Contributor(s): Professor Lord Giddens | The risks we face, and the opportunities we have, in the 21st century are in many respects quite different from those experienced in earlier periods of history. How should we analyse and respond to such a world? What is a rational balance of optimism and pessimism? How can we plan for a future that seems to elude our grasp and in some ways is imponderable? Anthony Giddens is former Director of the LSE and a member of the House of Lords.