Global order: Which principles should shape our future?
About Doha Debates
About us
Doha Debates engages a vanguard of intellectually curious truth-seekers to constructively debate differences in order to build a better future. We emphasize unity over division, encouraging conversations that bring us together rather than drive us apart.
Meet our team.
Mission
To seek new and collaborative solutions to global challenges through debate and to inspire individual action.
Vision
To unite and inspire a generation to solve the world’s challenges and build a better future for generations to come.
History
The original Doha Debates was founded by former BBC correspondent Tim Sebastian in 2004 with funding from Qatar Foundation. All eight seasons of the Oxford Union-style debates were televised on BBC World News, with each episode posing a question that centered around the Arab world.
In 2018, Qatar Foundation rebuilt Doha Debates around the concept of the Majlis, replacing the traditional debate format with one that encourages both the debaters and viewers to seek common ground among disparate viewpoints. Today’s Doha Debates highlights voices from the global south and global north on issues that affect all of us, and engages young people from more than 230 nations and territories.
