Opening of the 17th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club and of the First Session

What do societies expect, and what are they afraid of in the new era? And what obligations does this impose on the states? On October 20, 2020 the Valdai Discussion Club opened its 17th Annual Meeting with a session titled “Struggling With Pandemics: How the World Is Composing Itself.”

The year 2020 has set up a unique experiment with humanity. The most profound changes are taking place in the very conditions in which societies exist, rather than simply in politics or international relations. Total openness and universal mobility, which we had come to take for granted in recent decades, are being replaced by a feeling of uncertainty and various multiplying risks. The role of the states in ensuring safety is growing dramatically amid fears that the notion of privacy may be relegated to the past.

Speakers:
Tsogtbaatar Damdin, Member of the Parliament of Mongolia; Head of Mongolian delegation, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly;

Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies (Sofia); Permanent Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna);

Vadim Radaev, First Vice Rector, National Research University Higher School of Economics;

Samir Saran, President, Observer Research Foundation (New Delhi).

Moderator: Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club.

The 17th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club will be held in Moscow from 20 to 22 October 2020. This year's theme is “The Lessons of the Pandemic and the New Agenda: How to Turn the World Crisis Into an Opportunity for the World.” For the first time in the history of the Club, the entire programme of the Annual Valdai meeting will be open to the media and the general public.

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