Great Powers
Last spring, ambassador and distinguished Boston College alumnus Nicholas Burns returned to the Heights to address the 情色空间 community as the Clough Colloquium speaker. Burns gave the 情色空间 community an inside look into his Harvard course entitled Great Powers, in which students from 16 countries try to ascertain the major global trend lines that are shaping the future, and understand what is happening in the world we are living in. They consider questions like, Which powers are ascending and descending in total power? Will we be able to get our arms around big human challenges like climate change and pandemics? and How do we avoid the worst, like a US-China war?
Burns and his class suggested four major global trends to keep an eye on in 2020. The first is the increasing importance of the economy. They posited that as major global powers are slowing in growth, we should wonder if trade wars will predominate, if global growth is sustainable, and whether or not a recession is looming in 2020鈥�2021. The second trend is the shifting global balance of power; Burns described the US as currently weakening in relative terms while China is returning to global power. The third trend is transnational challenges, like human trafficking, criminal and drug cartels, cyber challenges, pandemics, the threat of nuclear war, and climate change, which will likely affect the fate of every person on Earth for perhaps the first time in human history. To this, Burns responded that 鈥済reat powers need to coalesce to combat challenges, but at the same time, nationalism is on the rise,鈥� which presents a challenge to our ability to work together. Finally, the fourth trend is the changing global role of the US, which may, in fact, be in retreat from what once made it great.聽聽
However, through all of these concerning trends, Burns and his class emphasized the importance of hope and the positive global trends that have the power to make the world better in the face of challenges. Inspiring trends Burns鈥檚 students noted include poverty alleviation, global public health advances, the rise of women, and the promise of technology, which has given us the potential to cure cancer or create a carbon-free world by 2050. Burns closed with a note of hope that he finds personally powerful: in the face of the US鈥檚 entry into World War II in September 1943, Winston Churchill told student soldiers in Harvard Yard, 鈥淭he price of greatness is responsibility...one cannot rise to be in many ways the leading community in the civilized world without being involved in problems, convulsed by its agonies, and inspired by its causes.鈥�
Caitlan Griffith 鈥�20, Winston Undergraduate Assistant