hankyoreh

The Hankyoreh will be hosting the Asia Future Forum on Oct. 11 as part of its ongoing quest for a better society and sustainable development. The theme of this year’s forum is “The Age of the Polycrisis: A Way to Coexistence.”

While the COVID-19 pandemic may have subsided, we remain besieged by overlapping crises such as inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the intensifying hegemonic rivalry between the US and China. Unfortunately, politics is being used to rally the base rather than to defuse internal conflicts, exacerbating confrontation in our society.

The 14th annual Asia Future Forum seeks to bring together global luminaries who can share their wisdom as we seek a path to coexistence that runs through these various crises.

On the morning of Oct. 11, the forum’s keynote address will be delivered by Jane Mansbridge on the topic of “How confrontation and exclusion threaten democracy.” Mansbridge is professor emeritus at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a recipient of the prestigious Johan Skytte Prize, which has been nicknamed the “Nobel Prize for Political Science.”

The next speaker will be Graham Allison, former US assistant secretary of defense and author of “Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’ Trap?” and “Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Allison will be speaking at the forum on the following topic: “In an era of rising hegemony, what is South Korea’s choice?”

A presentation about “The price of inequality, and who pays the bigger bill” will be made by Gabriel Zucman, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Zucman won this year’s John Bates Clark Medal, which is awarded each year to an outstanding American economist under the age of 40.

Television celebrity Tyler Rasch will be delivering a special lecture at the forum about three misconceptions that must be debunked if we are to counter the threat to humanity posed by the climate crisis, as well as three actions we need to focus on.

That afternoon, Parallel Session 1 will feature the Asia Policy Dialogue of the Global Social Economy Forum, which will explore the possibility of connecting and restoring communities.

Parallel Session 2 will present “Korea Talks,” an experimental initiative in Korean media to discover whether it’s possible for adversaries to become friends through personal interaction.

And in Parallel Session 3, Katharina Herzog, co-founder of a group called “money:care,” will deliver a presentation about the sustainability of companies that go beyond ESG washing.

Paul Ladd, the director of the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), will give a special address on the topic of social sustainability and human rights management by corporations.

In addition, the Sustainable Development Performance Indicators (SDPI) developed by the UNRISD will be introduced together with the results of an investigation of global companies’ sustainability performance.