The 2025 Holberg Debate: 'Is Collective Security Dead?', The University Aula, Bergen, Norway

At the 2025 Holberg Debate, Mary Kaldor, Boris Johnson, and Stephen Walt will discuss current conditions for collective security and global stability.
 

As war returns to Europe, global institutions falter, and great power rivalry intensifies, the foundations of collective security are under strain. Is liberal internationalism—often seen as a framework for global cooperation, but also criticized for legitimizing interventionist policies—now obsolete?

The debate will seek to explore questions that include the following:

• Is the transatlantic alliance collapsing, and if so, what does this mean for sovereignty and collective security?
• Is a geopolitical order emerging where liberal internationalism is doomed?
• Can collective security survive in an era of great power competition?
• Does the rise of hybrid threats—cyberwarfare, disinformation, and economic coercion—render traditional collective security obsolete?
• To what extent has the pursuit of liberal values (democracy, human rights) led to destabilizing foreign interventions?
• Can organizations like the UN, NATO, or the EU still function effectively in a multipolar world, or are they relics of a fading liberal order?
• Is there a causal link between democracy and international peace?
• If liberal internationalism is declining, does that constitute a threat or an opportunity?

Speakers: Boris Johnson, Mary Kaldor and Stephen Walt.
Moderator: Stephen Sackur

Watch the livestream on Youtube

The debate will be livestreamed on YouTube and video will remain there after the event. Please note that registraton is for in-person attendance only, i.e. watching the debate on YouTube requires no registration.