Zihan Xuan has qualified as one of the 100 Leaders of Tomorrow and recognised for outstanding performance in the Global Essay Competition organised by the St. Gallen Symposium.
Zihan's essay: The Politics of a Post-Truth Era & The Promise of Democratic-Communicative Knowledge Democracy will be published later this year.
Zihan is a current MSc Environmental Change and Management student, and previously served as UNFCCC Youth Focal Point. His areas of interests include climate finance, global governance reform, and postmodern philosophy. The St. Gallen Symposium 'is the world's leading platform for cross-generational debates on economic, political, and social developments. As an entirely student-run initiative, we are committed to fostering dialogue and innovation among the world's future leaders'.
Zihan was delighted to win the accolade. He said:
In an era of heightened political polarisation, it is increasingly important to design political systems that enable citizenries to discover universal knowledge while embracing intersubjective realities. Through reconciling Jürgen Habermas' deliberative democracy and Iris Marion Young's communicative democracy, my essay seeks to demonstrate and operationalise an innovative governance instrument that helps us navigate the Janus-faced nature of T/truth."
The top 100 submissions to the competition earn the title of Leaders of Tomorrow and receive a fully funded trip to Switzerland to participate in the St. Gallen Symposium. This immersive experience includes engaging in panel discussions with senior leaders from diverse sectors, challenging the status quo, and inspiring action alongside over 200 other young leaders. Past participants have had the privilege of interacting with notable figures such as Justin Trudeau, Muhammad Yunus, and Ayọ Tometi.
Avidesh Seenath, MSc/MPhil Course Director (ECM) said:
Zihan’s achievement here is unsurprising as he has consistently demonstrated outstanding leadership skills since joining the course, often bringing a higher-order level of critical thinking to in-class debates, discussions, and meetings. Needless to say, Zihan’s performance is indicative of the calibre of students that we attract into ECM, a good testament of the course in producing/moulding our future world leaders. Well done Zihan, on behalf of all us in ECM."
Read about the trip in Zihan's blog.
Read Zihan's winning essay: The Politics of a Post-Truth Era & The Promise of Democratic-Communicative Knowledge Democracy