WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I want you to reimagine how life is organized on earth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Think of the planet like a human body that we inhabit. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The skeleton is the transportation system of roads and railways, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 bridges and tunnels, air and seaports 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that enable our mobility across the contient. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The vascular system that powers the body 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with oil and gas pipelines that distribute energy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the nervous system of communications 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is the internet cables, satellites, cellular networks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and data centers that allow us to share information. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This ever-expanding infrastructural matrix of 64 million kilometers of roads, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 4 million kilometers of railways, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 2 million kilometers of pipelines, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and 1 million kilometers of internet cables. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What about international borders? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have less than 500,000 kilometers of borders. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let's build a better map of the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And we can start by overcoming some ancient mythology. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's a saying with which all students of history are familiar: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Geography is destiny." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Sounds so grave, doesn't it? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's such a fatalistic adage. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It tells us that landlocked countries are condemned to be poor, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that small countries cannot escape their larger neighbors, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that vast distances are insurmountable. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But every journey I take around the world, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I see an even greater force sweeping the planet: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 connectivity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The global connectivity revolution, in all of its forms -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 transportation, energy and communications-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 has enabled such a quantum leap in the mobility of people, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of goods, of resources, of knowledge, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 such that we can no longer think of geography as distinct from it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, I view the two forces as fusing together 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into what I call connectography. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Connectography represents a quantum leap 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the mobility of people, resources and ideas, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but it is an evolution, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 an evolution of the world from political geography, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is how we legally divide the world, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to functional geography, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is how we actually use the world, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from nations and borders, to infrastructure and supply chains. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Our global system is evolving 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from the vertically integrated empires of the 19th century, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 through the horizontally, interdependent nations 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the 20th century, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into a global network civilization in the 21st century. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Connectivity, not sovereignty, has become 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the organizing principle of the human species. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We are becoming this global network civilization 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because we are literally building it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 All of the world's defense budgets and military spending 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 taken together total just under 2 trillion dollars per year. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Meanwhile, our global infrastructure spending is projected to rise 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to 9 trillion dollars per year within the coming decade. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And, well, it should. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have been living off an infrastructure stock 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 meant for a world population of 3 billion, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as our population has crossed 7 billion to 8 billion 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and eventually 9 billion and more. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As a rule of thumb, we should spend about 1 trillion dollars 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the basic infrastructure needs of every billion people in the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Not surprisingly, Asia is in the lead. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In 2015, China announced the creation 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the Asia Infrastructure and Investment Bank, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which together with a network of other organizations, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 aims to construct a network of iron and silk roads, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 stretching from Shanghai to Lisbon. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And as all of this topographical engineering unfolds, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we will likely spend more on infrastrucutre 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the nest 40 years, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we will build more infrastructure in the next 40 years, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than we have in the last 4,000 years. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now let's stop and think about it for a little minute. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Spending so much more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on building the foundations of global society 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rather than on the tools to destroy it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can have profound consequences. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Connectivity is how we optimize the distribution 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of people and resources around the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is how mankind comes to be more than just the sum of its parts. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I believe that is what is happening. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Connectivity has a twin megatrend in the the 21st century: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 planetary urbanization. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cities are the infrastructures that most define us. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By 2030, more than two thirds of the world's population 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 will live in cities. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And these are not mere dots on the map, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but they are vast archepelagos stretching hundreds of kilomters. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here we are in Vancouver, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at the head of the Cascadia Corridor 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that stretches south across the US border to Seattle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The technology powerhouse of SIlicon Valley 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 begins north of San Francisco down to San Jose 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and across the bay to Oakland. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The sprawl of Los Angeles now passes San Diego 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 across the Mexican border to Tijuana. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 San Diego and Tijuana now share an airport terminal 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where you can exit into either country. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Eventually, a high-speed rail network may connect the entire Pacific spine. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 America's northeastern megalopolis begins in Boston through New York 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and Philadelphia to Washingotn. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It contains more than 50 million people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and also has plans for a high-speed rail network. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But Asia is where we really see the magacities coming together. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This continous strip of light from Tokyo through Negoya 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to Osaka contains more than 80 million people, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and most of Japan's economy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is the world's largest megacity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For now. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But in China, megacity clusters are coming together 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with populations reaching 100 million people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The Yangtze River Delta around Shanghai 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the Pearl River Delta, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 stretching from Hong Kong to ? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And in the middle, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the ? mgacity, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 whose geographic footprint is almost the same size 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as the country of Austria. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And any number of these megacity clusters 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 has a GDP approaching 2 trillion dollars, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's almost the same of all of India today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So imagine if our global diplomatic institutions like the G20 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 were to base their membership of economic size 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rather than national representation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Some Chinese megacities may be in and have a seat at the table, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 while entire countries, like Argentina and Indonesia may be out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Moving to India, whose population will soon exceed that of China, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it too has a number of megacity clusters, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 such as the Delhi capital region and Mumbai. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the Middle East, greater Tehran is absorbing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one third of Iran's population. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Most of Egypt's 30 million people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 live in the corridor between Cairo and Alexandria. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And in the gulf, a necklace of citystates if forming, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from Bahrain to Qatar, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 through the United Arab Emirates through Muscat in Oman. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then there's Lagos, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Africa's largest city and Nigeria's commerical hub. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It has plans for a rail network that will make it the anchor 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of a vast Atlantic coastal corridor, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 stretching across Benin, Togo and Ghana, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But these countries are suburbs of Lagos. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the megacity world, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 countries can be suburbs of cities. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By 2030, we will have as many as 50 such megacity clusters 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So which map tells you more? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Our traditional map of 200 discret nations that hang on most of our wallls, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or this map of the 50 megacity clusters? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And yet, even this is incomplete 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because you cannot understand any individual megacity 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 without understanding its connections to the others. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 People move to cities to be connected, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and connectivity is why these cities thrive. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Any number of them such as Sao Paolo or Istanbul or Moscow 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 has a GDP approaching or exceeding one third of one half 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of their entire national GDP. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But equally importantly, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you cannot calculate any of their individual value 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 without understanding the role of the flows of people, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of finance, of technology 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that enable them to thrive. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Take the Gauteng province of South Africa, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which contains Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It too represents just over a third of South Africa's GDP. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Equally importantly, it is home to the offices 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of almost every single multinational corporation 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that invests directly into South Africa 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and indeed, into the entire African continent. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cities want to be part of global value chains. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They want to be part of this global division of labor. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is how cities think. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've never met a mayor who said to me, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I want my city to be cut off" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They know that their cities belong as much 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the global network civilization as to their home countries. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now for many people, urbanization causes great dismay. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They think cities are wrecking the planet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But right now, there are more than 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 200 intercity learning networks thriving. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is as many as the intergovernmental organizations 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that we have. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And all of these intercity networks are devoted to one purpose, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 mankind's number one priority in the 21st century: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sustainable urbanization. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Is it working? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let's take climate change. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We know that summit after summit in New York and Paris 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is not going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But what we can see is that transffering technology 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and knowledge and policies between cities 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is how we've actually begun to reduce 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the carbon intensity of our economies. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cities are learning from each other. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 How to install zero-emissions buildings, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 how to deploy electric car-sharing systems. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In major Chinese cities, they're imposing quotas 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the number of cars on the streets. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In many Western cities, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 young people don't even want to drive anymore. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cities have been part of the problem, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 now they are part of the solution. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Inequality is the other great challenge 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to achieving sustainable urbanization. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When I travel through megacities from end to end, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it takes hours and days, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I experience the tragedy of extreme disparity 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 within the same geography. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And yet, our global stock of financial assets 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 has never been larger, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 approaching 300 trillion dollars. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's almost four times the actual GDP of the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have taken on such enormous debts 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 since the financial crisis, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but have we invested them in inclusive growth? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 No, not yet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Only when we build sufficient, affordable public housing, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when we invest in robust transportation networks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to allow people to connect to each other 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 both physically and digitally, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's when our divided cities and societies 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 will come to feel whole again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that is why infrastructure has just been included 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because it enables all the others. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Our political and economic leaders 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are learning that connectivity is not charity, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's an opportunity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that's why our financial community needs to undestand 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that connectivity is the most important asset class of the 21st centiry. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, cities can make the world more sustainable, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they can make the world more equitable, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I also believe that connectivity between cities 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can make the world more peaceful. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If we look at regions of the world with dense relations across borders, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we see more trade, more investment, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and more stability. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We all know the sotry of Europe after WWII, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where industrial integration kicked off a process 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that gave rise today's peaceful European Union. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And you can see that Russia, by the way, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is the least connected of major powers 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the internaitonla system. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that goes a long way towards explaining 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 tensions today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Countries that have less stake in the system 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 also have less to loose in disturbing it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In North America, the lines that matter most on the map 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are not the US-Canada border or the US-Mexico border, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but the dense network of roads and railways and pipelines 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and electricity grids and even water canals 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that are forming an integrated North American union. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 North America does not need more walls, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it needs more connections. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the real promise of connectivity is in the post-colonial world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 All of those regions where borders have historically been 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the most arbitrary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and where generations of leaders have had hostile relations with each other, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but now a new group of leaders has come into power 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and is burying the hatchet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let's take Southeast Asia, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where high-speed rail networks are planned 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to connect Bangkok to Singapore 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and trade corridors from Vietnam to Myanmar. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now this region of 600 million people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 coordinates its agricultural resources and its 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and its industrial output. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is evolving into what I call a Pax Asiana, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a peace among Southeast Asian nations. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A similar phenomenon is underway in East Africa, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where a half dozen countries are investing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in railways and multimodal corridors 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that landlocked countries can get their goods to market. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now these countries coordinate their utilities 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and their investment policies. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They, too, are evolving into a Pax Africana. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One region we know that could especially use this kind of thinking 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is the Middle East. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As Arab states tragically collapse, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what is left behind but the ancient cities, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 such as Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, the nearly 400 million people of the Arab world 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are almost entirely urbanized. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As societies, as cities, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they are either water rich or water poor, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 energy rich or energy poor. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the only way to correct these mismatches 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is not through more wars and more borders, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but through more connectivity of pipelines and water canals. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Sadly, this is not yet the map of the Middle East. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But it should be, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a connected Pax Arabia, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 internally integrated and productively connected 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to its neighbors: Europe, Asia and Africa. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now it may not seem like connectivity is what we want right now 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 towards the world's most turbulent region. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But we know from history that more connectivity is the only way 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to bring out stability in the long run, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because we know that in region after region, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 connectivity is the new reality. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cities and countries are learning to aggregate 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into more peaceful and prosperous wholes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the real test is going to be Asia. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Can connectivity overcome the patterns of rivarly 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 among the far east. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 After all, this is where World War III 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is supposed to break out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Since the end of the Cold War, a quarter-century ago, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at least 6 major wars have been predicted for this region. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But none have broken out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Take China and Taiwan. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the 1990s, this was everyone's leading WWIII scenario. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But since that time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the trade and investment volumes across the straits 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have become so intense that last November, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 leaders from both sides held a historic summit 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to discuss eventual peaceful reunification. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And even the election of a Nationalist party in Taiwan 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's pro-independence earlier this year 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 does not undermine this fundamental dynamic. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 China and Japan have an even longer history of rivalry 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and have been deploying their air forces and navies 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to show their strength in island disputes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But in recent years, Japan has been making 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 its largest foreign investments in China. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Japanese cars are selling in record numbers there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And guess where the largest number of foreigners 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 residing in Japan today comes from? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You guessed it: China. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 China and India have fought a major war 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and have three outstanding border disputes, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but today India is the second largest shareholder 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Their building a trade corridor stretching from Northeast India 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 through Myanmar and Bangladesh to Southern China. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Their trade volume has grown from 20 billion dollars a decade ago 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to 80 billion dollars today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Nuclear-armed Indian and Pakistan have fought three wars 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and continue to dispute Kashmir, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but they're also negotiating a Most-Favored Nation trade agreement 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and want to complete a pipeline 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 stretching from Iran through Pakistan to India. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And let's talk about Iran. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Wasn't it just two years ago that war with Iran seemed inevitable? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Than why is every single major power rushing to do business there today? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot guarentee 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that WWIII will not break out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But we can definitely see why it hasn't happened yet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Even though Asia is home 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the world's fastest growing militaries, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 these same countries are also investing billions of dollars 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in each other's infrastructure and supply chains. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They are more interested in each other's functional geography 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than in their political geography. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that is why their leaders think twice, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 step back from the brink, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and decide to focus on economic ties over territorial tensions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So often it seems like the world is falling apart, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but building more connectivity 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is how we put Humpty-Dumpty back together again, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 much better than before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And by wrapping the world 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in such seamless physical and digital connectivity, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we evolve towards a world in which people can rise above 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 their geographic contraints. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We are the cells and vessels pulsing through 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 these global connectivity networks. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Everyday, hundreds of millions of people go online 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and work with people they've never met. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 More than one billion people cross borders every year.