The 2026 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, themed „A Spirit of Dialogue,“ signaled a decisive pivot from universal multilateralism toward a more fragmented „transactional minilateralism“. The week was punctuated by President Donald Trump’s special address, which initially rattled markets with threats of force regarding Greenland before shifting to a „framework deal“ that enhanced Arctic security while averting immediate tariff escalations. This „Davos Truce“ underscored a broader geostrategic trend where middle powers, led by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, reasserted their roles by building „coalitions that work“ on a per-issue basis rather than relying on the old global order. The emergence of an EU-India free trade agreement – dubbed the „mother of all deals“ – further illustrates Europe’s pursuit of strategic autonomy as it seeks to insulate its internal security and economy from the deepening rupture in the traditional US-Europe alliance.
Beneath the diplomatic breakthroughs, the meeting served as a somber reckoning for a global economy increasingly defined by exogenous shocks and geoeconomic polarization. The IMF and WTO warned that there is „no going back“ to the previous steady state, pointing to a reality where 40% of global jobs – and 60% in advanced economies – are set to be transformed or eliminated by AI within the next two years. While tech leaders like Jensen Huang and Satya Nadella pitched AI as a „democratizing“ infrastructure, the Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026 prioritized societal polarization and geoeconomic fragmentation over even climate change as the most pressing short-term threats. Ultimately, Davos 2026 revealed a world grappling with „cognitive atrophy“ and the potential „catastrophic“ impact of attention-hacking tech, demanding a transition toward human-centric productivity that respects planetary boundaries while navigating the „once-in-a-century“ breakdown of established trust.
Read the full report on the World Economic Forum’s Website.