Digital Zeitgeist – The World Economic Forum Resumes Its Regular Meetings Against The Sobering Background Of Ongoing Crises And Armed Conflicts
Davos’ elite will need to do some soul-searching in a world falling apart.
The conflict in the Ukraine, a decelerating economy, increased fragmentation, diminishing globalisation, the continuously increasing cost of living, and climate change. This week marks the return of Davos after a sabbatical of three years, and there is a lot for the world’s most powerful and influential people to dig their teeth into.
Although it is not strictly speaking the first gathering of world leaders, businesspeople, academics, and members of civil society since the start of the pandemic, the World Economic Forum event that took place in May was significantly scaled back and did not attract an especially large number of attendees. It worked out well as a dress rehearsal, but the real Davos takes place every year in January, when the Swiss hamlet situated 1,500 metres above sea level in the Alps is blanketed in a thick blanket of snow. In the past, the atmosphere at Davos has ranged from unfettered optimism to uncontrolled pessimism, and this has been dependent on the health of the global economy at the time. This year, it is quite likely that the latter will occur. “Economic, environmental, social, and geopolitical crises are converging and conflating,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF), in a statement that was released last week. He went on to say that the purpose of this year’s Davos was to remove themselves of the “crisis mindset.”
That is easier said than done. Before there was a “crisis mindset,” there was a “Davos mindset,” in which the annual get-togethers encouraged an inclusive form of globalisation and attendees from around the world worked together to tackle cross-border issues such as climate change.
However, the readiness to collaborate – or the spirit of Davos, as Schwab likes to refer to it – has decreased as the threats to global peace and prosperity, as well as the destiny of the planet, have become more severe. The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual global risks report last week. This research is a publication that analyses what experts perceive to be the most important short-term and long-term dangers. The study issued a very stern warning.
“Concerted, collective action is needed before risks reach a tipping point,” it said. “Unless the world starts to cooperate more effectively on climate mitigation and climate adaptation, over the next 10 years this will lead to continued global warming and ecological breakdown.”
People have the mistaken impression that the World Economic Forum (WEF) is a shadowy and nefarious organisation, comparable to something out of a James Bond movie. It is more of a giant global talking shop than anything else, where world leaders use the opportunity to rub shoulders with each other and where businesspeople conduct deals behind closed doors. In actuality, it has no executive power at all. In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, James Bond flies over Davos on his route to Blofeld’s alpine fortress, but that’s about the only thing the World Economic Forum has in common with an Ian Fleming novel.
Instead, the purpose of the IGWE’Ls (informal gatherings of world economic leaders) which are attended by prime ministers, presidents, governors of central banks, and top CEOs, is to investigate whether or not it is possible to find global solutions to global problems. In some ways, Davos serves as a dress rehearsal for summits that take place later in the year, which is when the actual decisions are made.
Some world leaders, like Donald Trump, have used Davos as an opportunity to boast about how great things are going in their own countries. Others travel to Davos with the purpose of rallying support for a global cause, which in the case of Tony Blair in 2005 meant discussing the necessity of debt relief and increased aid for developing countries that were struggling.
Even though the Prime Minister would find plenty of kindred spirits among the tech entrepreneurs and Wall Street bankers who regularly attend Davos in numbers, Rishi Sunak will not be attending Davos this time. It is a source of frustration for the organisers of the WEF that the United Kingdom government does not use Davos to sketch out its global agenda. However, the prime minister and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, believe that it would not be the greatest of looks to be hobnobbing with the global elite while Britain is in the midst of a crisis regarding the cost of living and strikes.
Instead, the most prominent politicians from the United Kingdom to attend Davos are going to be Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition, and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor. Both of these individuals are seizing the opportunity to demonstrate how business-friendly the Labour party has become.
A lot has transpired in the time since the controversy between President Trump and the environmental activist Greta Thunberg dominated the discussions at the 2020 Davos meeting. The United States and China are currently seeing a deterioration in their relations, which was not the case two years ago. As a result of the pandemic and the events that followed, countries are now considerably more wary of being exposed to lengthy and complicated supply chains. The halcyon days of globalisation, which spanned the late 1990s and early 2000s, are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
Despite all of Schwab’s rhetoric about breaking a vicious loop of short-term and self-seeking policies, the throng at Davos has to deal with a world that is de-globalising and becoming more vulnerable. Because for those who are struggling to get by there are few things more nauseating than the self-styled masters of the universe wringing their hands about the need to address inequality, a bit of soul-searching and humility would not be a bad thing.
online sources: theguardian.com, weforum.org