Welcome to the
website of Bill Emmott
I am a writer and consultant best known for my 13 years as editor-in-chief of The Economist (1993-2006) as well as for my books and films on Japan and Italy. My latest book, out in 2017, was “The Fate of the West” about the future of liberalism. These days, I am a “Brexile” living in Ireland, though I also spend time in Oxford, and am chairman of the Wake Up Foundation, a charity I co-founded with the film-maker Annalisa Piras, as well as of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Japan Society of the UK, and Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute. This site carries my articles, videos, speeches and books, as well as my 2050 Index looking at the long-term strengths and prospects of western societies.
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The breakdown of British pragmatism over Brexit
09.02.19 Publication: Mainichi Shimbun
We British used to talk proudly about how pragmatic, reasonable and logical we are, by comparison with what we have liked to see as our impractical,...
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The danger of a US-China deal
03.02.19 Publication: La Stampa
The trade war between the United States and China risks getting nastier, lasting for years and damaging all our economies. Negotiations in Washington, DC, on...
Read moreLessons of Japan’s Heisei period
12.01.19 Publication: Nikkei
It is one of the pure coincidences that history sometimes produces. But the unusual point about the dawn of the Heisei era in 1989-90 is that at exactly the...
Read moreHard Brexit Truths
03.01.19 Publication: Project Syndicate
DUBLIN – The March 29, 2019, deadline for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union is fast approaching, yet it remains far from clear how the departure...
Read moreThe 2050 Index
In too many countries, politics and policy making is addicted to the short term. To help foster the longer-term thinking we all need, in 2017 I worked out this index, together with James Fransham of The Economist, which ranks 35 advanced western countries according to 25 different measures, grouped under the themes of demography, knowledge, innovation, globalization and resilience. I will be publishing an updated version in 2019.
See the 2050 IndexLatest Film: Interview with Sergio Marchionne
Latest Book
The fate of the West
In the long aftermath of the worst financial crisis to have hit advanced countries since 1929, liberal ideas have found themselves under threat, from the nationalist, illiberal likes of Donald Trump. But so has the co-operative network of liberal, democratic societies that we call the West, a network of alliances and friendships that was built […]
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