- Note - Mandelson was forced to resign in disgrace from
Blair's government on two occasions, but no matter, Tony saw to it his
long time ally and Europhile got a cushy spot as EU Commisioner. The bastion
of honest journalism, the BBC, obeyed a government order not to discuss
his overtly gay lifestyle which no doubt annoyed Gordon Brown who openly
loathed the 'prince of darkness' as he is nicknamed. Jon Ronson filmed
him attending the Bilderberg meeting a few years ago for the UK Channel
4 documentary 'Them'. Maverick Labour MP Tam Dalyell accused
him of being part of the 'Jewish Cabal' in Blair's cabinet which I think
he denied. -ed
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- Brown knows it, and the US must learn it too:
our stability and economic welfare depend upon it
-
- And then there were two. We now know that either Barack
Obama or John McCain will be the first US president of the next
phase of globalisation. One of them will be the first US president
whose foreign economic policy will be dominated from day one by a fundamental
transfer of economic power from west to east and south. The Atlantic world
is no longer the centre of the economic world, because the economic world
no longer has a centre. How McCain and Obama interpret that fact matters
to all of us.
-
- The protectionist and anti-trade rhetoric evident in
the presidential primaries suggests that many Americans see global economic
change in zero-sum terms. Asia rises, we decline. Economic inequality
is reduced between countries, but widens within our own societies. Globalisation
is no longer something we do, it is something that others do to us. An
increasing number of Europeans feel the same way.
-
- Nobody would disagree that globalisation has its dark
side. But the open markets and economic integration that drive it are still
by far the best tool we have for increasing global economic welfare. That
is an essential contribution to global stability. Only stable, cooperating
states can manage the coming squeeze on resources. For 60 years, the US has
underwritten economic internationalism with openness of its own. A crisis
of American confidence in globalisation could knock it off course.
-
- Rather than worry about a relative decline in their economic
weight, or retreat from international engagement, the US and Europe should
recognise that in an interdependent world, they have nothing to gain from
a stalling of growth in the developing world. Instead they should focus
on renewing the global institutions needed to hold this new mix of states
together through difficult debates on climate change, energy security and
trade. We have to adapt these institutions - the UN, the WTO, the IMF -
to give the emerging economies a chance not just to exercise their rights,
but to assume their responsibilities.
-
- The problem is that at the moment when we most need the
tools of internationalism, our own politics has begun pushing in the other
direction. Economic nationalism is the symptom of a deeper problem. We
can't shape globalisation without tackling the causes of protectionism.
That means tackling our own economic insecurity and inequality.
-
- It's an entrenched political myth that globalisation
and active welfare states are incompatible. Look at OECD data for the last
20 years and it is clear that where they have encouraged labour market
flexibility, high levels of education and retraining, and helped women
and older people stay in the workforce, strong welfare states have equipped
countries for globalisation much better than weak ones.
-
- This is not just a challenge for the US: many European
social models still do not pass these tests. Progressives in the US and
Europe need to revive the New Deal case for governments that help people
engage with open economies, rather than leave them exposed. Protective
states do not have to be protectionist ones.
-
- Gordon Brown gets this. Whether tackling African development
or social justice in Britain, he sees globalisation as part of the
solution rather than part of the problem. Whatever the issues or challenges,
the prime minister has never erred in rejecting the false comforts of populism
and setting out a positive politics of globalisation. The world needs to
hear the same message from President Obama or McCain. Globalisation needs America. America needs
globalisation.
-
- · Peter Mandelson is the EU trade commissioner.
Tonight he will deliver the Churchill Lecture in New York City on
this theme. Text of the lecture will be posted <http://ec.europa.eu/trade/>here.
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/09/globalisation.eu
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