Environmental Acceptability as the driver of New Civilization

We are on a collision course with nature. And the underlying reason is that humans' creative capacity has largely bypassed their adaptive capacity. Due to existing trends in 10 years the world will be changed dramatically. These trends will change the social standards and human behaviour patterns; shift “centres of gravity” from the West to East, from the North to South, and from nation-states to private actors; spur deep reframing of global governance; force us to develop new patterns of production, trade and consumer standards; advance human capacities to and possibly beyond the limits of the traditional definitions of humanity. The development of new policies to manage these challenges and to respect the realities of the natural world offers a myriad of positive opportunities to generate the new ideas, new policies and new partnerships that are needed to overcome the present crisis by reorient­ing and restructuring our economies on a more sustainable, resource-efficient and inclusive path. But, however important economics and technologies are, achieving the required level of global systemic change and overcoming the seemingly immovable implementation gap that is blocking progress will require political leadership, vision and courage, rather than an adaptive strategy of small steps, and a revitalized multilateral governance architecture adequate to meeting the interconnected challenges reflective of the 21st century

The Root Causes of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Russian invasion of Ukraine goes much further than phantom pains of Russia’s imperial dreams. This unfolding confrontation must be understood as a major clash in the rising strategic competition to determine the future architecture of the world order and the European security system. To analyse the essence of this aggression, one should not succumb to the temptations to deny Putin and his entourage rationally. Most of the steps taken by the Kremlin, both before and after February 24, 2022, look quite rational, if framed by the regime’s evaluation of the state of the world. This war is not just about Ukraine, in fact Russia tests in Ukraine the US and the West’s “acceptability red lines” and this is seen in Moscow as a prelude to the destruction of the rules-based world order. Global governance indeed begs not just for modern institutions’ reform because their credibility has been substantially eroded by inaction and lack of solidarity but for revision and remodelling because their inadequacy and inefficiency have become ever-present, crying and overwhelming. Redefining multilateralism will not be enough. We will have to reinvent it.

From Reset to Reboot?

The Ukrainian crisis provoked a serious and dangerous deterioration of relations between Russia and the West. However the relations between Russia and the West should not be reduced to the current Ukrainian crisis. The rational interpretation requires getting rid of Cold war prejudices and facing the systemic disfunctionality of the current international system routed in the failure to adjust it to post Cold war realities. To “reboot” this dangerous system “freeze” it’s important to reformulate the international agenda and political frameworks to encourage transformative leadership. The new architecture should provide an integrated agenda for progress on security, energy, and economic cooperation as well as coordinated efforts to address frozen conflicts. And most urgently, joint and concerted efforts are needed to take Ukraine out of a condition of social and state breakdown, and turn it into a hub of cooperation rather than a prize drawn from East-West competition

New Paradigm Quest

Global economic growth has undoubtedly produced enormous benefits for hundreds of millions of people in both developed and developing countries. But we are heading fast into a perfect storm of connected environmental, economic and social challenges. The issues confronting the world community today are more intense and threatening than those we have faced in the past. They are on an unprecedented scale, with truly global implications; they are evolving fast; they are essentially connected and systemic and they will behave, individually and together in non-linear ways. The world needs to stop looking backward. Since the 2008 financial crisis, we have wasted far too much energy trying to return to the days of rapid economic expansion. The flawed assumption that the post-crisis world‘s challenges were only temporary has underpinned policies that have yielded only lackluster recoveries, while failing to address core problems. The post-crisis era is over, and the “post-post-crisis world“ is upon us. It is time to adopt a new framework of systemic solutions that promote shared prosperity within the global world of today and tomorrow

Debugging Democracy

Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. However since the beginning of the new century democracy has been clearly suffering from serious structural problems, rather than a few isolated ailments. Why has it run into trouble, can it be revived? In the consumption driven world people have started to be driven by the belief in economic prosperity as the guarantee of human freedom. As a result, human development and personal status have become hostages of economic performance, deforming basic civilisation’s ethical matrix. However in 10-15 years, the world may be completely different. We are looking at communications and technology revolutions occurring in very abbreviated time frames. Soon, billions of people will interact via a fast data-transferring Metaweb, and it will change social standards as well as human behaviour patterns. Integrated global economies functioning as holistic entities will spur a deep reframing of global governance, shaping a new configuration of political, economic and military power. One can hardly expect that these changes will leave democratic mechanisms intact. It’s a pivotal moment for all of us because we are facing paradigm changes in our way of life. We clearly need a new political vision that is deliverable quickly. Democracy can be reset if it can provide a platform for collective judgement and individual development—in a value-driven process, when values manifest themselves in concrete and socially meaningful issues, and are not reduced to the economic optimization and politics of the wallet. In other words, the only remedy to resolve the crisis of democracy is more democracy

The World in Transit: Going Beyond Myopic Visions

The world has entered the new Axial Age. Numerous transformations are taking place in the models of social, economic, and political activity, in projections of power and authority. The political landscape and its relevant “content structures” (democracy and liberalism, right and left, globalisation and nationalism etc.) are acquiring new systemic qualities. If we want to avoid fighting with the ghosts of the past, it is necessary not only to take into account these transformations but examine them from within. To see the complexity of things, to understand the transformation of the world in transit, we need to get rid of myopic, linear interpretations of seemingly familiar but morphing notions like “globalism and nationalism”. Who can manage the complexity of the “plurilateral” world we are stepping into? What kind of political architecture will be needed to support the nascent multi- or rather “pluripolarity”? How can we synchronise governance with inevitable digitalisation of politics? How can we enable decision-making mechanisms at the global level? These questions need to be answered. Nobody will miss the train to “a bright tomorrow”. Historical time flows for everyone—you cannot hide “behind the wall” to avoid it. No actor of a historical process can bury his head in the sand of the comfortable present, indulging in “counter-clockwise revolt”. The future will come for everyone, but not everyone will hold an equal place in it

From Rome to Paris: a Call for Strong and Urgent Climate Action

A high-level, international Symposium was held in Rome on 27-29 May to review the realities and risks of climate change, to identify weaknesses in the current negotiating process, to propose policies and measures for rapid and effective climate action and to underline the risks and costs of further delay. The intent is to broaden support for a strong international agreement at the crucial UN Conference on climate, COP 21, which takes place in Paris in November. The Symposium was held on the initiative of President Mikhail Gorbachev, with support of the Italiani Foundation, the European Space Agency and the New Policy Forum. A representative of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace attended

Tomorrow's Europe : the views of those concerned

845 p., ref. bib. : 37 p