In this lecture, Nigel Biggar will first describe the current controversy about 'decolonisation' in the English-speaking West. He will then explain the argument he makes in his book, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning (2023) in favour of the British Empire and against 'decolonisation'. In conclusion, he will speculate about the relevance of this controversy to Romania by reflecting on the idea of 'empire' as a way of understanding the European Union and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Nigel Biggar is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford, where he directs the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life. He holds a B.A. in Modern History from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in Christian Theology & Ethics from the University of Chicago. Described as “one of the leading living Western ethicists”, Professor Biggar was appointed Commander of the British Empire “for services to higher education” in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours list. He has lectured at several institutions and academies. His hobbies include walking over battlefields. In 1973 he drove a Morris Traveller from Scotland to Afghanistan; and in 2015 and 2017 he trekked across the mountains of central Crete in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh-Fermor and his comrades. 

Moderator: Dr Attila Gábor Hunyadi, historian, associate professor at Babeş-Bolyai University.

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