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On September 17, the Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE) at Brookings hosted Henri de Castries, head of the Institut Montaigne and AXA, for the 12th annual Raymond Aron Lecture. In his remarks, de Castries explored the challenges facing Europe and the transatlantic economy and offered perspectives on how Europe can restore economic and monetary leadership amid global volatility. As the head of one of the world’s largest insurance companies and chair of several public policy research institutions, de Castries applied his business experience to consider strategies for European leaders to emerge from the Greek crisis and the broader institutional turmoil within the eurozone. Following de Castries’s address, Brookings Senior Fellow and former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Donald Kohn offered remarks in response.

Henri de Castries has been the chairman and chief executive officer at AXA Group since 2010. Previously, he served in various senior executive positions within AXA after joining the company in 1989. He was elected chairman of the Paris-based think-tank Institut Montaigne in June 2015. Donald Kohn is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings and was vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2010.

Brookings President Strobe Talbott and Brookings Trustee Antoine van Agtmael provided welcoming remarks. Jim Hoagland, contributing editor of The Washington Post, introduced the session and moderate the discussion.

The Raymond Aron lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, annually features leading French and American personalities speaking on current issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

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• Restoring European economic leadership

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• Restoring European economic leadership

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• Uncorrected Transcript (.pdf)

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On October 16, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings hosted Laurence Tubiana, special representative of France for the Paris 2015 Climate Conference and ambassador for climate change, for the 11th annual Raymond Aron Lecture. In her remarks, Tubiana offered a multilevel governance perspective for building a more dynamic climate regime. She reflected on economically and politically-feasible strategies for combating global climate disruption that enhance economic growth, employment opportunities and overall quality of life. Following Tubiana’s address, Todd Stern, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for climate change, offered remarks in response.

Laurence Tubiana is a world-renowned expert on climate issues and the founder of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris. She is a professor at Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University, serves as co-chair of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network's Leadership Council and is the board president of the French Development Agency.

Todd Stern is the U.S. special envoy for climate change, President Obama’s chief climate negotiator. Before joining the Obama administration, Stern was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on climate change and environmental issues. Previously, he served as an attorney at the law firm WilmerHale. Prior to that, Stern served in the Clinton administration at the White House and Treasury Department.

Brookings Visiting Fellow Philippe Le Corre provided introductory remarks, and Brookings Managing Director William Antholis moderated the discussion.

The Raymond Aron lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, annually features leading French and American scholars and statesmen speaking on current issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

 Join the conversation on Twitter using #COP21

Photo courtesy of the French Embassy

French Ambassador for Climate Change Laurence Tubiana gives her thoughts on the current status of global climate change policy.

Photo courtesy of the French Embassy

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern provides follow-up remarks.

Photo courtesy of the French Embassy

Philippe LeCorre, Visting Fellow at Brookings; Javier Solana, former Secretary General of NATO and Brookings Distinguished Fellow; and French Ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Araud.  

Photo courtesy of the French Embassy

William Antholis, Brookings Managing Director, moderates the discussion while Ambassador Tubiana and Mr. Stern respond to questions from the audience.

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• The Road to Paris: Transatlantic Cooperation and the 2015 Climate Change Conference

      

 

 

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Tenth Annual Raymond Aron Lecture
Featuring Pascal Lamy and Robert Zoellick

On October 28, the Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE) at Brookings hosted Pascal Lamy, former director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to deliver the tenth annual Raymond Aron Lecture. In his remarks, Mr. Lamy offered perspectives on the role of global rules and responsibilities in addressing the challenges of an increasingly interdependent and interconnected world. Following Mr. Lamy’s address, Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank Group, offered remarks in response.

Mr. Lamy served two successive terms as the WTO’s director-general from 2005 to 2013 and is currently the honorary president of the Paris-based think tank, Notre Europe-Jacques Delors Institute. From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Lamy was the European Union’s Trade Commissioner in Brussels. Mr. Zoellick is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard. In addition to his tenure at the World Bank Group, Mr. Zoellick served as deputy secretary of State from 2005 to 2006, and as U.S. trade representative from 2001 to 2005.

Ted Piccone, acting vice president and director of the Foreign Policy at Brookings, provided introductory remarks. Brookings Visiting Fellow Jeremy Shapiro moderated the discussion. After the program, panelists took audience questions.

The Raymond Aron lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, annually features leading French and American scholars and statesmen speaking on critical issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

Audio

• Is Globalization in Need of Global Governance?

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• Transcript (.pdf)

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• 20131028_globalization_aron_lecture_transcript
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Ninth Annual Raymond Aron Lecture Featuring Professor Mireille Delmas-Marty and Justice Stephen Breyer

On December 18, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings hosted Professor Mireille Delmas-Marty to deliver the ninth annual Raymond Aron Lecture. A leading French legal scholar, Dr. Delmas-Marty is professor emeritus at the Collège de France and a member of France's Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. After a prestigious career in academia, including visiting professorships in major universities from the Americas to Asia, and advising the French government on constitutional and legal reform, Dr. Delmas-Marty has focused her work at the Collège de France on the internationalization of law.

Dr. Delmas-Marty delivered remarks on how national bodies of law are increasingly being reshaped by transnational forces, including universal human rights norms, economic integration, and global risks, and the challenges this presents in terms of accountability, legitimacy and predictability. She discussed how direct dialogue among the world’s top jurisdictions, such as the U.S. Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice, has also changed conceptions of self-contained national legal systems; and suggest how cross-country comparisons and understanding the evolving nature of international law can help make sense of the rapidly changing legal landscape.

Following Dr. Delmas-Marty's remarks, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer offered a response. Justice Breyer was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Clinton and took his seat in 1994. A former law clerk to Justice Arthur Goldberg, he held many prominent offices in both the executive and the judicial branches of the federal government, and was also a professor of Law at Harvard University, a visiting professor in various universities, and the author of numerous books and articles.

Brookings President Strobe Talbott provided introductory remarks and Brookings Senior Fellow Benjamin Wittes moderated the discussion. After the program, panelists took audience questions. The Raymond Aron lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, annually features leading French and American scholars and statesmen speaking on critical issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

Video

• Full Event - The Internationalization of Law

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• The Internationalization of Law

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• Transcript (.pdf)

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On December 13, 2011, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings hosted Olivier Roy to deliver the eighth annual Raymond Aron Lecture. A leading French scholar of Islam and Middle East politics, Dr. Roy urged Western governments in January 2011 to support the movements for democratic change in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries. Now, nearly a year after the turmoil in the Middle East began, he offered an assessment of the present and future of the Arab Spring, at the intersection of democracy, religion and politics.

Dr. Roy is a professor at the European University Institute in Florence and directs its Mediterranean program. He has served as a consultant for the French policy planning staff for 24 years. His books include The Failure of Political Islam (Harvard University Press, 1994), Globalized Islam (Columbia University Press, 2004), and more recently Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways (Columbia University Press, 2010). Following Dr. Roy's remarks, New York Times columnist and author Thomas L. Friedman offered a response. Tom Friedman served as the New York Times bureau chief in Beirut and then Jerusalem in the 1980s, winning two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting. Since 1995, Friedman has been the Times's foreign affairs columnist, maintaining a strong interest in the Middle East region and covering the Arab Spring extensively.

Martin Indyk, vice president director of Foreign Policy at Brookings, provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion. After the program, panelists took audience questions. The Raymond Aron lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, annually features leading French and American scholars and statesmen speaking on critical issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

Audio

• Interpreting the Arab Spring

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• Transcript (.pdf)

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• 20111213_arab_spring

      

 

 

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On December 9, 2010, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted François Bourguignon, a leading French economist and authority on the economics of growth and development, to deliver the seventh annual Raymond Aron Lecture. At the beginning of France's presidency of the G-20, Mr. Bourguignon offered remarks on the evolution of global inequality. He explored how some countries in the global South are not catching up with the North, and how inequality is increasing within a number of nations. He also suggested strategies to avoid these pitfalls, even where the boundaries between national and global governance are blurred.

Mr. Bourguignon has been the director of the Paris School of Economics since 2007 and previously served as chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank from 2003 to 2007. A director of research at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales since 1985, he has held a number of teaching and advising positions.

Following Mr. Bourguignon's remarks, Kemal Derviş, vice president of Global Economy and Development at Brookings, offered a response. Senior Fellow Fiona Hill, director of CUSE, provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion. After the program, panelists took audience questions.

The Raymond Aron lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, features leading French and American scholars and statesmen speaking on critical issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

Audio

• Global Inequality: Is There a Role for Global Governance?

Transcript

• Uncorrected Transcript (.pdf)
• François Bourguignon's Powerpoint Presentation (.pdf)

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On October 26, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings hosted Jean Pisani-Ferry, a leading French economist, to deliver the Sixth Annual Raymond Aron Lecture. Mr. Pisani-Ferry has been the director of the Bruegel Institute, a Brussels think tank devoted to the study of international economics, since its creation in 2005. A professor of economics at the University of Paris-Dauphine, Mr. Pisani-Ferry has held a number of senior positions as economic adviser to the European Commission, the French prime minister and the minister of finance.

Mr. Pisani-Ferry assessed the impact of the global financial crisis on the closely intertwined economies of Europe and the United States, and their influence on the world economy. He explored what recent changes in the institutions of global governance imply for the transatlantic relationship and how these transformations should affect the U.S.-EU agenda.

Following Mr. Pisani-Ferry's remarks, C. Fred Bergsten offered a response. Dr. Bergsten has been director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics since its creation in 1981.

Fiona Hill, a national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council who is on leave as a Brookings senior fellow, provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion. After the program, panelists took audience questions. The lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, features leading French and American scholars and statesmen speaking on critical issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.
 

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• Jean Pisani-Ferry on the Transatlantic Economy After the Global Financial Crisis

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• Transcript (.pdf)

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On October 7, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings hosted Thérèse Delpech, director for Strategic Studies at the French Atomic Energy Commission and a nonresident senior fellow at CERI, the Centre d’etudes et Recherches Internationales, to deliver the Fifth Annual Raymond Aron Lecture. Delpech explored the forces currently redrawing the lines of the international system, from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to revisionist powers and globalization. She offered insights into the future of the trans-Atlantic community and the French-American alliance in particular.

Thérèse Delpech is also a commissioner of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission; a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Council; member of RAND Europe’s Advisory Board; and international advisor to the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 1999, she chaired the U.N. Advisory Board for Disarmament Matters. From 1995 to 1997, Delpech served as advisor to French Prime Minister Alain Juppé on politico-military affairs. She is the author of a number of books on strategic issues, especially proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Following Mrs. Delpech’s remarks, Brookings Senior Fellow Philip Gordon offered a response. Brookings President Strobe Talbott gave introductory remarks and moderated the discussion.

The lecture series, named after the renowned scholar of post-war France, features leading French scholars and statesmen speaking on critical issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

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• Transcript (.pdf)

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On November 15, the Brookings Institution welcomed former French Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Védrine to deliver the fourth annual Raymond Aron Lecture. Globalization by its very nature erodes national sovereignty. This process represents a particular challenge for France with its proud history of independence. In this lecture, Hubert Védrine, the author of a report commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy on the subject in July 2007, explored how France has managed to maintain its sovereignty and its influence in the midst of globalization.

Hubert Védrine was French Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1997 to 2002, as well as diplomatic counselor and spokesman for President François Mitterrand. He is the author of several books on French politics and international affairs including Les Mondes de François Mitterrand (1996), Les Cartes de la France à l’heure de la mondialisation (2000), Face à l’hyperpuissance (2003), and, more recently, Continuer l’Histoire (2007).

The lecture series, named after the legendary scholar of post-war France, features leading French scholars and statesmen speaking on critical issues affecting the transatlantic relationship.

Following Mr. Védrine’s remarks, Center on the United States and Europe Director Daniel Benjamin hosted an audience question and answer session.

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In nearly all modern democracies, independent judges play a critical role in protecting liberty, usually through the application of written constitutions. But within that context judges in the United States and Europe have developed drastically different approaches to the roles of judges and constitutions in reconciling human rights with majority rule. On such issues as the balance between civil liberties and security, the role of foreign and international law in domestic jurisprudence, and the democratic legitimacy of international legal institutions, the United States and Europe often take very different approaches to similar challenges.

In the Third Annual Raymond Aron Lecture at the Brookings Institution, three of the world's most distinguished jurists discussed these and other questions. The panel discussion was moderated by Brookings President Strobe Talbott and featured Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, the former President of the French Constitutional Council, Robert Badinter, and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

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Europe's recent constitutional crisis and persistent economic difficulties have led many to call into question, once again, the vitality of the European project. In 1976, during an earlier episode of European malaise, influential French political philosopher Raymond Aron published Plaidoyer pour l'Europe décadente, an eloquent defense of a Europe whose self-absorption and even decadence seemed to herald its decline. In the second annual Raymond Aron Lecture, two renowned experts on France and Europe revisit Aron's analysis and challenge the view that a divided Europe is inevitably in decline.

The lecture will feature Tony Judt, Remarque Professor of European Studies, New York University and Gilles Andréani former Director, Policy Planning Staff, French Foreign Ministry

Transcript (PDF—104kb)

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For Raymond Aron, the disasters of the first half of the twentieth-century forever established the importance of the transatlantic relationship for European security. In Aron's view, one of the principle purposes of transatlantic cooperation and indeed of politics itself was the search for a just international order. Aron believed that any such order requires mechanisms that help define the concept of legitimate action—norms, laws, and institutions. But he also recognized that any conception of international order must acknowledge that international actors will always have recourse to force. Ultimately, major states will only obey mechanisms that recognize their rights to sovereignty and self-defense—according to their own definition.

The problem remains managing the inherent tension between a legal regime robust enough to maintain stability and flexible enough to accommodate the demands of powerful states. But the specific contours of that problem have changed dramatically since Aron contemplated how to manage the Cold War confrontation. Maintaining order in a world of catastrophic terrorism will require international mechanisms that can quickly achieve agreement and motivate action. For many Americans, such mechanisms do not now exist; thus the United States can and must use force alone if necessary. But from the perspective of many Europeans, U.S. action unsanctioned by international institutions are illegitimate and even dangerous. European critics assert that the taint of illegitimacy carries real costs, both for the United States and for global stability. In this inaugural Raymond Aron Lecture, two of Aron's most distinguished students will discuss U.S. and European approaches to the old problem of legitimacy and force and their implications for the new global order.

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• Transcript (.pdf)

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