How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance

Let me begin by inviting you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine a world map. Not the one you learned in school, with its neat borders and clear names, but a living, breathing tapestry—one where the lines are blurred, the colors swirl, and the voices are many. This is the world as it is becoming: a world where the old pillars of order—empires, superpowers, and even the nation-state itself—are giving way to a new chorus of actors. The old world order has cracked, and through those cracks, the light of possibility streams in.

Once, a handful of men in grand halls drew lines on maps and decided the fate of millions. Their agreements, like the Concert of Europe or the United Nations Security Council, shaped the destinies of continents. But as the 21st century dawned, the stage grew crowded. Now, alongside presidents and prime ministers, we see the rise of CEOs, philanthropists, activists, and even city mayors, each holding a piece of the puzzle. There are nearly 200 countries, but tens of thousands of NGOs and over 100,000 multinational corporations. Imagine a world where the World Economic Forum’s gathering of business leaders is as influential as the United Nations’ General Assembly, and where a single billionaire or a digital activist can change the course of history.

This is not chaos, but a return to something ancient—a neo-medieval world, where overlapping authorities and shifting alliances were the norm. In the Middle Ages, cities, guilds, religious orders, and merchant families vied for influence. Today, the same is true, but our tools are far more powerful: technology, capital, and the instant spark of global attention. Power is no longer only about armies or flags, but about who can mobilize resources, ideas, and people across borders.

In this new world, crises are not rare; they are constant. Financial meltdowns ripple across continents, pandemics ignore borders, and climate change threatens us all. The old order cannot cope. But here, in the mosh pit of interests, new forms of cooperation are being born. Sometimes, it’s a coalition of cities fighting climate change; sometimes, it’s a network of NGOs delivering aid where governments cannot. The world is not leaderless, but it is leader-full.

As we step forward, remember: There is no single architect of the future. Each of us, in our own way, is a builder. The story of our age is not the end of order, but the beginning of many orders—overlapping, sometimes messy, but alive with possibility. And so, with this understanding, let us journey further, to see how diplomacy itself is being remade for this new era.

Next, we’ll discover how the art of negotiation is evolving, and why anyone—yes, even you—can be a diplomat in the world to come.