To protect their assets for the long term, some countries invest resources and wealth into sovereign wealth funds, which manage a diversified portfolio. But without adequate transparency requirements, these vehicles can be ripe for corruption and other governance risks.

If you were to unwrap the intersecting problems known as “the polycrisis,” you’d find climate change at the middle. Destructive floods, unaffordable energy, unsustainable debt burdens, and economic conflict between superpowers — the overheating of the planet plays a role in all of them.

Seoul could act as a crucial link for the current cast of characters, particularly as it seeks to integrate emerging markets.