RNH Academic Director, Hannes H. Gissurarson, Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Iceland, attended the special meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Marrakech 7–10 October 2025. The Society was founded in April 1947 by Friedrich A. von Hayek, Milton Friedman, George J. Stigler and Maurice Allais, all later to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. Other prominent founding members included Frank H. Knight, father of the Chicago School of Economics, Ludwig von Mises, father of the Austrian School of Economics, philosophers Karl R. Popper from the United Kingdom and Bertrand de Jouvenel from France, political scientist Herbert Tingsten and economist Eli F. Heckscher from Sweden, economist Trygve J. B. Hoff from Norway and economist Luigi Einaudi from Italy (President of Italy in 1948–1955). Shortly afterwards, Ludwig Erhard, father of the German Economic Miracle, and Reinhard Kamitz, father of the Austrian Economic Miracle, joined the Society. In the 1980s and 1990s, other successful reformers joined the Society, including Sir Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson of New Zealand, Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, and Mart Laar of Estonia. Nobel Laureates in Economics Gary Becker, Ronald H. Coase, James M. Buchanan and Vernon L. Smith, all from the United States, and Nobel Laureate in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa from Peru also belonged to the Society. Influential commentators on current affairs such as Dr. Otto von Habsburg, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary in 1916–1918, and Henry Hazlitt from the United States were members as well. The aim of the Mont Pelerin Society was, and is, to be a forum for the discussion of liberal principles and policies (liberal in the old European meaning of the word: in the tradition of John Locke and Adam Smith). Professor Gissurarson attended his first meeting at Stanford in 1980, sponsored by Hayek, became a member in 1984 and served on the Board of Directors in 1998–2004.
The Marrakech meeting was held at the Es Saadi Palace Hotel, and its theme was ‘Reaching New Audiences for Classical Liberalism’. The President of the Society, Professor Deirdre McCloskey, gave an address at the opening dinner. Sessions were devoted to various topics, such as the dissemination of classical liberal ideas through cultural creations, Islam’s compatability with liberty, and challenges facing the Open Society. Over lunch one day, Professor Peter J. Boettke and Dr. Nils Karlson engaged in a lively discussion about whether classical liberalism was progressing in the right direction. Professor Gabriel Calzada, a former President of the Society, gave an address at the closing dinner, held in the magnificent Soleiman Palace. The Chatham House rule applies to meetings of the Mont Pelerin Society, that participants are not supposed to quote the speakers. The two organisers of this very successful meeting were Dr. Nouh El Harmouzi, Director of the Arab Center for Research in Morocco, and Michel Kelly-Gagnon, President of the Montreal Economic Institute in Canada. On the last day of the meeting, the participants went on an excursion around Marrakech and to the Bahia Palace, the former residence of the French governor of Morocco.
Professor Gissurarson used the opportunity to meet with some friends of Iceland who have been speakers at past events in Reykjavík, including Dr. Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute in London, Dr. Barbara Kolm of the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna, Dr. Phillip Magness of the Independent Institute in Oakland, Dr. Tom Palmer of the Atlas Network in Washington DC, Dr. Nils Karlson of Ratio Institute in Stockholm, Professor Alberto Mingardi of the IULM University in Milan, and Terry Anker of Liberty Fund, Indianapolis. One evening, the Nordic participants in the meeting, all from Sweden except Gissurarson, went out together for dinner. From left: Susanne Karlson, André Dammert, Professor Lotta Stern, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, Dr. Nils Karlson, Anders Ydstedt, og Professor Carl-Gustaf Thulin.