Davos decline relevant amid Trump's militarised chaos

A Spirit of Dialogue, the theme for this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF), the gathering of the global elite in the sparkling Alpine air of Davos, seems a stretch when the star guest Donald Trump has spent the past year smashing up the world order.

- Heather Stewart Dan Sabbagh

The president will touch down in Switzerland with the largest ever US delegation at the WEF, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Last year, days after his second inauguration, Trump was beamed into Davos on screen to deliver a punchy speech in which he threatened across-the-board tariffs, urged Nato countries to raise defence spending and called on the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates “immediately” - setting the tone, as it turned out, for the chaotic 12 months that followed.

A year on, what was left of the fraying rules-based global order, already jeopardised by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the rising power of the autocratic regime in Beijing, is rapidly unravelling, and the “spirit of dialogue” has been distinctly hard to find.

This year’s meeting is taking place at a time of extraordinary geopolitical tumult. War continues to rage in Ukraine, whose president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making the trip to Davos as he continues to rally support. Just days before heading to the WEF, Trump suggested that Ukraine was more reluctant to see peace than Russia.

When the WEF asked more than 1,300 politicians, business leaders and academics about their fears for the future, they identified “geoeconomic confrontation” as the most pressing risk for the next two years: a clash for economic dominance between major powers. The second most popular choice was outright war between nations.