Deirdre McCloskey. Photo: Policy Exchange.
RNH Academic Director, Hannes H. Gissurarson, Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Iceland, attended a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Marrakech in Morocco 7–10 October 2025. The MPS was founded by Friedrich A. von Hayek in April 1947. Its founding members included Milton Friedman, George J. Stigler and Maurice Allais, who were all to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics, as did Hayek. Other prominent founding members were Frank H. Knight, the father of the Chicago School of Economics, Ludwig von Mises, the father of the Austrian School of Economics, the philosophers Karl R. Popper from England and Bertrand de Jouvenel from France, the political theorist Herbert Tingsten and the economist Eli F. Heckscher from Sweden, and the economists Trygve Hoff from Norway, and Luigi Einaudi from Italy (who became President of Italy in 1948). Shortly afterwards, Ludwig Erhard, the author of the German economic miracle, and Reinhard Kamitz, the author of the Austrian economic miracle, joined the MPS. In the 1980s and 1990s, other successful reformers joined, including Sir Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson from New Zealand, Vaclav Klaus from the Czech Republic and Mart Laar from Estonia. Some Nobel Laureates alongside the four founding members have belonged to the MPS, Gary S. Becker, Ronald H. Coase, James M. Buchanan and Vernon Smith in Economics and Mario Vargas Llosa in Literature. Prominent writers have also been members, including Otto von Habsburt, the heir in 1916–1918 to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, and Henry Hazlitt from the United States. The MPS has from the beginning sought to be a forum for discussions about freedom, its problems and prospects. Gissurarson attended his first meeting at Stanford in 1980, invited by Hayek. He became a member in 1984 and was on the Board of Directors in 1998–2004.
The Marrakech meeting was held at the Es Saadi hotel, and the theme was ‘Reaching New Audiences for Classical Liberalism’. The MPS President, Professor Deirdre McCloskey, addressed the opening dinner. Sessions were devoted to various topics, such as the dissemination of classical liberalism through cultural creations, the relationship between islam and liberty, and the challenges to the open society. At a luncheon Professor Peter J. Boettke and Dr. Nils Karlson debated whether classical liberals were progressing in the right direction. Professor Gabriel Calzada, former MPS President, addressed the closing dinner which took place in the Soleiman Palace. The Chatham Rule applies to meetings of the MPS which implies that direct quotations from talks are not allowed. The Marrakech meeting was ably organised by Dr. Nouh El Harmouzi from Morocco and Michel-Kelly Magnon from Canada. On the last day of the meeting, the participants went on an excursion around Marrakech, visiting the Bahia Palace and other places.
Gissurarson used the opportunity to meet a few friends of Iceland, including Dr. Eamonn Butler from the Adam Smith Institute in London, Dr. Barbara Kolm from the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna, Dr. Phillip Magness from the Independent Institute in Oakland, Dr. Tom Palmer from Atlas Network in Washington DC, Dr. Nils Karlson from Ratio Institute in Stockholm, Professor Alberto Mingardi from IULM in Milan, and Terry Anker from Liberty Fund, Indianapolis. On one free evening, the Nordic participants had dinner together, all from Sweden except Professor Gissurarson. From left: Susanne Karlson, André Dammert, Professor Lotta Stern, Gissurarson, Nils Karlson, Anders Ydstedt, and Professor Carl-Gustaf Thulin.
