Trade and War Worries Haunt Davos as World Seen ‘on a Precipice’

A global backdrop increasingly threatened by trade disputes and inter-state conflict is how respondents in a World Economic Forum survey see things panning out in 2026.

The annual poll of 1,300 leaders and experts by the organization that will next week host meetings of the business and political elite in Switzerland describes how crises in the coming year are likely to emanate most either from commercial tensions or actual military encounters.

Respondents specified “geoeconomic confrontation” and “state-based armed conflict” as the two biggest risks, in answers delivered even before US President Donald Trump’s high-stakes trade ...