Gathering Of The Titans

The participants' list is star studded, to put it mildly. The more than 2,000 delegates attending the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, will again represent some of the world's most powerful names in business and politics.Under an unprecedented blanket of Swiss security, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to discuss trust, governance and leadership. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft will talk about shared values and the fight against terrorism.

Microsoft's Bill Gates will put on his philanthropist's hat to take part in a panel on using science for the global good.

King Abdullah II of Jordan will be there. So will the presidents and prime ministers of countries that include Mexico, Finland, Brazil, Colombia and Tanzania. Other attendees: Bill Clinton, Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, financier George Soros, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, Britain's Most Rev. George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander for Europe and so on...

The goals of the six-day meeting, which runs from Jan. 23-28, are equally lofty. With a conference theme of "Building Trust," delegates will devote themselves to discussing ways to restore declining public confidence in world leaders and global institutions. Panels will focus on corporate challenges, the global economic outlook, global governance, geo-political security and trust and values.

There will be discussions about migration priorities, the cost of the war on terror and CEO payment packages. On a less profound note, participants can also ponder whether Shakespeare's writing can teach them anything about leadership, consider humor in the workplace and investigate the hidden language of music. Then, of course, there'll be the networking. VIPs will mingle at soirees, music recitals, a Friday jazz dinner, a demonstration by Zimbabwean soapstone sculptors, out on the ski slopes and, between 1.45 and 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, at Cafe Philo--an intellectual free-for-all chaired by New York philosophy professor Lou Marinoff ("no issue too big or too small.")

Inevitably, of course, there will be tensions. Of special interest will be how participants respond to top-level U.S. delegates like Powell and Ashcroft. Public confrontations may be unlikely in so tightly scripted and controlled an environment, but there is no doubt that the meeting is taking place against a backdrop of rising anti-American sentiment that could erode trust rather than reinforce it.