Is globalization coming back to life? That was the big question at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, where WEF founder Klaus Schwab asked whether it is possible to have cooperation in an era of fragmentation.
For the past decade, the steady demise of “Davos Man” – the avatar of global business and cosmopolitanism – was the big story here, owing to the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit, Donald Trump’s election, democratic backsliding around the world, COVID-19, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. All were seen as signs that globalization had gone too far and would be thrown into reverse.