August 19, 2003

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Kristin Dawkins, 612-870-3410, kdawkins@iatp.org

Ben Lilliston, 301-270-4787, ben@iatp.org

Minneapolis - As world leaders prepare to meet at the next World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial in Mexico in a few weeks, a new book documents how corporate power shapes and controls international decision-making. The book, Global Governance: the Battle Over Planetary Power (Seven Stories Press), is authored by Kristin Dawkins, Vice President for International Programs at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

"Contemporary trade deals have freed up transnational corporations to avoid national regulation and taxes, manipulate prices, absorb smaller-scale firms and exploit workers as they wish," writes Dawkins. "The chief reason the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle failed is that developing countries got sick and tired of being left out of the negotiating room while the power brokers made their advance deals."

Global Governance explores the origins and current state of play in the major global institutions, the rising dominance of global corporations and the growing wealth of the world’s political elite – amidst growing poverty throughout the world. In describing the impacts of international trade, aid and development loans on rural economies and the Third World, Dawkins carefully explains the way governmental policies overseas become instruments of coercion in the context of globalization.

Dawkins responds to these problems by studying the ways international organizations could work together to create a decentralized global democracy that would protect local sovereignty, and advance diversity through real community-based decision-making. Using the model of community economic development Dawkins practices in her own neighborhood on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota, this book describes a path towards human development and global governance derived from the self-determination of people and their communities.

This book includes five major sections:

The International Institutions describes the genesis of international trade and diplomatic bodies at the close of World War II, including the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the bodies they engendered.

The Global Economy is a primer on the global political economy spanning the fifties' Wilsonian economics to the nineties' collapse of the Asian "tigers" and, more recently, the discrediting of "the Washington consensus" and corporate corruption, of which the Enron debacle is only one example.

Corporate Politics explores the way transnational corporations are working to de-regulate the global economy, including specific examples like the NAFTA's Chapter 11 clause establishing "investors’ rights."

Citizen Action focuses on grassroots resistance campaigns that are linking up to battle corporate rule from Seattle to Cochabamba, and the growing power of this movement's call for global justice, human security and peace.

What Is Possible concludes the book on a visionary note that would build global cooperation based on strong local and regional institutions. Offering real examples from the grassroots up to non-governmental organizations and the UN itself, Dawkins illuminates the constructive frameworks that global justice campaigners are working to achieve.

Dawkins writes: "What we’re talking about is global democracy. We want a just international system that gives undeniable preference to public goods, and investment that promotes food security, sustainable livelihoods, cultural integrity, and human and ecological health."

Dawkins' previous book, Gene Wars: The Politics of Biotechnology, was also published by Seven Stories Press in 1998. In 1991, Dawkins came to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy from the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation, where she was senior writer for their international publication Consensus. Dawkins has a master's degree in City Planning, specializing in International Environmental Negotiation, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Global Governance can be found in bookstores, or to order on-line go to: www.iatp.org.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy promotes resilient family farms, rural communities and ecosystems around the world through research and education, science and technology, and advocacy.

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