Current debate:

Immigration

Should people be free to choose the country in which they live?

Enter this debate

Day 5

of 8

June 18th 2018 to June 25th 2018

Representing the sides

Moderator

Lena Schipper, The Economist

Guest contributions to this debate:
America’s refugee policy is damaging to the world and to itself, says Donald Kerwin
Our response to the refugee crisis will be the measure of our humanity, writes Angelina Jolie

Read full statement

Yes

Jackie Stevens, Northwestern University

In the fantasy world, we create “nations” and imagine ourselves as ongoing parts of them to assuage our fears of death, even at the cost of millions of lives in war and inane policies that lock people up for movement without a pass. In the real world, we acknowledge our mortality, and use rationality so as to protect the planet and its inhabitants from the genuine harms of ignorance and avarice.

Read full statement

David Goodhart, Policy Exchange

It is one of the mistakes of the cosmopolitan worldview to assume that liberal institutions and successful societies (like those most The Economist readers live in) are part of the established heritage of all of humanity. They are not. They remain precious and the inheritance of only a minority of humans. It would be an act not of generosity but of extreme irresponsibility to jeopardise this inheritance by abolishing national borders.

Read full statement

Archived debates:

145

China and the West

Should the West worry about the threat to liberal values posed by China's rise?

Enter this debate

Debate Complete

June 8th 2018 to June 18th 2018

Representing the sides

Moderator

James Miles, The Economist

James Miles is The Economist‘s China Editor and former Beijing Bureau Chief. Before he joined the paper in 2001, he reported on China for the BBC for 12 years. He has also been an editor and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has written several special reports for The Economist on China and Taiwan, including "China in the World", published in May.

Yes

Minxin Pei, Claremont McKenna College

Minxin Pei is a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. Mr Pei has also been the director of the China programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a frequent commentator on BBC World News, and his op-eds have appeared in major newspapers such as The New York Times.

Kishore Mahbubani, National University of Singapore

Kishore Mahbubani is a professor of public policy at the National University of Singapore. He previously served for 33 years in Singapore's diplomatic service, including two stints as Singapore’s ambassador to the UN. He is the author of Has the West Lost It? A Provocation.

157

LGBT rights and business

Should businesses be free to refuse to disseminate ideas with which they disagree (such as baking a cake with a pro-gay message)?

Enter this debate

Debate Complete

May 21st 2018 to May 28th 2018

Representing the sides

Moderator

Sacha Nauta, The Economist

Sacha Nauta is The Economist’s public policy editor. She writes about societal change, and how issues around gender and diversity are reshaping business, finance and economics. Before joining the paper, she worked at the United Nations in New York and at Britain's Treasury, where she focused on public spending and European budget negotiations.

Yes

Peter Tatchell, human rights activist

Peter Tatchell is a prominent human rights campaigner most known for his work with LGBT movements. He is the director of the Peter Tatchell foundation, a human rights organisation. In 2009, he co-proposed a UN Global Human Rights Index, to measure and rank the human rights record of every country.

Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK

Andrew Copson is Chief Executive of Humanists UK and President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is a frequent press commentator on humanist issues. Copson has contributed to several books on secularism and humanism and is the author of Secularism: Politics, Religion, and Freedom.

138

Global trade

Is the global trade system broken?

Enter this debate

Debate Complete

May 7th 2018 to May 13th 2018

Representing the sides

Moderator

Callum Williams, The Economist

Callum Williams is Britain economics correspondent for The Economist. He also has an interest in economic developments in Russia and Ukraine. Callum received his undergraduate degree from Cambridge and an MPhil from Oxford. In 2011-12 he was a Choate fellow at Harvard, where he was supervised by Amartya Sen.

Yes

Greg Autry, University of Southern California

Greg Autry researches and teaches entrepreneurship in the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Southern California. He is the co-author of “Death by China” (with Peter Navarro, Director, White House National Trade Council). He has long been an advocate for trade reform and national industrial policy in major media outlets as well as on the advisory board for the Coalition for a Prosperous America. He is also a nationally recognised expert on the commercial spaceflight industry and recently served on the President’s transition team at NASA.

Chad Bown, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Chad Bown, Reginald Jones Senior Fellow since March 2018, joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as a senior fellow in April 2016. His research examines international trade laws and institutions, trade negotiations, and trade disputes. Bown previously served as senior economist for international trade and investment in the White House on the Council of Economic Advisers and most recently as a lead economist at the World Bank, conducting research and advising developing country governments on international trade policy for seven years.