Review: At the Global Crossroads
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000240 |
| Date | 01 June 2005 |
| Author | Theodore H. Cohn |
| Published date | 01 June 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
I
Reviews
|
AT
THE
GLOBAL
CROSSROADS
The
Sylvia
Ostry
Foundation
Lectures
Sadako
Ogata et al.
Montreal & Kingston: Institute for Research on Public
Policy/McGill-
Queen's University Press, 2003. xiv, 105pp. $55-oo cloth
(ISBN
0-7735-
2637-4), $24.95 paper
(ISBN
0-7735-2732-X)
The
first six lectures sponsored by the
Sylvia
Ostry Foundation are included in
this book, which is a fitting tribute to Ostry's outstanding career as a public ser-
vant, scholar, and international economic policy specialist. The contributors
have the knowledge and experience to provide valuable overviews
of
global
eco-
nomic,
political, and social issues in the 1990s. They include Sadako Ogata,
UN
high commissioner for refugees from 1990 to
2000;
Jacques Delors, pres-
ident of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995; Michel Camdessus,
managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1987 to
2000;
Renato Ruggiero, director general of the World Trade Organization
(WTO)
from 1995 to 1999; Enrique Iglesias, president of the Inter-American
Development
Bank
from 1988 to the present; and Paul
Volcker,
chair
of
the US
Federal
Reserve board of governors from 1979 to 1987.
These
lectures were given from 1993 to 2002, and it is inevitable that
the year of delivery affected the focus and outlook. For example, the 1994
Delors
lecture was prompted by Europe's recession at the time, and
Ruggiero
referred to "the
death
of the North-South divide" in his 1996
lec-
ture
shortly after the successful conclusion of the
GATT
Uruguay Round
(59). In the years since Ruggiero's lecture, the north-south divide has clear-
ly
re-emerged in the WTO Doha Round. Although the introduction to the
volume provides useful summaries of the talks, it does not discuss the con-
text
in which each lecture was written, and does not examine whether the
diverse lecture topics have some underlying themes. This is unfortunate,
because
certain common themes do emerge from this important
group
of
lectures.
The rest of this review refers to these themes.
First,
the lectures examine the degree to which globalization has blurred
the division between domestic and international affairs. Ogata discusses the
problem of protecting millions of internally displaced persons: people who
are displaced by conflicts but who remain in their own countries. In address-
ing this problem, the UN must weigh sensitivities of national sovereignty
against concerns about
human
rights and threats to international peace and
security.
Ruggiero states that in making
trade
policy, governments must
I International
Journal
|
Spring
2005
| 613 |
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