第四课 In search of Davos man
William F. Browder was born in Princeton, New Jersey, grew up in Chicago, and studied at Stanford University in California. But don't call him an American. For the past 16 of his 40 years he has lived outside the U.S., first in London and then, from 1996, in Moscow, where he runs his own investment firm, Hermitage Capital Management. Browder now manages $1.6 billion in assets and has made a name for himself(成名) locally by campaigning against（展开反对的活动） opaque and corrupt business practices （不透明的，腐败的商业行为）at Russian companies. In 1998 he gave up his American passport to become a British citizen, since his life is now centered（集中） in Europe. "National identity（国家认同） makes no difference for me," he says. "I feel completely international. If you have four good friends and you like what you are doing, it doesn't matter where you are. That's globalization."
Alex J. Mandl is also a fervent believer in globalization, but he views himself very differently. A veteran（经验丰富的） telecommunications executive（经理） and former president（前任主席） of AT&T, Mandl, 61, was born in Austria and now runs a French technology company called Gemplus International, which is doing more and more business in China.
He reckons（估计） he spends about 90% of his time traveling on business. But despite all that（尽管如此） globetrotting, Mandl who has been a U.S. citizen for 45 years still identifies（识别） himself as an American. "I see myself as American without any hesitation（犹豫）. The fact that I spend a lot of time in other places doesn't change that," he says.
Although Browder and Mandl define（定义） their nationality differently, both see their identity as a matter of personal choice, not an accident（意外） of birth. And not incidentally(偶然), both are Davos Men members of the international business élite（杰出人物） who trek（艰苦跋涉） each year to the Swiss Alpine（阿尔卑斯山） town for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), founded in 1971. This week, Browder and Mandl will join more than 2,200 executives（高管们）, politicians, academics(学者), journalists（新闻记者）, writers and a handful of（少数） Hollywood stars for five days of networking（交流）, parties and endless earnest（认真的） discussions about everything from postelection Iraq（选后伊拉克） and HIV in Africa（艾滋病在非洲） to the global supply（供给） of oil and the implications of nanotechnology（纳米技术的含义）. Yet this year, perhaps more than ever, a hot topic at Davos is Davos itself. Whatever their considerable differences, most Davos Men and Women share at least one belief: that globalization the unimpeded（畅通无阻的） flows of capital（资本流动）, labor（劳动力） and technology across national borders（边界） i
s both welcome and unstoppable. They see the world increasingly as one vast（广阔的）, interconnected（连同的） marketplace（市场） in which corporations search for the most advantageous locations to buy, produce and sell their goods and services.
As borders（边界） and national identities（国家身份） become less important, some find that threatening（威胁） and even dangerous. In an essay（散文） last year in The National Interest （国家利益）entitled "Dead Souls: The Denationalization of the American Elite（非国有化的美国精英）," Harvard Professor Samuel P. Huntington described Davos Man (a phrase that first got widespread（普遍的） attention in the 1990s) as an emerging global super species（一个全球新兴的超级物种） and a threat（威胁）. The members of this class, he wrote, are people who "have little need for national loyalty（忠诚）, view national boundaries（看待国家边界） as obstacles（障碍） that thankfully are vanishing（消失）, and see national governments as residues（剩余物） from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate（促进）élite's (精英的) global operations（运作）." Huntington argues that Davos Man's global-citizen self-image（全球公民的个人形象） is starkly（明显的） at odds with（与不和） the values of most Americans, who remain（剩余） deeply committed（忠诚） to their nation. This disconnect（分离）, he says, creates "a major cultural fault（断层线） line In a variety of ways, the American establishment（确立）, governmental（政府的） and private, has become increasingly divorced（分离） from the American people."
Naturally, many Davos Men don't accept Huntington's terms. "Huntington forgets that there is a difference between culture on the one hand, and attitudes and lifestyle on the other," contends(竞争) Klaus Schwab, the founder（创始人） and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, arguing that endorsing（签署） a global outlook（展望） does not mean erasing（清除） national identity. "Globalization can never provide us with cultural identity, which needs to be local and national in nature."
（7段缺部分）No wonder so many Western workers worry about losing their jobs. "If the issue（问题） is the size of the total pie, globalization has proved（证明） a good thing," says Orit Gadiesh, chairman of consultants（顾问） Bain & Co. "If the issue is how the pie is divided, if you're in the Western world you could question that."
8 The biggest shift（移动） may just be starting. A landmark（陆标） 2003 study by Goldman Sachs predicted（预计） that four economies — Russia, Brazil, India and China — will become a much larger force in the world economy than widely expected, based on projections（预测） of demographic（人口） and economic growth, with China potentially（可能
的） overtaking（赶上） Germany this decade. By 2050, Goldman Sachs suggested, these four newcomers will likely have displaced（取代） all but the U.S. and Japan from the top six economies in the world. Few economists would argue that such predictions are a reason to put the brakes（刹车） on globalization — even if that were possible. But it's no longer disgraceful（可耻的） in the academy（研究院） to argue that globalization threatens（威胁） to take a toll（征税） on advanced economies.
It's also entirely possible that the near future may see the pendulum(摇摆) of capital（首都） swing away from（背离） Davos Man-style globalization. One counterpoint（对应物） is Manila（马尼拉） Woman — low-paid migrant（移民的） workers from Asia and elsewhere who are increasingly providing（以为条件） key services around the world. Valerie Gooding, the chief executive of British health care company BUPA, says the British and U.S. health care system would break down without immigrant（移民的） nurses from the Philippines, India, Nigeria（尼日利亚） and elsewhere. While BUPA employs about 300 people in India to handle its outsourced（外包的） information technology needs（信息技术需要）, about 10% of the nurses and health care assistants（健康保健助理） in its nursing homes and hospitals are from overseas — and, unlike Davos Man, she says, they're not ambivalent（矛盾） about being strongly patriotic（爱国的）.
Not all Davos Men seek global markets, either. Patrick Sayer runs a private equity firm（股份公司） in France called Eurazeo, and complains（抱怨） there are still too many barriers（障碍） to cross-border business in Europe, let alone（更不必说） the world. So he's focused(注视) Eurazeo on its domestic market. "I profit（得益于） from being French in France. It's easier for me to do deals," Sayer says. "It's the same elsewhere. If you're not Italian in Italy, you won't succeed."
That may sound like a narrow（狭窄的） nationalism（民族主义者）, yet it contains（包含） a hidden wisdom. Recall（回忆） that Italy itself was, until 1861, not a unified（统一的） nation but an aggregation（集合体）of city-states. Despite（尽管） tension（使紧张） between its north and south, there's no contradiction（矛盾） between maintaining（维持） a regional identity and a national one. Marco Tronchetti Provera, chairman of Telecom（电信） Italia, for example, can feel both Milanese and Italian at once, even as he runs a company that is aspiring（立志） to become a bigger international presence（存在）. The question is whether it will take another 140 years for Davos Man to figure out（解决） how to strike（打击） the same balance on a global scale.