The war in Ukraine: a return to the law of the jungle or a new stage in the evolution of society?
30 June, 16:00 (GMT +2)
- Presence and intensity of a war depend on technological, economic and cultural factors. Depending on how these factors change, the war itself changes. What does today's war look like? And how has the nature of the confrontation between the superpowers changed in the 21st century?
- In the process of global economy transformation, wealth depends not so much on material possessions as on knowledge. And, if some natural resources or strategically important territories can be seized by force, with sources of knowledge it won’t work. Thus, profitability of conquering a territory decreases. How has the understanding of the "benefits" of war changed in our time?
- Mankind has moved from an economy of war to an economy of peace. Throughout most of our history, peace meant "temporary absence of war," but in recent decades peace has come to be interpreted as " impossibility of war," as its "improbability." For example, in recent decades, governments around the world have felt relatively secure, spending about 6.5 percent of their budgets on the military, spending much more on education and health care. Will humanity return to the "economy of war" after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine?
- The development of cyber weapons, an economy based on artificial intelligence and a new militaristic culture, can lead the mankind to an era of wars worse of which we have not ever seen. How to keep the peace on the planet?
Dr. Yuval Noah Harari
Prof. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and Sapiens: A Graphic History. His books have sold 40 Million copies in 65 languages, and he is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals today. Yuval Noah Harari gave keynote speeches on the future of humanity in Davos 2020 and 2018, on the World Economic Forum’s main Congress Hall stage.
