The goal of this paper is to focus on the Global Leadership Challenge in the 21st Century with an integrated and strategic perspective in science, engineering and technology (SET). “In any crisis, leaders have two equally important responsibilities: solve the immediate problem and keep it from happening again. The COVID-19 pandemic is a case in point. We need to save lives now while also improving the way we respond to outbreaks in general. The first point is more pressing, but the second has crucial long-term consequences,” according to Bill Gates. What is happening is a vivid example of a global “tipping event”, in which multiple social systems flip simultaneously to a distinctly new state. A global arbitrary multiscale systems science (GAMSS) perspective might create the required knowledge and paradigm shift in thinking.
