Scene setter presentation: A world in flux – what’s going on and what does it mean?
Merriden Varrall AA Director, Australia Geopolitics Hub, KPMG
The APPEA Journal 62 - https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21453
Published: 3 June 2022
Abstract
Every day we’re hit with new headlines about chaos, conflict and disruption. How do we make sense of all this noise, and work out what it means for us?
We are in a time of increasing global geopolitical volatility. The turmoil that we’re seeing and experiencing isn’t just a brief aberration – the world is changing dramatically, right from the macro system-level down to the minutiae of how we live our daily lives. We’re moving away from the liberal economic world order that was written after World War II and into a geoeconomic order where economic levers are being increasingly used as tools to protect national power and interests. There are four main geopolitical megatrends that are driving this shift which are creating an environment of considerable risk, but also opportunity, for business. They are: structural shifts in the international system; growing lack of trust; the tech revolution; and the climate crisis. These megatrends have existed for some time but are being exacerbated and accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This world of heightened geopolitical volatility means the way we think about and do business needs to change in order to mitigate risk, as well as identify and maximise opportunities.
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Dr Merriden Varrall is Director of the Australia Geopolitics Hub at KPMG, where she helps business understand and navigate the complex global geopolitical environment. She provides business-relevant insights into global, regional and local geopolitical trends and works with clients to develop strategies and solutions. A former UN diplomat based in China, Merriden is a sought-after commentator on geopolitics, East Asia, China’s foreign policy, and Australia’s bilateral relationship with China. From 2014–2018, Merriden was the Director of the Lowy Institute’s East Asia Program. Before joining the Institute, Merriden was the Assistant Country Director and Senior Policy Advisor at United Nations Development Programme, China, where she worked on China’s role in the world, focusing on its international development cooperation policy. Prior to that she worked for the Australian Government Treasury and the Department of Family and Community Services. Merriden spent almost eight years living and working in China, including lecturing in foreign policy at the China Foreign Affairs University and conducting fieldwork for her doctoral research. Merriden has a PhD examining Chinese foreign policy from Macquarie University, Sydney, and the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She has a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the Australian National University, and completed her undergraduate studies in international studies at the University of Technology Sydney. Her analyses have appeared in academic journals, as well as publications such as The Quarterly, The New York Times, Nikkei Asian Review, Foreign Policy, The East Asia Forum, and the Lowy Interpreter, among others. |
