Juggling many Balls

What a coincidence of opposites, one might think. On one day, a new president moves into the White House in Washington, widely associated with isolation and a (transparent) policy of national priorities. The next day, the World Economic Forum in Davos once again invokes the spirit of openness and cooperation.

However, the supposedly "liberal" camp should not reflexively retreat into a wagon-circle mentality and moral superiority. After all, national interests and egoisms have always underpinned even the high priests of multilateralism and globalization. It's just that their own interests were sometimes a bit obscured. This is particularly true for Europe and Germany. In this respect, the inauguration of the Trump administration could now be the wake-up call to finally define these interests more clearly – and to pursue them more vigorously.

Certainly, Europe should focus more on its commonalities in the field of tension between the USA, China, and other economic and political centers of gravity. But we must not be guided by black-and-white thinking. A future-proof collaboration approach means being open to all sides, juggling many balls simultaneously. This is my main conclusion from the current Global Cooperation Barometer, which appears every year on the occasion of the WEF.

Future-proof collaboration: This means a maximum of agility, flexibility, and pragmatism in a highly complex, increasingly unpredictable world, where, as in a kaleidoscope, new constellations and challenges constantly emerge. But it's also a world that always offers new opportunities.

If we take this to heart, we can hopefully overcome the stagnation in global cooperation that has prevailed since 2020. Currently, we run the risk that progress is not keeping pace with the immense tasks that need to be solved, and for which a strong and innovative economy is needed. For example, a fragmentation is emerging in the development of future technologies that could jeopardize productivity growth.

This worries me, also and especially for Germany After all, the competitiveness of my home country is based primarily on innovation and cooperation. But Germany is in a downward trend here: in 2024, it has fallen another two places in the global comparison. It seems only a matter of time before we also lose our rank as the world's third-largest economy.

So, there is an urgent need for a fresh wind here as well. The upcoming federal election could offer the chance for this. Internally, the motto for all democratic parties must be to abandon friend-foe attributions, to emphasize commonalities more strongly, and to prove the ability to cooperate. Externally, we should continue to pursue multilateralism without committing ourselves too much to individual partners and anchoring cooperation in ideological categories.

Even if we don't like many things – we can't get past the realities. And a doomsday mood doesn't help either.