Navigating the Vortex

By: Lucy P. Marcus & Stefan Wolff
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  • Summary

  • We live in a complex and ever-changing world. To navigate the vortex we must adapt to change quickly, think critically, and make sound decisions. Lucy Marcus & Stefan Wolff talk about business, politics, society, culture, and what it all means.

    www.navigatingthevortex.com
    Lucy P. Marcus & Stefan Wolff
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Episodes
  • The 78th UN General Assembly High-Level Week: Spotlight on Ukraine and Sustainable Development Goals

    The 78th UN General Assembly High-Level Week: Spotlight on Ukraine and Sustainable Development Goals
    Sep 19 2023
    This morning, the High-Level week of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly gets under way in New York. This is the annual gathering of the heads of state and government of most of the UN’s member states. Notably absent this year, however, are four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—Russia, China, and France are not sending their presidents, and neither is the UK prime minister attending.What will the main focus be for the General Assembly?Two items will likely dominate the 78th UN General Assembly High-Level Week—the war in Ukraine and progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, on which there is a special summit in New York that is expected to conclude with the adoption of a political declaration today.Will the war in Ukraine dominate?The war in Ukraine will probably not dominate, but it will be a key item on the agenda, given especially that Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is one of the speakers scheduled to address the General Assembly on the first day of the debate. The war in Ukraine will also be critical in more indirect ways. Many countries have been affected by the war, including in terms of their food security, in terms of the inflation of energy prices, and in relation to the increasingly tense and fractious relations between Russia and the West which has added to global instability and negatively affected the ability of the international community to tackle key issues, such as development and climate change, more effectively. These issues are likely to be raised by several speakers in the debates and in meetings, like the one between Britain’s Prince William and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres yesterday.Who will the main players be given the leaders from the UK, France, Russia and China won’t be in attendance?Given that of the permanent five, veto-wielding powers of the Security Council only the US will be represented at the highest level, with President Biden addressing the General Assembly this morning in New York, we can expect key leaders from the Global South playing a more important role this year. President Lula of Brazil will be the first speaker after the report of the General Secretary. South Africa, another key actor for the Global South, will also be there with its president speaking this morning, while the new Nigerian president will speak in the afternoon. Apart from the US, key Western players sending their heads of state or government include Switzerland, Germany, and Japan. But in general, we would expect the so-called Middle Powers, including those from the Global South, which have for years pushed for a greater recognition of their role, to take at least part of the limelight. This will also include countries like Turkey, Argentina, and Qatar.Is it surprising to see that the leaders of these superpowers won’t attend?Yes and no. Yes, because the High-level Week at the General Assembly is one of the major universal platforms not only for addressing the assembled international community and raising key issues in front of a global audience but also for these heads of state and government to have bilateral and small multilateral meetings in the margins of the general assembly. This is where a lot of important business gets done--for example, President Biden will host the leaders of five Central Asian states today for the in the first-ever presidential summit in the so-called C5+1 summit. At the same time, it's also not surprising, for example, that Russia's president Vladimir Putin is not attending given that there is a warrant out for his arrest by the International Criminal Court. And the Chinese president, Xi Jinping has avoided any potential direct encounters with his US counterpart for quite some time. The absence of the heads of state and government of Russia, China, the UK and France, however, should also not be overstated -- regardless of their high-level presence or not, they remain the key players in the UN system because of their privileged position as veto powers on the Security Council, which, compared to the General Assembly, is the more powerful of the UN organs. And the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, met the Chinese Vice President, Han Zheng, yesterday in New York, so the superpowers still interact at the UN, even if not at the highest levels.We hope you've found this Navigating the Vortex PDQ rapid response helpful. To get this and all of our articles and podcasts directly to your mailbox as soon as we share them, register for free at Navigating the Vortex. You can also subscribe for subscriber-only access to comments and chats and other special subscriber-only benefits.We hope you'll share Navigating the Vortex with anyone you think might find it of interest, and please consider rating and reviewing us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening. Get full access to Navigating the Vortex at www.navigatingthevortex.com/subscribe
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    6 mins
  • Other BRICS in a new Chinese wall

    Other BRICS in a new Chinese wall
    Aug 28 2023
    The 15th BRICS Summit, held in South Africa from the 22nd to the 24th of August was predictably underwhelming in its lack of concrete outcomes. The BRICS, even after the addition of six new members next year, will be anything but an alternative or rival to the G7. For all the talk about multipolarity, the BRICS, and their expansion, contribute further to the consolidation of a new bipolar order with just two rival blocs—led respectively by the US and China. It remains to be seen, however, whether dislike of a US-dominated order is enough to sustain the current lure of the BRICS. What it’s about: The 94-paragraph Johannesburg II Declaration issued at the summit of currently five members of the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—is a mostly aspirational and self-congratulatory document. The only truly notable outcome of the summit is contained in paragraph 91:We have decided to invite the Argentine Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to become full members of BRICS from 1 January 2024.This is preceded by the announcement that “BRICS countries reached consensus on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the BRICS expansion process” but without any further elaboration of what these might be. And the announcement of expansion is followed by a commitment “to further develop the BRICS partner country model and a list of prospective partner countries”.Apart from that, the Declaration is hardly a revolutionary document. It repeats calls for reform rather than replacement of key international institutions, such as the UN, the World Trade Organisation, and the IMF. In addition, the BRICS “reaffirm the importance of the G20 to continue playing the role of the premier multilateral forum in the field of international economic and financial cooperation”.There are the usual expressions of concern about war and conflict, with Sudan, Niger, Libya, Western Sahara, Yemen, Syria, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Haiti all name-checked. On Ukraine, the language is predictably vague to accommodate the different stakes that the five members have:We recall our national positions concerning the conflict in and around Ukraine as expressed at the appropriate fora, including the UNSC and UNGA. We note with appreciation relevant proposals of mediation and good offices aimed at peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy, including the African Leaders Peace Mission and the proposed path for peace.On the other big issue in the run-up to the summit—de-dollarisation and the possible establishment of a BRICS currency—the Declaration stretches as far as “stress[ing] the importance of encouraging the use of local currencies in international trade and financial transactions between BRICS as well as their trading partners” and “encourag[ing] strengthening of correspondent banking networks between the BRICS countries and enabling settlements in the local currencies” with BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors to report back on these issues at the next summit.Why it matters: In their current five-member composition, the BRICS constitute just over 40% of the world’s population and account for one-quarter of global GDP ($26tn out of $104tn, according to World Bank data). The six new members will not significantly increase either of these figures: based on 2022 data, the enlarged BRICS’ share of global GDP will only increase by three percentage points. But with the addition of major Chinese oil and gas suppliers—notably Saudi Arabia and the UAE, less so, for now, Iran—what will, from 2024 onwards count as BRICS-internal trade is likely to increase. The same is probable to occur for BRICS-to-BRICS FDI. All five current members are part of the G20. With Argentina and Saudi Arabia joining the BRICS in 2024, seven G20 members will also be BRICS countries. If current, and future, members of the BRICS are serious about the G20 as “the premier multilateral forum in the field of international economic and financial cooperation” and if they are able to align and coordinate their approaches to global political and economic issues, dynamics at the G20 may change under the Brazilian presidency in 2024. But this is a very big ‘if’.Our take: The BRICS do not constitute an alternative world order in either a geopolitical or geoeconomic sense. The BRICS are not an international organisation in the traditional sense with a legal personality and a permanent secretariat, often established by a formal treaty, and united by a common purpose. Their ‘creation’ was almost accidental, based on an assessment in 2001 that GDP growth in the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, and China would accelerate significantly and consequently have an impact on the global economic and financial system. Their ...
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    19 mins
  • What next for Russia: Fragility, Fallout, and Shifting Dynamics

    What next for Russia: Fragility, Fallout, and Shifting Dynamics
    Jun 25 2023

    In this emergency episode of the "Navigating the Vortex," podcast and provide a detailed analysis of Prigozhin’s fast march to Moscow, the role of key players, and the potential consequences, and opportunities, for the region and the world.

    Lucy and Stefan delve into the many facets of the aftermath: the implications for the war in Ukraine, the changing power dynamics inside and outside Russia, and the kaleidoscope of players, from the African nations to multinational boardrooms, and from Washington DC and New Delhi to Beijing.



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    42 mins
Economics Political Science
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