The global power shift
-
0:00 - 0:02There's a poem written
-
0:02 - 0:04by a very famous English poet
-
0:04 - 0:06at the end of the 19th century.
-
0:06 - 0:09It was said to echo in Churchill's brain
-
0:09 - 0:11in the 1930s.
-
0:11 - 0:13And the poem goes:
-
0:13 - 0:15"On the idle hill of summer,
-
0:15 - 0:17lazy with the flow of streams,
-
0:17 - 0:19hark I hear a distant drummer,
-
0:19 - 0:21drumming like a sound in dreams,
-
0:21 - 0:24far and near and low and louder on the roads of earth go by,
-
0:24 - 0:27dear to friend and food to powder,
-
0:27 - 0:29soldiers marching,
-
0:29 - 0:31soon to die."
-
0:31 - 0:33Those who are interested in poetry,
-
0:33 - 0:36the poem is "A Shropshire Lad" written by A.E. Housman.
-
0:36 - 0:38But what Housman understood,
-
0:38 - 0:42and you hear it in the symphonies of Nielsen too,
-
0:42 - 0:46was that the long, hot, silvan summers
-
0:46 - 0:48of stability of the 19th century
-
0:48 - 0:50were coming to a close,
-
0:50 - 0:52and that we were about to move
-
0:52 - 0:54into one of those terrifying periods of history
-
0:54 - 0:56when power changes.
-
0:56 - 0:58And these are always periods, ladies and gentlemen,
-
0:58 - 1:01accompanied by turbulence,
-
1:01 - 1:03and all too often by blood.
-
1:03 - 1:05And my message for you
-
1:05 - 1:07is that I believe we are condemned, if you like,
-
1:07 - 1:10to live at just one of those moments in history
-
1:10 - 1:12when the gimbals upon which
-
1:12 - 1:15the established order of power is beginning to change
-
1:15 - 1:17and the new look of the world,
-
1:17 - 1:20the new powers that exist in the world,
-
1:20 - 1:22are beginning to take form.
-
1:22 - 1:25And these are -- and we see it very clearly today --
-
1:25 - 1:28nearly always highly turbulent times, highly difficult times,
-
1:28 - 1:30and all too often very bloody times.
-
1:30 - 1:33By the way, it happens about once every century.
-
1:33 - 1:35You might argue that the last time it happened --
-
1:35 - 1:38and that's what Housman felt coming and what Churchill felt too --
-
1:38 - 1:41was that when power passed from the old nations,
-
1:41 - 1:43the old powers of Europe,
-
1:43 - 1:45across the Atlantic to the new emerging power
-
1:45 - 1:47of the United States of America --
-
1:47 - 1:49the beginning of the American century.
-
1:49 - 1:51And of course, into the vacuum
-
1:51 - 1:54where the too-old European powers used to be
-
1:54 - 1:57were played the two bloody catastrophes
-
1:57 - 1:59of the last century --
-
1:59 - 2:02the one in the first part and the one in the second part: the two great World Wars.
-
2:02 - 2:05Mao Zedong used to refer to them as the European civil wars,
-
2:05 - 2:08and it's probably a more accurate way of describing them.
-
2:08 - 2:10Well, ladies and gentlemen,
-
2:10 - 2:12we live at one of those times.
-
2:12 - 2:15But for us, I want to talk about three factors today.
-
2:15 - 2:18And the first of these, the first two of these,
-
2:18 - 2:20is about a shift in power.
-
2:20 - 2:23And the second is about some new dimension which I want to refer to,
-
2:23 - 2:26which has never quite happened in the way it's happening now.
-
2:26 - 2:29But let's talk about the shifts of power that are occurring to the world.
-
2:29 - 2:31And what is happening today
-
2:31 - 2:33is, in one sense, frightening
-
2:33 - 2:36because it's never happened before.
-
2:36 - 2:38We have seen lateral shifts of power --
-
2:38 - 2:41the power of Greece passed to Rome
-
2:41 - 2:43and the power shifts that occurred
-
2:43 - 2:46during the European civilizations --
-
2:46 - 2:48but we are seeing something slightly different.
-
2:48 - 2:50For power is not just moving laterally
-
2:50 - 2:52from nation to nation.
-
2:52 - 2:54It's also moving vertically.
-
2:54 - 2:57What's happening today is that the power that was encased,
-
2:57 - 3:00held to accountability, held to the rule of law,
-
3:00 - 3:03within the institution of the nation state
-
3:03 - 3:06has now migrated in very large measure onto the global stage.
-
3:06 - 3:08The globalization of power --
-
3:08 - 3:10we talk about the globalization of markets,
-
3:10 - 3:14but actually it's the globalization of real power.
-
3:14 - 3:16And where, at the nation state level
-
3:16 - 3:18that power is held to accountability
-
3:18 - 3:20subject to the rule of law,
-
3:20 - 3:23on the international stage it is not.
-
3:23 - 3:26The international stage and the global stage where power now resides:
-
3:26 - 3:29the power of the Internet, the power of the satellite broadcasters,
-
3:29 - 3:32the power of the money changers --
-
3:32 - 3:34this vast money-go-round
-
3:34 - 3:38that circulates now 32 times the amount of money necessary
-
3:38 - 3:41for the trade it's supposed to be there to finance --
-
3:41 - 3:43the money changers, if you like,
-
3:43 - 3:45the financial speculators
-
3:45 - 3:48that have brought us all to our knees quite recently,
-
3:48 - 3:50the power of the multinational corporations
-
3:50 - 3:53now developing budgets
-
3:53 - 3:55often bigger than medium-sized countries.
-
3:55 - 3:57These live in a global space
-
3:57 - 3:59which is largely unregulated,
-
3:59 - 4:02not subject to the rule of law,
-
4:02 - 4:04and in which people may act free of constraint.
-
4:04 - 4:07Now that suits the powerful
-
4:07 - 4:09up to a moment.
-
4:09 - 4:12It's always suitable for those who have the most power
-
4:12 - 4:15to operate in spaces without constraint,
-
4:15 - 4:18but the lesson of history is that, sooner or later,
-
4:18 - 4:20unregulated space --
-
4:20 - 4:22space not subject to the rule of law --
-
4:22 - 4:25becomes populated, not just by the things you wanted --
-
4:25 - 4:27international trade, the Internet, etc. --
-
4:27 - 4:29but also by the things you don't want --
-
4:29 - 4:32international criminality, international terrorism.
-
4:32 - 4:34The revelation of 9/11
-
4:34 - 4:39is that even if you are the most powerful nation on earth,
-
4:39 - 4:42nevertheless,
-
4:42 - 4:44those who inhabit that space can attack you
-
4:44 - 4:46even in your most iconic of cities
-
4:46 - 4:48one bright September morning.
-
4:48 - 4:50It's said that something like 60 percent
-
4:50 - 4:53of the four million dollars that was taken to fund 9/11
-
4:53 - 4:56actually passed through the institutions of the Twin Towers
-
4:56 - 4:58which 9/11 destroyed.
-
4:58 - 5:00You see, our enemies also use this space --
-
5:00 - 5:03the space of mass travel, the Internet, satellite broadcasters --
-
5:03 - 5:06to be able to get around their poison,
-
5:06 - 5:09which is about destroying our systems and our ways.
-
5:09 - 5:11Sooner or later,
-
5:11 - 5:13sooner or later,
-
5:13 - 5:15the rule of history
-
5:15 - 5:17is that where power goes
-
5:17 - 5:20governance must follow.
-
5:20 - 5:22And if it is therefore the case, as I believe it is,
-
5:22 - 5:24that one of the phenomenon of our time
-
5:24 - 5:26is the globalization of power,
-
5:26 - 5:29then it follows that one of the challenges of our time
-
5:29 - 5:32is to bring governance to the global space.
-
5:32 - 5:35And I believe that the decades ahead of us now
-
5:35 - 5:39will be to a greater or lesser extent turbulent
-
5:39 - 5:42the more or less we are able to achieve that aim:
-
5:42 - 5:44to bring governance to the global space.
-
5:44 - 5:46Now notice, I'm not talking about government.
-
5:46 - 5:48I'm not talking about setting up
-
5:48 - 5:51some global democratic institution.
-
5:51 - 5:53My own view, by the way, ladies and gentlemen,
-
5:53 - 5:55is that this is unlikely to be done
-
5:55 - 5:57by spawning more U.N. institutions.
-
5:57 - 5:59If we didn't have the U.N., we'd have to invent it.
-
5:59 - 6:01The world needs an international forum.
-
6:01 - 6:05It needs a means by which you can legitimize international action.
-
6:05 - 6:07But when it comes to governance of the global space,
-
6:07 - 6:10my guess is this won't happen
-
6:10 - 6:12through the creation of more U.N. institutions.
-
6:12 - 6:15It will actually happen by the powerful coming together
-
6:15 - 6:17and making treaty-based systems,
-
6:17 - 6:19treaty-based agreements,
-
6:19 - 6:21to govern that global space.
-
6:21 - 6:24And if you look, you can see them happening, already beginning to emerge.
-
6:24 - 6:27The World Trade Organization: treaty-based organization,
-
6:27 - 6:29entirely treaty-based,
-
6:29 - 6:32and yet, powerful enough to hold even the most powerful, the United States,
-
6:32 - 6:34to account if necessary.
-
6:34 - 6:36Kyoto: the beginnings of struggling to create
-
6:36 - 6:38a treaty-based organization.
-
6:38 - 6:40The G20:
-
6:40 - 6:42we know now that we have to put together an institution
-
6:42 - 6:44which is capable of bringing governance
-
6:44 - 6:47to that financial space for financial speculation.
-
6:47 - 6:50And that's what the G20 is, a treaty-based institution.
-
6:50 - 6:52Now there's a problem there,
-
6:52 - 6:54and we'll come back to it in a minute,
-
6:54 - 6:57which is that if you bring the most powerful together
-
6:57 - 6:59to make the rules in treaty-based institutions,
-
6:59 - 7:02to fill that governance space,
-
7:02 - 7:05then what happens to the weak who are left out?
-
7:05 - 7:07And that's a big problem,
-
7:07 - 7:09and we'll return to it in just a second.
-
7:09 - 7:11So there's my first message,
-
7:11 - 7:14that if you are to pass through these turbulent times
-
7:14 - 7:17more or less turbulently,
-
7:17 - 7:19then our success in doing that
-
7:19 - 7:21will in large measure depend on our capacity
-
7:21 - 7:23to bring sensible governance
-
7:23 - 7:25to the global space.
-
7:25 - 7:28And watch that beginning to happen.
-
7:28 - 7:30My second point is,
-
7:30 - 7:32and I know I don't have to talk to an audience like this
-
7:32 - 7:34about such a thing,
-
7:34 - 7:37but power is not just shifting vertically,
-
7:37 - 7:39it's also shifting horizontally.
-
7:39 - 7:42You might argue that the story, the history of civilizations,
-
7:42 - 7:45has been civilizations gathered around seas --
-
7:45 - 7:48with the first ones around the Mediterranean,
-
7:48 - 7:52the more recent ones in the ascendents of Western power around the Atlantic.
-
7:52 - 7:54Well it seems to me
-
7:54 - 7:57that we're now seeing a fundamental shift of power, broadly speaking,
-
7:57 - 8:00away from nations gathered around the Atlantic [seaboard]
-
8:00 - 8:02to the nations gathered around the Pacific rim.
-
8:02 - 8:04Now that begins with economic power,
-
8:04 - 8:06but that's the way it always begins.
-
8:06 - 8:09You already begin to see the development of foreign policies,
-
8:09 - 8:11the augmentation of military budgets
-
8:11 - 8:14occurring in the other growing powers in the world.
-
8:14 - 8:16I think actually
-
8:16 - 8:18this is not so much a shift from the West to the East;
-
8:18 - 8:20something different is happening.
-
8:20 - 8:22My guess is, for what it's worth,
-
8:22 - 8:24is that the United States will remain
-
8:24 - 8:26the most powerful nation on earth
-
8:26 - 8:29for the next 10 years, 15,
-
8:29 - 8:32but the context in which she holds her power
-
8:32 - 8:35has now radically altered; it has radically changed.
-
8:35 - 8:37We are coming out of 50 years,
-
8:37 - 8:39most unusual years, of history
-
8:39 - 8:42in which we have had a totally mono-polar world,
-
8:42 - 8:44in which every compass needle
-
8:44 - 8:46for or against
-
8:46 - 8:49has to be referenced by its position to Washington --
-
8:49 - 8:53a world bestrode by a single colossus.
-
8:53 - 8:55But that's not a usual case in history.
-
8:55 - 8:57In fact, what's now emerging
-
8:57 - 8:59is the much more normal case of history.
-
8:59 - 9:01You're beginning to see the emergence
-
9:01 - 9:03of a multi-polar world.
-
9:03 - 9:05Up until now,
-
9:05 - 9:08the United States has been the dominant feature of our world.
-
9:08 - 9:10They will remain the most powerful nation,
-
9:10 - 9:12but they will be the most powerful nation
-
9:12 - 9:14in an increasingly multi-polar world.
-
9:14 - 9:17And you begin to see the alternative centers of power building up --
-
9:17 - 9:19in China, of course,
-
9:19 - 9:22though my own guess is that China's ascent to greatness is not smooth.
-
9:22 - 9:24It's going to be quite grumpy
-
9:24 - 9:26as China begins to democratize her society
-
9:26 - 9:28after liberalizing her economy.
-
9:28 - 9:31But that's a subject of a different discussion.
-
9:31 - 9:33You see India, you see Brazil.
-
9:33 - 9:35You see increasingly
-
9:35 - 9:38that the world now looks actually, for us Europeans,
-
9:38 - 9:41much more like Europe in the 19th century.
-
9:41 - 9:43Europe in the 19th century:
-
9:43 - 9:45a great British foreign secretary, Lord Canning,
-
9:45 - 9:48used to describe it as the "European concert of powers."
-
9:48 - 9:50There was a balance, a five-sided balance.
-
9:50 - 9:53Britain always played to the balance.
-
9:53 - 9:55If Paris got together with Berlin,
-
9:55 - 9:58Britain got together with Vienna and Rome to provide a counterbalance.
-
9:58 - 10:00Now notice,
-
10:00 - 10:02in a period which is dominated by a mono-polar world,
-
10:02 - 10:04you have fixed alliances --
-
10:04 - 10:06NATO, the Warsaw Pact.
-
10:06 - 10:08A fixed polarity of power
-
10:08 - 10:10means fixed alliances.
-
10:10 - 10:12But a multiple polarity of power
-
10:12 - 10:14means shifting and changing alliances.
-
10:14 - 10:16And that's the world we're coming into,
-
10:16 - 10:18in which we will increasingly see
-
10:18 - 10:20that our alliances are not fixed.
-
10:20 - 10:22Canning, the great British foreign secretary once said,
-
10:22 - 10:24"Britain has a common interest,
-
10:24 - 10:26but no common allies."
-
10:26 - 10:28And we will see increasingly
-
10:28 - 10:30that even we in the West
-
10:30 - 10:32will reach out, have to reach out,
-
10:32 - 10:34beyond the cozy circle of the Atlantic powers
-
10:34 - 10:36to make alliances with others
-
10:36 - 10:39if we want to get things done in the world.
-
10:39 - 10:41Note, that when we went into Libya,
-
10:41 - 10:43it was not good enough for the West to do it alone;
-
10:43 - 10:45we had to bring others in.
-
10:45 - 10:48We had to bring, in this case, the Arab League in.
-
10:48 - 10:51My guess is Iraq and Afghanistan are the last times
-
10:51 - 10:53when the West has tried to do it themselves,
-
10:53 - 10:55and we haven't succeeded.
-
10:55 - 10:57My guess
-
10:57 - 11:00is that we're reaching the beginning of the end of 400 years --
-
11:00 - 11:03I say 400 years because it's the end of the Ottoman Empire --
-
11:03 - 11:05of the hegemony of Western power,
-
11:05 - 11:08Western institutions and Western values.
-
11:09 - 11:12You know, up until now, if the West got its act together,
-
11:12 - 11:14it could propose and dispose
-
11:14 - 11:16in every corner of the world.
-
11:16 - 11:18But that's no longer true.
-
11:18 - 11:20Take the last financial crisis
-
11:20 - 11:22after the Second World War.
-
11:22 - 11:24The West got together --
-
11:24 - 11:27the Bretton Woods Institution, World Bank, International Monetary Fund --
-
11:27 - 11:29the problem solved.
-
11:29 - 11:31Now we have to call in others.
-
11:31 - 11:33Now we have to create the G20.
-
11:33 - 11:35Now we have to reach beyond the cozy circle
-
11:35 - 11:37of our Western friends.
-
11:37 - 11:39Let me make a prediction for you,
-
11:39 - 11:42which is probably even more startling.
-
11:42 - 11:45I suspect we are now reaching the end
-
11:45 - 11:47of 400 years
-
11:47 - 11:49when Western power was enough.
-
11:49 - 11:51People say to me, "The Chinese, of course,
-
11:51 - 11:53they'll never get themselves involved
-
11:53 - 11:55in peace-making, multilateral peace-making around the world."
-
11:55 - 11:57Oh yes? Why not?
-
11:57 - 11:59How many Chinese troops
-
11:59 - 12:01are serving under the blue beret, serving under the blue flag,
-
12:01 - 12:03serving under the U.N. command in the world today?
-
12:03 - 12:053,700.
-
12:05 - 12:08How many Americans? 11.
-
12:08 - 12:10What is the largest naval contingent
-
12:10 - 12:13tackling the issue of Somali pirates?
-
12:13 - 12:15The Chinese naval contingent.
-
12:15 - 12:17Of course they are, they are a mercantilist nation.
-
12:17 - 12:19They want to keep the sea lanes open.
-
12:19 - 12:22Increasingly, we are going to have to do business
-
12:22 - 12:25with people with whom we do not share values,
-
12:25 - 12:28but with whom, for the moment, we share common interests.
-
12:28 - 12:30It's a whole new different way
-
12:30 - 12:33of looking at the world that is now emerging.
-
12:33 - 12:35And here's the third factor,
-
12:35 - 12:38which is totally different.
-
12:38 - 12:40Today in our modern world,
-
12:40 - 12:42because of the Internet,
-
12:42 - 12:45because of the kinds of things people have been talking about here,
-
12:45 - 12:49everything is connected to everything.
-
12:49 - 12:51We are now interdependent.
-
12:51 - 12:53We are now interlocked,
-
12:53 - 12:55as nations, as individuals,
-
12:55 - 12:57in a way which has never been the case before,
-
12:57 - 13:00never been the case before.
-
13:00 - 13:02The interrelationship of nations,
-
13:02 - 13:04well it's always existed.
-
13:04 - 13:07Diplomacy is about managing the interrelationship of nations.
-
13:07 - 13:09But now we are intimately locked together.
-
13:09 - 13:11You get swine flu in Mexico,
-
13:11 - 13:13it's a problem for Charles de Gaulle Airport
-
13:13 - 13:1524 hours later.
-
13:15 - 13:18Lehman Brothers goes down, the whole lot collapses.
-
13:18 - 13:21There are fires in the steppes of Russia,
-
13:21 - 13:23food riots in Africa.
-
13:23 - 13:27We are all now deeply, deeply, deeply interconnected.
-
13:27 - 13:30And what that means
-
13:30 - 13:34is the idea of a nation state acting alone,
-
13:34 - 13:36not connected with others,
-
13:36 - 13:38not working with others,
-
13:38 - 13:40is no longer a viable proposition.
-
13:40 - 13:43Because the actions of a nation state
-
13:43 - 13:45are neither confined to itself,
-
13:45 - 13:47nor is it sufficient for the nation state itself
-
13:47 - 13:49to control its own territory,
-
13:49 - 13:52because the effects outside the nation state
-
13:52 - 13:55are now beginning to affect what happens inside them.
-
13:55 - 13:57I was a young soldier
-
13:57 - 14:01in the last of the small empire wars of Britain.
-
14:01 - 14:03At that time, the defense of my country
-
14:03 - 14:06was about one thing and one thing only:
-
14:06 - 14:09how strong was our army, how strong was our air force,
-
14:09 - 14:11how strong was our navy and how strong were our allies.
-
14:11 - 14:13That was when the enemy was outside the walls.
-
14:13 - 14:16Now the enemy is inside the walls.
-
14:16 - 14:18Now if I want to talk about the defense of my country,
-
14:18 - 14:20I have to speak to the Minister of Health
-
14:20 - 14:23because pandemic disease is a threat to my security,
-
14:23 - 14:25I have to speak to the Minister of Agriculture
-
14:25 - 14:27because food security is a threat to my security,
-
14:27 - 14:31I have to speak to the Minister of Industry
-
14:31 - 14:34because the fragility of our hi-tech infrastructure
-
14:34 - 14:36is now a point of attack for our enemies --
-
14:36 - 14:38as we see from cyber warfare --
-
14:38 - 14:41I have to speak to the Minister of Home Affairs
-
14:41 - 14:43because who has entered my country,
-
14:43 - 14:46who lives in that terraced house in that inner city
-
14:46 - 14:48has a direct effect on what happens in my country --
-
14:48 - 14:52as we in London saw in the 7/7 bombings.
-
14:52 - 14:55It's no longer the case that the security of a country
-
14:55 - 14:58is simply a matter for its soldiers and its ministry of defense.
-
14:58 - 15:01It's its capacity to lock together its institutions.
-
15:01 - 15:04And this tells you something very important.
-
15:04 - 15:06It tells you that, in fact,
-
15:06 - 15:09our governments, vertically constructed,
-
15:09 - 15:11constructed on the economic model of the Industrial Revolution --
-
15:11 - 15:14vertical hierarchy, specialization of tasks,
-
15:14 - 15:16command structures --
-
15:16 - 15:18have got the wrong structures completely.
-
15:18 - 15:20You in business know
-
15:20 - 15:22that the paradigm structure of our time, ladies and gentlemen,
-
15:22 - 15:24is the network.
-
15:24 - 15:26It's your capacity to network that matters,
-
15:26 - 15:29both within your governments and externally.
-
15:29 - 15:31So here is Ashdown's third law.
-
15:31 - 15:34By the way, don't ask me about Ashdown's first law and second law
-
15:34 - 15:36because I haven't invented those yet;
-
15:36 - 15:38it always sounds better if there's a third law, doesn't it?
-
15:38 - 15:41Ashdown's third law is that in the modern age,
-
15:41 - 15:43where everything is connected to everything,
-
15:43 - 15:46the most important thing about what you can do
-
15:46 - 15:48is what you can do with others.
-
15:48 - 15:50The most important bit about your structure --
-
15:50 - 15:52whether you're a government, whether you're an army regiment,
-
15:52 - 15:54whether you're a business --
-
15:54 - 15:56is your docking points, your interconnectors,
-
15:56 - 15:58your capacity to network with others.
-
15:58 - 16:00You understand that in industry;
-
16:00 - 16:03governments don't.
-
16:03 - 16:05But now one final thing.
-
16:05 - 16:08If it is the case, ladies and gentlemen -- and it is --
-
16:08 - 16:10that we are now locked together
-
16:10 - 16:12in a way that has never been quite the same before,
-
16:12 - 16:16then it's also the case that we share a destiny with each other.
-
16:16 - 16:19Suddenly and for the very first time,
-
16:19 - 16:22collective defense, the thing that has dominated us
-
16:22 - 16:24as the concept of securing our nations,
-
16:24 - 16:26is no longer enough.
-
16:26 - 16:28It used to be the case
-
16:28 - 16:30that if my tribe was more powerful than their tribe, I was safe;
-
16:30 - 16:33if my country was more powerful than their country, I was safe;
-
16:33 - 16:36my alliance, like NATO, was more powerful than their alliance, I was safe.
-
16:36 - 16:38It is no longer the case.
-
16:38 - 16:41The advent of the interconnectedness
-
16:41 - 16:43and of the weapons of mass destruction
-
16:43 - 16:45means that, increasingly,
-
16:45 - 16:47I share a destiny with my enemy.
-
16:47 - 16:49When I was a diplomat
-
16:49 - 16:52negotiating the disarmament treaties with the Soviet Union
-
16:52 - 16:54in Geneva in the 1970s,
-
16:54 - 16:56we succeeded because we understood
-
16:56 - 16:58we shared a destiny with them.
-
16:58 - 17:01Collective security is not enough.
-
17:01 - 17:03Peace has come to Northern Ireland
-
17:03 - 17:06because both sides realized that the zero-sum game couldn't work.
-
17:06 - 17:09They shared a destiny with their enemies.
-
17:09 - 17:11One of the great barriers to peace in the Middle East
-
17:11 - 17:14is that both sides, both Israel and, I think, the Palestinians,
-
17:14 - 17:16do not understand
-
17:16 - 17:19that they share a collective destiny.
-
17:19 - 17:21And so suddenly, ladies and gentlemen,
-
17:21 - 17:23what has been the proposition
-
17:23 - 17:26of visionaries and poets down the ages
-
17:26 - 17:28becomes something we have to take seriously
-
17:28 - 17:30as a matter of public policy.
-
17:30 - 17:33I started with a poem, I'll end with one.
-
17:33 - 17:36The great poem of John Donne's.
-
17:36 - 17:40"Send not for whom the bell tolls."
-
17:40 - 17:42The poem is called "No Man is an Island."
-
17:42 - 17:44And it goes:
-
17:44 - 17:47"Every man's death affected me,
-
17:47 - 17:49for I am involved in mankind,
-
17:49 - 17:51send not to ask
-
17:51 - 17:53for whom the bell tolls,
-
17:53 - 17:55it tolls for thee."
-
17:55 - 17:58For John Donne, a recommendation of morality.
-
17:58 - 18:00For us, I think,
-
18:00 - 18:03part of the equation for our survival.
-
18:03 - 18:05Thank you very much.
-
18:05 - 18:08(Applause)
- Title:
- The global power shift
- Speaker:
- Paddy Ashdown
- Description:
-
Paddy Ashdown claims that we are living in a moment in history where power is changing in ways it never has before. In a spellbinding talk at TEDxBrussels he outlines the three major global shifts that he sees coming.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 18:09
TED edited English subtitles for The global power shift | ||
TED added a translation |