China will likely play an especially influential role in determining the outcome of many of the biggest challenges of the next century. India also seems very likely to be important over the next few decades, and many other non-western countries \u2014 for example, Russia \u2014 are also major players on the world stage.<\/p>\n
A lack of understanding and coordination between all these countries and the West means we might not tackle those challenges as well as we can (and need to).<\/p>\n
So it’s going to be very valuable to have more people gaining real experience with emerging powers, especially China, and then specialising in the intersection of emerging powers and pressing global problems.<\/p>\n
Table of Contents<\/p>
In a nutshell:<\/strong> Many ways of solving the world’s most pressing problems<\/a> will require international coordination. You could help with this by building specific experience of the culture, language, and policies in China or another emerging power. Once you have that expertise, you could consider working in an AI lab, think tanks, governments, or in research roles.<\/p>\n You’ll need fantastic cross-cultural communication skills (and probably a knack for learning languages), a keen interest in international relations, strong networking abilities, and excellent judgement to be a good fit.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n China in particular plays a crucial role in many of the major global problems we highlight<\/a>. For instance:<\/p>\n As a result, it’s difficult to understand the scale and urgency of these pressing problems without understanding the situation in China. What’s more, it’ll be difficult to solve them without coordination between Western groups and their Chinese equivalents.<\/p>\n At the same time, China is not well understood in the West.<\/p>\n Interest in China has grown in the last decade, but it still lags behind many other countries. For instance, in American colleges and universities, the number of students studying French is three times larger than those studying Chinese, while the starting level of cultural difference is larger.<\/p>\n All this suggests that having experience with China could be an extremely useful skill for improving collaboration between China and the West on many of the world’s most pressing problems<\/a>, avoiding potentially dangerous conflicts and arms-race-like dynamics, and improving the actions and policy of governments and institutions in both China and the West.<\/p>\n Of course, a similar argument could be made for gaining expertise in other powerful nations, for example: India, Brazil, or Russia.<\/p>\n However, we see Russia as likely to be less important than China because it has a weaker technology industry, so isn’t nearly as likely to play a leading role in AI or biotech development. It has a much smaller economy and population in general and hasn’t been growing at anywhere near the rate of China, so seems less likely to be a central global power in the future. Also, as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, most Western citizens should probably avoid travelling to Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n For some similar reasons, India and Brazil also seem less likely to play a leading role in shaping new technologies than China. The existence of many English speakers in India also means there are more people able to fill the coordination gap already, reducing the need for additional specialists.<\/p>\n Given this, we’ve spent most of our time researching China. As a result, we focus less on other emerging powers in this article, and most of our specific examples focus on China.<\/p>\n However, we do<\/em> think that gaining experience with these other countries is likely to be valuable and is currently under-explored, especially given how important they could become in the next few decades. In fact, if you’re at the beginning of your career, it may even be valuable to think about which countries are most likely to be particularly influential in a few decades and focus on gaining expertise there. Becoming an expert in any<\/em> emerging global power could be a very high-impact option and could be the best option for some people.<\/p>\n Visiting some of these countries can be dangerous, and that danger can change depending on fast-moving events.<\/p>\n We’d always recommend reading up on your government’s travel advice for the country you’re planning to visit. Don’t travel if your government recommends against it (for example, as of September 2023, the UK and US governments<\/a> recommend against travel to Russia<\/a>).<\/p>\n The UK government’s foreign travel advice website<\/a> is a helpful resource.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Building this skill set involves working in roles that will give you real opportunities to learn about an emerging power, especially in the context of trying to solve particularly pressing problems.<\/p>\n Ideally, you’ll pick one emerging power, and try to gain experience specifically in and about that country. This might include working in policy, as a foreign journalist, in some parts of the private sector, in philanthropy, in academic research, or in any number of other roles from which you’ll learn about an emerging power (some of which we discuss in more detail below<\/a>).<\/p>\n These roles overlap with ways you might build and use other impactful skills, like research<\/a> or communicating ideas<\/a>. That’s because, in order to have an impact with your experience of an emerging power, you’ll usually need to use other skills as well: for example, you might be doing research on AI safety in China (using research<\/a> skills), developing or implementing US foreign policy (using policy and political<\/a> skills), or writing as a journalist in India (using communication<\/a> skills).<\/p>\n The distinguishing feature of this<\/em> skill is that you’ll build deep cultural knowledge, a broad network, and real expertise about an emerging power, which will open up unique and high-impact ways to contribute.<\/p>\n Working with foreign organisations on any topic requires an awareness of their culture, history, and current affairs, as well as good intuitions about how each side will react to different messages and proposals. This involves understanding issues like:<\/p>\n We expect that fully understanding these topics will require deep familiarity with the country’s values, worldviews, history, customs, and so on \u2014 noting, of course, that these also vary substantially within large countries like China, India, and Russia.<\/p>\n Eventually, you’ll move from building the skill to a position where you can use this experience to help solve pressing global problems<\/a>. To use this skill best, you might also need to combine it with knowledge of a relevant subject \u2014 some of which we discuss here<\/a>. We discuss some ways to have an impact with this skill in the final section below<\/a>.<\/p>\nKey facts on fit<\/h4>\n
<\/span>Why is experience with an emerging power (especially China) valuable?<\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Safety when spending time abroad<\/h3>\n
<\/span>What does building and using experience with an emerging power involve?<\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Example people<\/h3>\n