XXIV Board of Directors The XXIV Board of Directors of the Club of Madrid will be held in Pamplona (Spain) on April 20-21 with the support of the Regional Government of Navarra. The major decision to be taken during the meeting will be the election of a new Secretary General for the organization, who shall be joining the Secretariat in May. This meeting was canceled due to volcanic ash.
Our Mission The
core mission of the GFNA is to contribute to the strengthening
and spread of democracy and economic liberalization through a
program of advocacy, research, and education. GFNA
assembles the world’s most innovative experts to clarify the
myriad of issues which all nations confront, and to develop
sustainable policies. A non-partisan organization, GFNA
examines the social, economic, and technological forces that
influence democratization.
Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Twenty years after the Berlin Wall, Northeastern Professors T. Anthony Jones, Executive Director of The Gorbachev Foundation, and Harlow Robinson, professor of language, literature and culture, discuss Russia then and now.
Under the theme "The Political Dimensions of the World Economic Crisis" over 100 former and current Heads of State and Government and economics and social affairs experts convened to discuss the challenges of the current crisis, challenges that are systemic and far from limited to financial institutions. The gathering was an unprecedented opportunity to rethink the entrenched ways in which leaders have been doing things and to promote reforms to achieve a more democratic model.
The Forum was a subcomponent of the Club of Madrid’s Shared Societies Project, a two-year initiative designed in response to a call from leaders worldwide for options and action plans to address the challenge of coexistence that every society faces. The event was hosted by the Club of Madrid and the City of Rotterdam, with the support of the Comunidad de Madrid.
Under the theme “Democratizing Energy: Geopolitics and Power”, Members and Advisors of the Club of Madrid joined high-level representatives of governments and intergovernmental organisations, the private sector and civil society from more than 20 countries to discuss current energy concerns.
What role can democratic leadership can play in meeting the challenges posed by energy security, efficiency, governance and access.
Spanish Senate, Madrid
October 20-21, 2006
The Club of Madrid’s V Annual Conference will be celebrated October 20-21 in the Spanish Senate and will focus on the role that democratic leadership can play in meeting the challenges posed by energy security, efficiency, governance and access. Under the theme The Challenges of Energy and Democratic Leadership, participants in this annual meeting will analyze how democratic political leadership can and should address the global energy crisis in the short-term and build a new paradigm for sustainable energy security in the future.
Unfinished Business. What has been learned and how can it be applied?
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague
November 10-12, 2005
“This year’s General Assembly and Annual Conference offers us an excellent opportunity to share experiences and learn directly from those people who have been involved in processes of transition and have played a very important role in them, learn from their good actions and also from their mistakes” notes Fernando Henrique Cardoso, president of the Club of Madrid and former president of Brazil.
Under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King of Spain
Madrid, Spain
8-11 March 2005
Ten bombs exploded on four trains during rush hour in Madrid. More than 190 people died, almost 2,000 were injured. It was one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in Europe in recent history. As in the United States of America on September 11, 2001, it was an attack on freedom and democracy by an international network of terrorists. One year on, Madrid will be the setting for a unique conference, the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security. Its purpose is to build a common agenda on how the community of democratic nations can most effectively confront terrorism, in memory of its victims from across the world.
Palace of the Lower House of Parliament, Madrid, Spain
November 11-13, 2004
“Democracy must not be sacrificed to combat terrorism”. The words of the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson were the succinct expression of the efforts of deliberation carried out by the participants of the III General Assembly of the Club of Madrid, which took place this weekend in the Palace of the Lower House of Parliament in the Spanish capital, under the title “Democracies in Danger”. More than twenty former heads of state and government, expert analysts and scholars, joined together to study the threats which confront democracies world wide, including even consolidated democracies, as well as recommendations to reduce their effects.
The second annual General Assembly took place in Madrid on November 1-2, 2003, to assess the relationship between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and countries undergoing democratic transition and consolidation that face severe financial crises during the past dozen years.
This international conference sought to decipher East Asia’s newly emerging power configuration and its interaction with the triple forces of globalization, democratization and regionalization in shaping foreign policy. The objective was to link scholars with practitioners in order to identify possible trouble spots and to seek a peaceful way to resolve national differences. Special attention was given to the regional and global problems posed by North Korea's nuclear policy.
The Gorbachev Foundation hosted a two-day conference on corporate governance and transparency for doing business and investing in the transitioning economies of the Former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. Participants included an international group of academics, business practitioners, and government and nonprofit-sector officials. A major mission of the Gorbachev Foundation is to foster democracy around the world. Effective corporate governance practices and the surrounding infrastructure of legislation and judicial and administrative enforcement are consistent with democratic principles of openness, fairness, access to information, and informed decision making. All of these promote trust and ethical business behavior, which are supportive of democratic principles and action.
The First General Assembly gathered in Madrid to reaffirm the fundamental importance of the value of democracy. Democracy embodies the hopes of humanity. It outlines a procedure for political work. It sets out a way of shared, common human existence, respectful of our differences, yet effective in making decisions.
Organizers: Fundacion para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Dialogo Exterior (FRIDE), Spain, and the Gorbachev Foundation of North America.
Madrid, Spain
October 19-20 and 26-27, 2001
Since the end of World War II, the most remarkable development in human affairs has been the spread of democracy throughout the world. The end of colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s, the end of authoritarian rule in industrially developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s, and the rapid move to democratization following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold war at the start of the 1990s, have all resulted in a significant increase in the number of countries that can be considered democracies of one kind or another.
This conference drew together senior politicians, academics, policy makers, experts in computing, broadcasting and the Internet, industrialists, consumers and citizens to discuss critically and in depth - and in a neutral environment - the challenges and opportunities involved in creating and sustaining electronic government.
The Roundtable meeting brought together people from the spheres of government, diplomacy, policy development, the military, journalism, science, and research, for the purpose of evaluating the current situation and making recommendations for future policy and action.
Organized by GFNA and King's College, Cambridge University
Cambridge University, UK
30 March-April 1, 2000
The conference brought together well-known experts on the societies of Russia, the Soviet Union, and East Europe to consider the ways in which the years of socialist rule were affecting post-socialist transitions.
Conference to investigate and to evaluate the implications of new technologies for political participation around the world.
Boston, MA USA
March 6-7, 1999
The first in a series of events and activities investigating and evaluating the implications of new technologies for political participation around the world. New technologies have not only changed the way in which people learn about political events and crises, but have become a part of the way in which political events develop and play themselves out. From the dissidents in China, to East Germans learning about the fall of the Berlin Wall, to reactions to the Russian coup, to the revolt in Indonesia, to the creation of electronic debates for the new Welsh National Assembly, and to the Starr Report and the issues facing the U.S. Presidency, new technologies have been central and powerful forces.
Hosted by The Gorbachev Foundation of North America and Northeastern University's College of Business, the purpose of the meeting was to offer alternatives to businesses and to work toward a global economy.
The purpose of the project was to identify the threats to national and international stability that come from failures to adjust to economic globalization.
The topic under discussion: The Global Economy: A Challenge to National Economies. Specifically, as trans-national economic organizations become more important players in the world economy, and as developments in the world economy have ever greater and more immediate consequences for national economies, governments are faced with a growing number of constraints on their actions.
Mikhail Gorbachev: The Ice Has Broken A remarkable sequence of events in April has turned the spotlight on the subject of nuclear disarmament and global security. I am referring to the signing by Presidents Obama and Medvedev of the New START treaty, the presentation of the Obama administration’s nuclear doctrine and the nuclear security summit meeting in Washington attended by leaders of several dozen countries. Read the complete story
here.
Gorbachev's revolution NOT ONE OF the grey men who assembled this week 25 years ago to pick a successor to Constantin Chernenko, the greyest of all leaders of the Soviet Union, had any idea what they would set in train. Within hours of his death the Politburo had earmarked the youngest among their number, Mikhail Gorbachev (54), to become the last secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He would later become the first and last President of the Soviet Union and, despite himself, its gravedigger. Read the complete story
here.
Wim Kok, New President of the Club of Madrid Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1994-2002), Wim Kok, to preside over world's largest forum of former Heads of State, after being elected by the Club de Madrid's General Assembly on 12 November 2009. Two new Vice Presidents were elected for the period 2009-2012: Jennifer Shipley (New Zealand) and César Gaviria (Colombia). Read the complete story
here.
Mikhail Gorbachev’s Letter of Congratulations to President Obama I congratulate you on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I am convinced that it is the right decision, which significantly reinforces our family of Nobel laureates. Your efforts have helped to bring about a significant change in the international climate. I feel close affinity to your vision of the global world and of relations among nations. Implementing it will require strong will, statesmanship and mastery of communication. It will also require support from Americans and from men and women of good will throughout the world. Read the complete story
here.
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