’The West now realizes it has taken some things for granted’

Yves Daccord en interview à l'EPFL le 21 mars 2022. EPFL / Murielle Gerber - Yves Daccord, who served as the director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2010 to 2020, has just joined EPFL's EssentialTech Centre as a senior advisor. In this interview, he explains how he will draw on his knowledge and contacts to help the Centre set ambitious objectives as it enters its second decade. Before we discuss your decision to join EPFL, could you share your thoughts on the war in Ukraine? Of course. The Russia-Ukraine conflict concerns us all. It's worth noting that it affects us collectively - across nations and generations. Among older people, that's no doubt because it stirs up images from long ago, it brings to mind episodes from the past that some of us have only seen in news reports or movies.