15 October, 2026 / 6:30-8:30 CEST /
Online / Beijing International Fortune Center, Beijing
A collaboration of the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG) and EXTRA (Existential Threats and Risks to All), an initiative of the World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS).
Today’s geopolitical turmoil is often interpreted as a consequence of a major transition, from the ‘unipolar moment’ of the 1990s to a new post-hegemonic world with a more multipolar distribution of power. The rise of China is perhaps one of the most powerful drivers of the transition.
This turmoil coincides with an unprecedented and increasingly desperate need for intensified global cooperation. Humanity faces a wide range of existential threats that are coalescing into a polycrisis now, a crisis of systemic proportions. The EXTRA task force of the World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS) is designed to monitor existential risks to humanity and address the widening global governance gap for their mitigation. Political turmoil should not distract from the shared challenges that humanity must address together if we are to avoid catastrophic outcomes in the near future.
In this panel discussion, the world academy’s EXTRA team, China-based fellows of WAAS, and thought leaders from CCG will reflect on possible pathways towards a new order that would deliver adequate global risk governance. Key areas of concern include Artificial Super Intelligence, Catastrophic Climate Change, Major Health Crises and Military Conflicts.
The challenge now is to discuss frankly how a secure and prosperous future for all humanity may be achieved – alleviating anxieties arising from rivalry and distrust, denial and despair, and instilling a new sense of solidarity, optimism and confidence around the globe.
Hosts and Moderators
Dr Thomas Reuter
Professor in Anthropology at Melbourne University’ Asia Institute, trustee of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), Chair of EXTRA, fellow of two European Academies, past chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations, former executive of IUAES and the International Science Council, and board member of Future Earth (Asia RC). Prof Reuter has published 17 books and 160 articles with a research focus on transformative social change, politics, futurology, food system resilience and transitions to sustainability in Asia and beyond.
Dr Henry Huiyao Wang
Founder and President of the CCG, a Beijing-based non-governmental think tank ranked in the top 100 think tanks globally. Former Counsellor to the China State Council, Vice Chairman of the China Association for International Economic Cooperation. Past Director of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs and the Dean of the Institute of Development at China’s Southwestern University, Steering Committee Member of the Paris Peace Forum, Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and Visiting Fellow at Brookings Institution.
