home > the cfr think tank > experts > jagdish n. bhagwati
Senior Fellow for International Economics
Contact Info:
Phone: +1-212-434-9667
E-mail: jbhagwati@cfr.org
Location:
New York, NY
Media downloads:
High-resolution photo (JPG, 2.2 MB)
One-page bio (PDF, 64K)
Video clip (MP4, 892K)
Video clip (WMV, 750K)
Author of In Defense of Globalization, special adviser to the UN and the World Trade Organization, and professor of economics at Columbia University. Latest book, Termites in the Trading System, discusses the deleterious effects of preferential trade agreements.
Expertise:International trade; economic policy reforms; immigration.
Experience:University Professor, Columbia University (current); member of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s high-level advisory group of the NEPAD process in Africa (current); external adviser to the director-general of the WTO (2001); Special Policy Adviser to the UN on globalization (2000); Economic Policy Adviser to the director-general of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (1991-93); Ford International Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1968-80).
Languages:Gujarati and Hindi (fluent).
Honors:The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star (Japan, 2006); Seidman Distinguished Award in International Political Economy (1998); Freedom Prize (Switzerland); Kenan Enterprise Award (United States); Bernhard Harms Prize (Germany); Mahalanobis Memorial Medal (India); John R. Commons Award (United States); Honorary Degrees from Sussex, Rotterdam, and other universities.
Selected Publications:In Defense of Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2004); Free Trade Today (Princeton University Press, 2002); The Wind of the Hundred Days (MIT Press, 2000); A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy (MIT Press, 1998); India in Transition: Freeing the Economy (Oxford University Press USA, 1993); World Trading System at Risk (Prentice Hall Europe, 1991); Protectionism (MIT Press, 1988); Economics & Politics (founder and editor); The Journal of International Economics (founder and editor).
Interviews and presentations:
President Obama and Trade Policy (speech, World Affairs Council Summit; February 19, 2009)
Does the United States need a new trade policy? (presentation, American Economic Association panel; January 3, 2009)
Why the Critics of Globalization are Mistaken (presentation, American Academy in Berlin; August 2008)
Economics is a Social Science (interview, Big Think, January 2008)
Global Warming (presentation, Zurich Financial Services meeting, Florence, May 2008)
On the Food Crisis (blog, with Jeffrey Sachs; "Managing Globalization," International Herald Tribune, May 7, 2008)
Current Research Projects
June 12, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial Times
Jagdish N. Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya argue that legal protectionism used indiscriminately could undermine the liberal trading system. When exhortation does not work, the threat of retaliation is needed to deter such protectionism.
March 5, 2009
Video
Watch experts debate the benefits of global trade and how the current crisis will affect the international trading system.
See more in Financial Crises, Trade, International Organizations
March 5, 2009
Audio
Listen to experts debate the benefits of global trade and how the current crisis will affect the international trading system.
See more in Economics, Trade, International Organizations
March 5, 2009, New York
Transcript
A Council on Foreign Relations meeting on the current state and future prospects of international trade.
See more in Financial Crises, Trade
March 4, 2009
Op-Ed
Forbes Online
Unlike the world's leaders at the last G20 meeting, President Obama has not turned his rhetoric loose against protectionism. In this Forbes.com article, Jagdish Bhagwati writes that Prime Minister Gordon Brown must ask the president to passionately defend trade and openness.
See more in U.K., Trade, Congress
February 6, 2009
Audio
Listen to CFR experts Jagdish Bhagwati and Edward Alden discuss the "Buy American" provision in the stimulus bill.
February 5, 2009
Transcript
In this CFR conference call, Jagdish Bhagwati, Senior Fellow in International Economics, discusses the trades issues relating to the "Buy American" provision in the stimulus bill.
See more in United States, Trade
February 4, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial Times
The Obama administration faces its two most protectionist challenges from the ‘Buy America' provisions in the stimulus package and the China bashing on ‘currency manipulation'. In this Financial Times op-ed, Jagdish Bhagwati argues that President Obama must fight protectionism right away or live to see the virus spread beyond control.
January 9, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial Times
In this Financial Times op-ed, Jagdish Bhagwati warns that Mr. Obama, who has properly denounced unilateralism, should not undermine the respect for the rule of law that the WTO embodies at the multilateral level.
See more in Trade, U.S. Election 2008
November 24, 2008
Op-Ed
John Templeton Foundation
Many critics believe that globalization sets back social and ethical agendas, arguing that globalization lacks a human face. But in this article for the John Templeton Foundation, Jagdish Bhagwati argues that actual outcomes are the opposite of those feared.
October 17, 2008
Op-Ed
Financial Times
There is an assumption that financial innovation is like non-financial innovation in that both are examples of what Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction". But in this Financial Times op-ed, Jagdish Bhagwati writes that the downside of financial innovation can be "destructive creation". We therefore need an independent commission of experts to look at the potential downsides of financial innovation.
See more in Economics
September 23, 2008
Transcript
A meeting with Jagdish Bhagwati, CFR senior fellow for international economics, and author of new book Termites In The Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade.
See more in United States, Economics, Business & Foreign Policy, Economic Development, International Finance, Trade
September 23, 2008
Audio
Listen to Jagdish N. Bhagwati, CFR's senior fellow for international economics, discuss the effects of preferential trade agreements on the international trading system and his recent book Termites in the Trading System, with former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo.
August 21, 2008
Op-Ed
New York Sun
In this New York Sun op-ed, Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya make the case for optimism on the Doha Round. A compromise is possible if the U.S. agrees to cap trade-distorting subsidies at a minimum of the current payouts and India agrees to a downscaling of the Special Safeguard Mechanism.
See more in Trade, International Organizations
August 19, 2008
Op-Ed
Financial Times
As in the 1980s, the United States is once again a fearful giant. In this Financial Times op-ed, Jagdish Bhagwati writes that only an agenda for institutional change that addresses the fragility of jobs and enables workers to face new uncertainties has a chance of returning trade policy to sanity.
See more in Trade
July 2, 2008
Op-Ed
New York Sun
Because of their discriminatory effect and the preferential treatment they give to member nations, Free Trade Agreements must be placed on moratorium, writes Jagdish Bhagwati.
See more in Trade, International Organizations
June 23, 2008
Op-Ed
Financial Times
With the Doha trade round in danger of slipping from our grasp, it has become commonplace to assert that the food crisis, while a tragedy, is a shot in the arm for the talks. In this Financial Times op-ed, Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya find that only one such argument passes muster—the fact that high food prices should soften U.S. opposition to lower agricultural subsidies, thereby relaxing key constraints on the final compromises necessary to reach an agreement on agricultural liberalisation.
See more in India, Trade, International Organizations
June 11, 2008
Testimony
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jagdish Bhagwati makes recommendations for U.S. policy on sovereign wealth funds.
See more in Economics, Congress
May 27, 2008
Op-Ed
Wall Street Journal
In this Wall Street Journal op-ed, Jagdish Bhagwati and Sandip Madan examine how the US health care system could decrease the rising costs for comprehensive medical coverage and replenish a dearth of doctors by encouraging various forms of international trade in medical services
See more in Trade, Health, Science, and Technology, U.S. Election 2008
Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
James M. Lindsay
Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1.212.434.9626 (NY); +1.202.509.8405 (DC)
jlindsay@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
+1.212.434.9753
jhill@cfr.org
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