Loukas Tsoukalis was born in Athens. He studied economics and international relations at the University of Manchester, the College of Europe in Bruges, and the University of Oxford where he obtained his doctoral degree and taught for many years. He returned home as Professor of European Integration at the University of Athens and was subsequently elected as the first holder of the Eleftherios Venizelos Chair at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. He was also head of the economics department of the College of Europe. He has held visiting professorships at the European University Institute in Florence, King’s College London, and the Kennedy School at Harvard University. He has advised former presidents of the European Commission and the European Council. He is now Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po), Emeritus Professor of the University of Athens, and President of the board of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Greece’s leading think tank. Author of many articles and books translated into several European languages. In 2021, Oxford University Press published a Festschrift in his honor with contributions by leading personalities from academia and politics across Europe. His latest book Europe's Coming of Age was published by Polity Press in 2023.

Abstract:

Preparing for a World of rapid Change, huge Uncertainty and growing Threats

We live in a rapidly changing and in many ways threatening world. The geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting, while international rules are crumbling, War is back on two fronts in Europe’s immediate neighborhood. Security concerns increasingly take over from economic efficiency considerations and global supply chains risk being undone. So is globalization in its (neo)liberal version. Meanwhile, defense expenditures are rising fast. Where will the money come from? And can we give peace a chance?

New technological revolutions create huge opportunities for humankind, but they also pose major threats for democracy, social cohesion and individual freedoms. Who will decide on the main trade-offs? Innovators, markets or politics?

Climate change presents an existential challenge for our planet: we keep being reminded by the overwhelming majority of scientists, alas also by recurring extreme weather phenomena. Yet, reconciling long-term benefits with short-term costs has always been a difficult problem to handle for our democratic systems; so is the distribution of costs.

More of the big challenges facing us are global and much of the economic power in today’s world is global as well. But politics remains mostly national and local. Power asymmetries are enormous and growing, while societies become more unequal and fragmented. Governability becomes a major challenge in itself and so is the preservation of the liberal democratic order.

What is the meaning of active citizenship, global or national, in this brave, new world? And how do we prepare younger generations for rapid change, huge uncertainty and growing threats coming from different directions?