WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2017
Overheard at Davos ... ‘The problem of Europe is Europe’
Joe Biden takes a fat swipe at Russia; the middle-class is now more panel-worthy than the poor; and the 1930s epitomised populism, writes Tim Cohen
Davos — The main speaker on Wednesday was US Vice-President Joe Biden who, on his way out of the door, did something very un-World Economic Forumish; he took a fat swipe at Russsia. Weirdly, it was refreshing. The World Economic Forum (WEF) sometimes feels like an overwhelming rush of goodness and consideration. It’s all about working together, being more sustainable and solving problems rather than creating them. Biden broke with this tradition very explicitly, pitting the postwar efforts to build an "international liberal order" against countries who "equate their success with a fracturing of the liberal international order". "I will not mince words. This movement is principally led by Russia. Under President Putin, Russia is working with every tool available to them to whittle away at the edges of the European project, test for fault lines among western nations, and return to a politics defined by spheres of influence." Biden did acknowledge that the US has not always been the pe...
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