On November 6, NYU Shanghai welcomed renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs to campus to speak about what it means to live and work in a multipolar world, and why cooperation towards shared goals matters now more than ever.
Sachs, the director of the Center for Sustainable Development and professor at Columbia University, is one of the world’s leading experts on economic development and global macroeconomics. Alongside acting as president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and serving as a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate to advance the SDGs globally, Sachs has authored multiple New York Times best-selling books.
The talk was hosted by the NYU Shanghai Center for Business Education and Research (CBER) and Adjunct Professor of Finance Michele Geraci, and was followed by a panel discussion with Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Practice in Business Raymond Ro and Assistant Professor of Practice in Economics Aleksandar Stojanović. The event closed with a question and answer session with audience members.
Sachs began his talk by introducing the modern multipolar world, wherein the United States, China, Russia, India, comprise four global superpowers operating in an unprecedentedly connected world—a departure from much of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries when the United States was the dominant world power.
Sachs argued that this multipolar model is not new, even if the main actors are different. For most of history, the world has had many centers of power, he said. What is new, he told the audience, is that this multipolar moment arrives in the age of artificial intelligence, climate change, and nuclear weapons, which means, as he said, “we had better get it right” when it comes to responding to these challenges and governing peacefully.
“When a group of nations cooperate with each other, it’s like they're playing a symphony,” Sachs said. In this model, he explained, nations follow the “golden rule”—do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In other words, they work together to uphold shared rules of conduct, rather than dividing into competing blocs.
A longstanding advocate for international education’s role in achieving sustainable development, Sachs praised NYU Shanghai’s mission of preparing students to understand and engage with a complex, multipolar world.
“We need, especially, I think, to learn to live with each other where there is diversity,” he said. "There is a famous Confucian saying in The Analects, where Confucius teaches that harmony does not mean ‘the same as.’ Harmony means getting along in diversity. And it’s a very deep, accurate description of what we need today.”
Many of the attendees said Sachs' message resonated with their daily reality at NYU Shanghai, where students, faculty, and staff from around the world meet on campus and exchange their perspectives.
“[Sachs' talk] served as a vivid reminder that expanding our global perspective and learning from where humanity has already been is the most powerful tool we have to transform our world,” said Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of Students David Pe.