In 1984, I gathered the most successful musicians of the time to form a “supergroup” called Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The next year, an even larger grouping was formed for Live Aid, a major benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative that continues to this day.

The contrast between the disarray in the West, on open display at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and at last month’s Group of Seven (G7) meeting in Canada, and China’s mounting international self-confidence is growing clearer by the day. Last month, the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded its Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs, the second since Xi Jinping became China’s undisputed ruler in 2012. These meetings are not everyday affairs.

Populist electoral victories around the world in recent years have led many to conclude that liberal democracy is under assault.

In the last few years, for many people and their leaders, globalisation has become a scourge to be purged in favour of greater protectionism and unilateralism. This represents a sharp departure from the recent past, when globalisation was widely regarded as a positive force. What changed, and why?Key components of globalisation include greater cross-border mobility of goods, labour, and capital, each of which promises significant overall benefits for economies.

In many dimensions, today’s West is not at its best. Many people are challenging the values of liberal democracy (individual rights and majority rule) and even those of the Enlightenment (reason, science, and truth). Populist parties are channelling such sentiments with considerable electoral success, capitalizing on economic malaise, widening inequality, and rising immigration.Technology is often blamed for the social ills underpinning the populist surge.

More than 300 million people in India lack access to electricity, while in Sub-Saharan Africa, twice that many live without power. With population growth forecast to exceed connection rates, “energy poverty” is expected to worsen before it improves.For decades, rural communities in frontier economies have waited in vain for government-supplied electricity to arrive.

At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, world leaders at last seemed to recognize the reality of climate change. But the response they are pursuing is fundamentally flawed, given its dependence on “renewable energy sources” – such as solar, hydro, and wind power, as well as biofuels – that actually damage nature.

After the recent Group of Seven (G7) summit in Quebec, there can no longer be any doubt that the West is in crisis. Yes, “Western” countries have often pursued divergent foreign policies (as illustrated by the Iraq War), and “the West” is itself a vague concept.

According to an old African proverb, “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” The same is true for full-blown trade wars: when major economies clash, developing countries will be among the hardest hit.On 1 June, the United States’ (US) administration imposed import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium. The levies will affect not just China, but also Canada, Mexico, and the countries of the European Union (EU).

Ever since the ancient Greek poet Theocritus wrote his pastoral idylls romanticizing rural life, people have been pondering how to build cities that are in concert with their natural surroundings. But with rates of urbanization growing exponentially around the world, the need for greener cities has never been more urgent. Fortunately, innovation and technology can help strike this long-elusive balance.Bridging the urban-rural divide has long been a focus of city planners.