Announcing the 2026 Georgetown Global Dialogues in Doha and Yogyakarta
Our global future looks bleak. Existential threats crowd the horizon, from climate disaster and pandemics to runaway AI and nuclear annihilation. Failing domestic politics and international diplomacy, driven by destructive power politics, are not meeting our shared global challenges. Without a change of direction, we may face a future of environmental collapse, public health crises, technological dystopia, and cataclysmic war.
What might such a change of direction look like? What can we hope for? How can we shape the future instead of awaiting it passively?
In 2026 the Georgetown Global Dialogues (GGD) will convene leading writers and thinkers to discuss futures for hope in conversation with university students and a wider public. The first gathering will take place in Doha, Qatar, from March 28 to 30, 2026, in partnership with Georgetown University in Qatar, and the second will be held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from October 15 to 17, 2026, hosted by Sanata Dharma University.
The GGD Fellows: An Inclusive Global Conversation
Since it began with a week-long series of dialogues in Washington, DC, in April 2024 under the overarching theme of "Ways Forward in a Divided World," GGD has convened in Rome in June 2025 and in Barcelona in November 2025. The GGD Fellows, leading writers and thinkers mainly from the Global South, have been sharing their insights across those conversations— Verónica Gago, Mohsin Hamid, Ranjit Hoskote, Nesrine Malik, Hisham Matar, Kohei Saito, and Ece Temelkuran.
In 2026 the poet Maria Stepanova is joining as the eighth GGD fellow.
Bringing Writers and Youth Together
We should not expect young people, collectively, to be more hopeful about the state of the world. Many are caught up in the same tribal nationalism and divisive politics as their older contemporaries. Some are welcoming AI into their lives at a faster pace, as both assistants and companions. And most do not expect political elites to solve the climate crisis or abandon war as a tool of statecraft.
At the same time, so many young people are hungry for hope about the future—it is their future. They combine intellectual curiosity with an openness to dialogue and aspire to a more global orientation. Through webinars, online forums, and gatherings in Doha and Yogyakarta, GGD will bring students together with writers to imagine ways forward in a divided world.
To learn more about GGD and its goals of Learning from the Global South, Advancing a Global Vision of Human Equality, Elevating Youth Perspectives on Global Challenges, and Building a Culture of Encounter, visit our website.