Politics

We have enough water on this planet for everyone's needs, but not for everyone's greed. The crisis is fundamentally about distribution, access, and governance - not absolute scarcity.

International Labour Organization Director-General from 2012 to 2022

Power is the capacity to get others to do or stop doing something now, or in the future. Power is also a source of order, and a source of comfort for some people. Remember that the extreme situation where nobody has power, is anarchy… and anarchy leads to inferior social outcomes [versus] societies where structures and entities that impose power, limits and rules to create stability and prosperity.

Venezuelan author and scholar on power shifts and global geopolitics

The people of the world are gambling for colossal stakes. Two centuries of scientific enquiry, founded in basic physics and powerful evidence, indicate that the risks from a changing climate over the next hundred years and beyond are immense.

Economist Known for Stern Review on Climate Change Economics

There is a strong possibility that the relationship between humans and their environment would be so fundamentally changed that hundreds of millions of people, perhaps billions, would have to move. History tells us that this carries serious risks of severe and extended conflict.

Economist Known for Stern Review on Climate Change Economics

We are the first generation that through its neglect could destroy the relationship between humans and the planet, and perhaps the last generation that can prevent dangerous climate change.

Economist Known for Stern Review on Climate Change Economics

As the rise of populism causes increased scepticism of business we are very conscious of our role as a firm in society. We focus on the impact that our portfolio businesses have on all of their stakeholders, from investors and employees to the local communities in which they operate.

Terra Firma Capital founder; acquired EMI Records in 2007

Islamism is an ideology that is imported from Europe in the 1930s onwards. It was fascism and communism that were imported by Qutb, who became the ideologue of modern day Islamism. He wrote a book called 'milestones' – equivalent (and sharing many similarities) to Das Kapital or Mein Kampf.

Our definition is extremism is the desire to enforce illiberal views which are in a dichotomy to the liberal values that we all adhere to in a Liberal secular democracy; and you can have non-violent or violent extremism.

There have been well-known people who actually have advocated rights for great apes – chimps and orangs and gorillas. They're our closest genetic relatives; but why should we exclude any creature that can suffer? If you hold the paw of a little rabbit or a mouse or whatever so hard that it squeaks or screams, isn't that cruel? isn't that hurting it? What right have we got to hurt animals like that? We don't have any right at all.

British actress known for "Born Free" and animal welfare advocacy

I am in favour of quotas and targets. I think affirmative action works, and we've had affirmative action in the opposite direction for centuries. So sometimes we have to shock the system. We have to do it to normalise things, to get to a tipping point and then let the system just takes care of itself.

British TV Presenter, Diversity Advocate & Commonwealth Games Federation Official

Even if we end up with better regulations, we'll still have 300 million guns washing around the US, and that's going to be a huge problem for decades, because guns last a long time.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist & New York Times Columnist

There are two key advantages of thinking of guns as a public health issue. First of all, it removes some of the emotion from the issue because it's no longer about banning guns, it's no longer about guns being awful things. Secondly it moves the debate to be about evidence; where we can empirically show what works, at what cost.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist & New York Times Columnist

The recent politicisation of guns, which I think the NRA is partly responsible for, has been incredibly debilitating for the country.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist & New York Times Columnist

The internet is humanity at scale and without limits; and that will require common goals, and common discussion for us to determine healthy ways forward. The internet is magnified with human will, and we have every opportunity to allow it to become a democratizing force for humanity.

CEO and Chairwoman of Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation

When you're not in a geopolitical recession, political risk still matters, but it matters largely at a country level and primarily in emerging markets. But in a geopolitical recession, suddenly the biggest macro risks are by their nature political. And you focus less on growth and more on stability and resilience, and that's a problem because the free market model tells you 'don't focus on resilience and stability, focus first and foremost on growth and everything else will take care of itself'.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

China will soon be the world's largest economy and is a state-capitalist nation meaning that the government controls the largest part of the economy. Unlike free markets, that means that finance is necessarily a critical tool of government. In China though, major corporations are a tool of government and so if we're moving to a world where China is going to be dominant economy, by definition finance will be their weapon.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst