PARTICIPANTS PROGRAM Alexander Soros Chair of the Board of Directors, Open Society Foundations Avril Haines Former Director of National Intelligence USA, Former Deputy Director of the CIA Ayşe Zarakol Professor of International Relations, University of Cambridge; author of “Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders” (2022) Curtis Yarvin political blogger and software developer; founder of Tlon – the company behind Urbit; author of “Gray Mirror: Fascicle I: Disturbance” (2025) Dan Diner Professor Emeritus of Modern History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; author of “The Other War” (2024; originally in German, 2021) David Runciman Honorary Professor of Politics, University of Cambridge; author of “The History of Ideas: Equality, Justice and Revolution” (2024) Eva Illouz Professor of Sociology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and EHESS (Paris); author of “Explosive Modernity” (2025) Giuliano da Empoli, political essayist and novelist, professor at Sciences Po Paris and founding chairman of Volta; author of “The Hour of the Predator: Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World” (2025) Ivan Krastev Chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies – Sofia and Albert Hirschman permanent Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences, IWM Vienna; author of “After Europe” (2017) and co-author with Stephen Holmes of “The Light that Failed” (2019) Jonathan White Professor of Politics, London School of Economics; author of “In the Long Run: The Future as a Political Idea” (2024) Lea Ypi Professor of Political Theory, London School of Economics; author of “Indignity: A Life Reimagined” (2025) Leonard Benardo Senior Vice President, Open Society Foundations; Director, The Ideas Workshop; Publisher, The Ideas Letter (TheIdeas Letter.org) Mark Leonard Co-founder and Director, European Council on Foreign Relations; author of “The Age of Unpeace: How Connectivity Causes Conflict” (2021) Milla Mineva Lecturer in Sociology, Sofia University; Program Director, Centre for Liberal Strategies Moshe Halbertal Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Hebrew University; Gruss Professor of Law, NYU Law; author of “The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature” (2020) Nathalie Tocci Director, Istituto Affari Internazionali; author of “La grande incertezza: Navigare le contraddizioni del disordine globale” (2024) Peter Sloterdijk Philosopher and cultural theorist; Professor Emeritus, University of Art and Design Karlsruhe; author of “The Terrible Children of Modernity: An Antigenealogical Experiment” (2025) Quinn Slobodian Professor of International History, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University; author of “Hayek’s Bastards” (2025) Stephen Holmes Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law, NYU; Faculty Director, Reiss Center on Law & Security; co-author of “The Light That Failed” (2019) Thomas Bagger Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Italy; State Secretary, German Federal Foreign Office (2023 – 2025); former Foreign Policy Advisor to President Steinmeier Timothy Garton Ash Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford; author of “Homelands: A Personal History of Europe” (2023) Walter Russell Mead Distinguished Fellow, Hudson Institute; Wall Street Journal columnist; author of “The Arc of a Covenant” (2023) Wolfgang Schmidt former German Federal Minister and Head of the Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Olaf Scholz (2021 – 2025) Yuri Slezkine Professor of History, UC Berkeley; Senior Research Fellow, St Edmund Hall, Oxford; author of “The House of Government” (2017) SUN 22 FEB Concert by Denis Kozhukhin piano 20:30 Frederic Rzewski: “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” – a set of variations on the famous Chilean protest song MON 23 FEB The World in Pieces: America in my mind 16:00 – 17:00 Walter Russell Mead, Stephen Holmes, Lea Ypi, Wolfgang Schmidt, Avril Haines Panelists in conversation 17:15 – 18:00 with the public/Q&A Peter Sloterdijk in conversation 20:30 – 22:00 with Alexander Soros TUE 24 FEB The World in Pieces: Europe in my mind 16:00 – 17:00 Timothy Garton Ash, Ayşe Zarakol, Jonathan White, Yuri Slezkine, Thomas Bagger Panelists in conversation 17:15 – 18:00 with the public/Q&A Eva Illouz in conversation 20:30 – 22:00 with Milla Mineva WED 25 FEB The World in Pieces: Israel in my mind 16:00 – 17:00 Nathalie Tocci, Moshe Halbertal, Dan Diner, Quinn Slobodian Panelists in conversation 17:15 – 18:00 with the public/Q&A Curtis Yarvin in conversation 20:30 – 22:30 with Ivan Krastev THU 26 FEB The World in Pieces: The future in my mind 16:00 – 17:00 Mark Leonard, David Runciman, Giuliano da Empoli, Leonard Benardo, Ivan Krastev, Dietmar Mueller-Elmau Panelists in conversation 17:15 – 18:00 with the public/Q&A Concert by Ludovico Einaudi piano 20:30 PACKAGE SYMPOSION unter www.schloss-elmau.de/kulturkalender Subject to change