Beset by a crisis of democracy and geopolitical challenges, by demographic imbalances and environmental disaster, an economically weakened Europe, bereft of its old, liberal narrative, seems to be staggering, a waning force losing both credibility and power.
Not so, says Nathalie Tocci, director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome and Europe’s Futures Fellow at the IWM in Vienna. If Europe is ambitious enough, it can secure future influence and prosperity by fully committing to a true green revolution, expanding on the goals of the energy transition that has already become the new heart of the European project. Tocci is one of the foremost thinkers on Europe and its future in the world. Even while faced with new uncertainties and challenges, Europe can find a new global role by championing and driving an agenda for green transition that recognizes only global solutions and global justice will be effective in the fight for a European future.
Philipp Blom spoke with Nathalie Tocci about a European future between energy transition and new strategic challenges, as well as the challenges for European democracies faced with popular discontent and a loss of trust in the European project or its institutions.
Is the future green and global, or will the European moment be swallowed up in epochal change?
About the discussion series Dialogues for Tomorrow:
The debate series Dialogues for Tomorrow critically examines the present from multiple perspectives in order to create a better understanding of tomorrow.
Beginning in Fall 2022, Gerald Bast, rector of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, invited artists and experts to the new Café Exchange. The interdisciplinary conversations covered topics from the field of art, science, culture, technology and politics and give audiences a chance to join the discussion.
As a sequel of the series, the program is now broadened: In spring 2023 together with the Bruno Kreisky Forum and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), the University of Applied Arts hosts experts from different disciplines to discuss future challenges. Ranging from climate change to democracies in crisis, current wars and social controversies: this time it is historian, journalist and author Philipp Blom who will be in conversation with renowned, innovative, intelligent and provocative international guests to talk about transformation, reasonable change, necessary steps and new conceptual spaces.
About the guest Nathalie Tocci:
Nathalie Tocci is Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali IAI, Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen, Pierre Keller Visiting Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and Adjunct Professor at the European Union Institute. She has been Special Advisor to EU High Representative and Vice President of the Commission Josep Borrell. As Special Advisor to HRVP Federica Mogherini she wrote the European Global Strategy and worked on its implementation. She has been a member of Eni's Board of Directors since May 2020. In 2022–23 she is a Europe’s Futures Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences IWM.
Previously she held research positions at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, the Transatlantic Academy, Washington and the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence.
Her research interests include European foreign policy, conflict resolution, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
About Philipp Blom:
Philipp Blom was born in Hamburg in 1970. After living and working in Oxford, London, and Paris, he is now based in Vienna. His historical works, essays, and novels have been translated into 16 languages and have received numerous awards, including a scholarship at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and the German Non-Fiction Book Prize. Blom is also a prolific radio journalist and public speaker. Among his most recent German and English publications are: Diebe des Lichts, Karl Blessing 2021; Das große Welttheater, Zsolnay 2019; Eine italienische Reise, Hanser 2018; Was auf dem Spiel steht, Hanser 2017; Die Welt aus den Angeln, Hanser 2017 / Nature’s Mutiny; Bei Sturm am Meer, Zsolnay 2016; Die zerrissenen Jahre. 1918–1938, Hanser 2014; Böse Philosophen. Ein Salon in Paris und das vergessene Erbe der Aufklärung, Hanser 2011 / A Wicked Company; Der taumelnde Kontinent. Europa 1900–1914, Hanser 2009 / The Vertigo Years - Change and Culture in the West, 1900-1914.
A recording of the event is available below.
