- Stephen Heintz, CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, Robert Bosch Academy
About:
It is abundantly clear that humankind faces a number of simultaneous challenges which in their diversity and complexity, are unprecedented. These include the threat of escalating great power competition, the climate crisis, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, widening economic inequality, threats to democracy, mass movements of people fleeing violence or climate disruption, cyber conflict, corruption, the spread of toxic misinformation, and technological peril. As we seek to manage this array of challenges, we must also understand the three defining characteristics of our time: global interdependence, multipolarity, and profound turbulence.
Nearly eight billion human beings now share one planetary ecosystem, one climate, and a deeply interconnected economy. The reality of global interdependence is that crises in one part of the world often affect conditions elsewhere. And increasingly, the major issues we face cannot be solved or managed within national boundaries – they are problems of the global commons – “problems without passports.”
If the conclusion of the Second World War ushered in a period of Cold War bipolarity and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a brief period of U.S. global primacy, today’s reality is multipolarity. The rise of China as both an economic and military power, a revanchist Russia, the relative decline of the trans-Atlantic community’s hard and soft power, and the growing significance and assertiveness of the Global Majority produce an intricate web of relationships. Solving trans-national problems now requires successful management of complex and distributed structures of power.
The third reality of our age is profound, and likely protracted, turbulence in global conditions with dramatic consequences for both people and planet. We are witnessing the devastating impacts of climate change in real time. A brutal conflict rages in Ukraine. Great power competition and the potential for great power conflict now define relations among Russia, China, and the West. Flash points abound. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken millions of lives world-wide but with disproportionate suffering in historically marginalized communities, especially among the Global Majority. The global economy is set back by shocks stemming from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. More than 80 million people worldwide have been forced by climate change, violent conflict, and economic deprivation to leave their homes, with tens of millions more anticipated in the coming decades. We are in an age of turbulence.
In his 1980 book, Managing in Turbulent Times, Peter Drucker argued that the gravest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence itself but rather acting with “yesterday’s logic.” We need a new logic for the future.
The workshop will examine widely held assumptions and consider a number of critical questions.
The workshop is invitation-only.
Registration for this event is closed.