Berlin March 18th-19th, 2025
Democracy, liberty and the survival of mankind were the major themes that, between March 18th and 19th 2025, brought over 200 international personalities – notable heads of state and of government, Nobel Prize laureates, pioneers in AI development, philosophers and artists – to Berlin for the second edition of the World Forum on the Future of Democracy, AI/Tech and Humankind, where they took part in a series of plenary and panel discussions that sought solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing the modern world.
Opening session of the World Forum: applied discussions on how to save democracy and the future of the globe
At the event, the President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Professor Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania 1996-2000, was one among many notable international personalities attending the Forum’s discussions. President Constantinescu was invited to take the stage and address the Forum’s inaugural session, alongside other resonant leaders and visionaries such as William Jefferson Clinton (President of the United States of America, 1992-2000), Hillary Clinton (US Secretary of State, 2009-2013), Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia (President of the Pontifical Academy for Life), Moncef Marzouki (President of Tunisia, 2011-2014), Vjosa Osmani (President of Kosovo), Ehud Olmert (Prime-minister of Israel, 2006-2009), Nasser al-Qudwa (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority 2005-2006), Bertie Ahern (Taoiseach of Ireland, 1997-2008), Natalia Gavriliță (Prime-minister of the Republic of Moldova, 2021-2023), Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, Filipino journalist, human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, Dr David Sinclair (Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School) and Geoffrey Robertson KC, one of the world’s leading international human rights lawyers.
Their addresses to the Forum’s opening session tackled themes that highlighted the importance of democratic values, and warned of the counterassault now poised by authoritarian regimes. They also touched upon reconciliation, viable solutions for peace in war-torn areas and the importance of the global edification of a culture of peace through education, but also spoke about the benefits and dangers associated with cutting-edge technological developments in both AI and medicine.
In having agreed to take part in the Forum and its associated discussions, the Clintons also aimed to show that, in spite of recent developments, America as a whole has not yet lost its attachment for and esteem in which it holds the fundamental democratic values of Western civilization.
Panel discussions: world-renowned experts debate the present and future of mankind
The World Forum’s 50 parallel panel discussions saw some of the world’s leading experts, policymakers, analysts and activists come together to discuss an extensive list of the challenges facing the globe today, from questions on the fundamental aspects of the Western democratic system (Why Democracy? A Philosopher’s Panel; How to Protect the Division of Powers as the Foundation of Democracy; State Secularism as the Basis of Democracy and Human Rights) to issues of national and cultural identity (When does the quest for cultural homogeneity turn into discrimination?; The Borderline between Legitimate Self-Determination and Separatism), current global politics (Trump 2025; Russia after Putin; Israel and Palestine; Afghanistan under Taliban rule; How to strengthen democracy on the Korean Peninsula?; Africa’s Governance and Development: The Role of Foreign Aid and China’s Influence), justice and human rights (How to Move Towards Climate Justice; The Role of Dissidents; How to End Extreme Poverty by 2030?; How to Define Crimes against Democracy; The Crime of Aggression: How to Hold Heads of State Accountable for Oppression, War and Mass Killings?; Political Correctness in Liberal Societies - New Rules for Language, Humour, and Behaviour in the 21st Century; The Language of Demagogues: Ethical and Legal Borderlines; The Proposed Crime of Ecocide), technology and artificial intelligence (Algorithms, Social Media and Digital Life; Big Tech and Social Media: Accountability, Democracy, Rules and Opportunities; HAL Says Hello - An AI Charter for Governments; My AI Teacher: Education for all of Humanity; The Race to Space: Who Will Control Global Communication & Satellites?), economics, the environment and social security (Green Jobs and Breakthrough Technologies; Fair taxes and safe pensions - a global standard; World Economic Crises Cost Lives – How to Control National Debts and the Stability of Banks?; A Global Job Agency for Remote Work - the End of Unemployment?; The Next Agricultural Revolution: Toward a food system that is good for people & the planet; The World Economy and Trade: The US, Europe, China) and the future of humankind (New Rules: Identity and Gender; Preventing Future Pandemics; X-Men: Where Do We Set the Borderlines of Genetics?; Methuselah and Lazarus: The End of Sickness and Death?; Dreams of Electric Sheep and Blade Runners: the Rights of AI, Robots and Definition of Life; Brain Interface Technology- Supermen and Cyborgs?; Exploring Humanity's Future Beyond Earth: Space Colonisation, Existential Risks, and the Search for Life).
How to make peace? Conflict resolution formulas
Professor Emil Constantinescu, President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization and initiator of the Levant Initiative for Global Peace, took the floor during a panel discussion on How to make peace: Conflict resolution formulas, where he was joined by Lord John Alderdice (First Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998-2004), Joseph Beilin (Minister of Justice of the State of Israel, 1999-2001), Samer Sinijlawi and Gershon Baskin (co-chairs of the Israeli-Palestinian Alliance for the Two-States). Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and an expert in corporate social responsibility and human rights, attended the discussions via Zoom.
The panel discussions focused on the region of the Near East, with the main thrust of discussions focusing on the potential opportunity for the creation of a confederation framework, modelled after the European Union, which could provide a platform by which to overcome regional communitarian, identitarian and religious grievances.
In his intervention, President Constantinescu drew attention to the fact that we must not base our projections for our next steps on a broad spectrum of transient and ideologically marred political agendas, but instead on an anticipation of the future predicated on a comprehensive knowledge of the past and a deep understanding of present context and realities in the field.
In keeping with the format of the World Forum on the Future of Democracy, AI/Tech and Humankind, the panel discussions were followed by a lawmaking workshop where attendees and panel speakers attempted to outline the legal framework that might implement the proposed solutions. During the discussions, continuing a edifying example presented by Lord John Alderdice on the cessation of violence in Northern Ireland, President Constantinescu stressed that, whether we like it or not, true reconciliation can only occur when it is sincerely proposed by the oppressed to their former oppressors, highlighting the example of reconciliation between the victims of Communist repression and their torturers, which proved essential for Romania’s later Euro-Atlantic integration.
The Democracy Gala: honouring the world’s brightest visionaries
The Democracy Gala, the keynote event of the World Forum, honoured a number of notable international personalities for their accomplishments in their respective fields. The Guardians of Democracy Award was presented to Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa for their continued efforts of championing and defending the foundational principles of democracy in today’s world. The Noble Genius Prize was presented to Professor David Sinclair for his scientific and medical breakthroughs in the prevention and counteracting of human aging, while the Noble Prize for Humanity and Global Impact was presented to Sir Richard Branson for his continued support and advocacy of philanthropic initiatives.
Laudation addresses for Bill Clinton as the Peacemaker of the Century
In light of his tireless efforts to implement a culture of peace through education following the conclusion of his term as head of state, President Emil Constantinescu was called upon to deliver a Laudation address for President William Jefferson Clinton, who was slated to receive the Peacemaker of the Century Award for his role in stopping wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and Timor-Leste.
President Constantinescu was joined in delivering a Laudation address by Vjosa Osmani (President of Kosovo), Bertie Ahern (Taoiseach of Ireland, 1997-2008), John Alderdice (First of the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998-2004), Ehud Olmert (Prime-minister of Israel, 2006-2009), Nasser al-Qudwa (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, 2005-2006), Christian Schmidt, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, representing the Vatican.
Remarks of President Constantinescu:
Dear friends,
We are gathered here today to celebrate one of the greatest personalities of recent history: President William Jefferson Clinton. His character fortunately blends:
- The qualities of an erudite intellectual, forged in the elite academic milieus of Georgetown, Yale and Oxford;
- The qualities of a visionary leader who spearheaded new concepts in international relations, such as the Partnership for Peace that helped bring peace to an Eastern Europe that had been torn by bloody conflicts for centuries, or the idea of Crimes against Humanity, which created a legal framework of responsibility for the deaths of tens of millions under Communist dictatorships;
- He embodies the qualities of a true statesman, capable of taking the right decisions at the right time, even in crisis situations, as exemplified by his eminent role in the Dayton Accords.
- But, above all, he is a truly special individual, who remained impervious to any potential lust for power that his important position could induce; a man who knows how to listen, how to understand others, and how to show sincere compassion for the victims of abuse, whoever they might be.
His many speeches and books represent important documents for anyone trying to understand recent written history. However, we may also speak of a „lived history” that he shares with his contemporaries, and which I wish to share with you today – not only as a survivor of those times, but also as a duty to the family of the first democratic leaders of Eastern Europe with whom he collaborated, and who have unfortunately since passed away.
The distinction between dictators who institute oppression and cause conflicts and wars, and democratic leaders that cultivate a closer understanding between people – those we call, “peacemakers” – illustrates a different relationship between Power and Destiny.
Destiny has led a young man from Arkansas to the heights to the US Presidency, at a pivotal time of a rupture in history: the peaceful internal dissolution of the Soviet Empire, the end of the Cold War and the expansion of the space of liberty, where millions of people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia suddenly found themselves to be the subject of history, not its object.
Two millennia after the Pax Romana of Augustus Caesar, a new Pax Americana was coming into force. In this now unipolar world, immense power was now under the control of the President of the United States.
How would this young President manage it?
Unlike the Pax Romana, which had been instituted under an imperial regime through the military subjugation of Rome’s adversaries, the peoples of the former Communist dictatorships viewed the Pax Americana as a powerful guarantee of their new-found freedoms.
Would the American President use this new historic context to increase and consolidate his power? or in order to fulfil the hopes of those who believed in the ideal of a Universal Peace based on truth and justice?
For me, President Clinton’s choice validated the hopes I, myself, had placed in him. In 1994, three years before my election as President of Romania, I had been invited to a Prayer Breakfast organized by the US Congress. In his address to those present, president Clinton had spoken with unexpected piousness of the sole greater power that lies above, irrespective of the names given to it by mankind’s various religious confessions. From among the hundreds of participants, six were chosen to attend a personal meeting with President Clinton: one Hindi Indian, one Muslim Pakistani, one Orthodox Serbian and one Catholic Croatian, one Reformed Hungarian and one Orthodox Romanian. I had the opportunity to look President Clinton in the eye, and shake his hand. I realised, then, that he is a man who says what he thinks, and does what he says. I relied upon his personal conscience, and on his natural capacity to transfer it to the collective consciousness by using the institutional resilience and strength of that superior type of societal organization that Western democratic civilization represented.
Although the unipolar world of the final decade of the 20th century quickly became, after 9/11, a multipolar world with an anarchic periphery that was constantly being eroded by the global threats of terrorism and by repeated national, regional and global crises that revived the general population’s natural tendency towards violence and authoritarianism, President Clinton’s continuous efforts to transform violent conflicts into peaceful cooperation will remain a fundamental landmark for future generations.
President Clinton is one of those rare leaders in the history of the world who used their power to transform their personal Destiny into a personal Mission – the Mission of a leader to place himself in service to Humanity. In his fortunate case, his wielding of Power was not tied to financial considerations or political gains, but to humanity as a whole, underpinned by his strong belief in fundamental moral values.
After the conclusion of his presidential terms, William Jefferson Clinton remained a tireless defender of citizens’ rights, a devoted activist of humanitarian causes, and a peacemaker who gained broad acceptance due to the respect he earned throughout his life and career.
Today’s turbulent and confused world needs him. We wish him great health and success in all his future endeavours. Looking forward, our wish to him is like that which the young student in law and political science received during his time in university: Vivat, crescat, floreat, President Clinton!
Remarks by President Clinton:
Thank you for this great honour.
Normally, I think former presidents shouldn’t get honours. I think the job was honour enough. But I love this thing; so, thank you. I thank you for the recognition that you also gave to Hillary. We are about to celebrate – if I make it to October – our 50th wedding anniversary. When we started, all of our friends thought she’d made a terrible mistake; they thought she had gone to the ends of the earth, to a place they never heard of, and wasted her time. But, I’m very proud of her, and I think we’ve had a good life, and I haven’t mentioned the fact that the most important part of our marriage is in the life of our daughter Chelsea, and our grandkids, and my wonderful son-in-law.
I wanted to be brief, but I also wanted to say just a couple of things. First of all, to all of you who have been honoured tonight, I thank you, and I ask you all to think about the fact that, if you try hard enough to do important things, you will be criticized, and you will fail, from time to time. Nobody succeeds all the time. I still, sometimes, wake up in the middle of the night, after all these years, missing Yitzhak Rabin and wondering what I could have done to make that peace stick. But, here’s what I know: I tried, and, as you said, I think a lot of what we did was worthwhile. And, in the four years after I left office, the mortality rate in the region was three times what it had been in the eight years that I served and worked for peace. Three times, the death rate for both Jews and Arabs, for the Palestinians and the Israelis. There’s a lesson there. Trying and failing is better than sitting on the sidelines, making no difference. I still think about that, too.
Not a week goes by that I don’t miss Nelson Mandela, and all the people I worked along the way with. I loved President Havel of Czechoslovakia. He strongly supported the expansion of NATO. I went back to Prague not very long ago, and I got a saxophone, made in Prague by a company that succeeded that which had made me a saxophone when I went there in 1995. So, now I have two. Havel joked that you can’t foresee, sometimes, the good things that happen out of difficulties. I’m an anti-Communist, but, during the Warsaw Pact years, when everything was planned, they assigned the Czech Republic to make the saxophones for all the military bands. And Havel said, “Now I have to make it in the private sector”. And so, he gave me a saxophone with its logo on it, and he said: “I expect you to play this in public, and promote Prague”. A lot of funny things happen along the way – even when you’re failing.
This is what I would like you to think about tonight. First, I love what you said about the importance of facts, and reason, and truth. But –I think about this all the time – in 2018, Hillary and I went to Hawaii, with our family, mostly to be with our grandchildren and our family’s friends. But we took a day and visited the telescopes that are on the top of the Big Island, especially the telescope which was the biggest in America. And we got to look into the Andromeda Galaxy. It was fascinating to me. But, I thought to myself: here we are, on this little tiny speck of dust, in a universe that is steadily expanding and already has billions of galaxies – not planets. And I asked the scientists that were there with us, when we came out of the telescopes – it was very cold, about 18 degrees, and they gave us some coffee and hot chocolate – and I asked: ‘Do you guys have any arguments, and differences of opinion, about the likelihood of life on other planets?’ He said: “Huge!” I asked: “How huge?” And he said: “Well, there are those of us who think it’s 85% likely, and those who think it’s 95%”. He added: “Since the Universe is 14 billion years old, and there’s so many galaxies, that’s a big number. But it’s a small difference.” And I thought to myself: What are we doing? Being small, and beating each other, and overestimating our massive differences, like they’re so much more important… And it’s making us so much worse. What is the matter with us? We’re just passing through. The Universe is 14 billion years old, the planet’s 4 billion years old, and there’s all these things happening, that are so big, and so small. When the good Doctor figures out how we’re going to live to be 150, without young people saying, “you look so good for a man your age” – it’s that last phrase that I hate – so, when you figure that out, most of the venom we spewed over each other will seem like the most insignificant thing.
When all of you were recounting what we tried to do, in the Balkans, in Northern Ireland, in other places, the thing that meant the most to me, and for which I can take no credit, is that you said I treated everybody with respect. And it meant the world to me, because that’s what I was raised to do. My mother, bless her soul, if she was still alive, and I was President, and I talked about people the way some people with political power do today – she would whip me, in public, for doing it. I ask you to think about that.
One night, I was sitting under a massive tree in Sri Lanka, at a dinner with all the leading officials, because they’d had that terrible tsunami and I was working to fix it along with President Bush Sr. I was sitting with this very handsome, grey-haired man, who was the leader of the Tamil Tigers, who were the Hindu group that we had on the terror list. They’d put him with me, for dinner, while President Bush sat with the leader of the Buddhist opposition to the President. We were talking about how we were going to rebuild, and he looked at me, and said: “You know, you never would take me off the terror list. But I like you anyway.” And I asked, “Why?” He answered, “Because I thought you cared about religious discrimination, I thought you cared about what we were going through.” And I thought, Dear God. That’s what I wanted people to think about America!
We are just passing through. Life is going by; and if we have learned anything, all of us here today, it is not only mean, cruel, and, sometimes, fatal to abuse power. It’s foolish. There is so much that we can do, but we have to do it together. A couple years ago, I lost a good friend of mine named Wilson, at the age of 90, who was probably the most famous ant scientist in the history of America. He was from Alabama, he went to MIT, and he was the first person who taught me, through his books, and I later got to know him, that the combined weight of all the ants on Earth exceeds the combined weight of all the people on Earth. That’s a nice little factoid. So, Wilson wrote a book called “The Social Conquest of Earth”, in which he said: “The thing I have learned is that the four most durable species that have ever lived, based on all the historical evidence, are ants, termites, bees and people.” And he said, “The interesting thing is that ants, termites and bees, as far as we know, have no consciousness. They have evolved to be durable through habits of cooperation. People have the greatest advantage, and the greatest handicap. They have consciousness, and a conscience. Their consciousness makes them more arrogant, and the conscience pulls them back from the brink of destruction before it’s too late. We think we’re smarter than we are, and we play all these silly games. We’re destroying species at the most rapid rate in the last 10000 years. Are we prepared to deal with the consequences, or do we just pretend they’re not there? And so, on and on.
So, even though he’d spent all these years warning people about this and the other thing, Wilson was betting that our conscience will carry us home. So, I’d like you to think about that tonight. Think about all of these wonderful people who have talked about the lives they have lived; all these people who have put their own lives at risk, and about how quickly life passes. And think about our own planet. How did we get so lucky? Who else is out there? Where are they? When will they be found? And, meanwhile, shouldn’t we do more to cooperate, and to define the terms of our interdependence in inclusive, positive terms, not in negative, destructive ones? That is what we have to teach people. If we can embrace that one lesson, all over the globe, and treat each other with greater decency and care, all the rest will be background music. And it will be a very pretty tune.
Thank you very much.
