Academics, students, filmmakers and a presidential adviser joined this year’s Ratiu Dialogues on democracy held in partnership with the London School of Economics’ think tank, LSE IDEAS.
Held at the Ratiu Conference Centre in Turda, and hosted by Ratiu Forum chairman, Nicolae Ratiu, the Sept. 9-11 event cemented its reputation as a hub for democracy that draws thinkers and bon viveurs from East and West. (More on that later).
LSE IDEAS
The conference was chaired by Prof. Michael Cox, a founding director of LSE IDEAS and a leading world expert on international affairs.
The event began with a screening of ‘the King’s War’ to mark 80 years since the late Romanian monarch staged a coup against Nazi-allied Marshal Ion Antonescu and took his country into the war on the side of the Allies. Filmmaker John Florescu and associate producer Dan Draghicescu are showing the film in Romanian towns to educate Romanians about their history.
Dialogues paid tribute to the late Prof. Christopher Coker, who died a year ago in Malta. In a sign of the respect he commanded, the last session, War & Order: Lessons from History discussed his unparalleled academic work on war and lifelong fascination with the topic which culminated with his 2021 book “Why War?”
Prof. Coker is described as “one of our most original and compelling thinkers on conflict” while his book “reflects on the Hobbesian impulse of ‘war of all against all’, a review says.Universul.net sat down with Prof. Cox after the conference to ask his impressions.
“The quality of the papers and the presentations overall… right across the board has been high. We’ve had a big variety of issues and topics we’ve addressed from what is pessimism, Europe on the brink, United States at a crossroads,” he enthused.
China
“We just had discussions on China (and the conference) covered a large part of what you might call the key international questions of our day,” he said. (Universul.net published the rest of the interview in which Prof. Cox discusses the U.S election, just hours before the Trump-Harris debate.)
Prof. Cox was encouraged by the turnout, which included speakers such as Florescu, the filmmaker, Prof. Alexander Evans OBE, who’s been an adviser to Britain’s prime minister and also led the UN Security Council expert group on Daesh, Al Qaida and the Taliban. Prof. Christopher Alder, LSE IDEAS director, presidential adviser, Sandra Pralong and Hugh Sandeman, a former international banker, journalist and head of the LSE IDEAS Global Strategies project from 2017-2023 were also speakers.
British Embassy
Dr. Rebecca Shah, the deputy head of mission at the British Embassy in Bucharest opened the conference which was also attended by the former UK Ambassador Andrew Noble, who’s on the board of the Ratiu Foundation.
“We had about 60 or 70 people here not only from Romania but from Poland Serbia from Bulgaria from the United Kingdom from from the United States.. I was also pleased that we did a good session yesterday on something we need to think a lot more about which is the global south,” Prof. Cox added.
“We had a great discussion on China and India within the framework of the global south so I think that contributed to the range of debate and range of discussion in terms of the purpose.”
Ratiu
“We had quite a few speakers from the the LSE IDEAS this time with their expertise which unites with the organizational capacity of the Ratiu Foundation and Forum. It’s part of the other things that LSE IDEAS has been doing or has done with Ratiu on journalism and history … part of a bigger package.. and it’s a great relationship to have.”
It was important to hold the conference in Romania, he said. The historical town of Turda where Romanian statesman and presidential candidate Ion Ratiu was born has become a hub for democracy, journalism mentoring and debates about regional and world history and politics. The conference center and guesthouse is the original Ratiu family home that was seized by the communists in the 1940s and only returned to the family many years after the 1989 revolution. Mr Ratiu’s house in Bucharest was ransacked in 1990 and miners broke into Parliament as he gave an address condemning days of violence in the capital which set back Romania’s path to democracy several years.
Hospitality
“I think think tanks in London .. might look across to the United States or might look to Germany or France.. no problem there but I think it’s extremely important to build that connection to Central and Eastern Europe in countries like Romania,” he concluded.
But it’s not just the debate that makes Dialogues unique in Romania. The event is equally appreciated for its hospitality, tastefully decorated rooms, and gastronomy (which include chandelier-lit banquets in the meadows outside Turda or at the town’s 19th century brewery), all the work of Pamela Ratiu, the Executive Director of the Ratiu Forum. The American manager has decades of experience of public relations and international hospitality management and was once named Woman of the Year in Romania.
Grappa
The late Prof. Coker told me that Mrs. Ratiu served the best quality Grappa he’d ever had the pleasure to sip at a conference. The fiery liquid lubricates post-dinner discussions on world politics that go on late into the night in the center’s fabled Executive Lounge.
Professor Christopher Coker who dedicated his life and brilliant mind to writing about war has died
