The sky is changing. The US appears to be walking away from its European alliances, a pillar of the old world order, and withdrawing support from elements of the UN system and World Trade Organization it helped set up. In the 2020s, we are witnessing a perfect storm of seismic shifts.
Trust in internationalism has collapsed, and ethno-nationalism is on the upsurge, driving populist protectionism, geopolitical confrontation and conflict. Yet, businesses and leaders from all fields with international experience know that managing risks is about building trust, not undermining it.
In my book, A New Era of Risk, I propose a new, sustainable internationalism for a more diverse, multipolar world. The interdependence of recent decades was built on the experience that international actors can achieve beneficial outcomes from a constant process of negotiating rules, norms and practices while economies become ever more integrated. Now, technological and climate risks demand international rules, norms and cooperation more than ever.
Yet the lessons of recent history appear to be forgotten as the world fractures and polarises, with many reaching for demagogues and scapegoats rather than patiently focusing on economic performance, cooperative security and social cohesion. The West appears stuck in binary thinking that makes a catastrophe out of risks and fails to sufficiently respond to disruptions.
Sustainable internationalism would seek to uphold cooperation and avoid conflict, providing a platform for international collaboration to proportionately respond to collective challenges, while acknowledging competition between nations on realist grounds.
Sustainable internationalism would need to tolerate complexity and indeed be committed to diversity, rather than an expectation that one world view can prevail over all others. It would require a new realism rooted in an evidence-based approach to problem-solving, rather than a grand theory that imagines the world’s vast complexity can be reduced to a chessboard of black and white or a single set of norms for all.
01:49
US declines to sign international declaration on artificial intelligence
US declines to sign international declaration on artificial intelligence
