On Wednesday evening the President of the World Bank, Robert B Zoellick, visited Cambridge to give a lecture entitled ‘Modernizing Multilateralism: Learning from Military History’.

The biennial Roskill Lecture is a biennial event and holds a prestigious place in the University calendar.

It usually embraces such topics of International Security, Foreign Policy, the World Wars, Public Policy and Science.

Zoellick became the 11th president of the World Bank Group on July 1, 2007. Prior to joining the bank, Mr Zoellick served as Vice Chairman, International of the Goldman Sachs Group. From 1985-1993, Mr Zoellick served at the Treasury and State Departments, and he served in President Bush’s Cabinet as the 13th U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005 and as Deputy Secretary of State from 2005 to 2006.

He said, “As the international economy struggles to recover from the greatest blows since the 1930s, developing countries are compensating for the stumbling industrialized world. Over the past five years, developing countries have provided two-thirds of global growth.”

“As the world moves toward multiple poles of growth, multilateral institutions will need to play a role in connecting developed and developing countries to work cooperatively. The solution is not to abandon multilateral institutions, with all their imperfections. The duty of leadership is to “modernize multilateralism” for vastly different circumstances.”

The lecture was held at Churchill College, whose Acting Master, Professor Alison Finch, said, “The lecture was very successful - both the talk itself and the lively question-and-answer session afterwards. The timing of this particular lecture, given current concerns over the health of the global economy, could not be better, and Mr Zoellick is the perfect speaker to talk us through the challenges.”

Richard Partington, Senior Tutor at the college, emphasised the event’s importance for the student community: “I am really proud that Churchill and our Archives Centre have shown such sustained commitment to bringing to the University and the College leading figures from the world stage, and to facilitating student access to them. In my view this is a key part of what defines a university and what makes the Cambridge student experience special.”