Jane Harman Speaks at World Economic Forum

Wilson Center Director, President, and CEO Jane Harman is participating in the 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland this week, speaking alongside global thought leaders and officials from government, academia, at business at several panels and briefings. "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World" is the theme of this year's meeting, which features over 3,000 participants from more than 110 countries, including some 70 heads of state. 

President Harman's sessions will be live-streamed and/or posted below. 

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The Geostrategic Outlook (Tuesday, January 23; 7:15 am - 8:15am GMT / 2:15am - 3:15am EST)

The risk of strategic miscalculation is increasing as the world shifts from a multipolar to a multiconceptual order. Where are the major fault lines in a fragmented world?

Panelists:

• Jane Harman - Director, President, and CEO, Wilson Center
• Lee Geun - Professor of International Relations, Graduate School of International Studies; Vice President and Dean, Office of International Affairs, Seoul National University
• Eugene Rogan - Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History; Fellow, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford
• Robin Niblett - Director, Chatham House
• Samir Saran - Vice President, Observer Research Foundation (ORF)

Selected Quotes from Jane Harman

“We have moved in my lifetime from a bi-polar world to a uni-polar world, to multi-polar world, and navigating that is hard for anybody.”

“If I were advising [President Trump] . . . I would say come to Davos to build alliances. It’s the right thing to do; it’s the best strategy in a world which is increasingly tribal, not just in countries, but in our politics.”

“I think we will stay engaged in places. [For example] the Trump administration, wrongly, is condemning the Iran deal, but rightly is condemning Iran’s bad behavior in the neighborhood . . . but I don’t think we have a whole-of-government strategy for an increasingly tribal region.”

“We have not had the kind of robust public debate we should have in the United States about what the U.S. role is in the world. We don’t have that conversation anymore. And Congress, because it is so dysfunctional, is not able to help have that conversation. The U.S. has not authorized the use of military force with respect to numbers of places in the Middle East where we’re actively engaged using military force. Because Congress can’t agree on how to do it. And so by default our President—all of them: Bush 43, Obama, and now Trump—makes up the rules under the ‘Commander in Chief authorities’ of our President. . . Our public polling I don’t think, really, is helpful because our public is so under-informed.”

“100 years ago, World War 1 was entered into accidentally. I worry about an accidental nuclear war now.”

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Why Is Our World Fractured? (Tuesday, January 23; 9:00am - 9:30am GMT / 4:00am - 4:30am EST)

With international tensions on the rise, how compromised is our collective ability to address the critical challenges we face?

Panelists:

• Jane Harman - Director, President, and CEO, Wilson Center
• Karin von Hippel - Director General, Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
• Kishore Mahbubani - Senior Advisor and Professor in the Practice of Policy, National University of Singapore
• Oliver Cann - Head of Media Content, World Economic Forum 

Selected Quotes from Jane Harman

“I see U.S. politics fractured over a long time, as our political parties move further apart, as our election system has a primary system where the most noise is made from the extreme left and the extreme right, and candidates are pulled apart. There’s little room in the center. I’m one of the last five remaining centrists on the planet Earth and I should be in a dinosaur museum.”

“I think it is [now] much easier to tear down governments than to stand up anything better—think the Arab Spring. . .  I think the nation-state, to the extent it’s still relevant in a globalized economy, is increasingly a source of repression, not inclusion.”

“I think the people who have more power [in a fractured world] first is this atomized group of young people. . . But the other group are those who head the major tech companies, who have basically unregulated power—certainly by governments—and incredible access for good or bad. Sadly we’ve learned that a country like Russia can manipulate our technology base. And something I worry about . . . is over time whether information will become so corrupted that we won’t be able to rely on it at all.”

“Economic prosperity is not trickling down to everyone, let’s understand that. In fact the top 1% is doing better and better and better, and the bottom 99% . . . is doing worse. And that discontent, that anxiety, is what fueled the election of Donald Trump in the United States. It’s also fueled Brexit, so it’s not just a U.S.-only issue.”

On the biggest issues that need to be addressed in our lifetimes: “Empowerment of women, which I think is huge. We’re 50% of the talent pool but not 50% of the workforce or the political force. And economic inclusiveness is the other [issue].”

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The Outlook for Japan (Thursday, January 25; 8:15am - 9:15am GMT / 3:15am - 4:15am EST)

Japan’s growth streak has continued, even while adapting to dramatic demographic shifts and security challenges. How will the government further capitalize on its new election mandate?

Panelists:

• Jane Harman - Director, President, and CEO, Wilson Center
• Nobuyuki Hirano - President and Group Chief Executive Officer, MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.)
• Gideon Rachman - Associate Editor and Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, The Financial Times
• Takehiko Nakao - President, Asian Development Bank
• Heizo Takenaka - Professor Emeritus, Keio University
• Kentaro Sonoura - Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, Member of the Cabinet, House of Representatives of Japan