Populism and a New World Order

Viktor Jakupec, Max Kelly, Jonathan Makuwira. (Eds.) (2020). Rethinking Multilateralism in Foreign Aid: Beyond the Neoliberal Hegemony. New York: Routledge.

My latest work has just been published by Routledge. My chapter entitled "Populism and a New World Order" looks at the rise of populism and its impact on the Bretton Woods institutions, particularly the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). 

I am of the view that the current challenges by the United States and the United Kingdom against the WTO and the European Union (EU) (respectively) are simply tactics that are designed to appease domestic voters while appearing to slow the ascent of China. 

Further, China is using the existing world order to develop its technical governance capabilities and is complementing (rather than supplementing) the Bretton Woods institutions in response to US isolationism.

Australia and other middle powers have been fortunate in that populism has not taken hold of domestic politics as it has in the US and the UK. I agree with Dr Waleed Aly's opinion piece from the New York Times in 2019 and more recently a Daily Mail report on what he had to say about the current leadership during the Covid-19 social distancing measures in Australia. 

Australians are fortunate not to have suffered much more than the rhetoric of what have otherwise been competent policy responses both to international trade and the current pandemic. But it is a delicate balancing act between appeasing the US and not upsetting China, and the Bretton Woods institutions, in my view, provide the best option for stability into the future.

My main argument is that:

If we accept the premise of either institutional change being brought about by the displacement of old ideas by the new, or the exhaustion of traditional institutions creating the opportunity for new ideas to be implemented, then populism provides no alternative in either case. As history suggests, the multilateral institutions established at Bretton Woods have proven their ability to adapt to new economic ideas and changing global realities. Populism does not represent either. Rather, populism represents the reaction of domestic politics to the decline in economic dominance of the Anglo-West and subsequent dissatisfaction with the existing world order while offering no alternative to it.

Click here for details of the chapter and the book.

Abstract

Institutions tend to be stable for extended periods of time, punctuated by exogenous events that can lead to institutional change. If institutions tend to reinforce their own rules and routines, it can be said that institutions cannot then change themselves. While wars and other major exogenous events can lead to institutional change, ideas are also powerful, and relatively peaceful, drivers of change. Since the establishment of an international trade regime at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, new ideas about the best way to organise the economy have influenced global trade, resulting in the establishment of the World Trade Organisation in 1995. The idea of free market economics led to a new global trading system, coinciding with the end of the Soviet Union, and this system has remained relatively stable since the end of Keynesianism on a global scale. Recently, however, the rise in populism and the re-emergence of nationalism have challenged the existing world order. This chapter examines the impact of the rise in populism and the re-emergence of nationalism on the international institutions of global trade. Using theories of institutional change, the chapter examines the extent to which populist ideas about free trade versus protectionism are leading to a new world economic order.

The book is available at all major retailers including The Book Depository.

About the book: Viktor Jakupec, Max Kelly, Jonathan Makuwira. (Eds.) (2020). Rethinking Multilateralism in Foreign Aid: Beyond the Neoliberal Hegemony. New York: Routledge.

Converse Comfort: Old, New, No Hassel

Virtual Scuff on Converse, Gunning NSW 8 April 2020

The 'virtual scuff' - isolation has created new ways of expressing envy, it seems.

Can I help it I look this cool when wearing Converse?

Desi on the catwalk in country flannelette and denim

I've had numerous pairs of Chuck Taylor Hi-Top Converse, but always in black. My Converse have met some awesome people.

Converse with the Hoff, Berlin, November 2019

I've learnt a lot from my Converse. My Converse taught me how to greet people while social distancing.

The Hoffshake

I try not to Hassel the Hoff but my Converse keep leading me to him.

Don't Hassel the Hoff, Berlin November 2020

Sometimes I need a little more than just my Converse for support. I recently turned to the catwalk for assistance with my home office WHS compliance.

Desi, WHS consultant, Keswick, March 2020

My old Converse started to get really comfortable in Germany. They enjoy the life of the mind.

Hannah Arendt Street, Berlin, November 2020.

When one's Converse start to feel really comfortable, however, they are on their last legs.

Converse@Keswick, March 2020

When Converse get old, they feel too comfortable.

Lenny@Keswick, March 2020.

So now I have new Converse.

New Converse at Keswick, Day 1 (today).

They are comfortable in a different way.

Valentine@Keswick, April 2020.

Alas, a virtual scuff from envy. But new Converse bring the perfect mix of glamour and grunge.

Desi@Keswick, March 2020.

Bukowski on Belonging and the Cost of Freedom

Louis Pasteur, oil painting by Albert Edelfelt (1885) at the Musée d'Orsay,  (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons).

Factotum by Charles Bukowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's hard not to enjoy Bukowski's writing. Like with Hemingway and others, why we find it fascinating to read about the shenanigans of people who struggle to write is beyond me. Is it because secretly anyone who reads wishes they could write? Is this part of Robert M. Hutchins' Great Conversation? I don't know.

Yet while some would suggest that Bukowski is the world's greatest misogynist, he doesn't depict anyone else in this novel any worse than he does himself. His mention of ending it all early in the novel hints at the level of self-deprecation that just didn't seem to come through in my reading of Post Office.

In this novel, I feel Bukowski's sense of dereliction of duty but from a sensitive soul who is otherwise intelligent. The constant references to Debussy and Mahler indicate someone who is far more than the alcoholic bum Bukowski portrays in this novel.

Yet it is believable (I am cutting out my adverbs as I write - Bukowski reminds me of a combination of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, hence my hesitation to add "entirely" - he's either believable or he isn't). The protagonist moves from job to job, surrounded by others who share his sense of despair at the world - a world they are part of yet cannot belong to without giving up their sense of identity.

I identify with Bukowski for this reason. Not so much the "beer-sodden" bum who wanders about aimlessly. But the soul who cannot ever belong but is stuck in present company that somehow can turn off their own bullshit meter sufficiently (damn those adverbs!) to carve out an existence of what is essentially living for somebody else.

I find Bukowski's characters admirable because they give up hope without giving up their freedom. Although Henry Chinaski is made to feel as if he doesn't belong because he is excluded from the World War II draft, he still lives as the intelligent loner who doesn't fit in but is stuck anyway.

But the struggle is admirable. Struggle is what we were put on this earth to do. We either struggle against what we do not want, or we struggle for a better life. Henry Chinaski is a drunken, no-hoper bum but he gives me hope - hope that I can live as I choose and not how others choose for me, even if the consequences are high.

And that is why I enjoy Bukowski's work!

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