The World Economic Forum, colloquially known as Davos after the Swiss village that hosts the event, seems like a holdover from a more hopeful time when leaders were expected to get together to talk about making the world a better place. Today, the mission of “improving the state of the world” seems almost quaint or, worse, out of touch, leading some to advocate for the demise of an event whose moment, they say, has come and gone.
But for all of the valid criticisms of increasing concentration of wealth, leaders out of step with the needs of their people, and growing inequality, the modern world faces problems that cannot easily be solved by an individual country. Events like Davos are part of the answer: an important venue for relationship-building and conversations key to offsetting friction and instability.
Instead of living up to that idea, the gathering this week is moving forward without some key players: President Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese President Xi Jinping are all sitting out amid domestic troubles.
In Washington, the government remains shut down, enmeshed in chaos as Trump fights for his border wall. In London, the dispute over Brexit has paralyzed May’s government with her carefully crafted compromise shot down by Parliament. In Paris, leaderless protests known as the “gilets jaunes” have left a path of destruction and threatened the stability of the government. In India, Modi remains embattled, fighting for a second term. In Beijing, Xi is facing a slowing economy and a yet-unresolved trade war.
Those no-shows, and the widening political rifts that caused them, do not bode well for addressing the pressing issues on this year’s agenda.
There won’t be much progress on climate change, the impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, or the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, without the leaders of the largest economies and the key players in regulating tech and carbon emissions.
Those topics, as much as domestic politics would like to limit them to the borders of a given country, cannot be solved by a single government but instead require consensus, cooperation, and working relationships across the public and private sectors around the world — the very things that a snowy week in the Alps might foster.
The World Economic Forum, as elitist and at times incorrect as its participants may be, is an opportunity to develop the international leadership that the world desperately needs. That’s a good thing. That countries, amid rising populism and isolationism, are unable or unwilling to participate in those discussions is not productive.
