Since 2017, the Global Liberal Arts Alliance has partnered with Deree-The American College of Greece to participate in the annual Athens Democracy Forum held in Athens, Greece. The Forum is organized by the Democracy and Culture Foundation, in association with the New York Times.

The 2025 Forum explored “New Visions for Hard Realities” in the aftermath of the “year of elections” that produced mixed results for democracy. Despite the disparate outcomes, the people expressed two themes: disaffection and a hunger for change. The 2025 Forum took stock of these forces and how to harness their power.  Participants analyzed the realities that must be reckoned with – social upheaval, economic insecurity, concurrent wars, the onslaught of tech advancements, the chaos of the climate crisis – as well as the political opportunists who might take advantage of them. The 2025 Athens Democracy Forum opened with an Oxford-style debate on The State of Democracy. Other sessions will include regional case studies (Brazil and the Green Economy; South Korea: Cracks in Democracy; Ukraine Through the Prism of Europe), “rethinking” sessions (Rethinking Populism; Rethinking Cybersecurity; Rethinking Trade), Tools for Democracy, Bright Ideas, and a new focus for the forum, Future Visions, that will consider new ways of structuring (or not) society, governments, and institutions.

Additional information about Alliance involvement in the 2025 Forum can be found on our Youth Democracy Forum Google site. The 2026 Athens Democracy Forum will be held in Athens October 5-8. The call for nominations for 2026 will go out in early February 2026.