Altered States: Globalization, Sovereignty, and GovernanceIDRC, 2000 - 78 pages The world needs new ways of governance. We know this because the old ways are failing. True, human progress is evident in many realms. But complacency is dangerous. Too many people are poor, and millions have become poorer in the past 10 years. Income disparities are growing much worse. The world's population increases at intimidating rates, most of all in the poor countries. Deadly conflicts cause appalling misery, even when they could be - should be - prevented; weapons of mass destruction threaten us all. The climate, the very future of life on Earth, is changing. These are the failures that compel us to improve the ways we govern ourselves. They are failures, in the main, to mitigate the damage and inequities of globalization - and to seize its opportunities. "Globalization" itself has become a term so over-used and abused that it often defies definition. Some see globalization as the mask of Americanization. Others argue that it describes nothing new: after all, countries and cultures have always affected one another, not least by trade and invasion. But the current wave of international integration and interdependence is different. The connections and their effects, between people and states, are not just more numerous and profound but transforming. They change how we live, how we will have to govern, in ways still not fully understood. The dynamics of this globalization are multifaceted and seemingly contradictory. In some respects they undermine the power of states. The power of transnational corporations, the limits imposed on government policy by currency markets, the transborder politics of NGOs, the transfiguring power of global media - all reduce the autonomy of national governments. But in other respects, globalization strengthens the state and extends its influence: in the international protection of human rights or in the cooperation that states undertake to preserve the oceans, eradicate disease, subdue the contagion of financial shocks, or stabilize global warming. Sovereignty is not what it used to be. It is more. And it is also less. Where globalization confounds governance, and stirs conflict, is in its turbulent tendency not only to integrate countries and societies but also to fracture them - in the politics of secession, and in the divisions of generation, tribe, and belief. Some teenage citizens of a global Nintendoland feel more affinity with each other than with their own parents or neighbours. Nowhere is the strife more sorely felt than in the contests of culture, seen by many in the world as a struggle of Hollywood vs diversity, consumerism vs identity. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 23
Page iv
... United Nations Foundation 2000 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Smith , Gordon S. Altered states : globalization , sovereignty and governance / Gordon Smith and Moisés Naím ISBN 0-88936-917-8 1 . Legitimacy of governments 2 ...
... United Nations Foundation 2000 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Smith , Gordon S. Altered states : globalization , sovereignty and governance / Gordon Smith and Moisés Naím ISBN 0-88936-917-8 1 . Legitimacy of governments 2 ...
Page v
... United Nations offers the chance for productive debate on how humankind will govern itself in the global village . PART 1 SOVEREIGNTY AND GLOBALIZATION : GOVERNMENT IN A STATE OF CONFUSION What do the World Bank , Microsoft , and ...
... United Nations offers the chance for productive debate on how humankind will govern itself in the global village . PART 1 SOVEREIGNTY AND GLOBALIZATION : GOVERNMENT IN A STATE OF CONFUSION What do the World Bank , Microsoft , and ...
Page vi
... UNITED NATIONS AND THE MILLENNIUM ASSEMBLY 61 Globalization demands that we develop new forms of governance . And , as a natural nexus to the growing global networks of governance , the United Nations can lead in this process . Just as ...
... UNITED NATIONS AND THE MILLENNIUM ASSEMBLY 61 Globalization demands that we develop new forms of governance . And , as a natural nexus to the growing global networks of governance , the United Nations can lead in this process . Just as ...
Page vii
... United Nations is the forum to address these challenges . But to be an effective forum , the UN needs to find itself at the centre of improved global governance . The authors of Altered States propose such an agenda for the UN ...
... United Nations is the forum to address these challenges . But to be an effective forum , the UN needs to find itself at the centre of improved global governance . The authors of Altered States propose such an agenda for the UN ...
Page viii
... United Nations , IDRC has been delighted to help in the preparation of this report , commissioned by the Better World Fund , sister organization of the United Nations Foundation . With 30 years of support to research in developing ...
... United Nations , IDRC has been delighted to help in the preparation of this report , commissioned by the Better World Fund , sister organization of the United Nations Foundation . With 30 years of support to research in developing ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
action Africa better governance Better World Fund capacity Clean Development Mechanism collaboration commitment Convention cooperative culture debt demands democracy democratic governance destruction developing countries Development Research Centre disparities Dr Naím East Timor economic environment environmental ethnic failures of governance forces of globalization future global community global governance global population global public global warming globalization's greenhouse-gas emissions human rights income India inequalities intentionally left blank interests intergovernmental organizations International Development Research invested Kyoto Protocol leaded gasoline lives Louise Fréchette managing climate change Maurice Strong MILLENNIUM ASSEMBLY Millennium Summit million Moisés Naím networks NGOs NIMBY peace percent planet political poor countries poverty present globalization President preventing deadly conflict problems programs prosperity protect reforms rich countries Secretary-General Security Council shared smoking sovereignty summit trade transborder transnational UN Foundation UNDP United Nations United Nations Foundation veto violence World Bank World Trade Organization York young