How the West can save itself from selfdestruction

um

i am english so i will speak in english

i’m in zurich on a visit even though i

live in ireland and the uk

i’m on a visit for a number of reasons

to do with

dealing with the pandemic and public

policy following the pandemic

but also i’ve taken the opportunity to

visit

the site in this city where my

countrymen winston churchill

gave a very memorable and famous speech

in 1946 on the 19th of september 1946

74 years ago almost exactly

calling for a united states of europe

what he was addressing is something

similar to what we need to address today

in our own democracies he was addressing

the natural competitiveness of nations

the way in which that nationalism that

competitiveness had led to two world

wars during the 20th century

and to terrible extremes of politics and

of poverty

in many countries and he was calling for

a new approach an approach of

international collaboration

an approach at a global level that would

be led by the united nations

that he had had an important part in

designing along with his collaborators

franklin delano roosevelt

and later harry s truman in the united

states

but also at a european level through the

creation of

a european community

churchill was an old-fashioned british

imperialist

the british empire still existed we

hadn’t yet dismantled it

so he didn’t actually propose that

britain should be part of this united

states of europe

but it was directly implicit

in his speech that we should work

alongside it

that we should be one of the

interlocking circles of international

collaboration

setting up institutions setting up

treaties

and rules of conduct so that competition

would happen

between nations in a peaceful manner a

constructive manner

rather than a destructive manner

later when the british empire was

dismantled of course britain did join

the european union now very sadly from

my point of view

we’ve decided to leave it we are part of

the challenge to

the very memory the very legacy that

winston churchill

started the creation of in that speech

in 1946

but more broadly what we’re facing now

and the subject really of our discussion

uh

for tedx graceto is a destruction

a potential self-destruction of

democracy

of the west of the network of nations

that churchill was so instrumental in

helping

to create after the second world war in

1946

by the west i mean the liberal democracy

that has spread around the world not

just in the countries of western europe

or north america but also in japan in

taiwan in south korea

in chile and mexico in all sorts of

countries

all over the world but also

the connection between those liberal

democracies

sense that we share not just common

values but a set of common interests

that have made us interested in uh the

building up of international

institutions of international law

and of treaties that dictate the way in

which

uh competition between our countries um

is conducted particularly the world

trade organization the united nations

and its various institutions the world

health organization

and of course the bilateral security

treaties and multilateral ones

that the united states was instrumental

in setting up in the 1940s and 1950s

nato in europe the u.s japan security

treaty

in east asia the u.s south korea

security treaty in east asia

the intelligence sharing network between

america britain australia new zealand

and canada

we call the five eyes network

these are the fabric of the west

1946 when churchill was speaking here in

zurich

we’d seen the threat of destruction

played out through fascism through

war both in asia and in europe and

we were very conscious of what this had

wrought

today we are seeing a self-destruction

from within

a self-destruction of liberal democracy

an undermining of some of the

fundamentals of liberal democracy

but also a destruction of fragmentation

of the network of the west that we have

depended upon

this is happening in my view for three

big reasons

the first are the twin crises that we’ve

been

facing in the last decade 2008 global

financial crisis

this year between the pandemic the

coronavirus pandemic

neither of which our governments of the

west have responded to

very well by and large some better than

others but many of them

have left their own citizens

disillusioned

alienated in how well they’ve operated

but also crises that have led to a

fragmentation

of our collaboration with one another a

diminishing

of the perceived value of international

collaboration

relative to simply going it alone

related to that is the second big threat

a loss of confidence

and leadership from the most fundamental

country of the west the united states

itself under donald trump

reinforcing and accelerating

pre-existing trend but nevertheless

taking it to

absolutely new points

america has shown an enormous doubt

in the value of international

collaboration and shown a new view

that essentially not just trade

but also military alliances themselves

should be seen as essentially

transactional essentially uh

trade-offs which one country pays and

the other provides

one country considers itself a winner

and the other perhaps considers itself a

loser

and donald trump during his time in

office has considered allies

the european union japan south korea

as being equivalent to enemies

he has also considered china and russia

to be enemies in certain respects but

what’s been shocking has been his

treatment of allies

so that loss of confidence and

leadership in the united states has been

absolutely

critical the third factor is the rise of

china

the rise of china and other big emerging

economies to a new prominence in

economic and political affairs

to positions close to technological

leadership

do mean that the international

arrangements on which we depend

have to be reset and rethought to

accommodate

those new countries but also to deal

with any challenges that they

specifically make to

the rules and to the arrangements

that we’ve come to take for granted so

those three threats

have led to a fragmentation of the west

our failure to respond well to 2008 and

now to 2020

has led to a polarization in many of our

own societies

a loss of much of that sense of equality

of citizenship

that democracy is so good at building up

but that if it disappears undermines

faith in democracy

and a great loss in a belief in

international institutions and the value

of global collaboration

something of a shift back towards a

sense of a world in which

dog eats dog it’s a battle of all

against all

a sense of trying to triumph or perhaps

trying to isolate yourself

and become wholly independent in the

spirit

of american isolationism from the past

and perhaps arguably in a spirit of

a former nostalgic british imperial way

of thinking

that lies behind some of brexit the

self-destruction of the west

is in front of us but it is not

inevitable

we can i believe reverse this trend

we can i believe restore and resurrect

a sense of belief not just in the west

but also in the international

institutions that are so valuable to us

how do we do that i think first and

foremost

we have to work within our societies our

liberal democracies need

a new sense of investment in the years

after the pandemic

an investment in the sense of equality

of citizenship

through education through the

distribution of income

through equal treatment and justice

that equality of sense of citizenship of

opportunity of

regard is fundamental to the acceptance

by citizens

of the very democracy on which

they depend on which the stability of

our countries depend and we have

neglected that

equality over particularly the last 15

years

and let too much inequality rise

and start to rot away at the heart of

our societies

second we need a new investment in

international collaboration

we need new winston churchill’s to stand

up

and give great speeches at universities

on social media on television

wherever it can be done making the case

for international collaboration the case

that the pandemic really should have

reinforced because this is

absolutely quintessentially a crisis

where in which we

live together or fall together but which

has tragically

been a crisis in which while scientists

have collaborated

governments have essentially competed

and governments have moved further apart

from one another rather than closer

together

we need statesmen egged on by their

citizens by you

and by me to

renew again their belief in the fact

that

if we don’t collaborate we’ll be weaker

if we don’t collaborate

we will harm ourselves if we don’t

collaborate we will not solve

our problems the united states of europe

was

winston churchill’s call in 1946

not saying that we need a united states

of the world but what we do need

is a reset of international cooperation

a reset of international institutions

that bind us together

and particularly a reset of the

obligation

felt by country upon country to talk

first

and compete second rather than the other

way around

thank you very much for listening ladies

and gentlemen and i wish

tedx crossetto a great success

you