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Member of YABLOKO's Political Committee and founder of YABLOKO
Grigory Yavlinsky participated in the Forum-2000 Conferences
in Pragye on October 10-12, 2010.
The idea for the Forum 2000 Conference originated in 1997,
when former Czech President Vaclav Havel, Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate Elie Wiesel, and philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa invited
world leaders to Prague to discuss the challenges humanity
was facing on the threshold of a new millennium. Since then,
Forum 2000 evolved into a successful and widely recognized
conference series, where distinguished guests continue to
address a diverse international community on topics ranging
from religious dialogue to human rights and national security.
According to former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell,
“The best way to turn philosophy into action is to bring together
the philosophers and actors as President Havel does at Forum
2000.” Over the years, Forum 2000 has also become a true Prague
tradition, followed closely by the media, political, intellectual,
and business elites, and the interested public.
DISTINGUISHED PARTICIPANTS
Among the more than 400 personalities who have so far taken
part in the Forum 2000 Conferences have been His Holiness
the Dalai Lama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Elie Wiesel, Yohei
Sasakawa, Madeleine Albright, Mary Robinson, Rabbi Michael
Melchior, Jose Ramos Horta, George Soros, Richard von Weizsacker,
Immanuel Wallerstein, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Cooper, Vartan
Gregorian, H.R.H. El Hassan Bin Talal, Grigory Yavlinsky,
Henry Kissinger, Zygmunt Bauman, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
THE GOAL OF THE CONFERENCES
Since the beginning, the aim of the Forum 2000 Conferences
was to map the globalization process and to note its positive
results as well as the perils encountered by an increasingly
interconnected world. It has always striven to maintain an
up-to-date dialogue about important and difficult issues that
are key to the future of civilization. The discussions at
the Conference explore and analyze the roots of terrorism,
the role of religion, anthropological theories of conflict
in civilization, and in general, problems which are fundamental
to these ongoing conflicts. The Forum 2000 delegates also
discuss how to handle the global variety of cultures, ideologies
and religions; whether democracy is an answer on the global
level; and what the role of the media is in the conflict of
perceptions.
The goal of these discussions is to achieve a better understanding
of our globalized world and of the key challenges facing mankind.
Forum 2000 provides global political, intellectual, spiritual,
and business leaders with the proper venue to voice their
concerns as well as to look for ways to address them.
The World We Want to Live In
Prague October 10 - 12, 2010
1. THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY
Keynote Speech:
Fareed Zakaria, Editor-at-Large, Time Magazine, USA (conf.)
Moderator:
Jacques Rupnik, Political Scientist, France (conf.)
Panel Discussion:
Shirin Ebadi, Lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Iran (conf.)
Saskia Sassen, Sociologist, London School of Economics, Columbia
University, United
Kingdom/USA (conf.)
Colin Crouch, Professor of Governance, University of Warwick
Business School, United Kingdom
(conf.)
Grigory Yavlinsky, Economist and Politician, Russia (conf.)
Alison Smale, Executive Editor, International Herald Tribune,
France/USA (conf.)
The huge wave of optimism and great expectations that followed
the end of the Cold War did not prove justified. The globalization
of liberal democracy has not happened and the post 1989 euphoria
petered out. On the other hand we have witnessed the rise
of economically successful authoritarian states that manage
to avoid global attention despite their consistent abuse of
human rights. According to the 2010 edition of Freedom in
the World by Freedom House “ 2009 marked the fourth consecutive
year in which global freedom suffered a decline – the longest
consecutive period of setbacks for freedom in the nearly 40-
year history of the report.”
Can democracy function in societies that are deeply polarized
both socially and culturally?
What is the relationship between democracy and civil society?
Is representative democracy the only form of democracy?
Are there any ways how to improve continued tension between
security and civil liberties in liberal democracies?
What initiatives should be taken to meet the authoritarian
challenge?
How to renew and increase the support of dissidents in authoritarian
countries and dictatorships?
Is the current “fatigue with democracy” in liberal democracies
only a temporary phenomenon or are we facing an era of “cynical
democracy”?
2. EU – RUSSIA RELATIONS: IS A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP POSSIBLE?
Keynote Speech:
Grigory Yavlinsky, Economist and Politician, Russia (conf.)
Moderator:
Misha Glenny, Journalist, United Kingdom (conf.)
Panel Discussion:
Mirek Topolanek, Former Prime Minister, Czech Republic (conf.)
Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief, Russia in Global Affairs,
Russia (conf.)
Gesine Schwan, Politician, President, Humboldt-Viadrina School
of Governance, Germany (conf.)
Edward Lucas, Journalist, The Economist, United Kingdom (conf.)
Despite a great deal of economic interdependency, the EU and
Russia remain the political odd-balls championing two seemingly
incompatible political systems - liberal democracy and sovereign
democracy. A last couple of years has seen the EU-Russia dialogue
gradually grind to a virtual halt. It has been almost three
years since the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA),
a comprehensive framework agreement governing EU-Russia relations,
expired. Although on the face of it, Brussels and Moscow are
in agreement on the need to produce a new treaty to move into
the new era of a qualitatively better relationship, little
has been achieved. Different biases and misunderstandings
make any attempt at a new partnership even a more daunting
task than ever before. That said, however, by the virtue of
the growing economic interconnectedness and mere geographic
proximity coupled with their interests in the common neighborhood,
Europe and Russia are bound to interact with each other even
on a greater scale in the years to come. Therefore, what form
and substance the EU-Russia relationship in the 21st century
takes on is going to have monumental implications for Europe
and beyond.
What needs to be changed in Russia and Europe in order to
build a genuine partnership? Is there on both sides a true
desire to build one?
What do the Russian leaders mean by modernization? Transfer
of technology, or introducing the rule of law and political
liberalization?
Will the EU ever be able to form a common EU policy on Russia,
and what is needed for that to happen? Does Russia need the
European Union as a partner, or will it pursue bilateral relations
with individual European countries?
Can Europe and Russia find a common language in addressing
numerous challenges likely to arise in Eastern Europe and
the Caucasus?
Is the threat of Russia as an ever increasing revisionist
power exaggerated?
See also:
Forum-2000
Conferences
Russia-EU
Relations
www.yavlinsky.ru
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