Interdependence Summit
The outlook for economic globalisation is cloudy. Its rampant expansion in the 90’s is now giving way to a more nationalistic, “my country first approach”, driven by some of globalisations original proponents. The ramifications of this are numerous, not least the extent to which growing economic, political and cultural globalisation, and the international institutions that have facilitated it, have acted as a disincentive to conflict.
Globalisation as we have known it is based on a specific set of relationships and circumstances. They include the necessity for lower wage economies, that operate as the factories of the world, or for political and trade ties that bind nations for mutual, if unequal, gain. As education, skill and income levels have risen, so these relationships are changing. We are now beginning to see the ways in which nations and economic blocs are reacting to these shifts.
This conference will look at how relationships between trading blocs are evolving, the interplay and engagement between government, the private and public sectors, whether globalisation, in its political, economic and cultural guises, is indeed in decline, and what a weakening of global interdependence could mean in the longer-term. Indeed, the conference will seek to determine whether global interdependence should be re-energised, and how this might be achieved