The long human odyssey of self-discovery has reached a crucial stage: everything we do affects everyone and everything else - and we know it. The next hundred years will bring more change than we can easily imagine; more opportunities for more people to achieve the fulfilment of a good life, and more risks that could result in catastrophic harm to the entire planet.

Viewed geopolitically, all the major stress points will involve the land mass that we know as Europe and Asia. And the main question is whether the world views of the two superpowers - China and America (the one fundamentally Confucian, the other essentially individualist) - can be brought to work together constructively in the face of rising tensions.

At the same time, on a deeper level, the even greater question is whether and how the irreversible fact of urbanization will nurture a healthy and mature human individuality, such that the accumulated wisdom of the world's great cultures - all of which have their origins in that same Eurasian land mass - becomes mutually transforming and enriching.

Stephen Green was educated at Lancing College, Sussex, and at Oxford University where he graduated in 1969 with a BA (First Class Honours) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.  He also obtained a Masters Degree in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975.
He was created a Life Peer in 2010 and was appointed Minister of State for Trade and Investment in January 2011.  He retired from this position in December 2013.
Lord Green began his career in 1970 with the British Government’s Ministry of Overseas Development.  In 1977, he joined McKinsey & Co Inc, management consultants, with whom he undertook assignments in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
He joined The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1982.  In 1998, he was appointed to the Board of HSBC Holdings plc as an Executive Director.  He became Group Chief Executive in 2003 and Group Chairman 2006.  He retired from HSBC in December 2010.
Lord Green was Chairman of the British Bankers’ Association from 2006 to 2010.  He also served as a Trustee of the British Museum.  He served as a non-executive director of BASF until 2010.
He is Chairman of the Natural History Museum, Chairman of Asia House and President of the Institute of Export.
Stephen Green has written four books – Serving God? Serving Mammon? [1996]; Good Value, Choosing a Better Life in Business [2009]; Reluctant Meister - How Germany's Past is Shaping its European Future [2014]; and The European Identity – Historical and Cultural Realities We Cannot Deny [2015].