Co-founded by the Tocqueville Foundation and Le Figaro, and co-organized with the Atlantic Council, the Conversations is an international intellectual conference.
Each year, at the Château de Tocqueville, 200 speakers and participants from all over the world debate the challenges that our democracies are increasingly facing.
The Tocqueville Conversations were born out of the convergence of four key elements: an acute political understanding of the depth of the crisis Western democracies are facing, both in the US and in Europe; a urgent civic need to move beyond the dogmatic comfort governing elites have entertained, to address our problems and look for solutions; the renewed awareness of the immediate relevance of Alexis de Tocqueville, the great liberal thinker of the Democratic age, who analyzed masterfully both the conditions, realities and risks inherent to Democratic systems, on both sides of the Atlantic; and lastly, the foresight of the Tocqueville Family, who saw in advance the symbolic significance of holding our Conversations at The Tocqueville Château, where the great thinker wrote his Magnus Opus, Democracy in America.
Our goals
Their joint enterprise will bring speakers for a taboo-free discussion at the Tocqueville Château, a symbolic place where the great work of the Normand philosopher of democracy in America was written. Who could be a better “intellectual sponsor” than this visionary, freedom-loving aristocrat who foresaw the inevitable advent of the democratic age, but identified, earlier than most, some of the perils that would weigh on it ?
Our discussion will break down in roundtables.
Opening of the conference by General Christopher G. Cavoli, NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe
Roundtable 1 – Democracy Under Threat, where is the citizen?
Roundtable 2 – The Citoyen-Soldat, Engaging Citizens in National Security
Conversation – A Mayor in Battle, with Vitali Klitschko
Roundtable 3 – Citizens and Religion
Conversation – Citizens and Populisme, from revolution to submission
Opening by Hervé Morin, President of the Normandy Region
Conversation – Citizens and Populisme, from revolution to submission
Conversation – Citizens, Civil Society and Philanthropy
Conversation – between Edouard Philippe, Bernard Cazeneuve & Norbert Röttgen
Roundtable 4 – Citizens vs. IA?
Conversation – Citizens vs. Dictatorship
Roundtable 5 – Education, a major lever for the emergence/construction of Citizenship
After exploring in recent years, the crisis of Western democracy in the 21st century, the future of nations, the crisis of American democracy, and the Russian question in the age of Putin’s war, our 2023 edition will focus on the major upheavals that Europe is facing today.
The war in Ukraine has already changed Europe. The return of Russian imperialism, the fragility of our democracies, the stunning emergence of Ukraine as a major force and the shift of Europe’s center of gravity to the East, all strongly underline the need for the Union to re-evaluate its common security architecture, its relationship with the United States, its vision of its eastern border, and to finally settle the question of Soviet totalitarianism that remained unresolved after 1991. In essence, we need to rethink Europe as well as the internal social contracts of our democracies.
Day 1 – Friday, June 30
Opening of the conference by Mr François Hollande, former French President and Madam Oleksandra Matviichuk, Nobel Peace Prize.
Roundtable 1 – The end of the myth of perpetual peace
Roundtable 2 – When Europe’s center of gravity shifts: Ukraine and Eastern Europe on the rise
Conversation – Energy in Europe, a conversation with Patrick Pouyanné
Roundtable 3 – US-Europe, the consequences of the war in Ukraine
Conversation – Tocqueville and us
Day 2 – Saturday, July 1st
Opening by Mr. Olivier Costa de Beauregard, Chairman, Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault
Roundtable 4 – The confluence of the Western crisis and Putin’s war
Conversation – Europe and Putin, the roots of the fascination, a conversation between Mathieu Bock-Côté and Sylvain Tesson
Roundtable 5 – Rethink the relationship between Nation and Union
Roundtable 6 – De-Sovietizing the past, facing the neo-totalitarian relapse?
Opening by Mr Alain Juppé, former French Prime Minister
Roundtable 1 – Anatomy of the Russian Invasion
Roundtable 2 – The West: anatomy of a strategic blindness
Roundtable 3 – Ukraine: Awakening of a Nation, lessons from a resistance
Conversation – Anatomy of a crisis: Views from China and Latin America
Opening by Christoph Franz, Chairman of Roche, and US Ambassador in France Denise Bauer
Roundtable 4 – Western democracies’ response to the war
Conversation between General James Mattis & Admiral Edouard Guillaud – The Future of the Alliance
Roundtable 5 – Neither peace nor war, propaganda vs. truth
Conversation between Laure Mandeville and Mikhaïl Khodorkhovsky
Roundtable 6 – Russia-Europe, How do we get out of the 100 years’ war ?
You can find the program in French here, and in English here.
But in 2019, we wanted to address the crisis of democracy from a different perspective, by focusing our gaze on « The Future of Nations ». For years, nations seemed condemned to become ever weaker. The nation was a dying concept, destined to melt away.
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3rd Edition, September 17-18, 2021
Please find the programme of the 2021 edition of the Conversations in English here, and in French here.
The replay of the conferences is also available on our Youtube channel by following this link for the French version, and this one for the English version.
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