Harvard economist Dani Rodrik has some unambiguous words for who he calls "globalization's cheerleaders": they are the biggest threat to globalization.
In particular, Rodrik, writing in the FT, says,
Because the greatest obstacle to sustaining a healthy, globalised economy is no longer insufficient openness...no country's growth prospects are significantly constrained by a lack
of openness in the international economy. Even if the Doha trade round
fails, poor countries will have enough access to rich country markets
to achieve what countries such as China, Vietnam and India have been
able to do. Closed markets may have been a fundamental problem during
the 1950s and 1960s; it is hard to believe they still are. The greatest
risk to globalisation is elsewhere. It lies in the prospect that
national governments' room for manoeuvre will shrink to such levels
that they will be unable to deliver the policies that their electorates
want and need in order to buy into the global economy.
Because markets are already so open, Rodrik proposes that countries negotiate rather around increased policy space. Sounds like pretty smart advice to me.
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