World Leader for Peace and Security Award 2024

Summary

PRESIDENT OF FRANCE MACRONHONOURED WITH WORLD LEADER FOR PEACE AND SECURITY AWARD

Since 2015, the Boston Global Forum has honored such visionary leaders with the World Leader for Peace and Security Award. This prestigious accolade recognizes those who have made remarkable contributions to fostering peace and ensuring security around the world.

Each recipient has continued to shape the course of world events, upholding the principles of peace and security. Their collective efforts have made our world safer and more united.

In 2024, we mark a significant milestone—the 10th World Leader for Peace and Security Award.

We are honored to present this year’s award to President Emmanuel Macron of France for his exemplary leadership in promoting peace and security in France, Europe, and the world.

President Macron has been a driving force in:

• Mediating international conflicts and advocating for diplomatic solutions.
• Strengthening the European Union as a unified entity for global stability.
• Leading initiatives against climate change and poverty through the Paris Pact for People and the Planet.

Advancing innovation in artificial intelligence while emphasizing ethical considerations and democratic values.

Award announcement

Award Ceremony

Remarks by Governor Michael Dukakis Honoring French President Emmanuel Macron

Harvard University Loeb House, November 25, 2024

I am honored to announce that Emmanuel Macron, President of France, is this year’s recipient of the Boston Global Forum’s World Leader for Peace and Security Award. He has distinguished himself as a political leader and public servant, culminating in his leadership role as the 25th and current President of France since 2017.

Emmanuel Macron studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, after which he earned a master’s degree in public affairs from Sciences Po and graduated from the École nationale d’administration. His early career included positions with France’s Inspectorate General of Finances and the investment bank Rothschild & Company.

From 2014 to 2016, under President François Hollande, he served as France’s Minister of Economics, Industry, and Digital Affairs. This experience prompted him to launch the En Marche political movement in 2016, which paved the way for his successful presidential bid. Elected in 2017 after defeating Marine Le Pen, Macron made history as France’s youngest president.

As President, Macron has enacted major domestic reforms, including changes to labor laws, taxation, and pension systems, while leading France’s transition to renewable energy. In foreign policy, he has advocated for a more integrated and sovereign European Union, believing that a united Europe can be a force for global peace. He has strengthened France’s international relations through strategic bilateral agreements with European nations and engaged in critical global trade negotiations.

President Macron has been proactive in Middle East diplomacy, engaging with regional leaders to promote peace and stability. His efforts extend to fighting climate change and poverty through the Paris Pact for People and the Planet, which unites nearly 70 countries, and the One Planet Summit, which has fostered international cooperation and environmental action.

In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Macron emerged as a leading European advocate for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He has rallied EU members to impose sanctions on Russia and provided crucial humanitarian and military support to Ukraine while championing increased EU defense spending and the bolstering of NATO’s eastern flank.

In 2018, President Macron initiated the Paris Peace Forum to encourage collective governance and international cooperation in tackling global challenges. In the realm of technology, he has been a leader in advancing artificial intelligence for France and Europe, emphasizing the need for Europe to invest strategically in AI to remain competitive globally while seeking approaches to AI that strengthen the tech community and enhance democratic governance.

President Macron’s contributions to peace and security embody the ideals represented by the Boston Global Forum’s World Leader for Peace and Security Award. It is with great pleasure that I present this honor to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Acceptance Speech by French President Emmanuel Macron for the 2024 World Leader for Peace and Security Award

November 25, 2024

My dear friends,

I am happy and proud to receive, on behalf of France, your annual award for Peace and Security.

I wanted to take the time to tell you this warmly, through this message read aloud—this oral reading remains, in these times of artificial intelligence, perhaps the most revolutionary of practices, the best guarantee against deep fakes.

I say this with a bit of humor, but ultimately, these are the real issues: the regulation of our digital order and the governance of artificial intelligence.

Indeed, I believe that our heritage of political modernity—the foundation of our Western democracies—is threatened at its very core. The conception of individual political rights, inherited from 18th-century liberal philosophy and our Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, was based precisely on the guarantee of rights: a corpus of norms to organize public space, verification procedures, and ultimately, a debate among citizens guided by a spirit of rationality. All this presupposed a shared conception of progress, supported by science as an authority, faith in the human spirit to understand the world’s rationality, and the quest to elucidate reality through the efforts of collective wills.

Alas, it suffices to open any social network to observe that this conception is no longer prevalent. We have moved from the reign of facts to that of opinions, an immense contestation of the very forms that sustained our public debate. This ranges from the conditions of producing free and rational information to the questioning of all authority and hierarchy in knowledge. A form of anomie that is the vector of all regressions: conspiracy theories, paranoia, leveling of knowledge. We are experiencing a great digital shift in which we see immense progress, of course, but also significant deviations: criminal activities, a neglect of digital order allowing the proliferation of hate speech and sometimes incitement to terrorism.

In response, France has, for the past seven years, consistently sought to build coalitions to regulate the digital order. This has been true both in Europe—where we have very concretely implemented mechanisms to compel major platforms to remove contentious content—and globally, with the Christchurch Call, to promote this simple idea: what is illegal in real life must be illegal online. A better-regulated digital world is a prerequisite for peace in our societies.

Beyond the fight against these criminal deviations, the great battles are still ahead of us—for we must also rethink our methods of information production in light of the contestation of the democratic model and the dilution of science and rationality.

All this, too, in a context where the emergence of artificial intelligence is impacting all these subjects anew. Because AI—as I mentioned in the introduction with deep fakes—is a formidable accelerator of hostile practices, a powerful disruptor of our reference points, an incredible playground for those who wish to destabilize our democracies. Above all, it is a threat against the peace and stability of the world.

Fundamentally, the question is whether these tremendous revolutions—the digital transformation and artificial intelligence—will allow us to invent new Enlightenments or will definitively erase a French and European humanism.

I believe that we all have an interest in maintaining both composure and reason in the face of artificial intelligence, often described in Promethean terms. We must build a collective agenda to democratize artificial intelligence, make it more sustainable from environmental and social perspectives, and create inclusive governance that brings together all countries and all stakeholders who need to be involved—social partners, artists, even teachers. It will involve articulating responses to risks and support for innovation.

It is now that the destiny of the next cycle of innovation is being decided and, beyond that, the face of our societies for our children.

This is why I invite you all to Paris for our Summit for Action on AI in the month of February: economic actors, decision-makers, thinkers—we must create global consensus and make decisions at the right pace and on the right scale.

In this regard, your quest for the Enlightenment on a global scale can only resonate in France, in this pursuit of progress against all forms of obscurantism.

I believe in our collective capacity to put technology at the service of protecting our democracies and to forge a new era of prosperity, freedom, and stability in the world. I believe, like you, that we cannot and must not renounce our humanism and our Enlightenment ideals for the coming century.

Thank you all for your unwavering commitment.

Thank you for this Award, which honors France and compels us to act collectively starting this February in Paris!

*****

President Emmanuel Macron’s Original French Speech Accepting the 2024 World Leader for Peace and Security Award:

Message du Président de la République

World Leader for Peace and Security Award

Mes chers amis,

Je suis heureux et fier de recevoir au nom de la France votre prix annuel pour la paix et la sécurité.

Je voulais prendre le temps de vous le dire avec beaucoup de chaleur, par le truchement aussi de ce message lu, cette lecture à voix haute demeurant, en ces temps d’intelligence artificielle, peut-être la plus révolutionnaire des pratiques, la meilleure garantie contre les deep fakes.

Je le signifie avec un peu d’humour mais au fond, les enjeux sont ceux-là. Ceux de la régulation de notre ordre numérique et de l’encadrement de l’intelligence artificielle.

Je crois en effet que notre héritage de la modernité politique, ce qui a fondé nos démocraties occidentales est menacé dans ses bases. La conception des droits politiques de l’individu, héritée de la philosophie libérale du XVIIIe siècle et de notre Déclaration des droits de l’Homme et du citoyen reposait sur la garantie des droits, justement, un corpus de normes pour ordonner l’espace public, des procédures de vérification, et à la fin, un débat entre citoyens guidés par cet esprit de rationalité. Tout cela supposait une conception partagée du progrès, appuyée sur la science comme autorité, la foi dans l’esprit humain pour comprendre la rationalité du monde, la quête d’élucidation du réel par l’effort des volontés collectives.

Il suffit hélas d’ouvrir n’importe quel réseau social pour constater que cette conception n’a plus cours. Nous sommes sortis du règne des faits pour celui des opinions, une immense contestation des formes mêmes qui tenaient notre débat public. Cela va des conditions de fabrique de l’information libre et rationnelle à la remise en cause de toute autorité et de toute hiérarchie dans les savoirs. Une forme d’anomie qui est le vecteur de toutes les régressions : complotismes, paranoïa, nivellement des savoirs. Nous vivons une grande bascule numérique dont nous voyons les immenses progrès bien sûr mais aussi les grandes dérives : dérives criminelles, jachère de l’ordre numérique permettant la prolifération des paroles de haine et parfois de l’incitation au terrorisme.

Face à cela, la France a depuis sept ans toujours cherché à bâtir des coalitions pour réguler l’ordre numérique : ce fut vrai à la fois en Europe, où nous avons mis en place très concrètement des mécanismes pour contraindre les grandes plateformes à retirer les paroles litigieuses, mais aussi dans le monde, avec l’appel de Christchurch, pour porter cette idée simple, que ce qui est illégal dans la vraie vie doit être illégal en ligne. Un monde numérique mieux encadré est une condition de la paix dans nos sociétés.

Au-delà de la lutte contre ces dérives criminelles, les grands combats sont encore devant nous – car il nous faut aussi repenser nos modalités de production de l’information, à l’aune de la contestation du modèle démocratique, de la dilution de la science et de la rationalité.

Tout cela aussi, dans un contexte où l’émergence de l’intelligence artificielle vient percuter à nouveau tous ces sujets. Parce que l’IA, je le disais en introduction avec les deep fakes, est un formidable accélérateur de pratiques hostiles, un formidable brouilleur de nos repères, un terrain de jeu inouï pour ceux qui veulent déstabiliser nos démocraties. Une menace surtout contre la paix et la stabilité du monde.

Au fond la question est de savoir si ces formidables révolutions que sont la transformation numérique et l’intelligence artificielle vont nous permettre d’inventer de nouvelles Lumières ou vont définitivement effacer un humanisme français et européen.

Je crois que nous avons tous un intérêt à garder à la fois du sang-froid et de la raison devant une intelligence artificielle souvent décrite de manière prométhéenne.  Nous devons bâtir un agenda collectif afin de démocratiser l’intelligence artificielle, la rendre plus soutenable, du point de vue environnemental et social, créer une gouvernance inclusive qui permette d’asseoir autour d’une même table tous les pays, tous les acteurs qui doivent être impliqués – partenaires sociaux, artistes ou encore instituteurs. Il s’agira d’articuler réponse aux risques et soutien à l’innovation.

C’est maintenant que se joue le destin du prochain cycle d’innovation et au-delà le visage de nos sociétés pour nos enfants.

Voilà pourquoi je vous invite tous à Paris, pour notre sommet pour l’action sur l’IA au mois de février : acteurs de l’économie, décideurs, penseurs, il faut créer des consensus globaux et prendre des décisions à la bonne vitesse et à la bonne échelle.

A cet égard, votre quête des Lumières à l’échelle du monde ne peut que résonner en France, dans cette quête du progrès, contre tous les obscurantismes.

Je crois dans notre capacité collective à mettre la technologie au service de la protection de nos démocraties et à la forge d’une nouvelle ère de prospérité, de liberté et de stabilité dans le monde. Je crois comme vous, que nous ne pouvons ni ne devons renoncer à notre humanisme et à nos Lumières pour le siècle qui vient.

Merci à tous, pour votre engagement sans faille.

Merci pour ce Prix, qui honore la France et nous oblige à agir collectivement dès février à Paris !

Honoring Global Leadership: The 10th World Leader for Peace and Security Award

Throughout history, the pursuit of peace and security has been the cornerstone of global progress. Leaders who dedicate their lives to these ideals inspire nations and bring hope to millions.

Please see video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLLDTtsnJG0

Since 2015, the Boston Global Forum has honored such visionary leaders with the World Leader for Peace and Security Award. This prestigious accolade recognizes those who have made remarkable contributions to fostering peace and ensuring security around the world.

Each recipient has continued to shape the course of world events, upholding the principles of peace and security. Their collective efforts have made our world safer and more united.

In 2024, we mark a significant milestone—the 10th World Leader for Peace and Security Award.

We are honored to present this year’s award to President Emmanuel Macron of France for his exemplary leadership in promoting peace and security in France, Europe, and the world.

President Macron has been a driving force in:

• Mediating international conflicts and advocating for diplomatic solutions.
• Strengthening the European Union as a unified entity for global stability.
• Leading initiatives against climate change and poverty through the Paris Pact for People and the Planet.
• Advancing innovation in artificial intelligence while emphasizing ethical considerations and democratic values.

Boston Global Forum’s Collaboration with Leaders

The Boston Global Forum is proud to work closely with these visionary leaders. Together, we strive to address the most pressing challenges of our time through dialogue, innovation, and shared commitment.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the World Leader for Peace and Security Award, we reflect on a decade of inspiration and progress. We look forward to continued collaboration with global leaders who are dedicated to building a more peaceful and secure world for all.

Join us in celebrating these champions of peace and security. Together, we can make a better world.