I am old enough to remember the sound of bombs falling on Germany. Old enough to remember the voices of the French soldiers who liberated us.
Having grown up in a Europe struggling to heal divisions, I have spent my working life bringing together leaders from all sectors of society. I have always believed that the only way to solve complex challenges in an interdependent world is to work together. This means understanding competing perspectives, developing empathy and working towards solutions that satisfy as many different interests as possible.
Much of the time, it works. However, it is clear that today things are not going well for this open, pragmatic view of progress. Leaders have been demonised as the “elite”. Interdependence is seen as weakness. Nationalism has been rekindled to forge newer, harder identities. Anti-globalisation rhetoric is threatening the collaborative economic and trading structures that have brought so much progress by integrating the developing world with the developed.