19th Karlsruhe Dialogues – Speakers
If Mayors Ruled the World (Friday, 27 February 2015)
World Parliament of Mayors – Theses (Saturday, 28 February 2015)
Prof. Dr. Benjamin R. Barber
Speaker
Prof. Dr. Benjamin R. Barber is a senior research scholar at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), founder of the Interdependence Movement, and Walt Whitman Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University. Barber is the author of 17 books, including the classic Strong Democracy (1984), the international bestseller Jihad vs. McWorld (1995, available in 30 languages), and his most recent book If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities (2013). If Mayors Ruled the World is the foundation for the Global Parliament of Mayors project, currently the primary focus of Barber’s work.
As a scholar with a PhD in government from Harvard University, he has taught at numerous universities (e.g. Princeton University). He has won Guggenheim, Fulbright, and American Council of Learned Society fellowships, has been awarded a number of honorary Doctor of Laws, and received the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Chevalier) from the French government as well as the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin.
Barber has acted as a political advisor of organisations and agencies worldwide concerned with citizenship, civil society, community service, education, and democracy. He consults regularly with political and civic leaders in the United States and around the world. He has been an outside advisor to President Bill Clinton, and has consulted with German Federal President Roman Herzog and German Federal President Johannes Rau, among many others. Barber’s recent work has connected him with mayors, political advisors, and intercity associations around the world, propelling the development of a Global Parliament of Mayors from theory into practice.
Moreover, Barber was a founding editor and for ten years editor-in-chief of the distinguished international quarterly Political Theory. He blogs and writes regularly for diverse newspapers (e.g. The New York Times) and magazines, and is often invited to speak as an expert on television (e.g. CNN, BBC).
As a scholar with a PhD in government from Harvard University, he has taught at numerous universities (e.g. Princeton University). He has won Guggenheim, Fulbright, and American Council of Learned Society fellowships, has been awarded a number of honorary Doctor of Laws, and received the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Chevalier) from the French government as well as the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin.
Barber has acted as a political advisor of organisations and agencies worldwide concerned with citizenship, civil society, community service, education, and democracy. He consults regularly with political and civic leaders in the United States and around the world. He has been an outside advisor to President Bill Clinton, and has consulted with German Federal President Roman Herzog and German Federal President Johannes Rau, among many others. Barber’s recent work has connected him with mayors, political advisors, and intercity associations around the world, propelling the development of a Global Parliament of Mayors from theory into practice.
Moreover, Barber was a founding editor and for ten years editor-in-chief of the distinguished international quarterly Political Theory. He blogs and writes regularly for diverse newspapers (e.g. The New York Times) and magazines, and is often invited to speak as an expert on television (e.g. CNN, BBC).