University and The Atlantic Council of the United States, Washington DC |
The evolution of the United States' role in the region
Professor Kent Calder | Special Advisor to the Ambassador, US Embassy Tokyo |
Dr Jeong-Woo Kil | Senior Research Fellow, The Tokyo Foundation |
Where might the security flashpoints be?
Dr Alan Dupont | Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University |
Greater regional co-operation or greater fragmentation?
Professor Takatoshi Ito | Deputy Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Tokyo |
Japan and its external relations
Hatsuhisa Takashima | Executive Controller General, NHK, Tokyo |
Luncheon Guest Speaker
Ichita Yamamoto | Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tokyo |
Globalization, new technologies and social change
Paul Abrahams | The Financial Times |
Advertised Synopsis
The former certainties of the Asia-Pacific region - world beating economic growth and the American security umbrella - have been brought increasingly into question in the last decade. The stalling of the Japanese economy and the 1997 financial crisis exposed clear weaknesses in the Asian model. Despite recent progress towards economic recovery and structural reform, the forces of globalization pose continuing challenges which must be mastered if Asia is to achieve lasting stability and prosperity. Progress is also required on the political front. The Taiwan issue and the unpredictability of North Korea are potential threats to regional stability. Can either question be ‘restructured' or can economic levers be used to defuse them? Regional economics and security are inter-related; deterioration in either will affect the other. In particular, the course of economic and social development in China will determine whether it emerges as an even greater power or one increasingly divided. Starting from an economic stock-taking and an analysis of security issues, the conference will explore how the internal shape of regional states and relations between them may have developed by 2020. Economically, will the ‘Asian model' return to full vigour? Can the institutions and social practices of the region accommodate the necessary economic change? Will we see the reassertion of a traditional balance of power, or will new patterns be produced by the globalization process? Finally, what is the role of external powers and organisations in promoting benign change? This conference will be held in association with the Tokyo Foundation.
Download Sir Claus Moser's Introductory Paper
Klingenthal Castle, near Strasbourg
8-16 September 2000
Sir Claus Moser | Chancellor, Keele University |
Globalization, information and the new world of work: the challenges for education
Heather Cole | Cisco Systems Europe, Middle East and Africa |
The impact of new learning technologies
Professor Diana Laurillard | The Open University, United Kingdom |
Lifelong learning: how can it be achieved?
Baroness Blackstone | Minister of State, UK Department for Education and Employment |
Ann Limb | Cambridge Regional College |
The changing face of schools in the 21st century
Professor David Hargreaves | University of Cambridge School of Education |
A wealth of learning: what role enterprise education?
Ron Clink | Director of Schools Program, Center for Economic Education, University of Cincinnati |
Higher Education in Transition - Reform Initiatives for the 21st Century
Dr Hildegard Geimer | Education Consultant, Bonn |
Education and the transformation of a society
Professor Teboho Moja | Professor of Higher Education, New York University |
Developing countries and participation in the Knowledge Society
Professor James Tooley | University of Newcastle |
Learning society or learning elites: the problem of social exclusion
Tom Bentley | Demos, London |
Schools, values and the community: a case study
Professor Sir David Winkley | Former Head of the Grove School, Birmigham |
Advertised Synopsis
Facing a century in which prosperity will be increasingly determined by control of information rather than natural resources or industrial might, governments throughout the developed world are looking to education as the key to long- term economic success and promoting it to the top of their agendas. In some countries (such as the USA and the UK) there has been a tendency to favour a 'command and control' model of educational reform, while in others (such as Japan) the trend has been towards greater liberalism and flexibility. At this conference we will examine different national solutions to familiar issues in school and post-school education, including teaching methods, curricula and resourcing; but the main focus will be on the 'external' challenges which all educational systems must confront, above all globalization, the communications revolu-tion and the changing nature of work. These challenges require education at successive stages in life and not just for the young; with the increasing rapidity of economic and social change ‘lifelong learning' has become an almost universal slogan. What must governments, corporations and educational institutions do to make lifelong education a reality? There is also the question of education and equity. How far is education in the 21st century going to be elitist and how will it combat social exclusion? In funding, what are the roles of the private and public sectors? In addition, is enough attention paid to concerns other than the economic, in particular the transmission of values? In an era of expanding choice and risk how can students be best equipped to lead the good life and the life of a citizen as well as that of a worker?
Download Dr Michael Williams' Introductory Paper
Madingley Hall, Cambridge
5-13 October 2000
Dr Michael C Williams | Special Adviser to Foreign Secretary, Foreign Office, London |
The precedents for international intervention
Professor Fred Halliday | London School of Economics |
Human rights and justice in making and sustaining peace
Ian Martin | Visiting Fellow, International Peace Academy, New York; Head of UN Mission in East Timor, May to November 1999 |
Is intervention best left to regional powers or does that just create regional hegemonies?
Dr Gwyn Prins | European Institute, London School of Economics |
Case Study: International Rule and Reconstruction in Kosovo
Andrew Michels | President of the Registration Appeals Commission of Kosovo |
The role of NGO's in reconstruction and the difficulties they face
Olivia Lind Haldorsson | VOICE, Brussels |
Exit strategies and their dilemmas
Dr Jane Sharp | King's College London |
Case study: International Rule and Reconstruction in East Timor
Sidney Jones | Executive Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch, New York; Director of Human Rights, UN Transitional Administration in East Timor |
When is it legitimate to intervene and when is it necessary?
Edward Mortimer | Executive Office of the Secretary-General, United Nations |
How can international intervention avoid being neo-colonialism?
Dr Paul Cornish | Centre for International Studies, Cambridge University |
Advertised Synopsis
On top of the many peacekeeping and peacemaking operations which the United Nations and other international organizations have conducted, a new challenge has arisen over the last decade which - with its colonial echoes - they have only reluctantly begun to address: how to help states or territories emerging from civil conflict to make the transition to a normal society, a task which may entail undertaking temporary responsibility for civil administration or even formal UN trusteeship. This conference will draw on numerous examples from Bosnia and Kosovo through Somalia to Cambodia and East Timor to look at the complicated issues involved. These include practical questions - how to establish the trust of the governed; how to establish authority and introduce law and order into a war-torn society; how to minimize the role of neighbouring powers seeking influence in a future regime while finding countries willing to provide resources for the project; and how to arrange an "exit strategy". More theoretical concerns also arise - what legal basis exists for such an arrangement and how much domestic opposition would make it untenable; what are the implications for sovereignty, especially as there is rarely time for an interim administration to be democratically ratified; and whether organizations other than the United Nations should be allowed - either at the request of the parties involved or of the Security Council - to undertake these activities. Finally there is the moral question of the extent to which outsiders should undertake responsibility for helping with a society's problems when its members may not be ready to live together, but the only alternative seems to be continued bloodshed.
(In Cooperation with Conflict and Peace Forums)
Taplow Court, near Maidenhead
3-5 March 2000
The role of media coverage or the lack of it in shaping international responses to a conflict
Tom de Waal | BBC World Service and author of Chechnya: A Small Victorious War |
When and how did the media pay attention to Kosovo before the war?
Tim Judah | Journalist and author of The Serbs and most recently Kosovo |
Nancy Durham | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
Keeping the international community involved in zones of conflict no longer in fashion
Nick Stockton | Deputy Director, Oxfam |
Stories in the making: how best can journalists cover the warning signs of conflict?
Richard Spencer | News Editor, Daily Telegraph |
Mark Brayne | News and Current Affairs Editor, European Region, BBC World Service |
Martin Huckerby | Editorial consultant |
Future Wars - video preview of Michael Ignatieff's forthcoming BBC TV series
Glyn Jones | Executive Producer (Introduction to series) |
Brief Description
This conference, run in conjunction with Conflict and Peace Forums, looked at the role of the media in incipient and unfashionable conflicts, including how the media affects or does not affect the international community's response to such situations; how the actors in a conflict seek to influence the media, and through them perhaps a wider audience; and how journalists might best cover conflicts, not only when fighting is taking place but also before it breaks out.
(In Cooperation with The Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum)
United Nations Headquarters
17-19 November 2000
Keynote speech
Prof. John Ruggie | Assistant-Secretary-General, The United Nations |
Challenges in implementing the global compact
Georg Kell | Senior Officer, Executive Office of the Secretary-General |
How far are new priorities emerging for corporations?
Matthew Bishop | American Finance Editor, The Economist |
The Global Compact: rhetoric or a real advance? NGO and labour perspectives
Kelly Currah | World Vision International |
Arvind Ganesan | Human Rights Watch |
Gemma Adaba | The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions |
Looking to business: globalization and the changing role of corporations in governance and international affairs
David Vidal | The Conference Board, New York City |
Jane Nelson | Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum |
Brief Description
This summer the UN launched its Global Compact with business, laying down standards for human rights, labour and environmental practices. Kofi Annan said '... let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the creative forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of future generations.' This Fellowship seminar will explore how progress can be made towards these goals, examine the standards laid down in the Global Compact and debate the diverse issues involved.