OWP 2022: Leading For the Future

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THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL CONFLICT

Focusing on the present and future of global conflict – and why business is increasingly stuck in the middle.

A news headline: The West ejects Russian banks from global financial systems and Moscow turns off the flow of natural gas to Europe. In the cycles of history, there seems to be another shift taking place in the established order of things. We are entering an era of power rivalry with geopolitical jostling involving not only major powers asserting themselves, but smaller actors too.

Business leaders today need to be in touch and in tune; they need to understand why and how the interconnectedness of economies and societies (that was meant to foster peace and prosperity) is now being increasingly used as a powerful tool as global conflicts intensify. This has far-reaching implications for businesses that create, operate, or leverage these networks.

UNITY OR FRAGMENTATION? Traditional views of

international relations hold that a more interdependent and more interconnected world is also a more peaceful world, since the cost of conflict is simply too high. An alternative view holds that interdependence can be ‘weaponized’ by powerful actors.

DAVID BACH Professor of Strategy and Political Economy, Dean of Innovation and Programs

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