Speakers: Ha-Joon Chang and José Miguel Ahumada
The international economic order that has prevailed since the 1990s is currently undergoing a deep crisis. On the one hand, its regulatory framework is increasingly abandoned by developed economies, while its institutional architecture appears unable to address the major challenges we face today: the climate emergency, trade wars, and persistent income and productivity gaps between countries. This crisis sets the stage for a new context of competition among nations without common rules, exacerbating inequalities and accelerating the climate crisis. Is it possible to envision an alternative that goes beyond merely calling for a return to the declining neoliberal international order, yet avoids a ruleless global context? Drawing on a reassessment of the proposals for a New International Economic Order advocated by the Global South in the 1970s, this discussion will explore the institutional pillars that could be advanced today to establish a multilateral economic architecture capable of confronting the climate crisis while providing policy space for countries to bridge existing gaps.
Ha-Joon Chang is a Distinguished Research Professor of economics at SOAS University of London. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, he has published 17 authored books, which include The Political Economy of Industrial Policy (1994), Kicking Away the Ladder (2002), Bad Samaritans (2007), 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism (2010), Economics: The User’s Guide (2014), and Edible Economics (2022). His writings have been published in 46 languages and 48 countries. Worldwide, his books have sold around 2.5 million copies. He is the winner of the 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize and the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize.
José Miguel Ahumada is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Studies, University of Chile. He holds a PhD in Development Studies, University of Cambridge. In 2022, he served as Vice Minister of Trade in the Government of Chile. He is author of The political economy of peripheral growth: Chile in the global economy (Palgrave, 2019), and co-author of The Nordic Lesson: development trajectories in Norway, Finland and Sweden (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2021).