Events

Since its inception in 2012, the Atlantic Dialogues (AD) conference has become a well-established annual meeting point taking place in Marrakesh, bringing together around 400 high-level senior officials, business leaders, academics, opinion shapers and civil society actors.

The 8th edition of the Atlantic Dialogues will be held from December 12 to 14, 2019, under the theme "The South in the Time of Turmoil". 

The last 75 years saw the “South” – short-hand for developing nations – escape colonization and embark on global economic integration within a set of norms established under the Bretton-Woods system. These norms were initially not universally accepted but, with the end of the cold war, came to form a reasonably stable and predictable context within which nearly all nations could conduct their internal and external affairs. This system is now again under serious challenge, and ironically, largely from within the liberal democracies that established it. 

The rise of populists, nativists and nationalists is partly what lies behind the present challenges confronting the post-war system. These include trade wars and resurgent protectionism, climate change denial, and a backlash against migrants on which many developing nations depend on for remittances and contacts. At the same time, the rise of China, with its uniquely successful brand of state-capitalism, challenges not only policies but also beliefs both in the South and the North. And the South itself remains fragmented, multiplying its weaknesses. Africa, which has to cope with a surge in its young population, is exceptionally vulnerable to the instability and great-power competition caused by these epochal shifts.   

As the capabilities of governments in the South are stretched by the turmoil, they struggle increasingly to meet the aspirations of their people. The 8th edition of the Atlantic Dialogues aims to deconstruct the multiple crises confronting policymakers in the South and help them rethink the orientation they envision.