Photographers: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg, Annabelle Chih/Getty Images, Gaelen Morse/Bloomberg, Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg, Royal Court of Saudi Arabia/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Energy, Chips, Taiwan: Flashpoints for 2023 in a Fractured World
Business chiefs gathered in Davos are weighing new risks in a global economy where great-power politics loom large and governments are much readier to intervene
A new age of great-power rivalry is redrawing the map of the world economy and forcing business chiefs to navigate around a growing number of global flashpoints.
With a hot war raging in Europe and a cold one escalating between the US and China, the rest of the world is under pressure to pick sides. Political leaders are imposing new economic priorities, as they battle to avert shortfalls of vital commodities — from natural gas to semiconductors — and use the ones they control as leverage.
For the titans of commerce gathering in Davos this week, all of this marks a shift away from the era of ever-closer global ties, when big business thought it had succeeded in making the world flat. Now it’s in for a bumpier ride.