Research Seminar Series - Richard Higgott

14 March 2018
Research Seminar
Bruges

Richard Higgott

Emeritus Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Warwick and currently Research Professor at the IES (VUB) and Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy, Vesalius College at the VUB.

Globalism, Populism and the Limits of Global Economic Governance.

The evolution of a populist-nationalist zeitgeist (PNZ) is a global phenomenon casting powerful destabilizing political shadows both nationally and globally.  Globally it has accelerated the backlash against globalization and the accompanying trans-boundary collective action problem-solving institutions in the economic domain. Multilateral and regional institutional global economic governance structures are coming under serious challenge. In this context, this paper does 4 things: (i) It identifies the key elements of the PNZ and the manner in which, in populist hands, it is used to challenge many of the assumptions that have under-pinned the global liberal economic governance order (always a problematic order anyway) that was read by the USA as a self-binding hegemon for close to 70 years. (ii) It looks at the manner in which US policy under the Trump Administration is turning its back on this order and contributing to its undoing. (iii) It argues that a return to the status quo anti in a post-Trump world is not possible (iv) It asks what might be done to govern the global economy, especially in the domains of trade and finance, in a post-liberal world.

Wednesday 14 March 2018
12:00 - 13:30 
UNU-CRIS, Bruges