Global Change and Uncertainty: The Paradox of Our Time: A Research Report on Sovereignty and the Magnetic Power of Interdependency

Abstract

The purpose of this Report is to investigate the magnetic power of interdependency and the reasons why the global order remains so volatile, unstable and unpredictable. Its principal finding is that the global landscape has been transformed by widespread structural change. Much has been state centric but much has been driven by other factors. The top four tectonic forces reshaping the global economy for this Report include: the 'rise of the rest' of the global South market economies, the precarious growth of the global middle class, the disappearance of private sector unions from the workplace throughout the industrialized world, and the instrumentalization of soft power by global publics deeply skeptical of the 'there-is-no-alternative' to the market mindset. These long historical processes have intensified after the 2008 financial meltdown. With the implosion of the WTO Doha Round and the global banking crisis, the neoliberal global governance vision has faded from view as the uncontested public policy goal. Global governance of course is defined by the values, rules and practices of international cooperation and competition. For a stable governance world order, a principal reason for the breakdown in the multilateral consensus is that states and multinationals are, by instinct and self-interest, rule-benders rather than stringent adherence to legal ordering as an absolute. They do not want to be constricted by stricter legal ordering, particularly at a time of crisis and uncertainty.