Lecture
Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century
- Date
- Thursday 26 September 2019
- Time
- Location
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden - Room
- Faculty Club
About the lecture
We live in a period characterized by uncertainty and volatility, with rapid environmental, technological and social change, the destabilization of traditional power centers, and the rise of new, non-state actors. These and other forces have driven the exclusion and marginalization of billions worldwide, leading to global political and social instability. As our governance capacities become increasingly fragmented, there is a need for counterbalancing forces of stability and integration. These forces must be dynamic, cohesive, and supported by unprecedented efforts at all levels of governance, particularly through concerted action by all nations.
Effective and credible mechanisms of international cooperation that are capable of acting on behalf of the interests of humanity and the planet itself – rather than those of a particular set of countries or small groups of people – are absolutely essential. While interdependence has created tensions regarding perceived conflicts between national sovereignty and collective problem solving, the speaker will argue that joint, coordinated action, based upon clear and legitimate common goals, can restore the rapidly diminishing efficacy of current global governance mechanisms. It is his view that the national autonomy of states is best served by strengthening the international rule of law, collective security, and environmental management. He will present a range of proposal, taking the UN Charter as the starting point.
About the lecturer - Augusto Lopez Claros
Augusto Lopez Claros is an economist with more than 30 years of experience in international organizations. During the 2018/2019 academic year he was a Senior Fellow at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
From 2011 to 2017 he was the director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group, the department responsible for the Doing Business report and other international benchmarking studies. Previously he was chief economist and director of the Global Competitiveness Program at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, where he was also the editor of the Global Competitiveness Report, the Forum’s flagship publication. Educated in England and the United States, he received a diploma in Mathematical Statistics from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University.
He has lectured at some of the world’s leading universities, think tanks and international organizations and has written extensively on a range of issues. His most recent book is Equality for Women = Prosperity for All (2018, St. Martin’s Press, with B. Nakhjavani). A list of recent lectures can be found at: www.augustolopezclaros.com.
In May of 2018 Sweden’s Global Challenges Foundation awarded Lopez Claros the New Shape Prize for his work (with Arthur Dahl and Maja Groff) “Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century,” to be published within a few months by Cambridge University Press