Global Communities | Centre for Geopolitics & Economic Intelligence

Global Communities brings participants from different countries and perspectives into conversation around selected themes on geopolitics and the world economy. The Centre determines the themes under discussion but does not prescribe the positions participants may take.

Themes of Discussion

Opens 1 January 2027 – 31 March 2027

Can Free Trade Survive Economic Nationalism?

Free trade was built on the proposition that economic liberalisation could create prosperity across the world. That proposition now confronts a resurgence of tariffs, subsidies, industrial policy, investment controls and domestic production mandates. Governments that once championed open markets are placing national interest, technological sovereignty and economic security ahead of free trade. Is economic nationalism a temporary correction to the excesses of globalisation, or does it signal a retreat from the principles on which modern global economy was constructed?

View Discussion Join the Conversation

Opens 1 January 2027 – 31 March 2027

Will AI Widen the Divide Between Nations?

AI promises extraordinary gains in productivity, science, industry and public administration, but access to its foundations is unequal. Advanced chips, computing infrastructure, capital, data and specialised expertise remain domiciled within a relatively small group of countries and corporations. Will AI become an instrument of economic convergence, or will control over its infrastructure create a new hierarchy between technological powers and the rest of the world?

View Discussion Join the Conversation

Opens 1 January 2027 – 31 March 2027

Can the Dollar Remain the World’s Indispensable Currency?

The dollar occupies a position no other currency presently matches across reserves, trade settlement, international finance and global capital markets. Yet its dominance is no longer accepted without challenge. Is the world witnessing the gradual erosion of dollar hegemony, or merely repeated attempts to escape a monetary system whose alternatives remain less compelling?

View Discussion Join the Conversation

Opens 1 January 2027 – 31 March 2027

Can the Global South Prosper on Rules It Did Not Write?

Much of the institutional framework governing trade, finance, debt, development, technology and global economic decision-making emerged when many countries of the Global South possessed little influence over its design. Can countries improve their economic fortunes within rules inherited from another era, or must prosperity ultimately require a redistribution of power over those rules?

View Discussion Join the Conversation

Opens 1 January 2027 – 31 March 2027

Is Global Health Becoming a Marketplace for Power?

Global health is no longer influenced only by medicine, humanitarian need or public institutions. Pharmaceutical companies, governments, investors, technology firms, manufacturers, donors and multilateral institutions now compete across markets worth vast sums and capabilities carrying strategic importance. Vaccines, medicines, genomic data, health technologies, supply chains and manufacturing capacity can confer economic advantage as readily as public benefit. The pandemic also demonstrated how health products can become instruments of diplomacy and national interest. As commercial interest and geopolitical influence become harder to separate from health, is global health still a collective endeavour, or is it becoming another marketplace through which power is accumulated and exercised?

View Discussion Join the Conversation

Disclaimer

Contributions represent the views of their authors. They do not constitute endorsement by the Centre for Geopolitics & Economic Intelligence.