The key question of the 21^st century is inequality (income, wealth, governance) between individuals and countries and how it is managed. 

Manifestation of the North’s intellectual dominance is triggering rebellion among the less privileged and preventing us seeing the world’s most pressing problems, including the need for new development models. 

Inequality lies behind most contemporary and future problems like inefficient allocation of and access to resources and inequality of opportunities, depriving many of education. Their ignorance was exploited by financial institutions, resulting in the crises. It breeds terrorism and religious extremism, creates unemployment, migrations/refugees, cross-cultural conflicts, and waning trust, causing serious political instability and security problems, even the threat of major war(s). 

By eradicating the huge nationally and globally (interconnected) inequalities, there is a chance to strike a new balance between globalisation-democracy and autonomy (Rodrik) make the benefits of globalisation more equally distributed through an equal global governance adjusted to the emerging new power structure.

The article is part of the SFG publication “Big Questions of Our time: The World Speaks”. To access the full publication please click here.