Global governance in a changing world

Each year in January the World Economic Forum brings together leaders from business, government, academia and the media at its headquarters in Davos, Switzerland, for five days of lectures and discussions about issues of global importance.

Each meeting has a theme aimed at capturing important current events. Since 2008, when the financial crash in the United States changed the way the world works, the themes have related to key aspects of the post-crisis landscape. January 2009's conference was billed "Shaping the Post-Crisis World", and in 2010, it was "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild". In 2011 "Shared Norms for the New Reality" signaled acceptance of the new global balance of power. Last year's theme was "The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models".

This year's theme, "Resilient Dynamism", suggests that after four years in which the expected global economic recovery has failed to materialize the World Economic Forum might be forced to review its ideas. If so, what does that say about the world in which we now live?