Our Perspective

We have commissioned in-depth research from leading think tanks across the world on the questions underpinning the Global Agenda. This programme will continue, meanwhile, we are making the insights that emerge from our own research, and those we derive from related programmes, available for discussion.

Posted Sep 12, 2023|  by Seán Cleary

Events over the past two decades – from the global financial crisis, through military conflicts resulting in death, destruction, civilian displacement and forced migration, to extreme weather events due to human transgression of planetary boundaries – have shown the inadequacy of our instruments of governance... Read More



Posted on May 12, 2017 | in category: Improving global governance | by Sean Cleary, FutureWorld Foundation,

The tension between national democratic accountability and inter-national and inter-temporal cooperation, undermines both trust in governments and collective action. The recent global financial crisis and recession, geopolitical clashes, forced migration, domestic tensions and threats to planetary boundaries, have exposed our institutional weaknesses. On the cusp...  Read More



Posted on Oct 16, 2015 | in category: Improving global governance | by  Seán Cleary. Executive Vice Chair, FutureWorld Foundation

Human society is a complex system, incapable of directive control, embedded in the planetary bio-geosphere, and comprising with it, a complex adaptive system. In this presentation to the Global Economic Symposium 2015, Sean Cleary suggests that the profound, multivariate asymmetry between the scale and depth...  Read More



Posted on Aug 02, 2015 | in category: Improving global governance | by Seán Cleary, Executive Vice Chair, FutureWorld Foundation

Deepening cultural and geopolitical fault-lines, the financial crisis and the unconventional monetary policies employed to address it, widespread chronic youth unemployment, inequality of wealth and income, and weak governance of the commons, have eroded trust in institutions and promoted populism and sectarianism. These are not...  Read More



Posted on Dec 01, 2016 | in category: Improving global governance | by  Seán Cleary, Executive Vice Chair, FutureWorld Foundation

Over the past five years we have commissioned and considered research into the five pillars of the Global Agenda. The research into the first three pillars enabled an integrative understanding of the requirements for sustainable human welfare, social equity, and security at different scales within...  Read More



Posted on Jul 11, 2016 | in category: Improving global governance | by  Seán Cleary, Executive Vice Chair, FutureWorld Foundation

The UN World Population Prospects (2015 Revision) provides a baseline projection for the global population in 2030: 8.5 billion people (Developed countries 1.3bn; Less Developed Countries 7.2bn) and for the urbanised population: 5 billion people (Developed countries 1bn; Less Developed countries 4bn). Relevant variables for...  Read More



Posted on Jan 23, 2020 | in category: Improving global governance | by Club De Madrid

A Rules-based international Order in the Present Era, Séan Cleary, Executive Vice-president, FutureWorld Foundation; World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid Advisor Global Governance: Goals, Paths and Mechanisms, Susana Malcorra, Former Foreign Minister of Argentina, Government of Argentina Off a complex world to a complex of worlds?...  Read More



Popular Articles

Poverty as a Wicked Problem

The belief that poverty can be prevented by identifying and dealing with its causes, and the...  Read More

Is Mars Ours?

Jun 13, 2021 | The New Yorker, Adam Mann

NASA and China having landed mobile rovers on the surface of Mars has raised the question of...  Read More

Think Local and Act Global - A Conversation with GGF 2030 fellow Cara Stauß

Nov 15, 2018 | Global Policy,

World affairs, diplomacy and trade are no longer solely the domain of nation-states, as cities...  Read More

Global Extreme Poverty

According to household surveys, 44 percent of the global population lived in absolute...  Read More

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