Klaus Schwab's Vision Of Global Governance

Klaus Schwab’s obsession with pushing global governance

Conrad Black

Last week at the G20 meeting in Indonesia, as U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping wasted their time talking about global warming, a subject the People’s Republic does not take seriously, instead of the origins of COVID or the status of Taiwan, to my utter astonishment, the face and voice of the “Great Reset” appeared. This is the jargon for the readjustment in the world towards so-called stakeholder capitalism that is the ambition of the conveners of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The forum began in 1971 as a conference where a few political leaders and celebrities from different industries and activities gathered and the occasion was paid for by admission fees happily tendered by a selection of prosperous people from different countries who wished to rub shoulders with the prominent featured guests. It was a winning commercial formula and it grew and grew. It never moved to a more commodious and stylish place than the dreary and remote Swiss town of Davos.

It is now a virtual world‘s fair of global political, industrial and even cultural leaders, surrounded by wealthy and eager camp-followers attracted to “networking.“ 

Davos was the creation, and remains the fiefdom, of a pleasant but not rollickingly gregarious German-Swiss, Klaus Schwab. He has always claimed that his objective is entirely to further international and interdisciplinary understanding, with no ulterior motive and not the slightest interest in self-enrichment, just selfless and tireless efforts to promote human understanding and the inexorable progress towards a better world.

As one who attended for 20 years — and, following the controversial death of Bob Maxwell, was co-leader (with the late Lord Rothermere) of the WEF media group — I found the sessions interesting and informative, and sometimes even entertaining. Klaus Schwab thought the leaders of the international organizations he featured at Davos — the European Union, the World Bank, the United Nations, World Court, World Trade Organization and all their affiliated agencies — should play an increasingly important role to implement his vision of universal supranationalism.

As the Cold War ended, and the international left presciently clambered aboard the accelerating bandwagon of environmentalism to attack capitalism from a different direction in the name of saving the planet, Schwab became a fully paid up advocate of the most comprehensive version of the virtues of global governance.

For Schwab, stakeholder capitalism means the overarching requirements of society as interpreted and enforced by an emergent international class of theoretical regulators that would enforce the interests of everyone in society in the activities of the entire private sector. He calls this the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” which, he says, is “fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.”

The 2020 book, “The Great Reset” was inspired by the COVID crisis to present a full frontal exposé of the Davos ambition 50 years after its gestation: “It will steer the market towards fairer outcomes, environmental, social and governance metrics.… To ensure that investments advanced shared goals such as equality and sustainability.… And harness the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good, especially by addressing health and social challenges.”

For Schwab, stakeholder capitalism means the overarching requirements of society as interpreted and enforced by an emergent international class of theoretical regulators that would enforce the interests of everyone in society in the activities of the entire private sector. He calls this the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” which, he says, is “fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.”

Marxism returns as authoritarianism masquerading as gentle worldly idealism.