At the 2025 Holberg Debate, Mary Kaldor, Boris Johnson, Stephen Walt and Stephen Sackur (moderator) met to discuss current conditions for collective security and global stability.

As war returns to Europe, global institutions falter, and great power rivalry intensifies, the foundations of collective security are under strain. Is liberal internationalism—often seen as a framework for global cooperation, but also criticized for legitimizing interventionist policies—now obsolete?

On the panel:

𝗕𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗻, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2019 – 2022), Leader of the Conservative Party (2019 – 2022), Foreign Secretary (2016 – 2018), and Mayor of London (2008 – 2016).

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗞𝗮𝗹𝗱𝗼𝗿, Professor Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict and Civicness Research Group, London School of Economics and Political Science.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝘁, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Moderator: 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘂𝗿, presenter at Times Radio, formerly presenter of BBC's HARDtalk (2005 – 2025).

The Debate took place on 9 December, 2025, in the University Aula in Bergen, Norway.

More information: holbergprize.org.

Is the West in decline, and if so, what are the implications for the future of democracy and the global order?

The panelists for the 2024 Holberg Debate were Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Yanis Varoufakis and Konstantin Kisin. The debate was chaired by Sarah Montague.

The Holberg Debate is an annual event organized by the Holberg Prize. You can read more and see previous enstallments at holbergprize.org

On 4 June 2025, Gayatri C. Spivak delivered the Holberg Lecture: "Imperatives to Re-imagine the Future" at the University Aula in Bergen.

An imperative is an urgent command, generally brought about by external circumstances. Today, natural violence creates an imperative to develop a planetary view of the future.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was awarded the 2025 Holberg Prize for her groundbreaking work in the fields of literary theory and philosophy. Spivak is University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.

This lecture by the 2025 Nils Klim Laureate Daniela Alaattinoğlu was held as part of the Nils Klim Symposium: ‘Nordic Right Development from the Margins? Reassessing Legal Inclusion and Exclusion.’ , which took place in the University Aula in Bergen, on 3 June 2025. Alaattinoğlu asks: How can experiences often marginalised in legal discussions enrich current accounts of Nordic rights developments?

Daniela Alaattinoğlu is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Turku and the recipient of the 2025 Nils Klim Prize.

The Holberg Prize is delighted to present this interview with the 2025 Nils Klim Laureate, Daniela Alaattinoğlu. The podcast is a collaboration with the University of Turku.

Alaattinoğlu is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Turku. She receives the award for her research into how laws and societies evolve together, how groups mobilise for change, and how law intersectionally includes and excludes individuals and groups.

Interviewer: Rosa Lampela, University of Turku

The podcast is engineered and edited by Antti Tarponen, University of Turku.

The 2025 Holberg Laureate Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in conversation with Professor Brent Hayes Edwards.

In this interview, Professor Spivak talks about the major areas of her work, as well her life and career path.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.

Brent Hayes Edwards is the Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

This interview was conducted at Columbia University on 26 May 2025.

We wish to extend our gratitude to Professor Spivak and Professor Edwards for producing this podcast for the Holberg Prize.

Photo: Alice Attie.

On 5 June 2024 Holberg Laureate Achille Mbembe held his Holberg Lecture: "The Earthly Community" in the University Aula in Bergen.

How should we inhabit anew and share as equitably as possible a planet whose life-support system has been so severely damaged by human activities as to be in dire need of repair?

Achille Mbembe is Research Professor of History and Politics at Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand. He is also Director of the Innovation Foundation for Democracy.

Photo: Eivind Senneset / The Holberg Prize

Siddharth Sareen is the 2024 Nils Klim Laureate. He receives the prize for his research in environmental social sciences. In this interview, he speaks about his background, his academic journey, his research interests, and the work that lead to his being rewarded the Nils Klim Prize.

Sareen is professor of energy and environment at the Department of Media and Social Sciences, University of Stavanger. He is also professor II at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), University of Bergen.

Interviewer: Professor Håvard Haarstad, Director at CET.

The 2024 Holberg Week takes place from 4 -- 6 June in Bergen and Oslo. There Holberg Laureate Achille Mbembe and Nils Klim Laureate Siddharth Sareen will be celebrated with award ceremonies and acedemic events. For more information, see holbergprize.org.

The 2024 Laureate Achille Mbembe in conversation with Hlonipha Mokoena.

Achille Mbembe is research professor of history and politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits).

Hlonipha Mokoena is professor and acting Co-Director at WiSER, Wits University.

The interview was conducted at Wits University, on 13 March, 2024.

Achille Mbembe receives the 2024 Holberg Prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over four decades

The 2023 Holberg Prize was awarded to Catalan scholar Joan Martinez-Alier for his groundbreaking research in ecological economics, political ecology and environmental justice.

Martinez-Alier is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). In this interview, he talks about his academic scholarship and activism.

Interviewer: Professor Håvard Haarstad, Department of Geography, University of Bergen.

For more information see the Holberg Prize website: https://holbergprize.org/en.

Photo: Eivind Senneset