The previous conferences
Inaugurated in October 2009, this series of conferences – the title of which refers to the Consulate General’s address situated at 934 on New York’s renowned Fifth Avenue – brings together, once a month, a French and an American figure with the objective of providing a double perspective on the major international issues.
During its two years of existence, this program has treated numerous topics, such as the financial regulation, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Treaty of Lisbon, the war on AIDS, nuclear energy, international criminal justice, the Iranian nuclear threat, life in space and even the crisis of the Euro, to mention only a few.
The Consulate General has also hosted several Nobel Prize winners, such as Françoise Barré-Sinoussi or Joseph Stiglitz, men of commitment such as Jacques Attali, David Harris, Director of the American Jewish Committee, as well as Richard Prasquier, President of the CRIF, Magistrates such as Bruno Cathala or Antoine Garapon, researchers like Justin Vaïsse of the Brookings Institute, Patrick Stewart and Terra Lawson-Remer of the Council on Foreign Relations, Christophe Jaffrelot of CERI, Economists such as Pierre-André Chiappori, Thomas Philippon, Brian Fabbri, Evariste Lefeuvre or Tano Santos, corporate managers like Jacques Besnainou, CEO of Areva Amériques and Al Bunschaft, Director of Dassault Systems USA, or even French officials, such as Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Ambassador Vimont, Ambassador Araud, and General Stéphane Abrial, Commander of the Allied Command Transformation of NATO. The conferences also want to give a glimpse of French expertise and innovation. They have, for example, hosted Richard Descoings, Director of Sciences Po, concerning positive discrimination, Jean-François Clervoy, Astronaut of the European Spatial Agency, and the professors Garcia-Sastre and Chomel, for a discussion on new epidemics.
The “Conferences@934” are a meeting place for an open and informal dialogue in English, between those who wish to understand and those who want to share their expertise – a point of exchange between French and Americans upon subjects which concern them directly. The conferences are also an opportunity for wider and more diversified audiences to attend the Consulate, for each of them hosts an average of a hundred people, academics, think-tank experts, journalists and others, who are simply curious about the French-American intellectual debate.
