UNITED
NATIONS - Here's that g-word again. Globalization.
You either love it, or you hate it. Hard to tell
how the UN members break down, numerically speaking.
James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank,
tells them, in effect: live with it; it's here
to stay. Like it or lump it. One suspects there's
been a switch toward living with it.
For
his part, the cautious Kofi Annan has spoken on
both sides of the argument. Still, he's not an
economist and his ambiguity is, therefore, to be
excused.
But in an address
in Geneva a day or
two ago he said that
globalization has changed
the challenges confronting
the UN -- while making
the Organization more
needed than ever. Annan
likes to hammer home
how badly the world
needs the UN. Washington
and some other capitals,
including in the third
world, are skeptical.
The Secretary General,
like most every other
major orator nowadays,
finds it hard not to
harken back to 9/11.
"What keeps people
awake at night now," he
said, " is the
fear of what might
be done by a handful
of fanatics -- perhaps
armed only with box-cutters
like those who attacked
the United States last
September."
(Did the crazed murderers
on their airborne rampage
have a clue about globalization,
or was the word even
uttered at their flight
schools? Probably not.
Fifteen of the killers
were from Saudi Arabia,
a US ally, and the
presumed leader, Mohamed
Ata, was Egyptian,
whose nation receives
$3 billion in annual
US aid.)
Even the best organized
nations don't find
globalization easily
manageable, Annan reminded
his audience. Security
challenges encompassing
economic, physical,
environmental and psychological
components can make
even the strongest
state look weak, he
said -- without adding
specifically, remember
9/11.
He
made an oblique reference
to the Arab
killers when he spoke
of population movements
that brought people
from different cultural
backgrounds to "formally
stable" communities
-- raising questions
about how inclusive
a nation should be,
and what should be
its identity.
A number of western
European countries
are grappling with
that question right
now. In the Netherlands,
France and Austria,
the question has been
accompanied by violence
or death.
Annan's remarks were
made in his keynote
address at the 75th
anniversary of the
Graduate Institite
of International Studies,
where he was a student
40 years ago. The Institute
awarded him its honorary
doctorate.
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