 | "There is not one challenge in the world today that will get better if we
approach it without confidence in the appeal and effectiveness of our ideals - political and economic freedom, open markets and free and fair trade, human dignity and human rights, equal opportunity and the rule of law".
Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State |
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Collaboration is most certainly the best way to develop effective approaches to these many global risks. But cooperation among nations will be insufficient if the responses involve obsolete tools of diplomacy and statecraft - commissions that report but do not act, resolutions and declarations with no bite, international protocols that major powers refuse to sign, or multilateral organizations which key nations can opt out of or undermine with a veto or refusal of funding. The global governance institutions that exist today are legacies of the post - World War age and the cold war era. They are not equipped to tackle the challenges of a multipolar world, are simply too weak, or are hobbled by the burden of lowest denominator consensus.
"The United Nations is often a bystander on geopolitical issues," said Nandan M. Nilekani, Executive Co-Chairman of Indian IT group Infosys Technologies. "The Security Council is still structured with members from 60 years ago. The G8 is still not ready to expand its membership to include the new countries. The World Bank is finding that its capital flows are dwarfed by private capital and it's time to find a new role in this world. The IMF voting patterns are based on 60-year old rules. The Doha Round of trade discussions has been going on for the last 10 years. When we look at every dimension of global coordination we find that there is not enough coordination happening and things are just falling apart".
To prevent such a breakdown requires collaborative innovation. In business, "innovation", strictly speaking, is the turning of a concept into commercial value. Applying innovation in geopolitics is the turning of an idea - a new policy or approach - into valuable results, or viable solutions. "The power of collaborative innovation," said former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in advance of the Annual Meeting, "is the answer to all the big global challenges we are facing".
The linkages among issues means that any effective approach to a problem will require action across several fronts and by many actors including business, civil society and citizens. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore and Irish musician Bono made this point as they underscored the connection between climate change and poverty. Gore argued that individual actions to conserve energy were not enough to deal with the climate crisis. "They're important and making changes of those sorts can build a political consensus," he explained. "But, in addition to changing the light bulbs, it is far more important to change the laws and the treaty obligations that nations have".
Many government leaders at the Annual Meeting including Blair stressed that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the stability of the Middle East is not simply a matter for politicians and diplomats. It impinges on the rest of the world because of its motivational link to global terrorism and its impact on energy markets. The international business community obviously needs to support the peace process for it to succeed.
It was in the series of sessions on water, particularly the WorkSpace session, that the urgent need for collaborative and innovative approaches was most evident. Ignorance of the many problems associated with water supply in the world and inaction are already having severe consequences - conflict, malnutrition, displacement, disease and death. "Water is today's issue; it is the oil of this century," warned Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dow Chemical Company. Added UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: "Too often where we need water we find guns instead".
But is the new brand of leadership - the kind that is focused on finding collaborative and innovative solutions - for real? To be sure, we have seen the application of collaborative innovation in the past. The creation of the UN peacekeeping forces, the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the conclusion of landmark conventions such as the Law of the Sea and the global banning of landmines were collaborative innovations in their time. Today, it is critical to apply collaborative innovation to even bigger geopolitical challenges.
Two immediate tests of whether this concept is more than a Davos ideal are the challenges of concluding a post-Kyoto international framework for mitigating global warming and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of this year. It is far from clear that these two goals can be achieved. What is clear is that nations are beginning to understand that business as usual is simply unacceptable. "Globalization is forcing changes in how people collaborate in a fundamental way," said Blair. "You need stronger and stronger collaborative political leadership". The "good news" is this, he concluded: "If we are interconnected and the world is interconnected, the only way for the world to work is to have a set of common values. We have no option but to work together".
| Securing Water for the Future |
Water emerged as one of the dominant themes at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008. No individual, firm or nation can escape the consequences of water scarcity.
"The challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all is one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He told leaders in Davos that water stress poses a risk to economic growth, human rights, health, safety and national security, and that water shortages can lead to conflict, such as in Darfur and other parts of the world.
Many participants, however, agreed that the water challenge could be solved, using collaborative approaches, political will, market mechanisms and innovative technology like those which arose in response to global warming.
The resource is often wasted because it has no economic value, despite being the most precious and scarce resource of all, said Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé, Switzerland. "If we allow market forces to play a role in how to define the value of water, we could take a big step forward".
Efforts to extract more and alternative energy sources such as shale oil or biofuels only speed the depletion through their own requirements for water. But, it was suggested that market forces could work well under a cap and trade approach similar to those applied to carbon dioxide. |
At the Annual Meeting, geopolitical collaborative innovation was very much on display in the ASEAN session, with three heads of government, six ministers and the organization's secretary-general on the Congress Hall stage. It was a bold statement by 10 disparate countries that, while they may have different cultures, traditions and histories, and while they may have even fought each other on the battlefield, they share a common future. Indeed, they must - and not just because by joining forces in an ever-closer union they become a more powerful market or a more attractive destination for foreign direct investment, but because only by banding together can they fully and effectively address the multiple risks that threaten the future of their people.
And it is not just nation states that have to sit at the table. In session after session, the message of inclusiveness was clear: business and civil society must join with government. The only way for the ideal of collaborative innovation to be a reality - as it must be - is for the international community to set common values to underpin a globalization that is fair and just.
A group photo in Davos said more than any of the statements the assembled public figures gave in support of the renewed push by the United Nations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Together with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stood Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Microsoft Chairman and global philanthropist Bill Gates, Irish musician Bono and Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John T. Chambers. This creative coalition, they declared, was necessary to reinvigorate the international community's flagging campaign. "The goals look like they're not going to happen, and the G8 commitments made in 2005 look like they will not come off," Bono complained. "This is a scandal".
This unprecedented gathering to rally the international community was emblematic of the new geopolitics that globalization has spawned. The greater interconnectedness of the world has begotten a host of interconnected problems that the old nation-state model was never meant to deal with. Climate change, terrorism, regional conflict and the rapid spread of infectious diseases are only some of the modern global challenges that require multiple approaches and the attention of multiple actors. As the problems have expanded in scope, so too have the number of players needed to tackle them.
Cynics and devotees of zero sum diplomacy may dismiss the idea of collaborative innovation as simplistic or naive. Certainly, the power of this approach will be tested in a world where recidivism lingers. At the Annual Meeting, formidable voices spoke of the residual ills of colonialism and took a hard line on the enmities of a bygone age. History, of course, cannot be denied. But if the state of the world is to improve, then those truly committed to improving it cannot waste time eschewing the balm of forgiveness for the false satisfaction of revenge and the easy languor of dwelling on past injustice. Instead, to forge ahead, as South Africa did after the end of apartheid, they should pursue truth and reconciliation - collaborative innovation at its finest.
"Water is today's issue; it is the oil of this century".
Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dow Chemical Company, USA |
