As for the UN, the avowed incarnation of the international community, the WEF has suggested the creation of a “public-private” UN in which selected agencies steer global agendas under shared governance systems. The glamour of Davos unfortunately obscures a more serious question: what should the future of global governance be? Here Davos takes a clearcut position: Klaus Schwab and his team advocate a “Global Redesign” and a “Global Reset” where a globalised world is best managed by a coalition of multinational corporations, governments and civil society organizations, urging (as do many others) a “stakeholder” capitalism. I confess that, as the head of Public Affairs for the agribusiness Syngenta some years back, they presented me with this award for corporate environmental offences. Small wonder that the more activist NGOs take sharp aim at Davos, even creating a Public Eye on Davos “anti-award” for the corporations deemed egregious offenders of social responsibility. Its finances seem opaque, reporting a 2020 revenue of $367 million, with astounding corporate membership fees - in 2014 to be a “Strategic Partner” cost $628,000 - and handsome salaries for the top staff, with the foundation’s founder drawing a salary of around one million Swiss francs per year. The WEF is undoubtedly, as the Süddeutsche Zeitung noted, a “money printing machine”. It seems money and growth are our only main concerns.” Meanwhile, it was estimated that at an event dedicated to ‘sustainability’ in 2020, participants flew to the WEF via 1,300 private jets. A group which U2’s Bono dubbed “fat cats in the snow,” and Greta Thunberg fairly mocked in 2019, noting “here in Davos – just like everywhere else - everyone is talking about money. The ubiquitous WEF image gave us “Davos Man”, to which “Davos Woman” was later added, as a symbol of globalism: a self-selecting, self-perpetuating caste of international ultra-rich, bankers, captains of industry, politicians and celebrities - leavened in part by leading members of civil society and dutifully reported on by the global media. It has become an increasingly prominent feature of the global elite’s landscape since 1971, when Klaus Schwab, then a business professor at the University of Geneva, launched it as the European Management Forum – renaming it as WEF in 1987. The World Economic Forum (WEF), whose annual meeting was supposed to have taken place in person last month, purports to be devoted to “improving the state of the world”.

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