Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) is an international organization founded in 2023 that convenes conservative and classical-liberal politicians, business leaders, academics, and clergy around the defense of Western civilization, free markets, and family. Co-founded by Baroness Philippa Stroud, the psychologist Jordan Peterson, and others, it stages large conferences in London and commissions policy research.

ARC is often described as a conservative counterpart to the World Economic Forum’s Davos gathering. Its organizers frame the project as an attempt to offer what they call a “better story” for the West, an affirmative case for tradition, enterprise, and national sovereignty against what they see as a pessimistic and managerial elite consensus.

Key Takeaways

• ARC was founded in 2023; its co-founders include Baroness Philippa Stroud, who serves as chief executive, and Jordan Peterson.
• Its inaugural conference ran from October 30 to November 1, 2023, in London, drawing delegates from dozens of countries.¹
• The Legatum Group helped establish ARC, and financier Paul Marshall was an early funder.²
• A second conference at ExCeL London in February 2025 drew roughly 4,000 attendees and a slate of senior political figures.
• Supporters present ARC as an answer to Davos; critics describe it as a vehicle for the populist and traditionalist right.

History And Context

ARC was established in 2023 as a London-based organization with charitable and commercial arms. The investment group Legatum, led by Christopher Chandler, was among its founders, alongside Baroness Philippa Stroud, a Conservative member of the House of Lords and former director of the Centre for Social Justice, and the Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson. The hedge-fund manager and GB News co-owner Paul Marshall provided early financial backing reported at around one million pounds.²

The inaugural ARC conference took place in London from October 30 to November 1, 2023. Organizers assembled roughly a hundred speakers and delegates from more than seventy nations. The program ranged across energy and economic policy, the family, education, and questions of cultural confidence. Speakers included Kevin McCarthy, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; John Anderson, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia; the writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali; and the journalist Fraser Nelson.¹

ARC held its second conference at the ExCeL exhibition center in London from February 17 to 19, 2025, on a substantially larger scale, with attendance reported near 4,000.³ The 2025 program again paired political figures with business leaders and academics, and the organization continued to publish research papers and short films advancing its themes. Between conferences ARC has built a standing network and an online presence, positioning itself as a recurring institution rather than a single event.

The Conservative Position

Supporters present ARC as a constructive response to what they regard as a hollowed-out and demoralized Western establishment. In their account, the dominant institutions of global governance and finance, symbolized by Davos, have embraced a narrative of decline, scarcity, and managed retreat, particularly on energy and growth. ARC’s organizers argue instead for abundance: cheap and reliable energy, economic dynamism, and confidence in the moral inheritance of the West. Stroud has framed the project as the search for a “better story,” a positive vision capable of competing with the progressive account of history rather than merely opposing it.

The substantive commitments on display reflect mainstream themes of the intellectual right: limited and accountable government, free enterprise, the family as the basic unit of society, energy realism skeptical of rapid decarbonization mandates, and a defense of national sovereignty and Judeo-Christian cultural foundations. Peterson and allied speakers tie these to an argument about meaning and responsibility, that free societies depend on citizens who accept duties, not only assert rights. ARC’s distinctive claim is institutional: that the right has lacked a convening body of its own to rival the prestige and reach of the established global forums, and that building one is itself a political act.

Differing Positions

Critics on the left and center view ARC less as a forum for ideas than as a coordinating point for the populist and traditionalist right, backed by wealthy donors with interests in fossil fuels and in conservative media. Investigative outlets have noted the presence of oil-industry figures and political operatives at its events and questioned the transparency of its funding. On this view, ARC’s “better story” framing repackages familiar opposition to climate policy, immigration, and social liberalism in optimistic language, and its appeals to Western civilization carry exclusionary undertones. Skeptics also doubt that a conference movement can translate into durable influence, arguing that ARC’s significance lies mainly in networking among an already-aligned elite. Defenders reply that scrutiny of donors applies equally to the established forums ARC was built to challenge, and that disagreement on energy and culture is exactly the debate the organization exists to hold in the open.

References

1. “Inside ARC, the would-be conservative answer to Davos,” Financial Times, 2 November 2023.
2. “Alliance for Responsible Citizenship,” The Legatum Group portfolio page, 2023.
3. “ARC 2025 conference brought together thousands of leaders in London,” Political Network for Values, March 2025.
4. Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Random House Canada, 2018), p. xxxi.