Future of Emerging Markets - Keynote Speaker
Comments after trip to Moscow (2018), after giving keynote on digital innovation at a big event. Russia is a vibrant nation, with many contrasts across 11 time zones. Nation is being energised by a new generation of highly talented entrepreneurs who have no memory of life under Communism, and who are very similar in many ways in their attitudes to the same generation in Western Europe. Media coverage in Western nations can be very misleading and superficial. There's no substitute for actually visiting a nation, talking to people. Impact of recent events on Russia economy, innovation, business, foreign policy or military spending. Government stimulus of the Russian economy - why this will be difficult to achieve rapidly. Why history is so important in understanding future of Russia, including the impact of the Second World War on Russian psyche and current fears, and of course the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Read more: Future of Russia - comments in 2018 on Moscow trip: economy, innovation, business, culture, Russian history, foreign policy, military spending and global influence. Why media forecasts on Russia are often wrong, why travel so important. VIDEO and POST
Government, Politics, Democracy, War - Future
President Trump is very typical of a new generation of "single-issues politicians", rising up around the world as I predicted years ago (article written September 2018)
He thrives on the elusive powers of 24 hours a day media-streaming of his thoughts and feelings, taps into populist emotions, connects with the passions of ordinary people, expresses very well their fears for their own future, as well as their dreams for their own children.
A part of this has been the powerful slogan: "Make America Great Again", which feeds into deep unease about the declining role, influence and economic powers of America as a proportion of the whole world. This in turn is being driven by the very long term, irresistible and relentless rise in emerging nations, where 85% of humanity already live.
Leaving aside whatever you may feel about President Trump's official, longer term policies, the truth is that his day to day communications and actions are massively different from what is normally expected in developed nations of their own Presidents or Prime Ministers, and are much more typical in some ways of patterns that we tend to see amongst semi-dictators in emerging markets....
Read more: What will be President Trump's longer term impact on America, global politics, news reporting, future of democracy itself. Why he fits many predictions I made and what is likely to happen next to political leadership globally. FEATURE