Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The World Economic Forum's report "Global Risks 2011"
has identified two risks that are systemically critical to the global risk landscape:
economic disparity and global governance failures.
Both of these risks are extremely tightly interconnected to the other 35 risks
assessed influencing the evolution of many of them and inhibiting our capacity to
respond effectively to them.
Globalization has generated sustained economic growth for a generation.
It has shrunk and reshaped the world, making it far more interconnected
and interdependent.
But the benefits of globalization seem unevenly spread.
A minority is perceived to have harvested a disproportionate amount of the fruits.
Issues of economic disparity and equity at both the national
and the international levels are becoming increasingly important.
Politically, there are signs of resurgent nationalism and populism
as well as social fragmentation.
To meet these challenges and the other risks detailed in the report,
improved global governance is essential but this is one of the 21st century paradoxes.
The conditions that make improved global governance so crucial:
divergent interests, conflicting incentives, and differing norms and values
are also the ones that make its realization so difficult, complex, and messy.
The G20 is seen as the most hopeful development in global governance
but its efficiency in this regard has not been proven.
You can download "Global Risks 2011," explore the underlying survey data,
and see the forum's other work in the area of risk response on our website.
WWW.WEFORUM.ORG/GLOBALRISKS2011