Article
Editorial
This issue of FOCUS is different. It is a special edition. This is because it takes up the theme addressed by the first cohort of the St.Gallen Collegium: "Re-interpreting Freedom".
Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. In its latest annual report on the development of freedom and democracy, the American non-governmental organisation "Freedom House" emphasised thatWestern modernity is at a tipping point. The guiding principle of freedom – political, economic and individual – is under pressure, and not only in those parts of the world where it has never been realised. Rather, it is precisely the citizens of those societies where the liberal order is a matter of course who see it under threat.
The spirit of optimism at the end of the Cold War – when the triumph of liberal democracy over alternative models of governance seemed assured and the world was set to become "flat" in the wake of globalisation – is now nothing more than a faint memory. As if these social and political upheavals were not challenging enough, they are further exacerbated by technological developments that call into question state sovereignty and individual autonomy.
In the face of these profound upheavals, how do we preserve the core of our concept of freedom – individual autonomy? And how do we further develop our understanding of freedom to meet these new challenges? The first fellows of the St.Gallen Collegium addressed these questions during the past academic year. As visiting scholars at the first Institute for Advanced Study at a business school, they tackled the annual theme "Re-interpreting Freedom – Rethinking Freedom". In a special supplement to the HSG alumni magazine Alma, our Fellows took readers on a journey to a place where freedom was being reimagined.
In HSG FOCUS, they now offer insights into their individual projects, which they advanced during their stay and which provide partial answers to fundamental questions relating to the Collegium’s theme.