Alfredo Rocafort, Professor of Financial Economics and Accounting at the University of Barcelona, member of the Board of Trustees of the Fundación Independiente, Numerary Member of the Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences (RACEF) and Numerary Member and President of the Board of Governors of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ); Jaume Llopis, Emeritus Professor at IESE–University of Navarra, author of leading books in the field of business management and Numerary Member and Vice-President of the Board of Governors of the READ; and Francisco González de Posada, Professor of Physical Foundations at the Technical University of Madrid, President of the Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Humanities of Lanzarote, Numerary Member of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain, Corresponding and Honorary Member of several scientific academies and Honorary Member of the READ, presented on 25 February, during an extraordinary session of the Telematic Aula of the Lanzarote Academy, the work “Emergencies and the Emergence of World Power.” The book, which bears the explicit subtitle “Strategic Transformations in the Contemporary Global Order,” is a broad and well-documented development of the lecture “Towards European Leadership in the 21st Century,” which Rocafort himself presented in November at the twentieth edition of the Barcelona International Seminar of the RACEF, held under the general title “A New European Project for a New World Order.”
In a comprehensive monograph, the author defended the premise that Europe is not merely a geography but a consciousness, and called for the construction of a future grounded in the democratic values that have shaped the continent, demonstrating that intelligence and ethics can prevail over the force that characterises the current international order. Across eight chapters supported by numerous data from official institutions, Rocafort reviews the current crisis of the international order, which oscillates from the hegemony of blocs that marked contemporary history—particularly that of the twentieth century—to fragmentation. He also addresses the new global emergencies that compel a redefinition of the classic concepts of sovereignty, security and interdependence, as well as the new forms of power now led by non-state actors and defined by technology and narrative. At this point he introduces the crisis of democracy and the rise of new populisms and adaptive authoritarianisms, which he defines as asymmetric multipolarity and disputes of legitimacy. He also focuses on new geopolitical scenarios such as Africa or the so-called Global South, where various conflicts remain largely invisible, urging the urgent and fundamental challenge of rethinking power in the twenty-first century.
Conceived as an open academic reflection, the participants approached the work from their respective fields of study. Llopis contributed a strategic perspective on the business challenges arising from the new multipolar environment and emphasised the need for adaptive leadership, long-term vision and the ability to anticipate scenarios of high uncertainty. González de Posada, who participated as host of the telematic meeting, framed the debate within an interdisciplinary reading of the historical processes that accompany changes in global hegemony. The session addressed issues such as the redistribution of economic power, the impact of technological innovation, the strategic competition between geopolitical blocs and the implications for global governance, functioning both as a forum for critical analysis of the major contemporary challenges and as a space for academic dialogue on the evolution of the international order.
“We are not facing a simple shift in the balance between powers, as has occurred at other moments in history, but rather a qualitative change in the very way power is understood and exercised. Power no longer resides solely in states, nor is it expressed only through military force or control of markets. Today, power is more fluid, more fragmented, more symbolic and more technological, and its exercise requires a complex and multidimensional reading. In this context, two risks clearly emerge: the first is cynical retreat, which assumes the impossibility of understanding or transforming the new scenario and opts for resignation, opportunism or strategic isolation. The second is false universalism, which insists on applying outdated formulas to unprecedented problems, refusing to recognise the plurality of actors, models and visions that now coexist and compete in the world. Faced with both dangers, this work proposes an alternative based on an ethic of responsibility, understood not merely as a moral attitude but as a structuring principle of political, academic and institutional action in times of transition,” Rocafort noted during the presentation of the work.
