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Is economic growth the friend or foe of the natural world? Will expanding trade and industry innovation actually help the environment over the long run? Or does the blind pursuit of profit inevitably damage our planet? Can we trust developing countries to get greener as they become more prosperous? Or should our precarious environment always be the top priority, whether we are in the first or the third world? Are we too reckless with our finite natural resources? Or should we sacrifice a few more trees to save a few more people?

The book explores how popular culture is often seen as nothing more than the production of endless entertainment video games, computer games, hand-held gamest, movies and music on computers. It’s also common currency to talk about the declining standards of today’s culture and to say that modern media is dumbing us down. Steven Johnson presents us with a radical alternative though: mass culture is making us smarter by consistently demanding more of our brains. Is popular culture really making us smarter?

The book explores the rise of ‘a peculiar American form of conservatism’ and its consequences on American politics and the world at large. The authors argue that America is fundamentally different from Europe, and while conservatism, embodied in George W. Bush, has proved hugely divisive within the United States, a far larger cultural gulf exists between the US and the rest of the world.
What the Right Nation offers is not simply a list of dissimilar characteristics between the United States and Europe (and indeed, the rest of the world), but an utterly absorbing explanation of why this is so. Is America really fundamentally different from Europe?

Joint Roundtable of the Stockholm Network and Managing Intellectual Property Journal
The Lisbon Agenda and the Future of Information Technology IPRs in Europe: Cause for Hope or Cause for Concern?

The enlargement of Europe has forced countries to reevaluate every aspect of their government – including the precious welfare state. How can a country such as Belgium benefit from enlargement? Is the new outlook on Europe a force for good? Are the benefits of outsourcing greater than the social costs involved?

We looked at the fundamental nature of the social reform agenda in an enlarged Europe: Is France’s policy approach a beacon to be followed? Or do the new member states know better? What path would most benefit Belgium?

Following an introduction by the former President of the European Parliament, Mr. Pat Cox, four panelists representing "old" and "new" Europe debated their visions of social reform.

In the coming years, biotechnology will enable us to identify, understand, manipulate, improve and control living organisms (including ourselves). Better disease control, custom drugs, gene therapy, age mitigation and reversal, memory drugs, prosthetics, bionic implants, animal transplants and many other advances may continue to increase the human life span and improve quality of life. It is quite possible that these new technologies will radically transform public health and healthcare for those who cannot now afford such care, while also enabling unprecedented levels of care for those who can. But what will be the impact of this impending technological revolution on the provision of healthcare? Will the current model of healthcare insurance be able to cope?

Can the EU digest a largely Muslim, if officially secular, country? Will Europeans be happy at the prospect of Turkey becoming the biggest country by population, thus having the most votes and most seats in the European Parliament? Is the EU strong enough to absorb a country so much poorer than the rest of its 25 members? How far will Turkey's human rights record come into account? Is it a good idea for the EU to extend its borders to Iran, Iraq and Syria? And how can the problem of
Cyprus be resolved?

Upon joining the EU, Central and Eastern European countries attempted to replicate the Western welfare model, but quickly found they could not sustain such a costly system. The impending crisis that the Western model would wreak on the new EU member states forced them to devise new models of spending and taxation.

Some countries, like Slovakia, have already implemented major reforms in areas such as healthcare, tax and social security with great success. Others, such as the Czech Republic are devising new and interesting proposals for successful healthcare systems and a more efficient welfare model.

Pavel Hrobon joined us to discuss the nature of the Eastern reforms and the prospect of these new proposals being implemented in ‘old’ Europe. Pavel is the co founder and chairman of the health think tank healthreform.cz, an organization whose aim is to prepare and support the implementation of a substantial overhaul of the Czech healthcare system.

The author warns of the dangers of excessive choice. ‘Choice overload’, he says, can make you question decisions before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. Should we be striving for a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless? In The Paradox of Choice, Schwartz explains why and at what point he believes choice - the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish - becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. Is Schwartz right? Is too much choice a bad thing – and what does his argument, which has been much debated by the UK commentariat, have to teach us about the politics of the choice debate in public services?

Which party can best manage the market? It used to be a straight choice: Thatcherite Tories wanting to unleash the profit motive, and Old Labour chiefly concerned with social justice and equity. New Labour seemed to square that circle, but can their hybrid (some say fudged) approach continue credibly? Can the Conservatives win over an electorate sceptical of purely market-based solutions? And will the economic liberalism of the ‘Orange book’ become the Lib Dems’ official party line? As the election looms, each party must now convince voters that they best understand both the workings of the market and its wider impact on society.