IE Foundation Fellows Event: “Geopolitics and Economy: Foresight for 2021”

On 15th December 2020, we welcomed Oscar Jonsson – the Academic Director of the Center for Governance of Change, and Gonzalo Garland – the Executive Vice President at IE Foundation and Vice President for Strategic Global Partnership at IE University – in the event ‘Geopolitics & Economy: Foresight for 2021’ organized by the IE Foundation.

Drastic changes have happened during 2020, especially due to the global pandemic, and 2021 is coming very soon. With digitalization, technology is now embedded in our daily lives. Therefore, regarding geopolitics, along with data-driven propaganda that decides what we see and how we see the world, cybersecurity will continue to become a challenge due to the gap between security measures and the constant development of technology.

Acknowledging such a challenge, the unregulated days of big tech are coming to an end and anti-trust matters will potentially become a new focus in the upcoming 2021. Moreover, the growing discomfort regarding private tech companies deciding our public debates will occur with data wars, which all revolve around technology. Politically, conflicts between China with other great powers will remain and the growing dissatisfaction of democracy will be a significantly concerning issue in the incoming years.
Economically, the concept of the Great Divergence and the Great Convergence becomes relevant to foresee the upcoming economic trend. While the Great Divergence was on the rise since the Industrial Revolution with significant disparities, the Great Convergence was occurring afterward in which other economies are trying to narrow the gaps. Reflecting on history, economically, we can expect the trend of Great Convergence to continue since, despite the decline in 2020, the economy will come back stronger.

Positively, 2021 is coming with the release of Covid-19 vaccines, which foresight a positive outlook to 2021. However, it is undeniable that the consequences left by the pandemic take time to recover and we can optimistically expect the economy to recover along.

   Article written by Amelia Nguyen Luu, IE Foundation Fellow and Dual Degree in Business Administration and Law at IE University.