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Bremmer will also receive school’s 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award
Dean Brian T. Edwards today announced that the Tulane University School of Liberal Arts will welcome alumnus Dr. Ian Bremmer (A&S ’89), renowned political scientist, author, and entrepreneur, to be the keynote speaker at next week's undergraduate diploma ceremony for the Class of 2025.
Bremmer is the founder and president of Eurasia Group, the world’s leading global research and advisory firm, and GZERO Media, a platform delivering intelligent, engaging coverage of international affairs. He is widely recognized for bringing the concept of political risk to financial markets and for defining “emerging markets” as countries where politics influences economics as much as, if not more than, traditional market forces. From 2023 to 2024, Bremmer served as rapporteur for the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, contributing to the first global report on mitigating AI risks and harnessing its transformative potential.
Before Bremmer gives his address, Dean Edwards will present him with the annual School of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumni Award. Established in 2021, this award recognizes Tulanians who have achieved distinction professionally, artistically, or in making positive social change, and whose pathways demonstrate the benefits of a liberal arts education and continue to inspire new graduates. Previous winners include novelist N.K. Jemisin, Academy Award winner Robert Fyvolent, educator Elizabeth Daley, and WNBA executive Colie Edison.
“Ian Bremmer provides a stunning example of the ways in which a liberal arts education prepares students for the challenges of the future,” Edwards said. “His incredible success as an author, as an entrepreneur, and as a journalist has helped connect the dots between political, technology, and business sectors on a global level. That his incredible career started here in the Tulane political science department is inspiring. I am so happy to welcome him back to Tulane to share his insights with the Class of 2025.”
A prolific author, Bremmer has written eleven books, including the New York Times bestseller Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism and his most recent work, The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats—and Our Response—Will Change the World. He also serves as the foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large at Time magazine and hosts GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, a weekly public television program exploring global issues.
“I’m delighted for the opportunity to return to my alma mater and address this year’s graduating class in the School of Liberal Arts, and deeply honored to be awarded this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award,” Bremmer said. “In a time of deep global uncertainty, the next generation will be tasked with solving our most important challenges. We depend on them — and I’m betting on them. I’m confident Tulane’s class of 2025 is prepared to navigate these changes, just as Tulane prepared me as a young undergrad eager to carve out my place in the world.”
Bremmer holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Tulane University, as well as a master’s degree and doctorate in political science from Stanford University. He currently teaches at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The School of Liberal Arts 2025 undergraduate diploma ceremony will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, May 16 in the Superdome. Visit https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/commencement for more information.