Our leaders must grow up before our problems do

On one level, our Global Public Service Leaders’ Summit was uplifting: freed from the rigid agendas, strict protocols and tight negotiating positions that normally constrict civil servants at international gatherings, the top officials we gathered from six countries felt liberated by the opportunity to talk honestly about shared problems. Listening in was fascinating – but on another level, the debates were deeply worrying.

With six very different countries at the table, we were bound to hear diverse views on the global economy. But there was some real consensus on two discomforting points: the west is in a parlous state, facing both long-term demographic and structural pressures and the short-term risk of renewed recession as the eurozone fractures; and the problems behind these dangers are highly intractable, while the only clear solutions come with a very high political and financial price tag attached.

Where the consensus fell down was on the solutions. With our officials hailing from such diverse countries, this is hardly surprising; but in an increasingly interdependent world, global problems require global solutions – and a focus on national interests becomes ever more dangerous.

The age of the international zero sum game is long gone; these days, one country’s loss is far less likely to be another’s gain than in the days before global money markets, air travel, ICT, multinationals and climate change. This is nowhere more true than on CO2 emissions and the European public debt crisis. In each case, collective action requires compromises by, and accrues costs to, countries that blame others for the problem, while going their own way offers short-term advantages (respectively, protecting energy-intensive industries, and avoiding bail-out costs and fiscal controls). However, when one country heads off in pursuit of narrow interests, the others’ commitment to collective action is weakened, while the escapees become freeloaders increasing the risks – whether of runaway climate change, or European economic meltdown.

This week, the UK tried to use Europe’s financial distress as a lever to win protection for its interests, and was promptly ejected from the debate. Meanwhile, following the fraught negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto agreement on climate change, Canada has pulled out of Kyoto, weakening the existing system and undermining faith in its replacement. These countries’ leaders may have thought they were acting in the national interest – but this is an interconnected world: we’ve badly weakened our ability to protect the City in Europe, while the Canadians’ Inuit people and vast areas of permafrost will suffer badly if climate change worsens.

Politicians like to present themselves as fighting their country’s corner – and populations like to hear that rhetoric – but in the modern world, cooperation often produces a better result for everyone than competition. We can only hope that our political leaders mature before the many growing dangers facing our global economy and ecosystem.

Jane Austen or James Bond?

Perm secs’ choices of christmas dinner guests are revealing

Our permanent secretaries’ round-up has many fascinating facts – not least people’s choice of “historical, mythological or contemporary” christmas dinner companions. Some chose mandarin classics – you know who you are – but more went for comedians or TV/film characters: Dumbledore, from Harry Potter, and Billy Connolly were particularly popular. Others, though, chose Blackadder, Kenneth Williams, Dr Who and Nisse the Danish Elf. Click here to find out who picked who... ?

Matt Ross, Editor. matt.ross@dods.co.uk

Written by Matt Ross