Wither WEF?

After a pause of two years caused by the pandemic, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which usually takes place in end January, was convened from 22 May to 26 May, 2022 when the number of corona infections was thought to come down with the warming of the weather. Over 2,000 leaders and experts including the chief executives and chairs of WEF partner and member companies, political leaders and heads of international organizations, civil society representatives, academic experts, youth leaders and key figures from the world of art, culture, science and technology attended the conference.

The WEF’s message was: “The annual meeting 2022 will embody the World Economic Forum’s philosophy of collaborative, multi stakeholder impact, providing a unique collaborative environment to reconnect, share insights, gain fresh perspectives, and build problem-solving communities and initiatives. Against a backdrop of deepening global frictions and fractures, it will be the starting point for a new era of global responsibility and cooperation.”

This year’s agenda included Social Development Goals (SDG), ways how new technologies will change the world, the potential of electro fuels and how to deal with environmental challenges. Representatives of business, politics and social development groups from many countries presented their activities in Davos. The event brings together more personalities of public life than any other meeting and represents an important interface between big business, politicians, and civil society. For Pakistan, it is important to be present in Davos.

Pakistan presents itself regularly through two major events: the Pakistan Breakfast and the Pakistan Pavilion. Entirely funded by private corporate entities without any government support, they have become an integral part of Davos. Sponsored and organized initially by Pathfinder Group and later joined by Martin Dow Group Pakistan, this unique presentation has been a tremendous platform for both current and past Pakistani leaders – civilian and military both – to inform the international community and the media about what is really going on in Pakistan in an attempt to improve the image of the country.

The “Pakistan Pavilion” is an open house for interested people where, for a full day, information on social problems, education but also on technological developments and other interesting news is related in a colloquial form. A second traditional element is the “Pakistan Breakfast” where media representatives and global executives are invited – apart from eating breakfast – to listen to Pakistani leaders from the government and sometimes from the opposition talking about what is going on in Pakistan.

This Pakistani initiative is a way forward on the side lines of the WEF annual meeting which focuses on deliberations of leading representatives of politics, economy and technology about how to evaluate what is going on in the world right now and how this is influencing global economy, politics and technological trends. The WEF is host to dozens of different projects, bringing together academics with corporate representatives and policy-makers to promote particular issues and positions on a wide array of subjects, from investment to the environment, employment, technology and inequality. From these projects and others, the forum publishes dozens of reports annually, identifying key issues of importance, risks, opportunities, investments and reforms.

Over the years, the WEF has survived by adapting to the times. Following the surge of anti-globalization protests in 1999, the forum began to invite non-governmental organizations representing constituencies that were more frequently found in the streets protesting against meetings of the WTO, IMF and Group of Seven (G7). In the 2000 meeting, the forum invited leaders from 15 NGOs to debate the heads of the WTO and the President of Mexico on the subject of globalization.

WEF began in 1971 as the European Management Forum, inviting roughly 400 of Europe’s top CEOs to promote American forms of business management. Created by Klaus Schwab, the forum changed its name in 1987 to the World Economic Forum after growing into an annual get together of global elites who promoted and profited off the expansion of “global markets.” It is the gathering place for the titans of corporate and financial power. Despite the globalization of economy and politics over the decades, the politics at the forum have remained surprisingly national, promoting social connections between key global power players and national leaders along with the plutocratic class of corporate and financial oligarchs. It is a consistent WEF forum for advanced “networking” and deal-making between companies, occasional geopolitical announcements, and agreements, and for the promotion of “global governance” in a world governed of global markets. WEF is criticised that it functions as a socializing institution for the emerging global elite, promoting common ideas, and serving common interests: their own. This is only correct partly; what it achieves in networking and cooperation is magnificent.

In 1997, the influential U.S. political scientist Samuel Huntington coined the term “Davos Man,” which he described as a group of elite individuals who “have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that are thankfully vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite’s global operations.” In that sense, WEF became a promoter of globalization. But with the re-emergence of Russia and China on the global economic and political screen, the Western powers dominating WEF had second thoughts. During the 2009 meeting, two prominent speakers were President Putin of Russia and the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Both painted a picture of the crisis as emanating from the centres of finance and globalization in the U.S and elsewhere, with the “blind pursuit of profit” and “the failure of financial supervision” – in Wen’s words – and bringing about what Putin described as a “perfect storm.” Both Wen and Putin, however, declared their intentions to work with the major industrial powers “on solving common economic problems.”

The World Economic Forum has been consistently interested in the prospects of social unrest and resistance movements, particularly those that directly confront the interests of corporate and financial power. The 2012 WEF meeting took notice of tumultuous upheavals across the Arab world, anti-austerity movements across Europe, notably with the Indignados in Spain, and the Occupy Wall Street movement just months prior in the U.S and across the world. It is to be expected that this year’s gathering will promote the Western US/NATO stand on the war in Ukraine and demand support for the boycott and cutting out Russia from international trade and financial and political dealings. With most countries of the non-western world not in support of those sanctions, it remains to be seen if the WEF can sustain its grip over global economic and political development.

The writer is a defence and security analyst