[Ideas] Helen Thompson: Disorder, hard times in the 21st century

DISORDER, HARD TIMES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

A salon with economist Helen Thompson

 Ideas  / Fri 23 Sept / 6:30 - 8:30 PM

The 21st century has brought a powerful tide of geopolitical, economic, and democratic shocks. Political economist Helen Thompson gives an eye-opening account of how the Covid-19 crisis blew apart decades-old fault-lines in Western democracies, the US-China relationship, NATO and the EU. Thompson offers an insightful and unsettling global account of this present political moment.

Weaving together three strands – the geopolitics of energy, the evolution of the world economy and the changing political landscape in Europe, Thompson offers a unique history that rivetingly traces the past decade’s political shocks to their roots. She explains how in the years of political disorder prior to the pandemic the disruption in each of these strands became one big story. She shows how much of this turbulence originated in problems generated by fossil-fuel energies, and explains why as the green transition takes place the long-standing predicaments energy invariably shapes will remain in place.

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