Free Thinkers Society at Davos 2024 (PAST EVENT)

Virtuous Leadership in an Age of Polarization

Registration

Davos 2024 Programme (Past Event)

Part 1: Business Leadership in a Time of Financial Fragmentation

Tuesday 16 January 7:00am - 8:30am

DAVOS HOTEL BELVÉDERE STEIGENBERGER - SALON DUNCAN

Join us for an exclusive Private Breakfast where industry leaders and experts will convene to discuss and debate how geopolitical, geostrategic, and geoeconomic realities and shifts are impacting the continued growth and development of the digital financial economy.  As disruptions of the existing order continue to occur, trust is being disrupted faster than it can be rebuilt. At this breakfast, we’ll discuss how this dynamic is playing out in the geopolitical environment, especially the hardening of “blocs,” the resulting difficulties and bottlenecks in working across these blocs, and the challenges and opportunities presented by jurisdictions where people, goods, data, and value transit across blocs.  The goal is to identify requirements for technological innovation that must occur—in areas like security, identity, privacy, data integrity, provenance, etc.—in order to enable continued innovation and growth in the digital financial economy in light of geopolitical, geostrategic, and geoeconomic realities.

With Niall Ferguson and Nouriel Roubini. Discussion moderated by Alan Cohn.

*Hotel Security Badges are required to enter the venue and attend the event.  Upon confirmation of your registration.

Part 2: The Future of Democracy in a Multipolar World

Tuesday 16 January 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Stromback Penthouse at Hotel Europe

The global situation today is one of multiple interlocking crises. On the economic plain, we find high levels of inflation, interest rates, and debt. The geopolitical landscape is marked by multiple wars and the growing impact of the Sino-US rivalry. Climate change and AI accelerate a general sense of unpredictability while surging populist movements render the future of democracy fragile. Most detrimentally, in Western societies trust in experts is veining to the extent where free thinking, and even the notion of “truth” itself, is debated.

In light of the contestation between Western countries and those of a rising Global South, this session will analyze the state of democracy and its alternatives, and the shape of the future world order.

A conversation with:

  • Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution Stanford University

  • Nouriel Roubini, CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, LLC

  • Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times

    Moderated by: Victor J. Willi, Executive Director, Middle East Institute Switzerland

    Introduced by: Trudy Di Pippo, Founder TDP & Partners

Part 3: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Leadership

Tuesday 16 January 9:00pm - 10:30pm

PROMENADE 71B – Private Dining Room

Henry Kissinger can surely be counted among one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century. In his book Leadership, published in 2022, he defined an inherent paradox facing the leader-as-strategist: “In circumstances that call for action, the scope of decision-making is often greatest when relevant information is at its scantiest. By the time more data becomes available, the margin of maneuver tends of have narrowed”.

At a time of growing multipolarity and tensions in the international system, this session will look at the life and legacy of Henry Kissinger in order to understand how his leadership lessons can guide statemen and policymakers through today’s uncertainties.

A Conversation With: Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution Stanford University

Moderated by: Victor J. Willi, Executive Director, Middle East Institute Switzerland

CONTEXT

The Free Thinkers Society is a group of individuals who are committed to promote a new kind of leadership that is needed in order to navigate the increasingly polarized and fractured world of today. As societal and individual structures are becoming more polarized, the Free Thinkers Society hopes to stimulate an honest, courageous, and continuous debate on how to address these challenges in order to better grasp the crisis of meaning that currently festers in some corners of society, and to address this crisis through inspired leadership that promotes age-old virtues such as courage, discipline, justice and reason.

Davos 2024 Sessions

On the occasion of the World Economic Forum 2024, the Free Thinkers Society will hold three sessions to discuss leadership in an age of polarization.