Mexico's Zedillo: globalization the best answer to many challenges

Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico and current director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, told the audience at QAD's Explore user conference (in May, Charlotte, N.C.) that continuing globalization is the key to prosperity and security in both the developed and developing worlds.

"Short-term, the good news is the worldwide economic recovery—seen especially in the U.S. and Asia. Medium- and long-term, the outlook for globalization is less certain," said Zedillo.

The notion that globalization could be stalled or even reversed might seem odd, added Zedillo, given its basis in technology advances that won't go away. "But actually and fundamentally, political decisions allow globalization.... Those decisions could be reversed, and so could globalization. In 2001, global trade fell for the first time since the 1950s."

These global economic decisions have security consequences, Zedillo said.

"In developing countries that participated in globalization, millions were lifted out of poverty, especially in China and India.... A more secure world will follow from a world where economic prosperity is spread wide." In fact, Zedillo noted, the biggest threats to world security have come from those countries "marginalized from global economics."

It was obvious Zedillo was referring to oil-producing states when he described these marginalized countries as typically being "exporters of a single product."

What's needed, Zedillo said, are fundamental agreements between major powers, and between the developed and developing world.

"The world is different since 9/11 and institutions must be updated," said Zedillo. "We need international rule of law for the 21st century. If this new world order isn't established, the conditions needed for globalization will be undermined."

Finally, Zedillo said he remains optimistic because of the tendency for self-interest to prevail. "But more than short-term self-interest will be needed to achieve the kind of international interdependence" that is the best guarantor of long-term prosperity and security.