On Tuesday 19 May 2009, Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic delivered the 2009 Alastair Buchan Memorial Lecture 'Will Europe live up to its responsibilities in a globalized world?'.
The Alastair Buchan Memorial Lecture was established in 1976 to commemorate Alastair Buchan, the Institute's first Director (1958-69). The inaugural lecture was given by Dr Henry Kissinger, then US Secretary of State. Subsequent speakers have included the Rt Hon. Lord Carrington, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Ambassador Paul H. Nitze, Professor Raymond Barre, Dr Manfred Wörner, Senator Sam Nunn, Professor Sir Michael Howard, General Colin L. Powell, Volker Rühe, Shimon Peres, the Rt Hon. Douglas Hurd, General Wesley K. Clark, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Professor Andrey A. Kokoshin, Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland, and Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin, French Ministre des Affaires Étrangères.Transcripts of previous Alastair Buchan lectures are available in the archive.
Giorgio Napolitano was born in Naples on June 29th, 1925. In 1942, as an undergraduate in Naples, he joined a group of young anti-Fascists and in 1945 he joined the Italian Communist Party, of which he was a leading figure until the Democratic Party of the Left was established. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1953, he was a Member of Parliament until 1996, always re-elected in the Naples constituency. On June 3rd 1992 he was elected Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and remained in office until April 1994. He served as Minister of the Interior and for the Coordination of Civil Protection in the Prodi Government, from May 1996 to October 1998. From June 1999 to June 2004 he chaired the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. On September 23rd 2005 he was appointed life senator and on May 10th 2006 he was elected President of the Republic with 543 votes. He was sworn-in on May 15th, 2006.
The lecture took place on the Fifth Floor at Arundel House, 13-15 Arundel Street, Temple Place, London WC2R 3DX.
Read a transcript.
Watch the Lecture and the Q&A session.
