A World in Crisis: The case for transformation (original) (raw)
Related papers
Crisis of Multilateralism ? Challenges and Resilience
Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2023
This book explores the challenges that multilateralism faces today and questions the idea of a ‘crisis’ of multilateral cooperation and international organizations. It accounts for the pressures on and power shifts in multilateralism in recent years - such as the war in Syria, the Covid-19 pandemic, challenges for NATO, the erosion of multilateral norms, the transition from Trump to Biden, the rise of China, the post-Brexit European Union, and the mobilization of countries from the South. The authors illustrate the resilience of multilateralism and lessons learned from the WTO, UN Women, International Organizations’ Secretariats and global environmental governance. Written in part by members of the Research Group on Multilateral Action (GRAM), this volume argues that ‘crisis’ should not be considered a pathology but the ‘matrix’ of multilateralism, which is more resilient than commonly thought. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of International Relations, global governance, and international organizations.
A review essay on Lori Wallach and Patrick Woodall, Whose Trade Organization? A Comprehensive Guide to the WTO, New York: The New Press, 2004; Another World is Possible: Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum, edited by William Fisher and Thomas Ponniah, New York, Zed Books, 2003; Confronting Capitalism, edited by Eddie Yuen, Daniel Burton-Rose, and George Katsiaficas, New York: Soft Skull Press, 2004; Samir Amin, Obsolescent Capitalism, New York: Zed Books, 2003; David McNally, Another World is Possible: globalization and anti-capitalism (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring, 2002). (From ” Against the Current, Vol. XXV, No. 6.,2010.)
This article presents possible answers, and their respective probabilities, to the question, ‘What are the consequences of the present global crisis in the proximate future of the World System?’ It also attempts to describe the basic characteristics of the forthcoming ‘Epoch of New Coalitions’ and to forecast certain future conditions. Among the problems analyzed in this paper are the following: What does the weakening of the economic role of the USA as the World System centre mean? Will there be a leader in the future World System? Will the deficit of global governance and world fragmentation continue to worsen? How can national sovereignty be transformed?
Toward global paradigm change: beyond the crisis of the liberal world order
Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal
This paper may be summarized by the following points. First, the crisis of the liberal world order arises from a misalignment of our social, economic and political domains of activity, along with a resulting destabilization of our physical environment. The integration of the global economy has generated problems that extend beyond our current bounds of social and political cooperation. Second, extending our social cooperation-on which basis our political cooperation can be extended as well-requires the creation of the appropriate moral narratives. These narratives must guide business strategies, public policies and civic activities. Third, these narratives must be supplemented by multilevel governance structures that address challenges at the scale-micro, meso and macro-at which these challenges arise. Finally, past human experience in developing moral narratives, supported by multilevel governance structures, suggests guidelines for a future form of multilateralism that enables us to meet this challenge.
Whose World? Multilateralism and Challenges to the Global Order
2022
Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine has brought untold misery, massive displacement and destruction. Emerging evidence suggests over 11,000 war crimes have been committed by its forces. The broader consequences reach across the world, in terms of economic shocks, such as sanctions impact on trade and finance, divestment, rising energy and food costs, and the threat of famine. This also begs the question of global governance reforms, not just in the security domain, but in the overall architecture of the UN system, and the diverse entities and vectors of multilateralism today. We are running out of time to save hundreds of millions of people: this war is genocidal in effect - if not also in intent.
The global crisis, the United Nations and global democratic governance
2010
La crisi financera i econòmica mundial que viu el món globalitzat des de l’estiu de 2007 planteja la qüestió de si estem davant de la fi d’un cicle o de la fi d’un model, i posa en evidència la necessitat d’un profund debat d’idees. A banda de les causes immediates de la crisi, s’observen causes profundes que són, principalment, resultat d’un període de globalització econòmica neoliberal. Si l’efecte de la crisi als països del Nord és evident i palpable, el seu impacte als països menys desenvolupats és devastador, la revisió del Consens de Monterrey, encaminada a concretar el finançament per a l’assoliment dels Objectius de Desenvolupament del Mil·lenni, va quedar frustrada pel naixement del G20. L’abordatge polític de la crisi posa en qüestió els lideratges mundials. Si bé el G20 va voler monopolitzar el debat, finalment les Nacions Unides, de la mà del president de l’Assemblea General, el pare d’Escoto, va poder convocar la Conferència sobre la Crisi Financera i Econòmica i els se...
Review of Socio-Economic Perspectives, 9(1), 109-120., 2024
The arguments pointing to a decline of the current liberal international order (LIO) are becoming more and more insistent. The LIO, which emerged after the Second World War, has proved itself to be incapable of facing many challenges that affect the world today. Furthermore, the presence of new emerging powers (such as China) have given a severe blow to the leadership of Western countries, especially the US, which have represented the soul of the LIO. However, this decline is not only attributable to external/international factors such as, for example, the emergence of these new international powers. In our view, the crisis related to the LIO is above all a crisis that concerns its essential structural and internal component: liberal democracy. More specifically, it is within the liberal democratic system that this crisis has shown itself the most. We identify some specific areas-belonging to the economic, political and socio-cultural scopes-that are paradigmatic in describing the emergence of this crisis. Closely interconnected to one another, these issues are the mirror of the malaise of an entire worldsystem-precisely that of the LIO-and of its key component (democracy). Is this system "imploding" (as it happened for the Soviet Union)? Our argument is the following: in order to avoid this implosion, which seems underway, civil society should play a major role in the future international order, which should have a greater capacity to respond to human needs. Civil society, which thus far has not had a key role in decision-making processes, represents a pivotal hinge between people and institutions. Thus, it should represent a key means by which to revitalize a more participatory democracy (which is "the sovereignty of the people", at least in its original meaning) and enhance multilateralism.