| | | | (Kindly ignore the previous mail, in which we carried an error. This is the corrected version.)
Dear friend,
Thank you for registering for the Founding Fuel Masterclass series on The World in 2025, scheduled for Friday, 31st January 2025, 6:30 pm and Friday, 7th February 2025, 6:30 pm. This newsletter is part of a series designed to help you prepare for the event, featuring insights about and from our panellists. | | | | | Sundeep Waslekar is a leading Indian thinker, author, and futurist, who serves as president of the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG), a think tank that works on solving seemingly intractable global challenges through innovative policy ideas and collaborative approaches. | | | | KEY CONTRIBUTIONS AND ROLES | | Building Diplomatic Bridges:
- Waslekar has essayed a key role in informal diplomacy between India and Pakistan, and also facilitated dialogues between Western and Islamic leaders post-9/11 and worked to resolve conflicts in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Water and Peace:
- Keeping in mind the complex challenges in bringing warring groups to the table in the Middle East, he developed the Blue Peace framework. It uses water as an instrument for peacebuilding, which helped build cooperation over shared water resources in conflict-prone regions such as the Middle East and Africa.
- His work led to the first United Nations Security Council session on "Water, Peace, and Security" (Session 7818), where he proposed innovative ideas like a "blue fund" for collaborative water projects.
Global Peace Advocacy:
- Waslekar is one of the signatories of the Normandy Manifesto for World Peace, alongside Nobel laureates like Mohamed ElBaradei and Jody Williams. The manifesto warns about nuclear dangers and calls for disarmament and sustainable peace initiatives.
- He wrote A World Without War, which criticised militarism and proposed a global social contract to eliminate war as a policy tool. The book explored historical patterns of conflict, emerging technologies like AI in warfare, and the dangers of nationalism.
- His most recent work has been to bring the spotlight on the challenges posed by AI, the global politics around it, the increased, catastrophic dangers posed by nuclear weapons and the need for nuclear disarmament. He is the co-chair and recently steered an inter-governmental fora in Geneva, involving the five permanent members of the UN Security Council or the P5, with a plan to expand it to more countries over the next few months.
| | | | Global Advisory Work:
- Waslekar has advised 65 governments across four continents on issues like reducing nuclear risk and improving water cooperation. Institutions such as the United Nations Security Council, European Parliament and World Bank have sought his input.
Strategic Research:
- Waslekar's research includes scenario planning for global challenges, including economic crises, climate change, and geopolitical risks. His work emphasizes cooperation over competition or conflict.
- He has been involved in creating frameworks like the Water Cooperation Quotient, a method for measuring collaboration on shared rivers worldwide.
| | | | | | - Studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University
- Received an honorary Literature Doctorate from Symbiosis International University
- Authored books including A World Without War and Eka Dishecha Shodh
| | | | | | | | | | | | Previous editions
- Spotlight on Justin Logan, Director of Defence and Foreign Policy Studies at Cato Institute.
- Spotlight on Yao Yang, Director of China Center for Economic Research
- Spotlight on Philippe Le Corre, Senior Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute / Center for China Analysis
Tomorrow
- Briefing on the US and China: the rivalry that will underpin geopolitics and geoeconomics in 2025
| | | | FOLLOW US AND ENGAGE WITH US | | | | Warm regards,
Team Founding Fuel
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