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I've been thinking a lot about the world recently

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and how it's changed over the last 20, 30, 40 years.

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Twenty or 30 years ago,

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if a chicken caught a cold and sneezed and died

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in a remote village in east Asia,

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it would have been a tragedy for the chicken

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and its closest relatives,

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but I don't think there was much possibility

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of us fearing a global pandemic

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and the deaths of millions.

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Twenty or 30 years ago, if a bank in North America

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lent too much money to some people

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who couldn't afford to pay it back

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and the bank went bust,

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that was bad for the lender

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and bad for the borrower,

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but we didn't imagine it would bring

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the global economic system to its knees

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for nearly a decade.

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This is globalization.

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This is the miracle that has enabled us

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to transship our bodies and our minds

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and our words and our pictures and our ideas

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and our teaching and our learning around the planet

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ever faster and ever cheaper.

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It's brought a lot of bad stuff,

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like the stuff that I just described,

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but it's also brought a lot of good stuff.

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A lot of us are not aware

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of the extraordinary successes of
the Millennium Development Goals,

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several of which have achieved their targets

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long before the due date.

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That proves that this species of humanity

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is capable of achieving extraordinary progress

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if it really acts together and it really tries hard.

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But if I had to put it in a nutshell these days,

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I sort of feel that globalization

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has taken us by surprise,

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and we've been slow to respond to it.

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If you look at the downside of globalization,

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it really does seem to be sometimes overwhelming.

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All of the grand challenges that we face today,

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like climate change and human rights

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and demographics and terrorism and pandemics

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and narco-trafficking and human slavery

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and species loss, I could go on,

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we're not making an awful lot of progress

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against an awful lot of those challenges.

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So in a nutshell, that's the challenge

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that we all face today

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at this interesting point in history.

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That's clearly what we've got to do next.

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We've somehow got to get our act together

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and we've got to figure out how to globalize

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the solutions better

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so that we don't simply become a species

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which is a victim of the globalization of problems.

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Why are we so slow at achieving these advances?

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What's the reason for it?

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Well, there are of course a number of reasons,

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but perhaps the primary reason

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is because we're still organized as a species

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in the same way that we were organized

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two or three hundred years ago.

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There's one superpower left on the planet

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and that is the seven billion people,

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the seven billion of us who cause all these problems,

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the same seven billion, by the way,

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who will resolve them all.

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But how are those seven billion organized?

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They're still organized in 200 or so nation-states,

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and the nations have governments

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that make rules

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and cause us to behave in certain ways.

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And that's a pretty efficient system,

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but the problem is that the
way that those laws are made

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and the way those governments think

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is absolutely wrong for the
solution of global problems,

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because it all looks inwards.

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The politicians that we elect

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and the politicians we don't elect, on the whole,

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have minds that microscope.

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They don't have minds that telescope.

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They look in. They pretend, they behave,

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as if they believed that every country was an island

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that existed quite happily, independently

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of all the others

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on its own little planet

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in its own little solar system.

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This is the problem:

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countries competing against each other,

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countries fighting against each other.

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This week, as any week you care to look at,

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you'll find people actually trying to kill
each other from country to country,

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but even when that's not going on,

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there's competition between countries,

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each one trying to shaft the next.

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This is clearly not a good arrangement.

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We clearly need to change it.

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We clearly need to find ways

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of encouraging countries to start working together

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a little bit better.

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And why won't they do that?

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Why is it our leaders still persist in looking inwards?

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Well, the first and most obvious reason

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is because that's what we ask them to do.

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That's what we tell them to do.

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When we elect governments

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or when we tolerate unelected governments,

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we're effectively telling them that what we want

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is for them to deliver us in our country

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a certain number of things.

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We want them to deliver prosperity,

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growth, competitiveness, transparency, justice,

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and all of those things.

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So unless we start asking our governments

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to think outside a little bit,

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to consider the global problems that will finish us all

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if we don't start considering them,

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then we can hardly blame them

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if what they carry on doing is looking inwards,

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if they still have minds that microscope

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rather than minds that telescope.

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That's the first reason why
things tend not to change.

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The second reason is that these governments,

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just like all the rest of us,

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are cultural psychopaths.

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I don't mean to be rude,

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but you know what a psychopath is.

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A psychopath is a person who,

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unfortunately for him or her,

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lacks the ability to really empathize

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with other human beings.

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When they look around,

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they don't see other human beings

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with deep, rich, three-dimensional personal lives

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and aims and ambitions.

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What they see is cardboard cutouts,

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and it's very sad and it's very lonely,

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and it's very rare, fortunately.

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But actually, aren't most of us

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not really so very good at empathy?

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Oh sure, we're very good at empathy

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when it's a question of dealing with people

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who kind of look like us

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and kind of walk and talk and eat and pray

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and wear like us,

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but when it comes to people who don't do that,

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who don't quite dress like us

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and don't quite pray like us

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and don't quite talk like us,

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do we not also have a tendency to see them

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ever so slightly as cardboard cutouts too?

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And this is a question we need to ask ourselves.

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I think constantly we have to monitor it.

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Are we and our politicians to a degree

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cultural psychopaths?

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The third reason is hardly worth mentioning,

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because it's so silly,

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but there's a belief amongst governments

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that the domestic agenda

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and the international agenda

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are incompatible and always will be.

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This is just nonsense.

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In my day job, I'm a policy advisor.

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I've spent the last 15 years or so

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advising governments around the world,

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and in all that time I have never once seen

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a single domestic policy issue

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that could not be more imaginatively,

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effectively, and rapidly resolved

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than by treating it as an international problem,

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looking at the international context,

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comparing what others have done,

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bringing in others, working externally

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instead of working internally.

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And so you may say, well, given all of that,

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why then doesn't it work?

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Why can we not make our politicians change?

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Why can't we demand them?

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Well I, like a lot of us, spend
a lot of time complaining

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about how hard it is to make people change,

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and I don't think we should fuss about it.

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I think we should just accept

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that we are an inherently conservative species.

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We don't like to change.

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It exists for very sensible evolutionary reasons.

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We probably wouldn't still be here today

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if we weren't so resistant to change.

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It's very simple: many thousands of years ago,

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we discovered that if we carried on

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doing the same things, we wouldn't die,

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because the things that we'd done before

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by definition didn't kill us,

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and therefore as long as we carry on doing them,

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we'll be okay,

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and it's very sensible not to do anything new,

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because it might kill you.

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But of course, there are exceptions to that.

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Otherwise, we'd never get anywhere.

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And one of the exceptions, the interesting exception,

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is when you can show to people

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that there might be some self-interest

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in them making that leap of faith

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and changing a little bit.

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So I've spent a lot of the last 10 or 15 years

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trying to find out what could be that self-interest

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that would encourage not just politicians

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but also businesses and general populations,

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all of us, start to think a little more outwardly,

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to think in a bigger picture,

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not always to look inwards,
sometimes to look outwards.

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And this is where I discovered

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something quite important.

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In 2005, I launched a study

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called the Nations Brands Index.

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What it is, it's a very large scale study that polls

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a very large sample of the world's population,

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a sample that represents about 70 percent

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of the planet's population,

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and I started asking them a series of questions

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about how they perceive other countries.

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And the Nation Brands Index over the years

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has grown to be a very, very large database.

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It's about 200 billion data points

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tracking what ordinary people
think about other countries

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and why.

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Why did I do this? Well, because
the governments that I advise

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are very, very keen on knowing

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how they are regarded.

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They've known, partly because

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I've encouraged them to realize it,

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that countries depend

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enormously on their reputations

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in order to survive and prosper in the world.

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If a country has a great, positive image,

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like Germany has or Sweden or Switzerland,

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everything is easy and everything is cheap.

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You get more tourists. You get more investors.

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You sell your products more expensively.

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If, on the other hand, you have a country

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with a very weak or a very negative image,

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everything is difficult and everything is expensive.

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So governments care desperately

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about the image of their country,

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because it makes a direct difference

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to how much money they can make,

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and that's what they've promised their populations

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they're going to deliver.

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So a couple of years ago, I thought I would take

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some time out and speak to that gigantic database

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and ask it

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why do some people prefer one country

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more than another.

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And the answer that the database gave me

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completely staggered me.

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It was 6.8.

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I haven't got time to explain in detail.

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Basically what it told me was

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— (Laughter) (Applause) —

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the kinds of countries we prefer are good countries.

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We don't admire countries
primarily because they're rich,

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because they're powerful,
because they're successful,

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because they're modern, because
they're technologically advanced.

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We primarily admire countries that are good.

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What do we mean by good?

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We mean countries that seem to contribute

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something to the world in which we live,

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countries that actually make the world safer

270
00:10:19,908 --> 00:10:22,485
or better or richer or fairer.

271
00:10:22,485 --> 00:10:23,950
Those are the countries we like.

272
00:10:23,950 --> 00:10:26,471
This is a discovery of significant importance

273
00:10:26,471 --> 00:10:27,824
— you see where I'm going —

274
00:10:27,824 --> 00:10:29,691
because it squares the circle.

275
00:10:29,691 --> 00:10:32,563
I can now say, and often do, to any government,

276
00:10:32,563 --> 00:10:35,421
in order to do well, you need to do good.

277
00:10:35,421 --> 00:10:36,916
If you want to sell more products,

278
00:10:36,916 --> 00:10:38,452
if you want to get more investment,

279
00:10:38,452 --> 00:10:41,045
if you want to become more competitive,

280
00:10:41,045 --> 00:10:43,115
then you need to start behaving,

281
00:10:43,115 --> 00:10:44,758
because that's why people will respect you

282
00:10:44,758 --> 00:10:46,827
and do business with you,

283
00:10:46,827 --> 00:10:50,180
and therefore, the more you collaborate,

284
00:10:50,180 --> 00:10:52,755
the more competitive you become.

285
00:10:52,755 --> 00:10:54,533
This is quite an important discovery,

286
00:10:54,533 --> 00:10:55,613
and as soon as I discovered this,

287
00:10:55,613 --> 00:10:57,858
I felt another index coming on.

288
00:10:57,858 --> 00:11:00,204
I swear that as I get older, my ideas become simpler

289
00:11:00,204 --> 00:11:01,800
and more and more childish.

290
00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:04,297
This one is called the Good Country Index

291
00:11:04,297 --> 00:11:07,978
— (Applause) —

292
00:11:07,978 --> 00:11:09,821
and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

293
00:11:09,821 --> 00:11:11,875
It measures, or at least it tries to measure,

294
00:11:11,875 --> 00:11:14,638
exactly how much each country on earth contributes

295
00:11:14,638 --> 00:11:17,793
not to its own population but to the rest of humanity.

296
00:11:17,793 --> 00:11:19,540
Bizarrely, nobody had ever thought

297
00:11:19,540 --> 00:11:21,149
of measuring this before.

298
00:11:21,149 --> 00:11:22,796
So my colleague Dr. Robert Govers and I have spent

299
00:11:22,796 --> 00:11:24,539
the best part of the last two years,

300
00:11:24,539 --> 00:11:28,193
with the help of a large number
of very serious and clever people,

301
00:11:28,193 --> 00:11:30,879
cramming together all the reliable data in the world

302
00:11:30,879 --> 00:11:33,522
we could find about what countries give

303
00:11:33,522 --> 00:11:35,115
to the world.

304
00:11:35,115 --> 00:11:37,493
And you're waiting for me to
tell you which one comes top.

305
00:11:37,493 --> 00:11:39,221
And I'm going to tell you,

306
00:11:39,221 --> 00:11:40,751
but first of all I want to tell you

307
00:11:40,751 --> 00:11:43,126
precisely what I mean

308
00:11:43,126 --> 00:11:45,515
when I say a good country.

309
00:11:45,515 --> 00:11:47,669
I do not mean morally good.

310
00:11:47,669 --> 00:11:49,851
When I say that Country X

311
00:11:49,851 --> 00:11:51,714
is the goodest country on earth,

312
00:11:51,714 --> 00:11:53,163
and I mean goodest, I don't mean best.

313
00:11:53,163 --> 00:11:54,676
Best is something different.

314
00:11:54,676 --> 00:11:56,060
When you're talking about a good country,

315
00:11:56,060 --> 00:11:57,904
you can be good, gooder, and goodest.

316
00:11:57,904 --> 00:12:01,716
It's not the same thing as good, better, and best.

317
00:12:01,716 --> 00:12:03,997
This is a country which simply gives more

318
00:12:03,997 --> 00:12:06,203
to humanity than any other country.

319
00:12:06,203 --> 00:12:07,945
I don't talk about how they behave at home

320
00:12:07,945 --> 00:12:09,645
because that's measured elsewhere.

321
00:12:09,645 --> 00:12:12,405
And the winner is

322
00:12:12,405 --> 00:12:14,216
Ireland.

323
00:12:14,216 --> 00:12:19,072
(Applause)

324
00:12:19,841 --> 00:12:21,795
According to the data here,

325
00:12:21,795 --> 00:12:24,685
no country on earth per head of population,

326
00:12:24,685 --> 00:12:27,610
per dollar of GDP, contributes more

327
00:12:27,610 --> 00:12:29,546
to the world that we live in than Ireland.

328
00:12:29,546 --> 00:12:30,921
What does this mean?

329
00:12:30,921 --> 00:12:32,563
This means that as we go to sleep at night,

330
00:12:32,563 --> 00:12:35,901
all of us in the last 15 seconds
before we drift off to sleep,

331
00:12:35,901 --> 00:12:37,716
our final thought should be,

332
00:12:37,716 --> 00:12:39,943
Godammit I'm glad that Ireland exists.

333
00:12:39,943 --> 00:12:42,281
(Laughter)

334
00:12:42,281 --> 00:12:49,738
And that — (Applause) —

335
00:12:49,738 --> 00:12:52,238
in the depths of a very severe economic recession.

336
00:12:52,238 --> 00:12:54,756
I think that there's a really important lesson there,

337
00:12:54,756 --> 00:12:56,872
that if you can remember
your international obligations

338
00:12:56,872 --> 00:12:58,842
whilst you are trying to rebuild your own economy,

339
00:12:58,842 --> 00:13:00,180
that's really something.

340
00:13:00,180 --> 00:13:01,755
Finland ranks pretty much the same.

341
00:13:01,755 --> 00:13:03,150
The only reason why it's below Ireland

342
00:13:03,150 --> 00:13:05,883
is because its lowest score is
lower than Ireland's lowest score.

343
00:13:05,883 --> 00:13:08,004
Now the other thing you'll
notice about the top 10 there

344
00:13:08,004 --> 00:13:10,540
is of course they're all, apart from New Zealand,

345
00:13:10,540 --> 00:13:12,250
Western European nations.

346
00:13:12,250 --> 00:13:13,930
They're also all rich.

347
00:13:13,930 --> 00:13:15,670
This depressed me,

348
00:13:15,670 --> 00:13:17,462
because one of the things that I did not want

349
00:13:17,462 --> 00:13:19,056
to discover with this index

350
00:13:19,056 --> 00:13:21,116
is that it's purely the province of rich countries

351
00:13:21,116 --> 00:13:22,321
to help poor countries.

352
00:13:22,321 --> 00:13:24,197
This is not what it's all about.

353
00:13:24,197 --> 00:13:25,773
And indeed, if you look further down the list,

354
00:13:25,773 --> 00:13:28,229
I don't have the slide here, you will see

355
00:13:28,229 --> 00:13:30,388
something that made me very happy indeed,

356
00:13:30,388 --> 00:13:32,919
that Kenya is in the top 30,

357
00:13:32,919 --> 00:13:35,804
and that demonstrates one
very, very important thing.

358
00:13:35,804 --> 00:13:37,667
This is not about money.

359
00:13:37,667 --> 00:13:39,334
This is about attitude.

360
00:13:39,334 --> 00:13:41,082
This is about culture.

361
00:13:41,082 --> 00:13:43,977
This is about a government and a people that care

362
00:13:43,977 --> 00:13:45,451
about the rest of the world

363
00:13:45,451 --> 00:13:47,163
and have the imagination and the courage

364
00:13:47,163 --> 00:13:50,400
to think outwards instead of only thinking selfishly.

365
00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:51,970
I'm going to whip through the other slides

366
00:13:51,970 --> 00:13:55,328
just so you can see some
of the lower-lying countries.

367
00:13:55,328 --> 00:13:58,670
There's Germany at 13th, the U.S. comes 21st,

368
00:13:58,670 --> 00:14:00,511
Mexico comes 66th,

369
00:14:00,511 --> 00:14:02,269
and then we have some of
the big developing countries

370
00:14:02,269 --> 00:14:05,589
like Russia at 95th, China at 107th.

371
00:14:05,589 --> 00:14:08,413
Countries like China and Russia and India,

372
00:14:08,413 --> 00:14:10,966
which is down in the same sort of part of the index,

373
00:14:10,966 --> 00:14:13,319
well, in some ways, it's not surprising.

374
00:14:13,319 --> 00:14:14,858
They've spent a great deal of time

375
00:14:14,858 --> 00:14:17,121
over the last decades building their own economy,

376
00:14:17,121 --> 00:14:19,507
building their own society and their own polity,

377
00:14:19,507 --> 00:14:21,373
but it is to be hoped

378
00:14:21,373 --> 00:14:22,960
that the second phase of their growth

379
00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:24,725
will be somewhat more outward-looking

380
00:14:24,725 --> 00:14:27,482
than the first phase has been so far.

381
00:14:27,482 --> 00:14:29,069
And then you can break down each country

382
00:14:29,069 --> 00:14:32,716
in terms of the actual data sets that build into it.

383
00:14:32,716 --> 00:14:33,875
I'll allow you to do that.

384
00:14:33,875 --> 00:14:36,227
From midnight tonight it's going
to be on goodcountry.org,

385
00:14:36,227 --> 00:14:37,630
and you can look at the country.

386
00:14:37,630 --> 00:14:41,308
You can look right down to the
level of the individual data sets.

387
00:14:41,308 --> 00:14:43,496
Now that's the Good Country Index.

388
00:14:43,496 --> 00:14:45,225
What's it there for?

389
00:14:45,225 --> 00:14:47,150
Well, it's there really because I want to try

390
00:14:47,150 --> 00:14:49,601
to introduce this word,

391
00:14:49,601 --> 00:14:53,864
or reintroduce this word, into the discourse.

392
00:14:53,864 --> 00:14:56,333
I've had enough hearing about competitive countries.

393
00:14:56,333 --> 00:14:58,238
I've had enough hearing about

394
00:14:58,238 --> 00:15:01,974
prosperous, wealthy, fast-growing countries.

395
00:15:01,974 --> 00:15:04,942
I've even had enough hearing about happy countries

396
00:15:04,942 --> 00:15:06,983
because in the end that's still selfish.

397
00:15:06,983 --> 00:15:08,677
That's still about us,

398
00:15:08,677 --> 00:15:10,355
and if we carry on thinking about us,

399
00:15:10,355 --> 00:15:12,627
we are in deep, deep trouble.

400
00:15:12,627 --> 00:15:14,528
I think we all know what it is

401
00:15:14,528 --> 00:15:16,261
that we want to hear about.

402
00:15:16,261 --> 00:15:18,826
We want to hear about good countries,

403
00:15:18,826 --> 00:15:22,326
and so I want to ask you all a favor.

404
00:15:22,326 --> 00:15:23,922
I'm not asking a lot.

405
00:15:23,922 --> 00:15:25,875
It's something that you might find easy to do

406
00:15:25,875 --> 00:15:27,140
and you might even find enjoyable

407
00:15:27,140 --> 00:15:28,863
and even helpful to do,

408
00:15:28,863 --> 00:15:31,505
and that's simply to start using the word "good"

409
00:15:31,505 --> 00:15:33,687
in this context.

410
00:15:33,687 --> 00:15:35,654
When you think about your own country,

411
00:15:35,654 --> 00:15:37,783
when you think about other people's countries,

412
00:15:37,783 --> 00:15:39,566
when you think about companies,

413
00:15:39,566 --> 00:15:41,777
when you talk about the world that we live in today,

414
00:15:41,777 --> 00:15:43,675
start using that word

415
00:15:43,675 --> 00:15:46,443
in the way that I've talked about this evening.

416
00:15:46,443 --> 00:15:48,347
Not good, the opposite of bad,

417
00:15:48,347 --> 00:15:50,623
because that's an argument that never finishes.

418
00:15:50,623 --> 00:15:52,967
Good, the opposite of selfish,

419
00:15:52,967 --> 00:15:56,150
good being a country that thinks about all of us.

420
00:15:56,150 --> 00:15:57,560
That's what I would like you to do,

421
00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,115
and I would like you to use it as a stick

422
00:15:59,115 --> 00:16:01,858
with which to beat your politicians.

423
00:16:01,858 --> 00:16:03,895
When you elect them, when you reelect them,

424
00:16:03,895 --> 00:16:05,497
when you vote for them, when you listen

425
00:16:05,497 --> 00:16:07,842
to what they're offering you,

426
00:16:07,842 --> 00:16:09,554
use that word "good,"

427
00:16:09,554 --> 00:16:11,218
and ask yourself,

428
00:16:11,218 --> 00:16:13,401
"Is that what a good country would do?"

429
00:16:13,401 --> 00:16:16,654
And if the answer is no, be very suspicious.

430
00:16:16,654 --> 00:16:18,829
Ask yourself, is that the behavior

431
00:16:18,829 --> 00:16:20,265
of my country?

432
00:16:20,265 --> 00:16:22,397
Do I want to come from a country

433
00:16:22,397 --> 00:16:23,964
where the government in my name

434
00:16:23,964 --> 00:16:26,286
is doing things like that?

435
00:16:26,286 --> 00:16:27,582
Or do I, on the other hand,

436
00:16:27,582 --> 00:16:29,420
prefer the idea of walking around the world

437
00:16:29,420 --> 00:16:31,364
with my head held high thinking, "Yeah,

438
00:16:31,364 --> 00:16:33,985
I'm proud to come from a good country"?

439
00:16:33,985 --> 00:16:35,843
And everybody will welcome you.

440
00:16:35,843 --> 00:16:37,587
And everybody in the last 15 seconds

441
00:16:37,587 --> 00:16:40,277
before they drift to sleep at night will say,

442
00:16:40,277 --> 00:16:43,218
"Gosh, I'm glad that person's country exists."

443
00:16:43,218 --> 00:16:45,495
Ultimately, that, I think,

444
00:16:45,495 --> 00:16:47,149
is what will make the change.

445
00:16:47,149 --> 00:16:48,846
That word "good"

446
00:16:48,846 --> 00:16:50,633
and the number 6.8

447
00:16:50,633 --> 00:16:52,771
and the discovery that's behind it

448
00:16:52,771 --> 00:16:54,519
have changed my life.

449
00:16:54,519 --> 00:16:56,216
I think they can change your life,

450
00:16:56,216 --> 00:16:57,995
and I think we can use it to change

451
00:16:57,995 --> 00:17:00,805
the way that our politicians
and our companies behave,

452
00:17:00,805 --> 00:17:04,440
and in doing so, we can change the world.

453
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:06,017
I've started thinking very differently about

454
00:17:06,017 --> 00:17:08,523
my own country since I've been
thinking about these things.

455
00:17:08,523 --> 00:17:11,054
I used to think that I wanted to live in a rich country,

456
00:17:11,054 --> 00:17:13,340
and then I started thinking I
wanted to live in a happy country,

457
00:17:13,340 --> 00:17:15,784
but I began to realize, it's not enough.

458
00:17:15,784 --> 00:17:17,909
I don't want to live in a rich country.

459
00:17:17,909 --> 00:17:19,712
I don't want to live in a fast-growing

460
00:17:19,712 --> 00:17:22,215
or competitive country.

461
00:17:22,215 --> 00:17:25,593
I want to live in a good country,

462
00:17:25,593 --> 00:17:29,126
and I so, so hope that you do too.

463
00:17:29,126 --> 00:17:31,480
Thank you.

464
00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:35,480
(Applause)