The Athens Democracy Forum
The Athens Democracy Forum is the Democracy & Culture Foundation's annual conference on democracy, held in Athens in association with The New York Times. The 13th edition ran 30 September to 3 October 2025, gathering more than 460 participants under the theme New Visions for Hard Realities.
The Athens Democracy Forum is the Democracy & Culture Foundation’s annual conference on democracy, held in Athens, Greece in association with The New York Times. The thirteenth edition ran from 30 September to 3 October 2025, under the theme New Visions for Hard Realities, with more than 460 participants including heads of state and government, scholars, technologists, civil-society leaders and journalists.
The forum was first convened by The New York Times in 2013 and has been organised since 2019 by the non-profit Democracy & Culture Foundation, with the newspaper remaining its founding partner. It is held in Athens because the city is the historical site of the first democratic government. The sessions, debates and closed working groups address democratic renewal, social upheaval, economic insecurity, and geopolitical and climate challenges.