Weidenfeld Debates

For more information on past and forthcoming Weidenfeld Debates please visit: www.weidenfelddebates.org

The Weidenfeld Debates is an annual programme of public debates, organised by the Scholars themselves, focusing on major questions in contemporary international public policy. 

In planning the debates, the Scholars organise themselves into teams, each charged with drawing up a programme, inviting speakers, overseeing their travel arrangements, advertising the event, and managing the (limited) budget.

The experience enables the Scholars to cultivate their own professional networks at home as well as in the academic, media and policy communities in Europe and the US; provides them with an opportunity to learn event management skills and allows them to contribute in a very personal and substantive way to the intellectual life of the University.

Beginning in 2009-2010, the Weidenfeld Debates will be united by an annual overarching theme. This theme will provide a framework that ties the debates together and enables a multi-pronged examination of the subject at hand. In 2010 the topic will be the ‘Shift of Power’ and the debates will be focusing on Climate Change, Human Rights and Security and Terrorism in South East Asia.