Sasha Havlicek on Ukraine: “The stakes could not be higher”

ISD’s CEO, Sasha Havlicek, joined geopolitical experts at the Economic Outlook event in London for a discussion on the various challenges society is facing at the start of the second year of war in Ukraine.

“The trajectory of this war will essentially determine for generations to come the balance of power between authoritarianism and liberal democracy. The stakes could not be higher,” Sasha said.

She expressed hope that the EU was able to come together in a united front against Russia as an indication of what is possible in the future. “I would hope that we can really look at this Ukrainian catastrophe as the turning point. If we don’t use it as the turning point, we will likely be, if not in an anarchic state, in a global context that is dominated by China, ultimately. And I think that’s an extremely dangerous place.”

She added that the 2024 US presidential election is a key political risk. “If we lose the US, we lose in many ways the rest of the world.”

Other panellists included the global head of commodities research in global investment research at Goldman Sachs, Jeff Currie, and the Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth, Randall S. Kroszner, who was recently appointed as an external member of the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee.

The event was held by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the UChicago Institute of Politics.