“Post-transformation World: Solutions and New Definitions”
Online conference
Date: October, 15, 2022
GlobUs
SYNOPSIS OF THE GLOBUS DISCUSSION:
The world has entered an irreversible process of transformation. Political and economic crisis, military conflicts, environmental problems are changing the global landscape dramatically.
While noone could tell how long it would take and how exactly it would unfold, it is clear that the existing balance of powers and global institutional design will substantially change. Putting the current situation aside, the aim of this event is to discuss which solutions could be feasible and what the new definitions could sound like.
GlobUs organized another round of discussions dedicated to the Post transformation World: Solutions and New Definitions. The discussion was focused on the very foundations of humanity, values and general approaches that could ensure constructive cooperation between different social groups and nations.
Prof. Jagdish Khatri from India elaborated the transformational process taking place in the
world and the reasons behind it. In his opinion, the world is undergoing major
transformation at a pace faster than ever, due to a series of crises in social and geopolitical
spheres. In order to analyse the process parameters and find solutions, it is important to
have a holistic analysis of the root causes of problems, the world today being much interconnected and interdependent.
He quoted, “A tree with strong roots can withstand any storm; but it cannot be expected to develop strong roots once the storm has already appeared on the horizon. Hence, we need to be proactive to strengthen our roots in advance to predict, prevent and handle any problem.”
Prof. Khatri opined that the world order is changing from unipolar or bipolar to multi-polar structure with several clusters of nations in place and new ones being formed. While the existing global powers are struggling to retain their leadership position; new emerging nations are yet to become strong enough to get their voice heard in setting global agenda.
Emphasizing further, he identified following major factors that are leading to crisis
situations:
1. Leadership Deficit: The world needs effective, responsible and value-oriented
leadership not only in geopolitics but also in business, society and all spheres of life.
2. Governance Deficit: Global Institutions are losing their effectiveness in resolving
crises and ensuring peace with human development, and need restructuring.
3. Trust Deficit: Lack of mutual trust between nations, leaders, communities, and
societies has made solutions more difficult to arrive at, with fake news and social
media widening the rift further.
Elaborating on the possible solutions and strategies, Prof. Khatri stressed on following points:
a) Allowing multilateralism to blossom, the emerging economies and regions should have a role in setting global agenda with suitable representation in global institutions
b) As Indian Prime Minister said at a recent SCO Meeting, “This is not a time for wars.”
The conflicts need to be solved through dialogue and diplomacy.
c) Accumulating heaps of military weapons cannot solve any problem; and has raised threats of destruction of whole humanity. Governments need to consider allocating more resources for education and healthcare.
d) It is important for every country to concentrate on resolving its own internal
conflicts and socio-economic issues first. “If you are good inside, sooner or later, you will be great outside.”
e) “One-size-fits-all” kind of economic policies have not proved to be useful to several developing countries. Even regular meetings of World Economic Forum at Davos could not either predict or prevent any economic problems. Hence, countries need to develop their own specific economic models for managing their economies.
f) Crises like Covid-19 have proved that no country alone can solve the problems in isolation. Hence, cooperation and collaboration avenues at global level need to be identified. There are opportunities for stronger South-South collaboration among developing countries.
g) Educational curriculums must emphasize on inculcating right values and ethics, with inputs from spirituality.
Dhwani Jain, the founder of the Karma foundation, emphasized that it is extremely important to focus on the solutions for the challenges that the human race is facing in the current VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambitious) world, to bring some order for the survival of the human race, to hold back for some time and think of what we are doing, to acknowledge the problems we are facing - from environment pollution and economic slowdown, terrorism, cyber and warfare, inequality, violence, regional and religious conflicts.
Constructive solutions are needed, as we are getting divided every day on the basis of religion, ideologies, socioeconomic status.
Dhwani mentioned some of the keys for those constructive solutions:
- recognizing inherent dignity of a human being, that can be found in our ancient cultures and traditions, the inherent dignity that we fail to see while running for individual success and materialistic possessions.
- philosophy of “the world is one family”, which is more important today then ever to invite to our life
- educating future generations and leadership that no matter where we live and what we do, we are one race - human race
- learning to coexist together accepting individual differences. The differences are beautiful as they allow to learn from each other and our uniqueness.
- celebrating diversity (as Ghandi said, “our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization”)
- seeking for peace and wisdom in human arts
- pursuing Unity, not by repressing the differences, but by making those flourish as flowers in a field
Dhwani summed up focusing on what makes up the very core of humanity: the emotions, the sense, the touch that makes us humans, highlighting that humanity is what can take us forward, as well as the feeling of universal responsibility, the universal humanitarian approach as the only sound basis for creation of a progressive and peaceful world.
She stated that in the post-transformation world we must to get over our past differences, accepting that we are one big human family, that can overcome the past and resolve the issues through diplomacy and discussions, through understanding each other’s aspirations, and through mutually beneficial cooperation in social, cultural, environmental spheres, scientific and educational exchanges, through art, that humanizes and sensitizes, teaches to appreciate the beauty of life.
“Embrace humanity, be humans first, everything else can wait” - she concluded.
Overall, the panellists were optimistic about the results of ongoing global transformation process.