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26 May 2025

The Institut de hautes études internationales and Neoliberalism: Historical Perspectives

On 21 May, 2025, the Geneva Graduate Institute hosted “The Institut de hautes études internationales and Neoliberalism: Historical Perspectives”, a panel discussion considering the role of the Institute in the making of neoliberalism, with Quinn Slobodian, Professor of International History at Boston University; Dieter Plehwe, Senior Research Fellow, Berlin Social Science Center (WZB); Sandrine Kott, Professor of Modern European History, University of Geneva/New York University; and Alice Pirlot, Assistant Professor of International Law, Geneva Graduate Institute. The panel was moderated by Gopalan Balachandran, Co-Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy. 

The panel considered how Geneva’s Institut de hautes études internationales, now the Geneva Graduate Institute, was involved in the making of neoliberalism, from the 1930s and the emergence of the “Geneva School” to the post-World War II road to Mont-Pélerin. The discussion explored the ways in which these activities fit more broadly into the trajectories of neoliberalism, and considered the connections between the globalism of the League of Nations and the birth of neoliberalism. 

The discussion took place on occasion of Quinn Slobodian’s visit to the Institute to discuss his new bookHayek’s Bastards:The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right. Quinn Slobodian is a specialist in the history of the “Geneva School” and launched the panel by considering the birth of neoliberalism in the Interwar period. 

In their interventions, Dieter Plehwe, Sandrine Kott, and Alice Pirlot focused on the interdisciplinary angles of neoliberalism and the Geneva School. Dieter Plehwe considered the role played by William Rappart and discussed the shift from economics to the legal and moral. Sandrine Kott presented a compelling counter-narrative, sharing the interpretation that neoliberalism is not just an economic programme, but an ethical and moral imperative. Alice Pirlot considered the lack of international tax law involved in the Geneva school and what that might imply. 

In the following discussion, led by moderator Gopalan BalachandranQuinn Slobodian considered the “extraordinary symmetry” between the birth of neoliberalism in the 1930s and the upcoming centenary of the Institute – the “spirit of Geneva” in the Interwar period was more concerned with the “problems of the world” and reassembling a planetary community that had been destroyed by the First World War. Geneva’s approach stood out at the time because of its human, multi-disciplinary angles. Now once again, as the Institute is nearing its 100th anniversary, Quinn Slobodian emphasised that our current climate is once again one dependent on, “the arbitrary will of a single world leader” – the arbitrary, chaotic, anharmonic opposite of the Geneva school. 

The discussion was followed by a Q&A. 

Watch the Panel