Goldman Sachs Global Institute hosts global affairs summits in New York and London

2024 was a year of elections, geopolitical competition and conflict, and technological innovation.

The wars in Europe and the Middle East continued, even as the battlefields dynamics shifted. China’s assertive posture, both regionally and globally, presented challenges to the US-led international system. Meanwhile, as many as 2 billion people were eligible to vote. Markets recalibrated expectations and outlooks based on technological innovation, geopolitical uncertainty, and a changing macroeconomic outlook.

The Goldman Sachs Global Institute convened two Global Affairs summits, in New York and in London, to reflect on this remarkable year and discuss what may come next. Alongside executives and policy experts from different industries, backgrounds, and geographies, we examined how revolutions in geopolitics and technology are reshaping global markets and the international order.

Expert moderators who guided the conversations provided takeaways after the event.

Connected crises in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific

In New York, Global Institute co-heads Jared Cohen and George Lee were honored to host CIA Director William J. Burns, who discussed today’s global threat landscape.

More than 1,000 days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, Alina Polyakova, CEO & President of the Center for European Policy Analysis, noted, “It is clear Putin feels he currently has the upper hand and does not have a reason to negotiate. The new US administration has an opportunity to reverse the current path of the war by applying maximum pressure to Russia as the path to ultimate sustainable peace in Europe.”

With growing partnerships between Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran, the war in Ukraine is also connected to what happens on the far end of Eurasia. Dan Twining, President of the International Republican Institute, observed, “North Koreans are fighting in Europe with Iranian weapons funded by Russian oil sold to China.  China and Russia today are collaborating more actively than Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II. The free world needs take back the strategic initiative from this axis of aggression using our entire toolkit of power and influence.”

Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East remains dynamic. Dr. Barham Salih, former president of Iraq, believes that 2025 can be transformative for the region. “The past year in the Middle East has brought immense human suffering,” Salih told the audience, “Returning to the status quo ante, where protagonists prepare for even deadlier cycles of conflict, is not an option. Ending this cycle requires restoring legitimate state authority free from malign non-state actors, ensuring states uphold international law and renounce aggression.”

Goldman Sachs’ president of global affairs and co-head of the Global Institute Jared Cohen concluded the session on geopolitics, reminding the audience, “We’ve relearned that there is no substitute for the leadership of the US and its allies and partners around the world. We’ve also seen how important that leadership is for the proper functioning of a free and rules-based global economy, which is the key to growth not only in the West, but globally.”

The rise of artificial intelligence

Amidst geopolitical competition, artificial intelligence is reshaping global affairs and commerce. George Lee, co-head of the Global Institute, noted the extraordinary rate of innovation in the AI field, describing it as, “A novel technology that is moving faster and getting better at a rate I’ve never experienced in my 40 years in this sector.”

Professor Allison Stanger, Distinguished Endowed Professor, Middlebury College, and Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, cautioned, “While AI technology offers mind-blowing advances, we are just starting to grasp its impact on national security and defense innovation. The interplay between open and closed development approaches carries risks we don't fully understand yet, and commercial weapons systems, including those enabled by AI, remain vulnerable to procurement by hostile actors.”

The inaugural EMEA Global Affairs Summit

In partnership with Global Banking and Markets, the Global Institute also hosted its inaugural EMEA Global Affairs Summit this year in London. Alongside clients and experts from the fields of foreign policy and technology, we discussed global affairs and technological revolutions in a European context, examining the future of the transatlantic relationship and Europe’s role in a changing world.

Sir Alex Younger, Former Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and International Advisor, Goldman Sachs, co-hosted the EMEA Global Affairs Summit with Cohen and Lee. “In the three years I’ve advised Goldman Sachs, I’ve watched as geopolitics have gained salience with our client community,” Younger said. “These discussions demonstrated quite how much the mood has shifted. There was, unsurprisingly, palpable appetite to hear from a well-chosen group of experts. More importantly we ‘experts’ gained original and powerful insights in return. These issues are now understood as core business considerations and are not going away.”

Former Ukrainian foreign minister Dr. Dmytro Kuleba concluded the EMEA Global Affairs Summit. Dr. Kuleba provide an overview of what is happening in the Russia-Ukraine war today, and what could happen in 2025. “Russia's invasion in Ukraine will continue to influence global security and markets in 2025,” Kuleba described. “Getting the dynamics of this conflict right is fundamental to making good choices in business and politics, and that's exactly what Goldman Sachs Global Institute helps to capture.”

 

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