VUCA World and interdependence lessons under COVID-19
Abstract
This article deals with interdependence in the denominated “VUCA World”, and takes as an expression of this, the COVID-19 pandemic. This article is structured in four parts. The first, reviews the concept of the world VUCA, an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, coined by the intelligence community of the United States Army in the early 1990s, anticipating the emergence of a complex, confusing and diverse global landscape, instead of a simple, clear and monolithic one. The second part explores the unprecedented social interconnection and interdependence, driven by the global advancement and diffusion of information and communication technologies, as well as the dramatic lessons that COVID-19 offers us, in the sense for the record that we are part of the same global network of social, economic, cultural and environmental connections. The third part refers to the need for a comprehensive approach that allows capturing interdependencies and interactions that can only be appreciated from a systemic perspective. The fourth part, formulates some ideas about the need for a governance that has questioned the principle "Think globally, act locally", to propose instead the principle of "Think globally, act globally" as two necessary and complementary principles.
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