At the 2024 Holberg Debate, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Yanis Varoufakis and Konstantin Kisin will discuss whether or not the West is in decline.
Is the West in decline, and if so, what are the implications for the future of democracy and the global order? This is the central question for the 2024 Holberg Debate.
The backdrop of this year’s Holberg Debate includes a number of crises and problems that the West is facing, including: a dramatic presidential election in the US, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, high cost of living in many Western countries, cultural conflicts, and political polarisation. Globally, the West is losing support, and the collaboration between Russia, China and the other BRICS countries has rendered Western influence increasingly precarious in a world that seems to be growing more multipolar. Also, there is a substatinal fear that the liberal aspects of Western society may be in peril.
The discussion will centre on the following questions:
- What are currently the greatest threats to democracy and stability in the West?
- How serious are the problems relating to instability, discontent, extremism, populism, disinformation, racism, anti-feminism, and social fragmentation.
- What are the implications of the cultural and ideological shifts within Western societies?
- To what extent do autocracies work to undermine the democratic world, and by what means should they be opposed?
- Are we seeing a decline of Western influence in global affairs, as the world becomes more multipolar, and if so: What are the implications for global stability and prosperity?
Participants
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education at the American University in Washington, DC, where she is also the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). She is a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur and recently served as the inaugural creative lead for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s residency program on social cohesion in Berlin, Germany. Dr. Miller-Idriss regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and briefs policy, security, education and intelligence agencies in the U.S., the United Nations, and other countries on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books, including Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right (Princeton University Press, 2022). Her next book is focused on how misogyny fuels mass violence and will be published by Princeton University Press in 2025. She is also at work on a new co-authored book (with Pasha Dashtgard) on evidence-based prevention of hate-fueled violence. Dr. Miller-Idriss writes frequently for mainstream audiences, as an opinion columnist for MSNBC and in other recent by-lines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Politico, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and more.
Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis Varoufakis leads MeRA25 in Greece and is co-founder of the pan-European movement DiEM25 as well as the Progressive International. An academic economist who served as Greece’s Finance Minister in 2015, Varoufakis is the author of best-selling books including TECHNOFEUDALISM: What killed capitalism (Penguin 2023), ANOTHER NOW (Penguin 2020), ADULTS IN THE ROOM (Penguin 2017), TALKING TO MY DAUGHTER (Penguin 2017), AND THE WEAK SUFFER WHAT THEY MUST? (Penguin 2016), and THE GLOBAL MINOTAUR (Zed Books 2011)
Konstantin Kisin
Konstantin Kisin is a Sunday Times best-selling author, comedian, satirist, social commentator and host of TRIGGERnometry, which is branded as a free speech YouTube show and podcast, based on open, fact-based discussion of important and controversial issues. Born in the late Soviet Union and raised in Britain, Kisin has appeared on flagship TV shows like BBC Question Time, Real Time with Bill Maher and Tucker Carlson, as well as the Joe Rogan Experience and other popular podcasts. In his book An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West (2022), as well as in his speeches and podcasts, Kisin discusses topics such as tolerance, freedom of speech, cancel culture, immigration and multiculturalism, as well as what opportunities and values the West represents. He has also spoken and written extensively about the war in Ukraine.
Sarah Montague (moderator)
Sara Montague is a British journalist and presenter. Since 1997, she has presented many of the BBC’s most popular radio and TV programmes, including HARDtalk, Today og The World at One. Before joining the BBC, Montague worked at Reuters Television and Sky News. Over a number of years she also presented BBC World’s Nobel Minds, a discussion between Nobel Laureates on global issues. Montague holds the honorary degrees Doctor of Letters from the University of Sussex and Doctor of Laws from the University of Bristol.