Davos Diary, Day 1: Setting the scene

Shashi Tharoor

It was 11 years ago that I first discovered the sleepy little village of 10,000 snowbound inhabitants in the heart of Switzerland that had already become a synonym for what’s hot in global economic thought. As a United Nations official working with then Secretary General Kofi Annan, I accompanied him to Davos several times starting in 1997. I haven’t been back for many years now, and having left the U.N. nine months ago, I’m returning for the first time in an individual capacity, as an Indian writer and columnist (for The Times of India and the Hindu) and as chairman of the Dubai-based but India-focused Afras Ventures.

I am intrigued, of course, that this ski resort in the Swiss Alps, blessed with essentially one main street and 20 overcrowded hotels of varying quality, annually hosts a five-day talkfest that attracts an astonishing number of the world’s top entrepreneurs, thinkers, and political leaders. What began in 1971 as a European affair—originally intended by its founder, Geneva Professor Klaus Schwab, to help Europe’s businessmen learn American management techniques—has become a World Economic Forum “committed to improving the state of the world.” Invitations are prized and much sought after, even though they have to be paid for in real money. The atmosphere of cutting-edge policy debate is sustained by an impressive array of intellectuals, thinkers, and writers among the “faculty,” and the consistently high quality of the attendees has ensured that Davos gathers more heads of government in one spot than any other place bar the United Nations General Assembly.

The prime ministers and presidents do appear on panels, but they are largely in Davos to chat up the big businessmen present, who might, after all, be persuaded to channel millions of dollars in productive investment to their countries. And they’re there to talk to each other in private, away from the glare of the TV cameras and free of the cumbersome trappings of a formal state visit. The real action in Davos isn’t the televised panel discussions—on subjects ranging from “Believing in the Future” to “Beyond Bretton Woods: Who Should Lead the Way?“—that are what the outside world sees of the Forum.

Swiss Image/World Economic Forum

The key meetings happen elsewhere: in private dinners, at receptions (hosted by companies, governments, and companies trying to woo governments), and over drinks in hotel bars. The most vital ones are “bilaterals,” one-on-ones organized precisely to take advantage of the excuse Davos gives both parties to be present at the same place at the same time. On my first visit, Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu met, Microsoft wiz Bill Gates (not yet creator of the world’s most generously endowed foundation) rubbed shoulders for the first time with the then newly elected U.N. chief, and the president of the World Bank had a friendly chat with U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, something surprisingly more difficult to orchestrate in Washington. The World Economic Forum works extraordinarily well as a place to meet and be met. And for all its elitism, there’s a curious leveling involved in a place where even prime ministers need to introduce themselves occasionally to strangers—especially if the strangers happen to be world leaders or titans of industry who aren’t planning to visit their capitals any time soon.

Swiss Image/World Economic Forum

But if the real business of Davos is business, ideas are the currency of exchange. So, I’m going to spend a fair amount of my time watching the movers and shakers at work, in addition to attending some of the more intriguing panel discussions (three of which I’m slated to speak on myself). I’ll pay close attention to the sizable Indian presence, partly because I’m Indian myself but partly because Davos is where the new India announced its coming of age as a global economic presence over the years, culminating in a starring role at the 2006 Forum. And as a former U.N. hand, I’ll be attentive to the tension between the Forum’s stated aim of improving the state of the world and its image in the eyes of its critics as a crony gathering of globalization’s winners, determined to protect their interests at the expense of the world’s poor and marginalized.

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

Kofi Annan used his attendance in 1998 to call for a new partnership between the U.N. and the global private sector, which led to a “Global Compact” under which businesses promise to adhere to U.N. human rights, labor and environmental principles. His successor, Ban Ki-moon, is not on this year’s preliminary list of participants, but other U.N. and non-governmental organization officials will be on hand to remind the denizens of Davos that they cannot afford to overlook the poor. As Annan once put it: “We cannot be secure amidst starvation. We cannot build peace without alleviating poverty. We cannot build freedom on foundations of injustice.”

Or can we? Maybe, in the course of the week, we’ll find out.

Shashi Tharoor, a former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, was India’s candidate in the 2006 race to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General and came second out of seven contenders. He is the award-winning author of 10 books, most recently The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century. Visit him at www.shashitharoor.com.