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Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014

  • About this report
    • Introduction by Klaus Schwab
    • Welcome from Martina Gmür
    • Preface by Drew Gilpin Faust
    • Making the Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014
  • Top 10 trends of 2014
    • Introduction
    • 1. Rising societal tensions in the Middle East and North Africa
    • 2. Widening income disparities
    • 3. Persistent structural unemployment
    • 4. Intensifying cyber threats
    • 5. Inaction on climate change
    • 6. Diminishing confidence in economic policies
    • 7. A lack of values in leadership
    • 8. The expanding middle class in Asia
    • 9. The growing importance of megacities
    • 10. The rapid spread of misinformation online
    • In focus: The trends we need to know more about
  • Regional challenges
    • Donald Kaberuka: The cautious optimist
    • Building for the better: tackling inequality, unemployment and corruption
  • Networked thinking
    • Values
    • Employment
    • Interconnectivity, visualised
    • Interactive council map
  • Future agenda
    • The new space race
    • Mapping the future: The technologies changing our lives
    • The future of biotechnology
    • The future of shale gas
    • The future of democracy
    • The future of surveillance
    • The future of the Arctic
    • The future of multinationals
  • Browse by topic
    • Economics and Growth
    • Education
    • Energy
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Environment
    • Finance
    • Geopolitics
    • Governance
    • Health and Well-being
    • Hyperconnectivity
    • Innovation
    • Infrastructure
    • Risk
    • Sustainability
    • Society
    • Technology
    • Unemployment
    • Youth
  • Download a PDF version of this report
  • Download a calendar of 2014’s most significant events
Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014 Home
  • Report Home
  • About this report
    • Introduction by Klaus Schwab
    • Welcome from Martina Gmür
    • Preface by Drew Gilpin Faust
    • Making the Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014
  • Top 10 trends of 2014
    • Introduction
    • 1. Rising societal tensions in the Middle East and North Africa
    • 2. Widening income disparities
    • 3. Persistent structural unemployment
    • 4. Intensifying cyber threats
    • 5. Inaction on climate change
    • 6. Diminishing confidence in economic policies
    • 7. A lack of values in leadership
    • 8. The expanding middle class in Asia
    • 9. The growing importance of megacities
    • 10. The rapid spread of misinformation online
    • In focus: The trends we need to know more about
  • Regional challenges
    • Donald Kaberuka: The cautious optimist
    • Building for the better: tackling inequality, unemployment and corruption
  • Networked thinking
    • Values
    • Employment
    • Interconnectivity, visualised
    • Interactive council map
  • Future agenda
    • The new space race
    • Mapping the future: The technologies changing our lives
    • The future of biotechnology
    • The future of shale gas
    • The future of democracy
    • The future of surveillance
    • The future of the Arctic
    • The future of multinationals
  • Browse by topic
    • Economics and Growth
    • Education
    • Energy
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Environment
    • Finance
    • Geopolitics
    • Governance
    • Health and Well-being
    • Hyperconnectivity
    • Innovation
    • Infrastructure
    • Risk
    • Sustainability
    • Society
    • Technology
    • Unemployment
    • Youth
  • Download a PDF version of this report
  • Download a calendar of 2014’s most significant events

Preface by Drew Gilpin Faust

 

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President Drew Gilpin Faust © Stephanie Mitchell, Harvard University

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Historians are more accustomed to looking into the past than forecasting the future. But as I read through the challenges facing the world highlighted in this report, I recognised a pattern that has been a focus of my work in recent years as president of a research university.

We live in an era when knowledge is of critical importance in addressing the world’s most pressing problems, when technology promises both wondrous possibilities and profound dislocations, when global forces increasingly shape our lives and work. At Harvard and other research universities around the world, academic enterprise has become increasingly collaborative, because the best answers to complex questions often involve the combined perspectives of experts from different but complementary disciplines.

What struck me about the subjects highlighted in this report was the degree to which many of these challenges are connected in complex ways that may not be apparent at first glance. For example, few would dispute the idea that climate change will be a major concern in 2014, as will the rising socio-political tensions across the Middle East and North Africa. But relatively few may have noted that one of the factors exacerbating the situation in Syria is a drought that resulted from shifting weather patterns in the region. Similarly, the expansion of megacities is influenced by rising sea levels and other climate challenges. And then there’s the issue of energy independence and the impact that tapping natural gas in the US could have on political policy in the Middle East.

The increasingly interconnected nature of the world’s most pressing problems demands new approaches to the development of solutions. Traditional intellectual fields are shifting and converging in order to answer the complex questions facing our globalised society, just as organisations such as the World Economic Forum and its Global Agenda Councils are bringing together thought leaders from across a wide range of disciplines to provide new perspectives on our greatest opportunities.

As we look ahead, we have to be optimistic that this growing spirit of collaboration across disciplines and across borders will enable us to meet the challenges of 2014.

Drew Gilpin Faust
President, Harvard University

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