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Europe and America face crucial challenges within and outside their own societies. Some of them are different; most of them are common such as: diversity, equality, inclusion, risk of terrorism, independence, environment protection and economic growth, optimal regulations, faith and the public space, etc…. On all these crucial topics, domestic confrontation has proven to be an impasse. The Alliance Program will create in the Fall 2006, within our institutions, a Forum to bring Academics, Policy makers and Actors from the corporate sector in order to confront their views. There is one main reasons for such an endeavor:...if we renew the form of confrontation of ideas, we can help to create new solutions...
Historically, our societies are organized in such a way that the circulation of ideas is mostly vertical. Ideas are produced bottom up by Universities, Think Tanks and intellectuals and then they climb up to policy makers and opinion makers and nurture the public debate. Sometimes, the production and circulation is top down, policy makers anticipate and create new ideas and Universities or think tanks react to it. Whatever the origin, the process is vertical and – so far – ideas from abroad do not fit very well in this process. We will make the horizontal circulation possible.
A unique forum of political and intellectual confrontation located in our universities.
In today’s globalization, capital and goods circulate much more easily than ideas that remain incredibly rooted in each country history. New ideas that are proven to work tend to cross very slowly the ocean and are rarely kept intact from the trip when it comes to the intellectual life. We want to reinforce the necessity of the original trip taken by Jefferson and Tocqueville who crossed the Ocean to understand each other revolution and bring it back to their own country. We think that any policy maker that travels abroad should meet the best Academics. Not only he or she will learn about other solutions, but it will be the occasion to reflect on his or her own society. Since ideas from abroad do not come to policy makers easily, we want to provide policy makers this unique opportunity to see ideas coming to them.
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On the occasion of a trip abroad, a Policy maker from Europe or America will talk with a Faculty Member belonging to a University located in the other continent. Meetings will be open for Members. Inquire for membership..
The discussion will be organized between 5:30 and 7:30 PM. A small committee dinner will follow.
Policy makers who are willing to grab new ideas from the other side of the Ocean. Internationally known Faculty who are famous for their work in a certain field and their capacity to explain it to a larger audience.
Paris or New York, European policy makers will interact with American academics in New York, American policy makers with European academics in Paris.
A series of 6 meetings on each side will be conducted ( Paris and New York). Frequency: every six weeks starting in September and February.
Contributors to the forum, it could be corporate sector members or individuals who attend the meetings and learn from these new ideas and connect in an important framework. We will limit to 40 members on each side.
As it has been the case in the past, publications by Academics that are relevent to the Journal will be published in the Tocqueville Review.
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