February 17, 2004 - Critics of globalization blame it for everything from child labor to environmental degradation, cultural homogenization, and a host of other ills afflicting poorer nations. In his new book, internationally renowned economist and Council Fellow Jagdish Bhagwati takes on the critics, revealing that globalization, when properly governed, is in fact the most powerful force for social good in the world today. For instance, he argues that when globalization leads to greater general prosperity in an underdeveloped nation, it reduces child labor and increases literacy (when parents have sufficient income, they send their children to school, not work). Bhagwati describes how globalization helps the cause of women around the world and he shows how economic growth, when coupled with the appropriate environmental safeguards, does not necessarily increase pollution.
With wit and wisdom, Jagdish Bhagwati convincingly shows that globalization is part of the solution, not part of the problem.
“This is the book that everyone has been waiting for. Bhagwati thoughtfully considers the arguments of the anti-Globalization movement and shows the peril they pose to world development.”
- George Akerlof, Nobel laureate in Economics
“A substantial study that is as about as enjoyable and reassuring a work of economics as may be possible to write in this uncertain age.”
- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“A cogent, erudite, and, indeed, enjoyable discussion of economic globalization and its discontents.”
- Richard N. Cooper, Foreign Affairs
“Bhagwati delivers both with erudition and wittiness, a precise rebuttal of the most common and pernicious fallacies about globalization.”
- Ernesto Zedillo, Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and former President of Mexico
“This book will make history. It will also be a blockbuster, not only because of the depth of Bhagwati’s powerful argument backed by extensive research, but also because it is immensely readable and surely the most humorous piece of economics ever written.”
- Hernando de Soto, author of “The Other Path and The Mystery of Capital”
“A talent for economics and a way with words coexist as rarely as, say, welfare states and low taxes...But last Thursday, Bhagwati, a member of the profession who is already recognized for his rigor, was also honored with a writing award [the Eccles Prize for Excellence in Economic Writing]...for his latest collection of essays, “A Stream of Windows” (MIT Press). Mr. Bhagwati has long been a Nobel Prize contender for his contribution to the theory of international trade— contributions leavened by apt metaphors, clear examples, and even poetry.”
- Sylvia Nasar, The New York Times, and author of “A Beautiful Mind”
Jagdish Bhagwati is the André Meyer Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and University Professor at Columbia University. An external adviser to the Director General of the World Trade Organization, he has been Economic Policy Adviser to the Director General, GATT, and Special Adviser to the United Nations on Globalization. He is the author of several volumes and he has been honored with three festschrifts. He has received several honorary degrees and awards, including the Bernhard Harms Prize, the Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy, and the Freedom Prize, which he shared with Sir Leon Brittan.
Recent Foreign Affairs articles by Jagdish Bhagwati.
Established in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank, dedicated to increasing America’s understanding of the world and contributing ideas to U.S. foreign policy. The Council accomplishes this mainly by promoting constructive debates and discussions, clarifying world issues, and publishing Foreign Affairs, the leading journal on global issues.
Publication date: March 1, 2004, $28.00, Hardcover
To order In Defense of Globalization,
call 800-451-7556; fax 919-677-1303
In Defense of Globalization, by Jagdish Bhagwati
Oxford University Press, www.oup-usa.org
ISBN 0-19-5170253 @ $28.00
Contact: Marie X. Strauss, Council Communications, 212-434-9536
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