Essays

Can Democracy Survive the Polycrisis?

  • Project Syndicate
  • June 6, 2023
We are living in troubled times. Too much is happening too fast. People are confused. The Columbia University economic historian Adam Tooze has, indeed, popularized a word for it. He calls it a “polycrisis.” The polycrisis has many sources. In my opinion the main source of the polycrisis afflicting the world today is artificial intelligence.

Updating My Munich Predictions

  • Project Syndicate
  • March 16, 2023
The countries of the former Soviet empire, eager to assert their independence, eagerly await defeat of the Russian army in Ukraine. At that point, Vladimir Putin’s dream of a renewed Russian empire will disintegrate and cease to pose a threat to Europe, and the world will be able to focus on its biggest problem: climate change.

Remarks Delivered at the 2023 Munich Security Conference

  • February 16, 2023
I feel greatly honored to be addressing you this evening. I’ve spent my entire life trying to understand the world I was born into, and I can claim some modest success. At a relatively early age I realized that our understanding is inherently imperfect.

Issuing Perpetual Bonds Would Show that Sunak is Serious

  • Financial Times
  • October 31, 2022
After Liz Truss’s disastrous financial performance as UK prime minister, the first task of her successor, Rishi Sunak, is to reassure markets that he is a professional. He must acknowledge the market worries about deficit spending, which were on full display in the turmoil that followed former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini” Budget.

Why I Support Reform Prosecutors

  • Wall Street Journal
  • July 31, 2022
Americans desperately need a more thoughtful discussion about our response to crime. People have had enough of the demagoguery and divisive partisan attacks that dominate the debate and obscure the issues. Like most of us, I’m concerned about crime. One of government’s most important roles is to ensure public safety.

US Democracy Under Concerted Attack

  • Project Syndicate
  • July 4, 2022
The United States has been a constantly evolving democracy ever since it was founded in 1776, but its survival as a democracy is now gravely endangered. A set of loosely interconnected developments at home and abroad is responsible for this crisis.

Remarks Delivered at the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos

  • Davos, Switzerland
  • May 24, 2022
©2022 Bloomberg L.P. Since the last Davos meeting the course of history has changed dramatically.  Russia invaded Ukraine. This has shaken Europe to its core. The European Union was established to prevent such a thing from happening. Even when the fighting stops as it eventually must, the situation will never revert to what it was before. 

George Soros on Madeleine Albright

  • March 23, 2022
Madeleine Albright was an astute stateswoman, scholar, and a true champion for freedom and democracy. She was a trailblazer in her field. My colleagues and I at the Open Society Foundations mourn her passing today. We will miss her.

We Must Stand with Ukraine, as They Stand for Us

  • February 26, 2022
I have witnessed Ukraine transform from a collapsing part of the Soviet Union to a liberal democracy and an open society. It has faced countless acts of Russian aggression, but has persisted. Brave Ukrainians are now on the frontline and risking their lives.

George Soros on China: Remarks Delivered at the Hoover Institution

  • January 31, 2022
The following remarks were delivered at the opening of a Hoover Institution panel—China on the Eve of the Winter Olympics: Hard Choices for the World’s Democracies—on January 31, 2022. 2022 will be a critical year in the history of the world.