GLOBSEC 2020 sheds light on coronavirus solutions

The two-day GLOBSEC 2020 Bratislava Forum that took place from 7 to 8 October 2020 provided a platform for a productive debate under the theme Let’s Heal The World Together.

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Photo: https://www.globsec.org/

HOW CAN WE BRING THE WORLD TOGETHER TO FACE COMMON CHALLENGES?

The COVID-19 pandemic accentuated the need for the international community to come together to resolve unprecedented global health and economic crisis. It also revealed how fragmented and uncertain the world has become.

The two-day GLOBSEC 2020 Bratislava Forum that took place from 7 to 8 October 2020 provided a platform for a productive debate under the theme Let’s Heal The World Together. 

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed our strengths and vulnerabilities. At the same time, it provides a unique opportunity to improve things. Healing alone is not enough. We need to encompass all of our societies, said President Zuzana Čaputová in her opening speech at the Globsec Bratislava Forum 2020.

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Source: Twitter

The first day of GLOBSEC 2020 Bratislava Forum started at the Maria Theresia stage with Madam President Zuzana Čaputová calling for unity under common goals and working on healing processes that go beyond the health and focuses on making things better.

Čaputová stressed in her speech the need to launch a recovery process that will exceed our health care system and will include all of society. It should be based on three key components: respect for the rules, well-functioning institutions, and the trust of the people in the state, its institutions, rules, and political representatives.

Cooperation as a key and necessary factor in today’s global politics was the main topic of the second day of Globsec at Maria Theresia stage. It is the cooperation that is missing in the Turkey-EU relationship. Turkey has been trying to negotiate their alliance in the EU for over 60 years now without success.

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(Source: SME, www.spectator.sme.sk)

The 2-day event agenda was packed with high-profile speakers and a plethora of interesting topics ranging from the implementation of 5G and digital transformation to changes in internal structures of the EU, maximizing security cooperation between NATO and EU, overcoming ideological divisions, hybrid threats to democracy and the impacts of the US elections on Europe.

An in-depth breakdown is available at https://www.globsec-week.globsec.org/bratislava-forum/agenda

Check out some of the content from the event

GLOBSEC Megatrends 2020

In the early days of 2020, the world woke up into a totally changed reality – that of a global pandemic paralysing production chains, transport networks, and the social life of communities and individuals, whilst casting a great shadow of uncertainty on further development and growth.

The post-COVID world emerging from the crisis called for an urgent need to devise new functional models of operation for society, economy and politics. The GLOBSEC’s Megatrends report is a way to identify trends so that policy solutions can be shaped reflecting these circumstances.

Megatrend #1 looked at the strain of the multilateral political situation with the acceleration of China’s position as a global superpower, and the effect this could have on the European Union as it faces an era of internal fragmentation.

Other Megatrends gave us a glimpse into the mutualisation of debt, the volte-face on the policy of freedom of movement, and the sustainability agenda as real tangible health and economic threat as we turn a corner where these issues must be addressed.

The digital transition was also revealed as something which cannot be ignored, affecting the labour market and foreign policy in terms of propaganda and disinformation, whilst even being a medium of fundamentalism and populism.

Download the full report here.