Salzburg Global Lectures

Pascal Lamy, coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institute and vice-chairman of the Paris Peace Forum, delivered a lecture titled “The Future of Global Governance and International Cooperation in an Increasingly Fractured World”.

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Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum and National Gallery, delivered a lecture titled “Making the History We Need: Civic Engagement in Rethinking the Past”.

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Margaret MacMillan, emeritus professor of History at the University of Toronto and an emeritus professor of International History at Oxford University, delivered an online lecture titled “Should History Carry a Health Warning”.

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Lord Patten of Barnes and Rana Mitter took part in a discussion titled “Europe and the Rise of China: How Can European (including British) Interests and Values Best Be Protected in a Multipolar World?”

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Baroness Usha Prashar, an independent member of the UK House of Lords, delivered a lecture titled “Democracy and Civil Society – A Shrinking Space?”

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John Major, former UK Prime Minister, delivered a lecture titled “Britain’s International Obligations - Fetters or Keys?”

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Dominic Grieve, former UK Attorney General, delivered a lecture titled “Britain’s International Obligations - Fetters or Keys?”

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Edward Mortimer, then Salzburg Global Senior Advisor, delivered the inaugural Palliser Lecture titled “What Future for Europe – 1814, 1914, or Something Else?”

He received responses from Bronwen Maddox and Terje Rød-Larsen.

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2023 - Oleksandra Matviichuk (Pictured Above), Human Rights Lawyer and Head of the Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)

2019 - James Comey, Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (US)

2018 - Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta and Former Head of the UK Government's Strategy Unit and Policy Office

2017 - Thuli Madonsela, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Law Trust Chair in Social Justice and Law Professor at the University of Stellenbosch

In a time of escalating polycrises, education systems worldwide are being tested as inequities grow and connections weaken. How can education reorient itself to address the needs of the most vulnerable, fostering a world built on love and justice?

Romana Shaikh, global education leader and co-founder of Kizazi, invites us to explore a shift to a new paradigm of education—one that aspires to a thriving life for every child. Her vision centers on self-discovery, togetherness, and service to our planet as the shared responsibility of our time.

Join her for an inspiring lecture at Salzburg Global to reimagine education as the cornerstone of a just and loving future for generations to come.

This lecture was delivered on December 10, 2024, within Salzburg Global's “The Future of Teaching” session.

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Solutions to the challenge of misinformation have tended to focus on making journalism more transparent or credible, doing more fact-checking, or teaching audiences media literacy skills. An overlooked area of emphasis is the emotional well-being and connectedness of the audience, and how building up community and cultivating empathy within audiences can lead them to be more committed to finding shared sets of facts to build consensus, and thus less susceptible to misinformation and its negative effects.

Jessica Roberts is an assistant professor of communication studies in the Faculty of Human Sciences at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. She is co-author of the 2018 book, American journalism and "fake news": Examining the facts, and her research on citizen journalism and social media has been published in Journalism and the International Journal of Communication, among other publications. Roberts earned her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland and her M.A. at the University of Southern California.

Held on November 16, 2023, this lecture was kindly supported by the US Embassy in Vienna and was delivered as part of Salzburg Global's session on “Civic and Civil Education: Identity, Belonging and Education in the 21st Century.”

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On December 14, 2022, the Salzburg Global Center for Education Transformation held its first public lecture during “Education Transformation and Gender – Better Outcomes for Everyone.”

In her lecture "How a City Used Access to Education to Work for Women," Shanaaz Majiet framed a South African story that revealed ways we can intervene in systems to confront the gender gap in how educational opportunities in cities work for women.

Shanaaz argues cities like Tshwane (Pretoria) are places of abundance, opportunity, and hope. At the same time, she adds cities worldwide are also places of unmet aspirations, despair, precariousness, vulnerability, and marginalization.

In South Africa, Shanaaz says democratic local governments must respond effectively to the reality of inequality by increasing access to growth and development opportunities for the youth, the vulnerable, and the urban poor and underserved citizens.

She believes that too many institutional failures in local government reveal the complexity of governance, leadership challenges, and the need for citizen-focused capacity-building interventions that deliver services and results that matter to the people served.

Shanaaz Majiet is a practitioner, master coach, coach mentor, trainer, and facilitator of leadership development with 27 years of experience. She assists individuals, teams, and organizations in building healthy institutions which rehumanize workplaces, one leader and team at a time.

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In 2024, political strategist John McTernan delivered a lecture on “Political Leadership: Future Directions”.

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In May 2023, Pedro Conceição, director of the Human Development Report Office, UNDP, delivered a lecture titled “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: The New UNDP Report”.

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Later that year, Elhadj As Sy, chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation, delivered a lecture titled “Lessons on Leadership”.

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In 2022, Bruno Roche, founder and executive director of the Economics of Mutuality, delivered a lecture titled “The Economics of Mutuality: Rethinking Business Leadership and Purpose”.

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In 2021, Vytenis Andriukaitis participated in an online Sciana Lecture which saw him take questions from Ilona Kickbusch, who served as Sciana Chair at the time. 

He reflected on his leadership experience, the lessons he learned from holding different positions during his career, and his goal of seeking greater European cooperation on health and health care. 

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Later that year, David Behan, then a Sciana Advisor, also delivered an in-person Sciana Lecture on “The Leadership Challenge for the Next Five Years”. 

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In 2020, Maria Neira delivered a lecture on “Climate Change and Health,” advising Fellows to think about their level of ambition in public health and to aim high. 

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In 2018, Thomas Zeltner delivered the first Sciana Network Lecture, focusing on “The Future of Health”. 

Thomas, at the time, was serving as a Sciana Advisor. 

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In 2024, Hugh Verrier, a partner of White & Case LLP, delivered the 10th annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law. His talk was titled “Advancing the Rule of Law: Finding the Riches Hidden in an Inch”.

In 2022, the ninth annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law saw Fiona Hill, one of the US's foremost experts on Russia and Ukraine, join Martin Weiss, President & CEO of Salzburg Global, for a conversation.

The title of this event was “Confronting Existential Threats to Democracy, Security, and the Rule of Law”.

In 2018, the eighth annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law was delivered by James Thornton, founder of ClientEarth.

He delivered a talk titled “When the Earth Is Your Client: Taking the Law Into Our Own Hands”.

In 2017, the seventh annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law was delivered by Alberto Ibargüen, former publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. He was joined by Charlie Savage of The New York Times.

His talk was titled “Trust, Media and Democracy in the Digital Age”.

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In 2016, the sixth annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law was delivered by John B. Bellinger III, former legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State during the George W. Bush administration.

His talk was titled “Law and the Use of Force - Challenges for the Next President”. 

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In 2015, the fifth annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law was delivered by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman at Google.

His talk was titled “Technology and Optimism for the Future”. 

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In 2013, the fourth annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law was delivered by Justice Stephen Breyer, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

His talk was titled “The Magna Carta”. A conversation followed with Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent at The New York Times. The event was hosted by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

In 2012, the third annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law centered a conversation between Baroness Helena Kennedy and Anne-Marie Slaughter. 

Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent at The New York Times, moderated their discussion, which was titled “Conversation at the Court".

The event was hosted by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

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In 2011, the second annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law was delivered by Harold Hongju Koh, a leading expert in public and private international law, national security law, and human rights. 

The title of his talk was “An American International Law?”

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In 2010, the inaugural annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture on the Rule of Law was delivered by the internationally renowned jurist Richard Goldstone.

His talk was titled “The Rule of Law - Indispensable Pre-Requisite for Democracy”. 

Justice Goldstone was a friend of Lloyd's and first attended Salzburg Global at this invitation. 

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Ron Clifton (1936-2021) was an ardent and loyal supporter of American Studies programs at Salzburg Global for nearly 30 years. 

In 1992, Ron was instrumental in securing a major grant from the United States Information Agency, which created Salzburg Global’s American Studies Center. Ron served as the Center’s founder and director between 1994 and 1996 and played an important role in the series of 32 American Studies Center programs between 1992 and 2003. 

In 2003, Ron helped establish the Salzburg Seminar American Studies Association (SSASA), and over 15 years worked closely with Salzburg Global to design and implement sixteen SSASA symposia. 

Over 25 years, Ron served on the Faculty, or as Chair, of more than 20 American Studies programs. In 2017, Ron and Gwili Clifton created the “Clifton Scholarship in American Studies,” supporting an annual scholarship in American Studies. 

Ron was the retired associate vice president of Stetson University and retired counselor in the Senior Foreign Service of the United States. He was also a member of the SSASA Advisory Board. 

2025 - Candace Rondeaux

2024 - Margaret Huang

2023 - Tracey Meares

2022 - Heinz Ickstadt

2021 - Damon Coletta

2020 - Edward (Ted) Widmer

2019 - Reinhard Heinisch

2018 - Christopher Bigsby, Inaugural Lecturer

Bailey Morris-Eck was commissioner of Maryland Public Broadcasting and a trustee of American Funds. She was the former co-chair and founder of the International Women’s Media Foundation and a senior correspondent for the London Financial News. 

As a senior associate of the Reuters Foundation, Bailey launched its first international policy debate on globalization. She also served as vice president of the Brookings Institution and was a senior fellow of the Institute for International Economics where she launched its policy journal, International Economic Insights. 

She served as an adviser in both the Carter and Clinton Administrations. Bailey served as U.S. economics correspondent for both the Independent (London) and the Times of London and was a national correspondent for the Washington Star. 

As well as serving on Salzburg Global's Board of Directors, Bailey also served on the editorial boards of the German Marshall Fund and the European Institute. She was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

2025 - Sanjeev Chaterjee

2024 - Roman Gerodimos

2023 - Pablo Martínez Zárate

2022 - Susan Moeller

2018 - Naja Nielsen

2016 - Henry Jenkins

2015 - David Hawker

2014 - Najib Sharifi

2013 - David Runnalls

2012 - Renee Hobbs

2011 - Dana Priest

2011 - Ewald Nowotny

2009 - James Kolbe

2008 - Paul Volcker

2006 - Kenneth Lieberthal

2005 - Pascal Lamy

2004 - Bill Emmot, Inaugural Lecturer

Jacques Lucien Jean Delors was born in 1925. A French economist and European statesman, he became president of the European Commission in 1985 and served until 1995. 

Beginning in the 1940s, he held a series of posts in French banking and state planning, eventually becoming an adviser to Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas in 1969. 

In 1974, he joined the French Socialist Party, and from 1979 to 1981, he served in the European Parliament. Under President François Mitterand, Jacques served as economics and finance minister from 1981 to 1983 and economics, finance, and budget minister from 1983 to 1984, helping to revive the French economy. 

In 1985, he became president of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Community, now the European Union. With British commissioner Lord Cockfield, he crafted and won the approval of the Single European Act (1986), which laid the groundwork for the creation of a single European Community market in 1993. 

Mr. Delors also oversaw the transformation of the European Community into the European Union, which moved the member nations toward a single currency and greater cooperation on defense.

2021 - Rob Patalano, Andrew Sheng, Sergio Werlang, Thomas Wieser, Ellen Zentner (Moderated by Dominik Treeck)

2020 - Erinda Fino and Dominic Hall

2014 - Johannes Hahn

2013 - Ambassador Heinrich Kreft

2008 - Danilo Türk

2006 - Benita Ferrero-Waldner

2004 - Dominique Moïsi

2003 - Franz Vranitzky, Inaugural Lecturer
 

Ithiel de Sola Pool, born in 1917, was a pioneer in the development of social science and network theory. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1952, and joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty in 1953, where he was the first chair of the political science department and a founder of the Center for International Studies. 

Ithiel remained a leader of MIT’s political science and international programs until his death in 1984. He edited the seminal work, The Handbook of Communication (1973), and his reputation as a leading authority on the social and political impact of communications technology was extended with such publications as Forecasting and Telephone (1983), and Communication Flows: A Census of Japan and the US (1984). 

His renowned works Technologies of Freedom (1983) and Technologies without Borders (1990) were defining studies of communications and human freedom, and visionary accounts of the ways in which emerging digital technologies might transform social and political life. 

Ithiel served on three faculties of Salzburg Global sessions: Session 45, American Society, in 1956; Session 77, American Foreign Policy, in 1962; and Session 203, Development, Communication and Social Change, in 1981.

2023 - Robert Putnam

2019 - Anastassia Lauterbach

2018 - Daniela Rea

2017 - Robin Wright 

2015 - Lucio Mesquita Filho

2013 - Eric Gordon

2012 - Neil MacGregor, Nazia Hussain, Anwar Akhtar and Yousif al-Khoei 

2012 - Charles M. Sennott and Dana Priest

2009 - Stephen Jukes

2007 - Christopher Mohn

2005 - William Edwards

2003 - José-Maria Figueres Olsen, Inaugural Lecturer

Oscar Henry Brandon was born on March 9, 1916, in Liberec, in former Czechoslovakia, and studied at Prague and Lausanne Universities. 

He began his career with the Sunday Times (London) in 1939, serving as a war correspondent in North Africa and Western Europe from 1943 to 1945; Paris correspondent to 1946; roving diplomatic correspondent to 1949; and Washington correspondent (later, chief American correspondent) from 1949 until he retired in 1983. Henry concurrently served as associate editor of the Sunday Times during a significant period of his time with the Times and was the recipient of numerous journalistic awards. 

A naturalized British subject, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1985 by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1970, Henry married Mabel Hobart Wentworth, who directed corporate programming for the Ford Motor Company, served as social secretary in the Reagan White House, and is on staff at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts. It is through her generosity that Salzburg Global now houses a collection of Henry Brandon’s books.

2023 - Timothy Snyder

2018 - Charlie Savage

2014 - Gennady Burbulis

2013 - Myles Bremner

2012 - Wolfgang Schüssel

2011 - Claude Kieffer

2010 - Mark Ellis

2009 - John C. Kornblum, Ewald Nowotny, Jan Urban, and Franz Vranitzky

2008 - François Heisbourg

2007 - Beate Winkler

2006  - Erika Mann

2005 - William Drozdiak

2004 - Anne Sloman

2003 - Jay T. Harris

2002 - Tony Judt

2001 - Lord David Hannay, GCMG

2000 - Helen Wallace

1999 - Eva Nowotny

1998 - John C. Kornblum

1997 - Dominique Moïsi

1996 - Claus-Dieter Ehlermann

1995 - R. Spencer Oliver, Esq.

1994 - The Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Palliser, Inaugural Lecturer