There is a dearth of innovative thinking on the growing number of species-level challenges (water shortages, food insecurity, violent conflict, climate change, energy, and healthcare). Most discourse on these topics remains confined to parameters based on old assumptions of how social, political, and economic life ought to be organized. But nearly 80 years since the current global architecture was put in place, there is ample evidence that it has not worked for large swaths of humanity.
The current moment calls for reinvention and improvement in the human understanding of constructs that have long been deemed as settled. For example, the nation-state has not taken root in countries that gained independence decades ago. Many states have either failed or are failing. Several post-colonial regimes have been unsuccessful at establishing viable political economies, enabling the rise of ethno-nationalist and ideological sub-national forces seeking to fill the strategic vacuums. Challenges to the existing norms and constructs are manifesting even in well-established “developed” nations and self-proclaimed democracies.
The Ibn Khaldoun Center for Collective Human Advancement facilitates thought-provoking dialogues as a means of tackling these and other related planetary-scale issues plaguing humanity in this post-industrialized and hyper-connected age. We will bridge the gap between the work of intellectuals and that of practitioners by raising strategic questions.
The Center’s audience is a diverse array of actors (private sector firms, entrepreneurs, governments, consultants, NGOs, etc.). The Center will serve as a convening platform highlighting challenges for which practitioners from various fields can develop tangible solutions.