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Former vice-president of the World Bank Professor Ian Goldin says a new Renaissance offers hope for our world, and reflects on Brexit, Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections and the dangers we face if we do not create more inclusive societies at a time of tumultuous change.

Goldin and his co-author Chris Kutarna’s latest book, Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance, reflects on the risks and rewards of a new Renaissance taking place in the world. They argue that the same forces that drove a breaking down of barriers and an age of discovery marked by the likes of Da Vinci, Galileo, Copernicus, Raphael and Michelangelo are at work today. We have better education and resources, innovation is moving at a huge pace and there are great leaps in science, trade, migration and technology. They argue these are all reasons for hope, but that the world also faces many of the same challenges as in the Renaissance – warring ideologies, fundamentalism, climate change and pandemic.

Goldin is founding director and senior fellow of the Oxford Martin School and professor of globalisation and development at the University of Oxford. He is a former vice-president of the World Bank and former chief executive of the development Bank of South Africa and advisor to Nelson Mandela. His books include The Pursuit of Development, The Butterfly Defect and Is the Planet Full? Kutarna is a fellow of Oxford Martin School and holds a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford.

This event is part of a festival series on leadership sponsored by HSBC.