Colloque Lippmann meets in Paris.
Friedrich Hayek publishes “The Road to Serfdom”.
First Meeting of the Mt Pelerin Society occurs in the Alps.
Nixon ends the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944 that had tied national currencies to a gold standard.
Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet turns to Milton Friedman and the Chicago School to implement market reforms.
The Oil Crisis destabilizes Keynesianism.
Milton Friedman wins the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Michel Foucault delivers pioneering lectures on neoliberalism and biopolitics at the Collège de France.
Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister of the UK (1979) and Ronald Reagan becomes president of the US (1980).
Neoliberal policies cause currency crisis in Mexico.
The Berlin Wall falls, signifying the end of communism in Eastern Europe.
The US, Canada, and Mexico begin negotiations on a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); it goes into effect in 1994.
Twelve states form the European Union, expanding the free movement of capital, goods, and people.
The Chiapas Uprising occurs in southeastern Mexico.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) forms, rendering the Washington Consensus a global project.
The East Asian Crisis halts work on the Sathorn Unique Tower in Bangkok, Thailand. It never resumes.
Prime Minister Tony Blair implements his ‘New Labour’ vision, a progressive version of neoliberalism.
The US Congress repeals Glass-Steagall, deregulating Wall Street.
The "Battle of Seattle" against globalization erupts at a WTO meeting.
China is admitted to the WTO.
Global Financial Crash strikes economies everywhere in the world.
Occupy Wall Street, and its slogan, "We are the 99 percent!", makes economic inequality a global political issue.
The British vote YES on Brexit, striking a blow at visions of a borderless Europe and world.
Donald Trump assumes the US presidency, fracturing the neoliberal order.
A victory of a center-left coalition led by Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders points the US to a progressive post-neoliberal future.
Donald Trump is once again elected president.
On May 29, 30, and 31, 2025, several hundred people gathered at the University of Cambridge to discuss how we might move beyond neoliberalism to establish a progressive political order. The participants and delegates came from the UK, Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia; from universities, think tanks and policy institutes, media organizations, and governments. The discussions about pathways to a new economy and politics launched at the conference were sophisticated, engaged, and often revelatory.
Our goals for Beyond Neoliberalism were ambitious: to explore efforts on the part of states to discipline capital and shape markets for publicly desirable outcomes in areas ranging from industrial policy and innovation to finance and the green transition; to elevate our conversations above the national boxes in which they often occur and bring the Global South and East Asia firmly into conversation with the Global North; and to grapple directly with the key political challenge of our time—winning broad popular support for a political order that prioritizes development, equality, innovation, and sustainability.
You can encounter our engagement with this these issues in a variety of forms on this website: through an introductory video that captures the conference’s purpose, spirit, and high points; through short highlight reels that we have prepared for each panel; through videos and podcast audios that present each panel in its entirety; and through several interviews conducted during the conference by Financial Times journalist Rana Foroohar. Please dig into these resources and spread news of them through your networks. That way we will continue to advance the very important discussions that this conference launched.
We thank the Hewlett Foundation, the University of Cambridge, the Moller Centre, and our many partners, participants, and delegates for making this conference possible.
For inquiries, please contact:
info@beyond-neoliberalism.org