The speed of change in today’s world is so great that our expectations about the future are often rendered obsolete by new developments, Dr. Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Management Board, said in his welcoming speech at the Foresight project’s regional symposium which took place on 18-19 June in Washington DC.
Organised by Deutsche Bank’s International Forum, the Alfred Herrhausen Society, in partnership with Policy Network and The Brookings Institution, the event, which was the second of an international series entitled "Foresight - forging common futures in a multi-polar world", was a unique opportunity to advance the task of forging a new global consensus on the shape of the emerging world order and the role of the US within it.
“Problems, such as the financial crisis, non-proliferation, North Korea, failing states and global warming, affect all of us and can only be solved by everyone pulling together, not through unilateral action,” Dr. Josef Ackermann said, adding that it was this belief that was the motivation behind the Foresight conferences.
“We must learn to see through the eyes of others, as this is the only way we can act in concert,” he said.
The objective of the conference is to form a global network of think-tanks with the aim of preventing a “clash of futures”, to develop a shared vision of the future, said Dr. Josef Ackermann.
Experts and policy-makers from around the world discussed current global challenges including: managing the economic and political fallout of the financial crisis; forging an integrated international security policy in the context of challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the linked challenges of climate change, energy security and nuclear proliferation for global governance. The future visions and strategies of the new US administration were also discussed with expectations of the US from other parts of the world.
International speakers included Peter Mandelson, UK Business Secretary; Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council; Jose Serra, Governor of the State of Sao Paulo; Teresa Ribera, Spanish State Secretary for Climate Change; Anatoly Adamishin, former deputy foreign minister of the Russian federation; Bernd Mutzelburg, German Special Envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan; Wu Jianmin, President, China Foreign Affairs University; Simon Schama, Professor of History at Columbia University.
The event follows-on from a symposium held in Moscow last year, and future events are planned in Europe, Brazil, India, and China.
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