Davos Survey Shows World Leaders At The Mercy Of Nationalism
A recent survey conducted at Davos showed many of today’s world leaders are not ready to face the challenges presented by the rise of Nationalism across the globe. This implies that world leaders who continue to uphold the tenets of globalism are vulnerable to major crises.
The study which was published by World Economic Forum (WEF) and released by risk consultancy Marsh, surveyed 1000 business leaders and decision makers.
The WEF survey called Global Risks Report 2019 stated that the breakdown of international cooperation on major issues such as cyberattacks and climate change had reached “crisis levels” and would continue to prevent international action on urgent crises this year.
John Dzrik warns these world leaders that nationalism has been on the rise and the inability to accommodate accompanying changes in ideology can have disastrous consequences:
“The expectation is that risks will intensify even further over the next year and our ability to collectively respond to events as they take place is declining because the commitment to multi-lateral institutions is declining. There’s a significant and growing risk in the geo-political arena because of the migration towards nationalist agendas.”
Drzik also noted that more and more countries are electing leaders who run on a nationalist platform:
“Lots of populist political figures are getting elected and changing the agenda to be more protectionist (and) more nationalist, and as a result (they are) weakening multilateral bonds — and that’s expected to continue into 2019.
“Not only will geopolitical tensions continue, but they will grow in the economic sphere in the form of tariffs, sanctions, further trade wars, investment restrictions, restrictions on the use of technology from a foreign country, and all of these tend to have a depressing impact on the economy.”
The report also stated the possible consequences of having a “multiconceptual” world order — where geopolitical instabilities reflected a shift in power balances as well as disagreements on fundamental values.
WEF President Borge Brende said on Wednesday, “We simply do not have the gunpowder to deal with the kind of slowdown that current dynamics might lead us towards. What we need now is coordinated, concerted action to sustain growth and to tackle the grave threats facing our world today.”
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