A World Between Hope and Despair

Join Perry World House for a conversation with Sweden’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Perry World House Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Margot Wallström, on the state and future of democracy.

Drawing on her decades-long career in global affairs, Wallström will reflect on the mounting pressures facing democratic governance across the European continent—and their implications worldwide. She will examine how issues such as immigration, new security threats, and the rising cost of living are shaping voter behavior and political priorities. The conversation will also explore, among other stressors, the growing influence of mis- and disinformation in undermining public trust and democratic institutions.

Wallstrom will discuss how democracies are responding to these pressures as well as the impact of their responses on the future democratic governance worldwide.

Speaker

Margot Wallström is a Swedish politician from the Social Democratic Party with a long career at national, European, and international levels. She served as Sweden’s minister of foreign affairs between 2014 and 2019.

Margot Wallström was appointed the first United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict from 2010 to 2012. She worked as vice president of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy from 2004 to 2010 and European Commissioner for the Environment from 1999 to 2004.

From 1988, she held several cabinet posts, first as deputy minister of civil affairs, minister of culture, and also minister of social affairs, an assignment she left after the 1998 election.

She was the CEO of a regional TV network in Värmland, Sweden, from 1993 to 1994. Before taking up her appointment as EU commissioner, she was the executive vice president of Worldview Global Media in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Mrs. Wallström has been awarded several honorary doctorates and international recognition and awards.

Moderator

As Associate Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, Amy Gadsden works with Penn’s schools and centers to develop and implement strategies to increase Penn’s global engagement both on campus and overseas. She oversees Penn Global’s reporting offices, including International Student and Scholar Services, Penn Abroad, Global Support Services, Global Initiatives, Perry World House, and Penn Washington. She also oversees Penn Global’s research funds, including the China Research and Engagement Fund, India Research and Engagement Fund, Holman Africa Research and Engagement Fund, and the Global Research and Engagement Fund.

In 2016, Dr. Gadsden was named executive director of Penn China Initiatives to coordinate and develop University strategy and activity in China. In this role, she works closely with the Penn Wharton China Center.

Prior to joining the Provost’s Office, Dr. Gadsden spent five years (2009-2014) as Associate Dean for International and Strategic Initiatives at Penn Law, where she built a comprehensive program aimed at expanding the Law School’s global curriculum, professional development opportunities, and reputation and managed cross-disciplinary programs. She established or expanded all of Penn Law’s signature international programs, including the Global Research Seminar, the Bok Visiting Professors Program, and the Penn Law International Internship and Summer Human Rights Fellows Programs. She also played a key role in building Penn Law’s cross disciplinary programs, pioneering new initiatives in law and technology and law and health.

As an adjunct law faculty member, Dr. Gadsden taught seminars in international human rights and rule of law. Currently, she teaches an undergraduate course on the history of US-China relations.

Before coming to Penn, Dr. Gadsden spent more than a decade working in the foreign policy field with a focus on China. She served as a Country Director for the International Republican Institute and as a Special Advisor for China at the United States Department of State. Early in her career, she published several articles on democracy and human rights in China, documenting changes in legal and civil society reform. Dr. Gadsden was one of the first American scholars to observe and write about grassroots elections in the PRC in the mid-1990s.

Dr. Gadsden has also consulted for the Pew Charitable Trusts, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

She holds a B.A. from Yale College and a Ph.D. in Chinese legal history from the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the board of the William Penn Charter School, the nation’s oldest Quaker school.

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