Carnegie Council Debuts Thought Leaders Forum: Leading Minds on the Ethical Challenges of the 21st Century

Feb 26, 2014

With so many competing claims in our connected world, what's the right thing to do?

To find out, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs invited world-changing visionaries and role models from diverse professions, backgrounds, and regions to identify the greatest ethical questions facing the planet and offer creative advice on how to respond to them.

The result is the Thought Leaders Forum, a multimedia micro-site featuring the insights from more than 50 leading minds. Browse through interviews with inspiring people such as former UN high commissioner for human rights Louise Arbour; former president of Ireland Mary Robinson; former U.S. national security advisor Brent Scowcroft; political theorist Michael Walzer; and socio-biologist E.O. Wilson.

Access it free of charge here:https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/thoughtleaders

In the tradition of Andrew Carnegie, who founded Carnegie Council 100 years ago, Thought Leaders Forum asks questions related to the themes of world peace and ethical leadership, such as:

  • How do you define global ethics?
  • What does moral leadership mean to you?
  • Is world peace possible?

The Carnegie Council team spent several months poring over the interview transcripts and designing a website with an eye toward making these complex topics as accessible as possible. The background images are photographs that depict themes of civic participation, leadership, as well as natural and cultural heritage.

“By taking the occasion of our Centennial to ask leading thinkers from around the world these big—almost unreasonable—questions, we aimed to accomplish several things,” said Devin Stewart, the program director for the project. “First, we wanted to illuminate the current thinking on the topics that are core to our mission, namely ethics, peace, and education. Second, by including questions of an aspirational nature, we hoped to help organizations with agenda-setting. Finally, the micro-site can serve as an educational resource to spark debates in classrooms worldwide.”

Mr. Stewart will be synthesizing the interviews into a report and syllabus later this year.

You may also like

APR 10, 2025 News

Global Ethics Day 2025 to Take Place on October 15 with the New Theme of “Ethics Re-envisioned"

Carnegie Council is pleased to announce “Ethics Re-envisioned" as the new theme for the 12th annual Global Ethics Day, which will take place on October 15, 2025.

Clockwise: Emily Kilcrease, Vishal Manve, Monica Duffy Toft, Kristina Arakelyan, Sophie Collyer, Niyati Parekh, Jacob Bastian, Victoria Malaney-Brown, Ebuka Okoli, Christine Jakobson, Yael Eisenstat. CREDIT: Noha Mahmoud.

FEB 21, 2025 News

Carnegie Ethics Fellowship Culminates with Inaugural Symposium

The work of the first Carnegie Ethics Fellowship (CEF) cohort concluded on February 6-7, 2025 at Carnegie Council’s Global Ethics Hub with a four-part Symposium.

JAN 16, 2025 News

Carnegie Council and Uehiro Foundation Establish the Carnegie Endowment for Future Generations

The endowment empowers a new generation of professionals committed to values-driven leadership at this pivotal moment in world affairs.