The process of designing strategic options

GDL Policy Brief: Proactively managing global challenges

In March 2021, 13 members of the Global Diplomacy Lab (GDL) from 13 different countries met online in a series of strategic foresight workshops to discuss global challenges and proactive approaches to solving them.

The goal of this strategic foresight project was to identify and assess global challenges and to develop innovative, comprehensive and robust strategic policy options to address the most critical of these challenges. The participants successfully did so in only nine hours of workshop time. The workshop was facilitated by Johannes Gabriel from Foresight Intelligence and build on the results of a first Foresight workshop with GDL members during the 2020 prE-Summit.

View the full policy brief here (PDF, 3 MB)

The GDL members chose the following critical global challenges that urgently require attention: the emergence of climate tipping points, global shocks triggering a severe global economic crisis, and the further erosion of multilateralism.

Three strategic options were proposed to address these challenges.

Firstly, the UN could implement a binding zero-emission mechanism to reduce the risks that tipping points will occur.

Secondly, the UN could develop guidelines and protocols for anti-protectionist measures.

Thirdly, the UN could establish regional Security Councils to regain effectiveness and strengthen its legitimacy.