On June 25-26, 2023, Kearney CEO Retreat, hosted by the A.T. Kearney Council on Global Business Policy, was held in Cannes, France. CEOs, think tank experts and senior dignitaries from more than 70 top multinational companies around the world attended the conference to discuss and exchange.
At present, international relations are complicated, geopolitical issues represented by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have intensified, emerging countries have risen en masse, the strength of Western countries led by the United States has declined relatively, and the traditional international pattern has changed. Under the influence of ongoing regional security challenges and an increasingly tense international environment, Europe needs to establish a political mutual trust mechanism and a regional security management and control mechanism. In this context, this forum brought together opinion leaders from all countries to discuss how to avoid imbalances in the international order and maintain world peace and stability.
At the opening dinner on June 25, Erik Peterson, Partner and Managing Director of the A.T. Kearney Global Business Policy Council, delivered welcome remarks, Alex Liu, Managing Partner and Chairman of A.T. Kearney, and former French Prime Minister Alan Juppe delivered an opening speech entitled "Europe in a Changing World."
The June 26 conference was opened by Erik Peterson, Partner and Managing Director of the A.T. Kearney Business Policy Council, welcome remarks by Geir Olsen, Partner and Head of Europe at Kearney, and Paul A. Laudicina, Chair Emeritus of A. Laudicina, Chair of A. Laudicina, Chair of A.D. Laudicina, A. Laudicina, Chair of A.D. A. Laudicina, Chair of A.D. A. Laudicina, Chair of A. Laudicina, Chair of A. Laudicina, A. Laudicina, Chairman of A. Laudicina, A. Laudicina, Chairman of A Wang Huiyao, Founder and Chairman of the Globalization Think Tank (CCG), was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the first session on "The Potential Possibility and Consequences of the Weakening of the Post-World War II International Order". Guests included David Ignatius, associate editor and columnist of The Washington Post and New York Times bestseller, Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Scholar at the Institute of Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, former Ambassador to the United Nations and author of "Asia's 21st Century", co-founder and senior advisor of the French Institute of International Relations, researcher of the European Executive Development Center in France, visiting professor at King's College London, and special advisor to the Institut Montaigne, France Dominique Moïsi is president of the India Observer Research Foundation and author of The New World Order and India's Imperatives. Erik Peterson, Partner and Managing Director, A.T. Kearney's Global Business Policy Council, moderated the session.
Wang Huiyao, Chairman of CCG, said in his speech that the world is currently at the crossroads of development, world multipolarization is flourishing, and the international system established since World War II has achieved great success in safeguarding world peace and development. However, this international order is gradually unable to adapt to the changing international environment, global governance lags behind global practice, and the international community urgently needs to formulate solutions and establish a governance framework.
He believes that over the years, economic globalization has largely promoted world development, especially in poverty eradication, and globalization has also brought development opportunities to emerging market countries such as BRICS. China has benefited greatly from the process of globalization, and at the same time, China has actively adapted to globalization and established international organizations such as the AIIB to share the dividends of development with developing countries, vigorously promote infrastructure construction in developing countries, and promote common prosperity.
He stressed that the current globalization is facing challenges, and crises such as NATO's Asia-Pacificization, nuclear weapons proliferation, and the Russian-Ukrainian war have emerged one after another, and Western countries have proposed "de-risking" after "decoupling", which has aggravated the instability of the international situation. Wang Huiyao proposed that the EU can act as a mediator in the context of tensions between China and the United States, and similarly, in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, China can also mediate to avoid the escalation of conflicts. All countries should work together to avoid further decoupling and the arrival of a new cold war. Establish a new balance in the changing international order.
The subsequent sessions focused on the themes of "Will Europe's geopolitical crisis continue", "Focus on leaders", "Will the debt burden caused by the new crown epidemic reverse development", "Will the global economy be further divergent", "The development and expectations of artificial intelligence", "Escalating global water challenges", and "Can people surpass American exceptionalism". Other panelists included Anne Applebaum, contributor to The Atlantic magazine, author of Twilight of Democracy, senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and Yagola Institute, Marta Dassu, Senior Advisor for European Affairs at Aspen Group and editor-in-chief of Aspenia magazine, and Mark Leonard, founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations and author of How Associations Lead to Conflict, Hubert Joly, Senior Lecturer in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy, former CEO and Director of Carlson Corporation, Member of the Board of Directors of Johnson & Johnson and Ralph Lauren, author of The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Capitalist Era, Martin Wolf, Chief Economic Commentator at the Financial Times and author of The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, Global Business Columnist and Associate Editor of the Financial Times. Homecoming: The Road to Prosperity in a Post-Global World" by Rana Foroohar, Anthony M. Solomon, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; 2022 Carnegie Chair of U.S.-China Relations at the Kruger Center at the Library of Congress; Mary E. Lovely, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England; Former Chief Global Economist at Citibank; Catherine Mann, former chief economist, director of the economy department and G20 undersecretary of finance at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, author of Human Compatibility: Problems in Artificial Intelligence and Control, and Amy A. Kruse, partner and chief investment officer of Satori Capital.
The A.T. Kearney Global Business Policy Council has been a unique internal foresight and strategic policy analysis department, first organizing CEO Retreat in 1992 to advise CEOs and government leaders to help them predict and plan for the future. During his Global Track 2 Diplomacy trip from June 26 to 28, 2022, CCG Chairman Huiyao Wang was invited to participate in the 2022 Global CEO Retreat hosted by the A.T. Kearney Global Business Policy Council in Singapore, where he delivered keynote speeches and dialogues focusing on new developments in China and globalization and the most pressing international issues in a session on "The Evolving Geopolitical Balance."