US and Europe are promptly setting up all the tools they have to defend their unique positions in global affairs. The military function of Davos becomes no less significant than the traditional entertainment and commercial function.
In 1999, two American consultants Joseph Pine and James Gilmore published the book Experience Economy where they claimed that delivering happiness for customers from buying goods or services is now the most important economy driver. While the purchase itself does not have a great value anymore and the emotional support of the whole process is valued in the first place.
It would be strange to think such ideas work worse for political discussions than, say, for selling cell phones. Even more so, given that political debates and recommendations are always quite weakly related to the practices of international politics. So, here, the demand for “experiences” instead of real content becomes even greater.
The World Economic Forum in Davos is, by far, one of the brightest examples of how this principle is implemented. In Experience Economy, sellers become actors whose work is to play a performance for the customer. In the Davos forum platforms, politicians and diplomats are sellers and customers are representatives of top Western companies paying huge cheques to participate and convinced they do have a real leverage in politics.
The main feature of the economic model based on experiences is that they are intangible for customers, they cannot take experiences home or keep them, but they always bring sellers profits. Regular citizens are also among the customers. Only, they get their experiences from numerous newspaper messages.
The forum, which preceded WEF, appeared in 1971 as a venue for the meetings of top European companies and was hosted under the auspices of the European Commission. Back in those days, Brussels’ bureaucracy dreamed of defining the development path of the Old World some time soon. Besides, EU officials (they were European Communities at the time) relied on the support from businesses in their rivalry with national governments. Two years before, the French President Charles de Gaulle had at last resigned being the last opponent of transferring the power from Western-European states to Brussels. This meant European official now had some chances to have their own political power.
This model of engagement of businesses and politicians was especially promising for Europe. As a result of World War II, Western-European states lost their sovereignty when it came to foreign policy and defense – US took it after bringing all of them together within NATO under its leadership. However, they preserved some rights in the economy. This was why for almost 20 years the European Management Forum had performed quite well to help politicians and diplomats explain business the rules of the game and set informal requirements. But, first of all, to entertain representatives of top European corporations.
All the while, Davos developed into an industry led by its managers. Participation fees for corporates gradually increased, with advisory programs launched together with a lot more of various types of merchandise, which usually follows the successful promotion of companies. Reports prepared by the experts of Davos Forum became an important source of inspiration for journalists and experts. Also, various ratings of companies and countries are prepared, which is similar to what is commonly known as racketeering.
This year, for example, one of the planned discussions at the Forum was that of a possible new pandemic, which might be even more disastrous than the coronavirus. Well, it would be too straight to blame the Davos organizers for discussing the way to kill the most of human population, while drinking champagne, with beautiful ladies around. The purpose of all the Forum’s crying topics is to draw participants’ attention, convince them there was a sense in spending an awful lot of money to get there. And, ultimately, to help them feel the fun of being part of something really big.
Following such a development strategy, the forum evolved into the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is still called this name today. It expanded with several regional and seasonal avenues spreading its infrastructure to all regions, which are significant for the world economy. Davos meetings brought corporations even better impressions, and businesses were ready to pay to live the experiences of interacting with the brand.
After the end of the Cold War, the world economy and politics became really global. USA and Western-European states set the rules of the game, and Davos had a new function of a platform for the West’s interaction with those in a less privileged status as related to it. Politicians from Russia and other emerging economies went to Davos to convince major companies to bring money into their countries. This is, by the way, quite a patriotic cause.
Until a certain moment, Russia and, even more so, China and India, had every ground to participate in Davos. First, their business champions also needed “experiences” delivered by politicians and diplomats. Second, until as late as the 2010s we could not fully dismiss that the West could still choose a model of peaceful transition to a more just international order. The more confident Russia felt and the more important China became for the world economy, the more probable the possibilities of a deal between them and the West appeared. Preserving a global open economy could be the aim of such an informal arrangement, with the extension of the rights of the West’s key rivals and taming its appetites. Yet, this did not happen, as we are aware today. However, this does not at all mean all the previous attempts to agree were pointless.
Like all gatherings created by the West, Davos has two functions, one is commercial and the other is military. This intrinsic connection of the two activities was the basis for Europe’s mighty power followed by the US in the latest decades. For the dozens of years of its existence, Davos has become an important institution of the West. It has the same place in the entertainment domain as the Council of Europe has in politics or the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have in economy, and NATO in the military domain. US and Europe are promptly setting up all the tools they have to defend their unique positions in global affairs. The military function of Davos becomes no less significant than the traditional entertainment and commercial function.
Today, all the topics deemed global at the Forum are just the usual accompanying or surrounding matter for presenting what is really important for the West. The important thing is to show its unity facing the Global Majority and, to a lesser extent, China and Russia. Just because they do not expect to convince Moscow and Beijing to stop struggling for a new world order in the West.
Top Western companies are still paying the bill, their fees having been increased three-fold in 2024, as newspapers report. The representatives of Kiev’s government have an important place at the Forum’s events, as their personal interests fully serve the addressing of the global task of US and Europe mentioned above.
Does it mean Davos has completely depleted its resources and might cease to exist? Most probably, not. The entertainment industry will remain an important element of the global political economy. Even if Davos actually becomes a very narrow gathering of Western actors, with representatives of China and other countries joining only if urgently needed. American and European politicians, however reduced their global power becomes in future, will still need to sell their corporations this feeling of ownership. And this means Davos can change its format, but no one is going to get rid of it.