First Scientific Meeting, threats to a globalized world

The first statesmen and diplomats who met the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) at its First Scientific Meeting, held in Fuerteventura between 8 and 11 June, coincided in pointing to growing populism and the current international imbalance as the main challenges facing a globalized world. Under the title “El nuevo escenario político mundial. Amenazas y previsiones” (The new global political scenario: Threats and forecasts), the session was attended by Walter Lichem, ambassador to the United Nations Security Council; Rosalía Arteaga, former president of Ecuador and honorary academician of the RAED; Luis Alberto Lacalle, former president of Uruguay and also honorary academician of the RAED; the diplomats Ernst Iten and Inocencio Arias and former European commissioner Joaquín Almunia.

“There is a crisis in the global governance system, in which we don’t know how to manage problems such as xenophobia and populism, two growing threats”, said Lichem. “We live in an apolar world where nobody can represent us, because international institutions are inoperative”, Almunia added. “Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, world re-ordering has not yet come to an end. Very old nations like China, India, Iran and Turkey are gaining weight and have started the path of a silent reconquest”, said Lacalle.

“We are going back to live wars of religion, what we thought we had left behind is happening again and we can’t put a stop to it”, Arteaga said. “Islamist terrorism and Trump’s policies are the major threats today”, Arias said. “Populism grows by leaps and bounds and we must fight it, because we know well where it can take us”, settled Iten.