THE EUROPEAN

FUTURES

OBSERVATORY

Meeting Reports

In the course of our work, we attend a number of meetings and conferences that help us to develop our thinking. It is our practice to publish meeting reports on these sessions in order to help us to clarify our thinking on these issues and to provide a reference for those who were unable to attend the meetings.

Our reports are, in many ways, our personal reflections on the sessions that we have attended. They are not necessarily an objective account of what transpired, and they are recreated from our notes and recollections of the meeting. However, subject to this bias, they do provide a point of reference from which others might benefit.

Stephen Aguilar-Millan

December 2004

A PRE-EMPTIVE FOREIGN POLICY IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER

(A Debate Organised By Intelligence²)

Royal Geographical Society, September 13th 2004

Francine Stock (Chair), Gary Hart, Simon Jenkins, Christopher Hitchens, David Aaronovitch

We attended this meeting as part of the America 2025 Project. This debate examined whether or not a pre-emptive foreign policy could be considered as legitimate, and the circumstances under which, if legitimate, it could be correctly applied. The debate considered the issue in the light of current US policy in Iraq.

Click here for a full report on the debate.

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APF Europe Meeting, 25th October 2004.

(A One Day Conference Organised By The APF)

An ad hoc meeting of the European members of the Association of Professional Futurists held in London, UK. The review is to provide material for those unable to attend the conference, and to provide a point of reference for those who did attend the conference.

Click here to access the Web Pages.

EUROPE: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

(A Discussion Organised By The London Review of Books)

University of London, November 10th 2004

Stephanie Flanders (Chair), Stephen Wall, Anatole Kaletsky, David Runciman, Martin Wolf, Slavoj Zizek.

We attended this meeting as part of the America 2025 Project. This talk examined the relationship between the UK and Europe. Is it the case that the UK has a “European Problem”? Or is it that the EU has a “UK Problem”? Can the British ever learn to love the European ideal?

Click here for a full report on the talk.

WHY BELIEVE IN EUROPE?

(A Talk Organised By The ICA)

Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, March 7th 2005

Stephen Pollard (Chair), Mark Leonard, Will Hutton.

We attended this meeting as part of the America 2025 Project. This talk examined the extent to which Europe offers the world an alternative ideological model to the fundamentalisms of American Protestantism, Chinese Market Communism, and Middle Eastern Islamicism. Could Europe become an ideological alternative to North America, China, and the Middle East?

Click here for a full report on the talk.

¡FUTURES INSURRECTION 2005!

(A Three Day Conference Organised By The APF)

The annual meeting of the Association of Professional Futurists held in Miami, USA. The review is to provide material for those unable to attend the conference, and to provide a point of reference for those who did attend the conference.