For the past 31 years, the World Economic Forum has invited the rich and powerful of the world to meet and discuss “the State of the World.” Instead of meeting 5,000 feet above sea level in Davos, Switzerland, they have chosen to support New York City and meet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Jan. 31 to Feb. 4.
The Forum brings together chief executive officers of the world’s top 1,000 corporations, heads of major U.N. organs, agencies, commissions and world leaders from many of the countries of the world, to discuss “the state of the world.” In making the decision to meet in New York, founder and president Professor Klaus Schwab said, “In these extraordinary times, greater international cooperation is needed. We will be looking to participants from business, governments and a wide range of other stakeholders in global society to make a special effort to find solutions for the new world in which we are living. As the world’s financial capital and the site of the recent terrorist attacks, there could be no better place than New York City to confront these issues.”
During this time, anyone and everyone who is anyone in the world of business, governments and recently invited non-governmental organizations have an opportunity to hobnob and exchange views, information and business tips. The meeting of the World Economic Forum powerbrokers ranks equal with the Bilderbergers and any other high-level meeting which makes decisions about the course of life on planet earth.
The World Economic Forum basically resembles a “United Nations mega-conference” for the rich and powerful. About 300-plus workshops are available for not only industry captains, kings and queens, but real royalty. In past years, two kings and a sheik have addressed the attendees as well as princes and princesses. Innovative and cutting-edge ideas are debated with panels comprised of the world’s leading experts in finance, business, science, religion and politics. Topics being discussed include regional and global geo-politics, the value of the dollar, yen and euro, the digital divide, the changing role of business, global taxation, sustainable development, climate warming, the world financial markets, world religion, peace and the third way.
Why do CEOs seek an invitation to come to Davos? The CEO of Case Company, a Midwest agricultural and construction manufacturer, Jean-Pierre Rosso, said 4 years ago when I interviewed him that he comes to get “a pulse on the state of the world in one week” while another from Venezuela said he comes to “seek truth.” When I asked a first timer why he had come, he told me he had received invitations for three years in a row to attend. The last invitation stated in no uncertain terms that he would never be asked again if he did not respond. When I asked what his impressions were, he whispered, “Did you ever read ‘Captains and Kings’?”
Many WEF attendees have graduated from the world’s major Ivy League schools – Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Wellesley, Institut d’Etudes Politiques-Paris, London School of Economics and Oxford University-England.
They run the world’s major corporations: BP Amoco, Coca Cola, Cisco Systems, DuPont, Intel, S.C. Johnson Wax and Sons, Siemens AG, Merck, Pepsi, BBC, Asea Brown Boveri, Sony, CitiGroup, Toshiba and HP as well as the world’s leading investment banks – Goldman Sachs, Merrill-Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Lazard Freres & Cie. Some of them run the world’s central banks – the Federal Reserve, the Bank of France, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Bank for International Settlements.
And some run countries. In the past, the United States has always had a very strong representation: former President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore along with Sens. Orrin Hatch, Christopher Dodd, John Kerry and Diane Feinstein, and many others. Lastly, some run the United Nations – Secretary-General Kofi Annan, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and World Health Organization President Gro Harlem Brundtland. Unlike the political beliefs which divide people on the local level, at the international level there is no philosophical difference as all of the isms appear to be united.
Those in attendance are also members of many of the same global clubs: the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Royal Institute for International Affairs, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum.
But what has been the real effect of the World Economic Forum? In the words of Professor Klaus Schwab, its founder, “The power is not here because it’s the World Economic Forum. The power is here because you have the U.N., World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the business community. We are an integrator and catalyst in taking the initiatives to develop this framework even further.”
While the conference’s main theme changes on a yearly basis, Klaus Schwab’s powerful underlying theme is the same: the need for a global partnership between the United Nations, the world’s 189 countries, and civil society as represented by non-governmental organizations and multi-national corporations.
In an unprecedented move, at the 1996 Conference on Human Settlements, referred to as “Habitat II,” the United Nations specifically designated a global role for partnerships between governments, corporations and civil society. Since then there has been continuous activity as two of the world’s most powerful organizations, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, have linked up with not only the United Nations but with numerous countries around the world to form partnerships. Basically, a public-private partnership is a corporate buyout of government and of governmental services. Last year I asked a high-level U.N. official if public-private partnerships could be considered fascism. His reply was the glare I received.
Two years ago, President Clinton told participants that as a result of globalization, we are one, hammering on the difference between choosing partnership vs. isolationism and protectionism. Clinton said, “Globalization is revolutionizing the way we work, the way we live and the way we relate to one another across national boundaries. It is tearing down barriers and building up networks between nations and individuals, between economies and cultures.” He continued, “We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.” He said that all of the new networks must lead to new arrangements. Beginning in 1997, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has addressed the World Economic Forum, specifically calling for a “Global Compact” between the United Nations and businesses, a key theme from last year.
This year’s meeting promises to outdo all previous meetings. Several years ago, President Clinton joked about the fact that no one was home because most of the Cabinet was in Davos. This year, Congress may join them. While the World Economic Forum may not pass actual laws, they are helping to change the structure of government and business and to “move the world.”
Joan Veon has done extensive research on the United Nations and their agenda and has attended dozens of U.N. conferences.
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