New Thinking for a New World

Both of the following statements are true:

That is not to suggest moral equivalency, nor to judge who is guilty of what. Rather, it is to argue that it is more critical than it has ever been that this tragedy should beget a new effort to create sustainable peace and prosperity for Palestinians as well as for Israelis.

But, if peace wasn’t possible before October 7, how likely is it that the horrors of the past six months have improved prospects? Not surprisingly, hatred and shock not understanding and goodwill are the order of the day in both societies. And, haven’t the endless efforts over the past 75 years long since exhausted all imaginable diplomatic possibilities? Who has the moral standing, never mind the agency, to construct a solution? For that matter, who would speak for the Palestinians if any negotiation could be launched?

Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian foreign minister and career diplomat who has spent his professional life working on these issues, doesn’t claim to have answers. But he deeply believes that failing to try to find them would condemn his region to a worsening cycle of violence—with consequences that could be far worse than what we have witnessed since October.

Listen as Minister Fahmy discusses not only why, but how a different future might be possible.

Tell us what you think: Can you imagine a world where Israelis and Palestinians can live and prosper, side by side, in their own countries?

Terrorists and Afghanistan were back in the headlines because of the recent murderous ISIS-K attack on a concert in Moscow. No one should be surprised, since terrorism seems to be one of that benighted country’s few reliable exports. But, shouldn’t we all be worried that once again the Taliban seem to be hosting terrorists who can strike far outside their borders? And shouldn’t someone be trying to do something about the underlying problems of a failed state?

The good news is that someone is: Pashtana Durrani, a formidable Afghan woman, is deeply devoted to bringing her country into the 21st century, one empowered woman and one educated girl at a time. Through Learn, an organization that educates high school girls in their home villages, she might be one of the bigger threats to Afghan fundamentalism in the long run. Needless to say, the Taliban aren’t happy with her, which is why she works from exile.

Pashtana recently published “Last to Eat, Last to Learn” describing her journey so far. The book and this conversation aren’t just optimistic, they are proof points that individuals can make a difference, if they are stubborn and have good ideas. Ms Durrani, who was honored in 2021 as a Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize winner in the Emerging Leader category, has both.

Moreover, she may be right: educated girls might just be to the Taliban what kryptonite was to Superman. What do you think?

Philosopher George Santayana wrote those words 100 years ago, between two massively destructive world wars. Unfortunately, they continue to ring true today amidst a growing global epidemic of political and civil conflict. That epidemic takes many different forms—wars between countries, civil wars, brutally violent conflicts among armed gangs, large-scale terrorism, government-sanctioned ethnic cleansing—but the terrible consequences for civilians are the same. And, more and more people in more and more places are caught up in extreme violence.

What happened to the “peace dividend” after the end of the Cold War? Or the optimism of scholars like Steven Pinker and Yuval Noah Harari who expected mankind’s “better angels” to produce peace and prosperity? Did the Age of Aquarius already come and go?

Clionadh Raleigh believes it is important to understand and document the nature and extent of violent global civil conflict. She founded and leads ACLED, Armed Conflict Location and Events Data and is a professor of political violence and geography at the University of Sussex. Listen as she describes the world as it actually is.

Tell us what you think and comment here.

Mass migration is once again in the headlines around the world. This is less because of the numbers of people on the move than because it is an intensely political year—and fear of migrants is grist for politicians’ fear-mongering. The United States is the exception where both apply.

In a world of increasing conflict, weak economic growth, and populist bombast it is easy to blame migrants. And then to tighten asylum policies, pay departure countries to disrupt travel, find supposedly “safe haven” countries to dump unwanted migrants, and imagine other creative ways to broadcast the message: MIGRANTS NOT WANTED!

Andrew Selee, President of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, has a different idea. How about a calm, expletives-deleted, fact-based pragmatic discussion about migration and migration policies? Listen as he makes his case for an approach to migration that is legal, practical, and in the interests of both destination countries and the migrants.

**Should your country accept more migrants? **Tell us what you think and leave a comment on our website

As Ukraine’s war enters its third year, it’s past time to dampen the rhetoric and tune up the reality. The war has shifted from failed Russian blitzkrieg, to valiant Ukrainian defense and then recovery, to unsuccessful Ukrainian counteroffensive, and now to war of attrition. But small countries—Ukraine’s effective population is only 1/5th of Russia’s and its economy only 1/10th the size of Russia’s—rarely win wars of attrition.

The conventional wisdom is that Western support can make up the difference. Wouldn’t a more realistic assessment be that such support—assuming it continues in ever greater magnitudes—can only prevent Ukraine from losing? Shouldn’t the expectation be that Russia, having overcome the bumbling and ineptitude of the first year of the war, is likely to push hard this spring at least to complete the seizure of Ukraine’s eastern oblasts? And then what?

Our guest on this week's New Thinking for a New World podcast has some clear ideas about the balance of forces, the risk of a Russian victory, and the contours of a potential negotiation that might lay the groundwork for renewed peace in Europe. George Beebe, director of the Grand Strategy Program at the Quincy Institute in Washington and a Russian expert, insists that such a negotiation requires continued US support for Ukraine. But he also insists that it's time for diplomacy.

Beebe and co-author Anatol Lieven recently published a must-read analysis entitled The Diplomatic Path to a Secure Ukraine and discussed his conclusions with host Alan Stoga.

What do you think? Should the United States push Ukraine towards negotiations?

You can read the article 'Give Peace a Chance,' which is based on the podcast, here: https://tallbergfoundation.org/articles/give-peace-a-chance/"

Violent extremism is growing globally. It doesn't know religion or creed. Where once it was confined to specific ideology or identity groups, at least in public discourse and discussion, now it appears across societies, across cultures and across borders. Violent extremist ideologies and actions are becoming part of the global fabric.

Why do people get involved in this type of violence? How can they disengage? Can violent extremists be helped to reenter society integrated in healthy, socially positive, empowered ways to engage as productive and peaceful citizens?

In this episode of New Thinking for a New World, guest host Michael Niconchuk looks for answers. Mike, a Tällberg Foundation board member, serves on the Advisory Board of the Counter Extremism Project and is a program manager at the Wend Collective. His guests are Juncal Fernandez-Garayzabal, development and program manager at the Counter Extremism Project, and Noah Tucker, program associate at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs Central Asia Program.

Can violent extremists once again become productive citizens? Can you imagine someone with that history living next door to you?

This episode was originally published on Oct 26, 2023

As Ukraine’s war enters its third year, it’s past time to dampen the rhetoric and tune up the reality. The war has shifted from failed Russian blitzkrieg, to valiant Ukrainian defense and then recovery, to unsuccessful Ukrainian counteroffensive, and now to war of attrition. But small countries—Ukraine’s effective population is only 1/5th of Russia’s and its economy only 1/10th the size of Russia’s—rarely win wars of attrition.

The conventional wisdom is that Western support can make up the difference. Wouldn’t a more realistic assessment be that such support—assuming it continues in ever greater magnitudes—can only prevent Ukraine from losing? Shouldn’t the expectation be that Russia, having overcome the bumbling and ineptitude of the first year of the war, is likely to push hard this spring at least to complete the seizure of Ukraine’s eastern oblasts? And then what?

Our guest on this week's New Thinking for a New World podcast has some clear ideas about the balance of forces, the risk of a Russian victory, and the contours of a potential negotiation that might lay the groundwork for renewed peace in Europe. George Beebe, director of the Grand Strategy Program at the Quincy Institute in Washington and a Russian expert, insists that such a negotiation requires continued US support for Ukraine. But he also insists that it's time for diplomacy.

Beebe and co-author Anatol Lieven recently published a must-read analysis entitled The Diplomatic Path to a Secure Ukraine and discussed his conclusions with host Alan Stoga.

What do you think? Should the United States push Ukraine towards negotiations?

Andrew Bastawrous solves problems. As a well-trained, highly skilled ophthalmologist he was devoted to treating as many patients as possible, in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa. But even gifted surgeons can only do so much, and Andrew came to realize that there were innumerable patients who never even made it to the queues outside his treatment centers.

So, Andrew stepped back and rethought how to do ophthalmology in practice. He found an answer by reimagining how eye care is delivered—literally a whole new supply chain—and leveraging technology. The result is that his Peek Vision software and data intelligence platform now help millions overcome vision impairment.

Listen (or watch) as Dr. Bastawrous, a winner of the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize for 2023, explains what it really means to think differently.

Winners of the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize typically have several things in common. They look at the big challenges confronting society as opportunities for innovation. They don’t celebrate process: instead, they measure success or failure by outcomes. And they don’t reject conventional wisdom; they ignore it.

Above all, they share the need to try to make the world what it could and should be, rather than what it is.

Dr. Margaret Lowman, a winner of the 2023 Prize, fits that bill. Her passion is the health of the global forests that are essential components of the natural systems that keep us all alive. That drives her science, her advocacy and her educational initiatives which circle the globe. For a world that has destroyed 50% of the forests that existed seventy years ago, her work is—literally—critical to any hope of coping with climate change.

Listen (and watch) this special episode of New Thinking for a New World. And then go out and climb a tree!

We live at a unique moment in human history. We—and, by “we” I mean practically all of civilization—have experienced roughly 70 years of widely shared prosperity, human development and even peace. Almost everyone alive today is better off than almost everyone who was alive in 1950, at the end of what essentially had been one devastating war that had started after the turn of the century.

Now, however, our prospects are less Great Expectations than maybe Bleak House to steal from Dickens. Accelerating climate change, disruptive technology, increasing conflict and war, massive numbers of displaced people seeking safety, the breakup of the post-war global order that framed and facilitated the great human advances of the past decades.

But there’s hope: human agency can change our course.

In this thought piece for New Thinking for a New World, Alan Stoga, Chairman of the Tällberg Foundation, shares exactly why and how the Tällberg Foundation supports global leadership through two initiatives: the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize and the Tällberg Leaders Mentoring Leaders program