Publication and Resources

The Crisis of Multilateralism
September 14, 2024 - Walden Bello, Foreign Policy In Focus
Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are in trouble. They are running out of money to lend. And, though both institutions are reaching out to civil society, representatives of nongovernmental organizations are banned from their fall meeting in Singapore.

The Fund is searching for a new role and a new governance structure. But proposals such as linking voting weight to GDP are mired in controversy. The Bank, meanwhile, is groaning under the weight of a huge bureaucracy. The crisis of these two institutions combine to make a crisis for multilateralism in general.  Read publication...

The Other Oil War: Halliburton's Agenda at the WTO
June 1, 2025 - Victor Menotti, International Forum on Globalization
A Policy Brief on the Energy Services negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO)

Rich nations are trying to use the WTO to create a new global policy framework for "energy security" that would fundamentally redefine, under the logic of "free trade in services," who will access energy resources, which ones are used and how, and who will benefit most from their exploitation.  Read publication...

The Hijacking of the Development Debate - How Friedman and Sachs Got It Wrong
August 1, 2025 - Robin Broad and John Cavanagh, World Policy Journal
Just a half decade after protests by citizen groups in Latin America and elsewhere discredited two decades of market-oriented neoliberal dogma, Friedman and Sachs have narrowed the debate with simplistic slogans of “more aid” and “more trade.” They have done so by putting forward myths about the poor, economic development, and the global economy.  Read publication...

High Oil Prices: Undermining Debt Cancellation and Fueling A New Debt Crisis?
July 14, 2025 - Oil Change International and Jubilee USA Network, Oil Change International and Jubilee USA Network
Soaring oil prices are undermining the benefits of debt cancellation and putting serious stress on many of the world's most impoverished countries. This is not the first time that volatile oil prices have played a role in exacerbating debt. The oil shocks of 1973-74 and 1979-80 played a central role in triggering the modern debt crisis and clearly exposed the dangers of oil dependence. Today the stakes are higher than ever. Global warming threatens us all, but it is impoverished countries that are most vulnerable to its impacts. A new energy revolution is needed, one that focuses on promoting a just transition away from oil dependence and towards energy efficiency and sustainable alternatives. We need a global strategy that will take oil out of the debt equation once and for all, including more and faster debt cancellation as well as programs that are focused on overcoming energy poverty in a truly sustainable way. Unfortunately, many governments around the world are once again arguing that the solution to our oil addiction is more oil (that if we increase and protect the supply of oil and gas then prices will fall and all will be well with the world)! This approach, which is in part reflected in the Plan of Action on Global Energy Security that G-8 leaders endorsed at the July 2006 St. Petersburg Summit, will not address the role that oil plays in exacerbating the debt crisis nor will it help lift billions of people out of energy poverty. Using public resources to subsidize the expansion of the oil and fossil fuel industry will feed overconsumption in the North, fuel global warming, and increase international tensions without generating long-term alternatives. As outlined in the following brief, there is an urgent need to challenge G-8 plans to increase support for the oil and fossil fuel industry and to call on governments around the world to focus international efforts on strategies that will simultaneously address energy poverty, crushing debt and global warming.  Read publication...

The Unfinished Agenda on International Debt
July 14, 2025 - Jubilee USA Network, Jubilee USA Network
In July 2005, world leaders gathered in Gleneagles, Scotland, and announced a plan to cancel debts, increase foreign aid, and make changes to international trade policy. At the time, Jubilee USA Network responded to the announcement by the G-8 on additional debt cancellation by welcoming it as an important first step on a long journey. One year later, it is important to look back and take stock. On the positive side, some debts have been cancelled for 21 nations, and the money is being put to good use. But much more remains to be done: 9 out of 10 people in the developing world will see no benefit from the 2005 debt deal. A broader, Jubilee cancellation of debts is needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals and to cancel odious and illegitimate debts. This policy brief looks at the progress of the past year, and outlines the unfinished agenda on international debt ahead of the 2007 Sabbath Year.  Read publication...

Globalization's Hidden Benefits
July 4, 2025 - Richard W. Fisher, YaleGlobal
Globalization has its roots in the logic of capitalism and will continue to advance, unless authorities make a concerted effort to reverse or halt it. While some critics malign globalization, increasing evidence suggests that its benefits go hand in hand with fair, conscientious policies. Globalization rewards decision-making that serves the interests of many types of people living in diverse circumstances, according to Richard W. Fisher, president and CEO of the US Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. Of course, proving that globalization inevitably produces social progress is not possible, and policies on labor and fiscal restraint do not follow the model. But other public policies associated with globalization do correlate with improved quality of life and greater economic freedom, and Fisher suggests that an examination of those could ease misunderstanding and fear.  Read publication...

The United States vs China: the war for oil
June 15, 2025 - Paul Rogers, OpenDemocracy.org
The United States's focus on the middle east, al-Qaida and terrorism is also a surrogate for long-term strategic competition with China for the world's oil resources.  Read publication...

State of Negotiations and WTO’s Exclusive June Mini-Ministerial
June 16, 2025 - Aileen Kwa, Focus on the Global South
 Read publication...

The Intercontinental Youth Camp 2001-2005: Linking Open Space Activism,
June 1, 2025 - Dan Morrison, Network Institute for Global Democratization
The Intercontinental Youth Camp is a creative effort to turn a space for temporary living into a social world of alternative practices challenging daily life under neoliberal globalisation; it is an expression of experimental social activism, the politics of collective self-management, and the celebration of spontaneous cultural expression. Dan Morrison previews his central thesis argumentation which ends on a critical note that the the IYC process has not lived up to its imaginaries; the full thesis will be posted on nigd website in July, 2006.  Read publication...

Solidarity Economics
April 27, 2025 - Ethan Miller, Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) Collective
Strategies for Building New Economies From the Bottom-Up and the Inside-Out  Read publication...

U.S. Hegemony or Global Good Neighbor Policy?
February 1, 2025 - Laura Carlsen and Tom Barry, International Relations Center
Over the past few years we have faced two major challenges in conceiving of a new foreign policy in Latin America. The first is the relative lack of attention to the region, by both the U.S. government and public. The second is the increasing friction between the current U.S. administration's strategies for global U.S. hegemony and Latin American elected governments and grassroots trends toward greater independence and new models. The following policy review of U.S.-Latin American relations examines the salient new developments in Latin America and the Caribbean and U.S. policy in the region. It concludes with general guidelines for a more coherent and constructive U.S. Latin American policy in the region, along the lines of the “Global Good Neighbor Ethic for U.S. Foreign Policy.”  Read publication...

Measuring Globalization
April 10, 2025 - The A.T. Kearney/FOREIGN POLICY
Globalization Index™ is the first comprehensive empirical measure of globalization and its impact. It measures economic, person-to-person, political, and technological integration in 62 countries, accounting for 96 percent of the world's gross GDP and 85 percent of the world's population.  Read publication...

The Economics of Outsourcing: How Should Policy Respond?
March 2, 2025 - Thomas Palley, Foreign Policy In Focus
Outsourcing is a central element of economic globalization, representing a new form of competition. Responding to outsourcing calls for policies that enhance national competitiveness and establish rules ensuring acceptable forms of competition. Viewing outsourcing through the lens of competition connects with early 20th century American institutional economics. The policy challenge is to construct institutions that ensure stable, robust flows of demand and income, thereby addressing the Keynesian problem while preserving incentives for economic action. This was the approach embedded in the New Deal, which successfully addressed the problems of the Depression era. Global outsourcing poses the challenge anew and calls for creative institutional arrangements to shape the nature of competition.  Read publication...

Brazil and the Difficult Path to Multilateralism
March 8, 2025 - Raul Zibechi, International Relations Center - America's Program
Brazil's rise as a regional and world power that champions multilateralism is being met with domestic and international obstacles. In addition to the resistance of the United States, Brazil has left a bitter taste in the mouth of its own neighbors who feel its steamroller-like advances are creating a new disequilibrium on the subcontinent. The domestic problems of Brazil - a country that has won "the world championship of inequality" - are spilling over as the country aspires to become a major player on the international scene. Raúl Zibechi, a member of the editorial board of the weekly Brecha de Montevideo, is a professor and researcher on social movements at the Multiversidad Franciscana de América Latina and adviser to several grassroots organizations. He is a monthly contributor to the IRC Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org).  Read publication...

WTO Ruling on Genetically Engineered Crops Would Override International, National and Local Protections
February 7, 2025 - Institute for Ag and Trade Policy
Ruling Favors U.S. Biotech Companies Over Precautionary Regulation  Read publication...

China Copes with Globalization - a mixed review
January 15, 2025 - Dale Wen, Visiting Scholar, International Forum on Globalization
This primer intends to serve as a briefing on the implications of China’s evolving role in the global economy and help build bridges and greater understanding between emerging social movements in China and international civil society.  Read publication...

Little to celebrate in Hong Kong
December 19, 2024 - Press Statement, Third World Network
After protracted negotiations, the European Union finally agreed to eliminate export subsidies by the end of 2013. But this is not enough. It should have been earlier. The target date of 2010 would have been more appropriate.  Read publication...

WTO Ministerial Text
December 19, 2024 - World Trade Organization
Final draft text approved on December 18 in Hong Kong  Read publication...

Hong Kong Outcomes for Africa: EVERYTHING BUT DEVELOPMENT
December 19, 2024 - Press Statement by AFRICA TRADE NETWORK, Africa Trade Network
Rather than being an important milestone towards the achievement of the much touted development round, Hong Kong has ended as a platform for anti-development outcomes.  Read publication...

The Public Voice WSIS Sourcebook: Perspectives on the World Summit on the Information Society
December 7, 2024 - EPIC Public Voice Project
An upcoming book will contain selections from the final resolutions and statements of the WSIS meeting held in Tunis in November 2005.  Read publication...

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