John Davenport (USA) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

John is a professor of philosophy at Fordham University in New York. He teaches and writes on topics in political philosophy, ethics, existentialism and moral psychology and on some topics in philosophy of religion. He is the author of A League of Democracies – a plan to meet rising threats from Russia and China – and is currently working on a number of new books.

In this dialogue John will reflect on the 2022 midterm elections in America and talk about his latest book in which he writes about the need for deep constitutional reform to fix the American federal system.

More information about John Davenport and his work is available here.

​Robert C. Hinkley (Australia) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

Bob is an American attorney who specializes in corporate law generally and corporate financing specifically. From 2012 to 2020, he provided critical assistance to the US Department of Justice in connection with investigations that recovered more than $US 65 billion from more than a dozen banks for illegal behaviour that led to the financial crisis of 2008.

In this dialogue Bob talks about his idea to improve corporate behaviour by amending the duty of directors in corporate laws throughout the world. Bob calls this idea, the Code for Corporate Citizenship. Existing law provides that directors must “act in the best interests of the corporation.” The Code would add “but not at the expense of the environment, human rights, public health and safety, dignity of employees or welfare of the communities in which the corporation operates.”

More information about Robert C. Hinkley is available here. A recent article explaining the idea of a Code for Corporate Citizenship in greater detail is available here.

Chris Hamer (Australia) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

In our Reboot Dialogue #1 Chris Hamer talked about the challenges democracy faces from a rising tide of autocracy and argued that the formation of a World Security Community of democratic nations would be a logical and forward-looking response. Russia’s war of aggression and China’s positioning and response to it have added new impetus to his line of reasoning.

In this Reboot Dialogue we return to the idea of a democratically governed World Security Community and explore what role global civil society organisations might play to bring about such a development.

More information about Chris Hamer and his work is available here.

John Davenport (USA) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

John Davenport is on a mission to save liberal democracy in the US and globally; and has recently published influential op-eds on fixing US elections, how just war theory supports fighting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and recent initiatives calling for a global alliance of democracies.

In this Reboot Interview John talks about concrete measures we could be, indeed should be putting in place to stabilise American and strengthen global democracy. These include specific amendments to the US Constitution as well as the establishment of a ‘D10plus’, a group of leading democracies (that would include South Korea, Australia and India, plus possibly one or to others) along the lines of the G7/20, but without the authoritarian regimes that currently undermine our democracies everywhere.

More information about John Davenport and his work is available here.

Roberto Castaldi (Italy) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

In our Reboot Dialogue #3 Roberto Castaldi argued that for the EU to prosper in the long term, it needs to abolish the principle of unanimity and become a fully-fledged federation. The Conference on the Future of Europe, which he believes supports his arguments and which is currently in session, draws to a close in May.

In this Reboot Dialogue Roberto will reflect on the outcomes of this conference to assess the potential scope and scale of further European integration in the near term. Europe’s changing geopolitical landscape will provide the backdrop.

More information about Roberto Castaldi and his work is available here.

​Delton Chen (Australia) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

The Global Carbon Reward Initiative (GCR) is a new international climate policy that is designed to meet the 1.5-2.0°C goal of the Paris Agreement by incentivising rapid reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the removal of GHGs from the atmosphere. The GCR avoids carbon offsetting, and it offers a political solution to the free-rider problem. The economic tool of the GCR is called a "carbon currency", and this tool is featured in a science-fiction novel about climate change, called The Ministry for the Future. Delton Chen is the founder of GCR and reflects on his journey thus far. Correction: The Ministry for the Future did not inspire Delton Chen to develop the Global Carbon Reward (GCR) policy. It was the other way around. The GCR policy inspired Robinson to include the carbon coin idea in his novel.

More information about Delton Chen and his work is available here.

Further reading

• For information on the Global Carbon Reward (GCR), please explore the GCR website: globalcarbonreward.org.
• An easy introduction to GCR policy: globalcarbonreward.org/introduction
• News articles, interviews and public presentations by Delton Chen and also by Kim Stanley Robinson: globalcarbonreward.org/news/carbon-coin
• Letter: Don’t rely on carbon offsets as a climate change solution: archive.ph/Jldtv
• Technical summaries of the policy (pdf), and pamphlets on the GCR initiative (pdf): globalcarbonreward.org/our-vision/our-pamphlets
• If you are interested in the economics of carbon, then you should read about the "carbon pricing matrix" and the new conceptual model for the market failure in carbon: globalcarbonreward.org/carbon-currency/pricing-theory
• Publications about the GCR: globalcarbonreward.org/key-references
• Preliminary background for the Living Systems Economy (LSE): globalcarbonreward.org/carbon-currency/biophysical-analysis

Lene Rachel Andersen (Denmark) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

Lene Rachel Andersen is the author of Bildung: Keep Growing (2020), among many other books, and founder of the Global Bildung Network (GBN), a network that brings together people from around the globe to address our deep longing for meaning, purpose, connectedness, cultural identity, sense of community, and empowerment and agency.

GBN’s work is based on the believe that education in every sense of the word is key, but just transferring huge amounts of knowledge is not enough. There is also an emotional and a moral connection to values, culture, self and others that is crucial to our well-being and our ability to cope with whatever challenges life confronts us with.

In this dialogue we build on our previous discussion (Reboot Dialogue #4) and explore how we might revive the original concept of ‘bildung’ and thus enable people everywhere to grab ‘with both hands’ the opportunities the 21st Century offers instead of feeling intimidated by the many challenges we face.

More information about Lene Rachel Andersen and her work is available here.

Susanna Cafaro (Italy) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

As the EU, through representative, participatory and recently even deliberative mechanisms, has increasingly evolved into a distinct democracy in its own right, Susanna Cafaro believes there is the potential for other international organizations (IOs) to evolve towards some kind of democratic governance and to increase their levels of legitimacy and accountability in the process.

Furthermore, she believes this is important and urgently needed as we are facing a number of global issues (climate change, pollution of oceans, loss of biodiversity, rising inequalities) that nation states are not able to address independently. Her current research therefore focuses on assessing levels of democracy in governance beyond the national dimension, as well as suggesting innovative improvements through civic forms of participation.

In this second Reboot Interview, Susanna will share some of the insights she has gained so far and reflect on some of the current challenges IOs are facing in their efforts to democratise – especially in light of recent geopolitical developments.

More information about Susanna Cafaro and her work is available here.

Lenka Petrakova (UK/Slovakia) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

When it comes to the environmental impact of pollution, visions of the future tend to be dystopian in character. Not so in Lenka’s case. In this edition of Reboot2030, we explore her concept of a futuristic floating station, the 8th Continent, which helps to restore the balance of the sea, gathers ocean debris and creates a platform that brings people closer to this environment of the distant ocean – which we mistakenly thought was immune to our actions.

More information about Lenka Petrakova and her work is available here.

Lenka can be contacted via

email: [email protected]

Instagram: lenkapetrak

​John Bunzl (UK) in conversation with Nico Andreas Heller.

In our Reboot Dialogue #2 John Bunzl introduced SIMPOL, the organisation he created to counter Destructive Global Competition (DGC) through simultaneous policy development and implementation. Since then, the geopolitical landscape has changed fundamentally – and not for the better.

In this talk John Bunzl provides an update on his work with SIMPOL, reflects on challenges and explores how SIMPOL’s approach and methodology might be used to minimise the impact of Russia’s war of aggression on global environmental and climate change regulation.

More information about John Bunzl and his work is available here.