Making globalisation work

Abstract

My topic for this Geary lecture is ‘Making Globalisation Work. A question I am often asked is – how did I come to write my book entitled Making Globalisation Work? It was said: “You have complained enough. What would you do about it?” This was an important challenge, and in fact as I thought about it, there are a wealth of changes that could be proposed: some small, some large, some that one could do almost overnight, and some that would take years, perhaps decades, to bring about. However, thinking through systematically about the kinds of changes one could bring about to make globalisation work, or at least work better than it has been working, seemed to me something that was really very important. So what I did in this book, and what I will try to do in this lecture, is first to list what has gone wrong and which grievances, amongst all those that have been raised, are the most legitimate. Second, I will analyse how things have been changing and explore whether they have been getting better or worse. Third, I will make a diagnosis of why globalisation has not been living up to its potential and why it is failing in each of the several areas that I am going to talk about. Finally, based on that diagnosis, I will discuss what can be done to at least ameliorate some of the problem situations.