Every year, the team of the Global Ethic Institute decides on an annual theme for the coming year – to sharpen its own focus, to invite exciting guests, to expand the range of teaching and events. Now the annual theme for 2024 has been set. From hope to a new reality? The last annual theme of the Global Ethic Institute was dedicated to hope, or more precisely to the sources of hope. What gives us courage in these difficult times, where do we draw confidence, what keeps our sense of hope alive, and how do we sustain it rationally? What are the arguments for not giving up after all? The world situation with its ecological catastrophes, the military and economic conflicts, the psychological and physical burdens gives plenty of reason to feel bad.We wanted to counteract this – with conferences, readings, discussions, in research and teaching, interdisciplinary and value-oriented. And now we want to look ahead and concretize hope by showing paths into the future. Disruptions: Changes, upheavals and breakthroughs In 2024, a lot will change, also for our team. A new director will take office at the Global Ethic Institute. We will then say goodbye to Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Hemel, who has inspired us for six years. There will also be personnel changes in the Global Ethic Foundation, as Dr. Stephan Schlensog, the experienced Secretary General, will leave the Foundation. In addition, the new president, Prof. Dr. Bernd Engler, is setting the tone for the ongoing development of the Global Ethic project. Such personnel changes always have a thematic dimension – new topics emerge, perspectives change, our guests and partners ask for new approaches, the team aims to broaden its view. We are challenged in our structures and in our planning of themes. We gladly accept this challenge: discontinuities are are also new beginnings – and could even lead to breakthroughs. The paths of development 2024 can become the year of concretization in many areas. Which paths point to the future in the economic and social sciences, in corporate and financial practice, in the development and use of new technologies, but also in our democratic culture of discussion? How can we achieve a sustainable transformation and what is needed to prevent a clash of cultures, views and generations from endangering democratic societies? We want to talk with scientists and practitioners about those development pathways that make a humane world possible in the sense of the Global Ethic values. What strategies for the future will enable us to move from the potentiality of our realities to the reality of our potential? Because this is exactly what Global Ethic means: describing better realities and making them tangible. To this end, we want to emphasize the value of diversity just as much as the traditional Global Ethic values of non-violence, partnership, justice, truthfulness and sustainability. Global Ethic in practice In accordance with our mission, we will do this in economic contexts – as an institution for business and economic ethics, we primarily describe the ways in which global ethics can be applied in the local, regional, national and global economy. Our main areas of work, Artificial Intelligence, Sustainable Finance, Responsible Communication, Democratic Dialogue, Economic Innovation, among others will continue to guide us in concrete projects, but we will certainly also add something new. So we are searching for the large and small strategies and impulses for a future that we perhaps did not expect, but which we have good reason to hope for.