Everything from global governance, to work, to education, to healthcare are undergoing extraordinary transformations at a speed never seen before. Some of these transformations are accelerations of trends that were already underway. Others are sudden shocks to a system not prepared for change.

The world as we knew it is being redesigned on the fly while many of us are self-distancing in our homes. Although no-one knows what the future is going to look like, it is for sure that the world will look completely different when we open our doors again.

The COVID-19 crisis will have political, economic, social, technological and environmental consequences impacting our immediate future. Change will happen at vertiginous speed and trends that have been brewing in our societies for decades – such as growing inequality, the energy transition, digitalization and climate change – will be exacerbated and make everything more volatile.

We will face profound disruptions in work and education, the redefinition of healthcare and research, a significant impact in global transportation, global supply-chain redesign, the reversal of the international relocation of production or the potential experimentation with the universal basic income (UBI).

As governments around the world seize control of public space, illiberal democracies may emerge stronger with populism growing across the globe and citizens may suffer irreversible limitations of individual and civil rights. The movements of sick people may be tracked through mass surveillance and there may be a risk of a greater central control of the economy.

The world will become less cooperative and more competitive with globalization slowing down and countries focusing on their own national interests. In contrast, the response to the current crisis will international collaboration and we may see countries cooperating.

All of the aforementioned will put economic stability and social cohesion in jeopardy. Current governance models and strategies from the past will not solve 21^st century challenges. We need 21^st century initiatives such as the SDG-centric global agenda and a new system of global governance for its effective implementation if we want to succeed.

However, the risk the world faces is that everything stays the same after everything changes. Only purposeful global leadership, unequivocal government action, reshaped institutional architecture and a new social contract will help us overcome the wicked problems humanity is facing.

Over the past few years we have witnessed global tensions. At the same time foreign relations have been increasingly undermined. A rebalancing of power around the world might pose risks for multilateralism, the liberal order, commerce and peace globally. This might lead to a further loss of citizen trust in institutions.

The United States has been moving away from its international leadership which has resulted in its relative decline as well a risk to its hegemonic status and global influence. This has also fueled the further decline of multilateralism and the international organizations system that was created after WWII and that now faces an uncertain future.

On the other side of the world, China has moved quickly in an attempt to fill the growing leadership vacuum that was created by the U.S. and fueled by Russia who has contributed to the situation through growing destabilization. Although China has experienced a huge ascent in the past decades helped by its impressive economic growth and its increasing influence, it is still to be seen whether this situation and its consequences will be beneficial or detrimental to China as they try to take the leading role.

Meanwhile, the EU has been struggling to find a single and unified voice, as nation-states claim sovereignty and recentralize power. We have seen the lack of a common strategy and each country has focused on their own agenda which has clearly materialized in recent difficulties to provide an agile, efficient and solidary response to the unprecedented crisis we are facing.

The European Union will be weakened as a consequence of this crisis and will face further challenges threatening its own existence and survival. We will see further recentralization, growing political instability and the rise of populism.

Sub-state actors across the globe remain alert and sleepless trying to reaffirm and exercise their competencies and powers. This is the case of Basque Country/Euskadi where in spite of the local political stability of the past few years, we are facing both increasing recentralization from the central government in Madrid as well as growing pressures from the populism building up in Spain. This has been palpable recently as the central government in Spain faced strong criticism in its decision to stop the economic activity. The decision was being made by the central government in Madrid without coordinating with the Basque government.

There have also been similar tensions in the United States where federal and state officials argued over who had the final word on reopening the economy or extending the lockdown period. Federalism has allowed for certain states to better respond to the current crisis and we have seen Northeastern and West coast states coordinate on COVID response.

In the last few years we have seen regions and cities become global players as they leverage on closer contact with citizens and proximity to where the ultimate implementation of policies take place. This trend will continue as regions and cities especially are assuming the responsibility to provide for their citizens and solve their problems. Here lays an opportunity for Basque Country/Euskadi.

The current crisis is still undergoing its principal phase of emergency. Countries all over the world are focused exclusively on urgent matters. Saving lives is the most urgent among them. However, there are overlapping issues that need to be addressed in conjunction with this, such as reopening the economy with maximum health guarantees or figuring how to maintain a flat curve of new infections as questions around spread of the virus remain unanswered.

Basque Country/Euskadi is no exception. Only when we are able to overcome the current urgencies and stabilize the situation will we have the bandwidth to engage in more strategic and forward-looking action. However, it is crucial that these efforts are undertaken soon as we dive into a new era.

In today’s constantly and rapidly changing world, strategic plans are rarely valid beyond two-three-year timelines. While this needs to be taken into consideration for implementation down the road, we should define our vision as to where and what we want to be as a country in the coming decades. Only then will it make sense to carry out independent and objective work to imagine and define possible future scenarios in the coming decades.

In this sense, we must equip ourselves with idea nodes or knowledge nodes. We must engage with organizations across the globe that provide us with expert guidance to connect with state-of-the-art knowledge and to build and expand personal and institutional capabilities.

In coordination with other efforts by Basque institutions and organizations, the aforementioned could translate into sectoral projects in collaboration with globally inter-connected networks. Through them we would be part of global trends and organizations, in areas like sustainable economic and human development, social and educational frameworks, science and technology, public finance and investment models, consumption and energetic patterns, public-private-social collaboration and international engagement allowing us to tap into new sources of knowledge and talent

In essence, this would imply plugging us into leading think tanks, ideas laboratories and cutting-edge technological research and development institutions, to define and design future scenarios both from public policy and technical and developmental perspectives, as a preliminary step towards developing our own organizations.

As a result, we would have the opportunity to learn from the ideas and experiences of global leaders in their fields and we would be able to showcase our capital intellectual, human and otherwise and establish Basque Country as a global reference in our fields of expertise.

But all of the above will only make sense if we first set a clear vision for our country through an internal process of critical thinking and reflection. We must decide what type of society we want to evolve into and how that fits into a rapidly changing world.

And on top of it all, we should create a powerful narrative to tell our story to the world.

As large as an endeavor this might seem, Basque Country/Euskadi will not be starting from scratch when it comes to implementing our strategy. We have already gone a long way in developing the strengths and capabilities necessary to face the challenges set forth.

Our institutions are strong and reliable and have provided vast resources albeit not always intertwined and coordinated in the most efficient manner. We hold one of the largest levels of autonomy within a state in the world and a unique fiscal and financing system among many other competencies.

As the cornerstone to our future, we should guarantee political and institutional stability in the long run beyond political rivalries. We did in the past and our transformation after the big crisis in the 90’s constitutes a success case globally. This is key to portraying our country as a reliable partner.

The Basque Economic Agreement is our most powerful tool and we must use of our fiscal autonomy decisively. In the aftermath of the last financial crisis central banks brought continued low interest rates. Now, with little room for monetary measures all eyes turn to fiscal policy to provide solutions and hold the economy from a yet larger crash.

Governments and institutions should once again lead and push forward innovation-focused policy and stimulate the private sector through strategic choices. Based on those, improved PPPs models should be designed based on business efficiency criteria and resulting risks and rewards should both be shared.

Our strong industrial sector is well positioned in the process of digitalization. This could become a big advantage in an onshoring scenario as corporations in the European economic bloc look for locations where tapping into strong industrial expertise and developed ecosystems is easy.

Talent is increasingly important to all industries alike, and the Basque dual education and vocational-education models could be additional assets to leverage. Hence, we should double down on our ongoing efforts to make the relation between research, universities and business a seamless one and connected to the world.

It is also crucial that we invest in modern infrastructures so that we create a better environment for business to thrive. This would connect us to larger economic regions.

In Basque Country/Euskadi we have implemented the so called “income guarantee rent” (Renta de Garantía de Ingresos or RGI), a component of the larger and long discussed universal basic income (UBI). We should further experiment with this and take the lead in developing efficient ways to deal with the consequences of the current crisis and the impact of AI and automatization in work.

The Basque cooperative experience is an even stronger tool to fight inequality. Business leaders and scholars across the globe realize that capitalism cannot survive unless it is done differently. The practice of “stakeholder capitalism” defined as serving the interests of society overall rather than simply those of the shareholders was exercised in Basque Country/Euskadi long before it was a trending topic and way before the concept of stakeholder was set out in the early 70’s.

While the idea has been welcomed globally, it has recently been adopted by what is arguably the most important business leaders’ association in the United States and there are companies there that are already putting this in practice.

Increased collaboration among institutions at all political, economic, and social levels would allow for a more efficient use of existing resources when aligned with the shared vision for our country. Altogether we must lay the foundation for a sustainable future within the framework of an inclusive welfare state.

We rest on a history of entrepreneurship, hard work and solidarity-based identity that has given us a reputation and a proud name in the world; a world that hosts our diaspora and our allies who should be crucial partners in the long and challenging journey ahead of us.

The way we act in the coming months, will send unequivocal signals internationally as to projecting our image as a differentiated identity internationally. This will give us an edge to showcase Basque Country/Euskadi as a reliable partner and leader in global trends.

Some argue that Basques have been the worst enemy of the Basques and our greater obstacle in achieving our goals and making our dreams come true. Challenging times require a shared vision and purposeful leadership that empower people to take action.

The world as we knew it is gone. But the world that lays ahead will be what we want it to be. And we must choose our place in that world. We must be up to the challenge.