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Book Event: Mark Engler’s "How to Rule the World"

Busboys and Poets, Langston Room 14th & V St NW, Washington, DC, United States

Mark Engler will sign and discuss his new book, How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy. (Nation Books, Release Date: April 7, 2008, ISBN 978-1568583655). Thea Lee, policy director for the AFL-CIO, will moderate the discussion.

"As the world readies to heave a collective sigh of relief upon George W. Bush's exit from the White House, How to Rule the World is a caution against complacency. Mark Engler offers a timely reminder that before Bush's boots and bombs there was Clinton's corporate 'consensus'--more soothing perhaps but no more sustainable than the neocons' disastrous militarism. He then makes a case that there lies a third choice: democracy. Impressively researched and sharply argued, How to Rule the World is an essential handbook not for the few who do rule the world but for the many who should." -GREG GRANDIN, author of Empire's Workshop

Right now a debate is taking place over what values should define our international order. For global elites, it is a debate about how to rule the world. Laying out a new and original framework for understanding globalization politics, Mark Engler describes the conflict between a Clinton-era vision of an expanding, corporate-controlled global economy and a Bush-era "imperial globalization" based on U.S. military dominance. How to Rule the World explains how these visions overlap and also how, at critical moments, they clash with one another. It is written, however, in the hopes that neither will prevail. Even as Wall Street CEOs and Washington militarists argue among themselves, citizens' uprisings in the United States, in an increasingly progressive Latin America, and beyond are bringing to life a vibrant "democratic globalization" based on economic justice, human rights, and self-determination.

Engler, a journalist, activist, and policy expert, details how the Bush administration has reshaped globalization in ways that few protesters in Seattle or elsewhere could have foreseen: Global trade talks are collapsing. The roles of international institutions like the WTO, IMF, and World Bank are dramatically changing. U.S. unilateralism and the disastrous war in Iraq have deepened international divisions. As a result, the stage is now set for a critical new debate about the global economy.

"Fasten your seatbelt. You're in for a ride that will change your understanding of where we've been, what's really going on now, and what's coming next. Mark Engler explores, for the first time, the emerging battle between 'corporate globalization' and 'imperial globalization'- and the alternative, 'democratic globalization, or globalization from below.' If you want to know 'what ever happened to the anti-globalization movement,' why it is likely to roar back as a powerful force in world politics, and why it may make another world possible, don't miss this unique and indispensable guide." -JEREMY BRECHER, author of Strike!, Global Village or Global Pillage, and Globalization from Below

"Full of passion, hope, and insight, How to Rule the World assures us that the future of globalization is not a foregone conclusion. Rejecting both the imperial behemoth and the leviathan of corporate rule, Mark Engler weaves disparate movements and burgeoning efforts in far flung corners of the globe together to show the strong, tensile strands of a democratic alternative--a globalization from below that has the power to shape the post-Bush era." -FRIDA BERRIGAN, New America Foundation, Arms and Security Initiative

"This is one of the most hopeful and challenging progressive books to be written in a long time. Global elites, it turns out, are no more cohesive than, say, the crime families of New York, and perhaps a good deal less so. As the fault lines among those who have ruled the world for the past few decades become ever more clear, the time is upon us to finally follow up on Seattle and to bring democracy home. Never was a book more timely." -Andy Bichlbaum, THE YES MEN

Mark Engler is a writer based in New York City and an analyst with Foreign Policy In Focus. His articles appear in Dissent, The Nation, Newsday, the Progressive, the San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, and In These Times. An archive of his work is available at www.DemocracyUprising.com.

An activist originally from Des Moines, Iowa, Mark is a member of the National Writers Union (UAW, Local 1881). He has previously worked with the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress in San José, Costa Rica, and he has also lived in Guatemala and El Salvador.

Book Event: Broad and Cavanagh’s ‘Development Redefined’

Book Event: Broad and Cavanagh’s ‘Development Redefined’

Busboys and Poets 1025 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC, United States

Welcome in fittingly the World Bank and IMF annual meetings with a discussion of the newest book by American University professor Robin Broad and Institute for Policy Studies Director John Cavanagh. Entitled Development Redefined: How the Market Met its Match, the book chronicles the rise and fall of the market-worshipping Washington Consensus, and lays out people-based alternatives to corporate-led globalization. Broad and Cavanagh have written award-winning books on globalization and development, as well as a series of articles on the development debate in Foreign Policy and World Policy Journal. IPS is co-sponsoring this event  with ActionAid USA, the AFL-CIO, the Alliance for Responsible Trade, Bank Information Center, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Center of Concern, the 50 Years is Enough Network, Friends of the Earth US, the Heinrich Boell Foundation, International Labor Rights Fund, International Trade Union Congress, Jubilee USA, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, the New Rules for Global Finance, and Oil Change International.
 

IMF/World Bank Teach In

Lutheran Church of the Reformation 212 East Capitol Street, Washington, DC, United States

In this critical time when the economic crisis has pushed over 50 million more people into extreme poverty, this year’s call to action invites activists to come together in support of confronting and solving:

* Climate Justice
* Food Sovereignty
* Poverty Eradication

Ensuring Equity in the Green Climate Fund

Kenney Auditorium, Johns Hopkins University SAIS 1740 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC, United States

The creation of a global Green Climate Fund represents an important victory for developing countries and their civil society allies at the UN climate talks held in Cancun in 2010. However, the daunting task of designing almost all major elements of the new fund remains on the agenda for the coming year.  Please join us for a dynamic panel discussion with climate finance experts from developing country governments and global civil society.

Prospects and Challenges of the Africa Mining Vision

World Bank 1818 H Street, NW, Room MC C1-110, Washington, DC, United States

Two decades after the World Bank took the lead in liberalizing mining codes across Africa, the continent is united on the need to reform their mining codes to derive greater benefits. In 2008, the African Union adopted the African Mining Vision (AMV) 2050, which lays out a roadmap to achieve mining reforms on Africa’s own terms. Under the directive of the AU, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) constituted a body known as the International Study Group (ISG) to produce a report that would provide an intellectual basis for translating the AMV into policy. The report has been produced and was validated at a continent-wide meeting organised by the AU/UNECA in October 2010.

Demonstration Against Trade Agreements at World Bank

Demonstration Against Trade Agreements at World Bank

Murrow Park, The World Bank Headquarters 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC, United States

A Canadian company called Pacific Rim is seeking to exploit gold reserves in El Salvador by opening a mine that could poison the water supply for more than half the nation’s population. Four Salvadoran anti-mining activists have been assassinated during the course of the struggle over these resources. Now, Pacific Rim is suing El Salvador for up to hundreds of millions of dollars under the U.S.-Central America “Free Trade” Agreement for not approving a mining license. Please encourage your friends to come to the demonstration at the World Bank on Thursday at noon.

What are the IMF and the World Bank? Why Should I Care?

IPS Conference Room 1301 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC, United States

Come to this brown bag session that will be an introduction to the World Bank and IMF with IPS experts John Cavanaugh and Emira Woods.

Protest: World Bank’s ICSID Hearing Lawsuit Against El Salvador

World Bank 1818 H Street, NW, Room MC C1-110, Washington, DC, United States

Join Institute for Policy Studies’ Global Economy Project and other allies on El Salvador's Independence Day for a demonstration to say "yes" to life, "no" to mining by protesting the free trade agreements like the TPP!

Shaken But Not Dead

The Moriah Fund 1634 I St. NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC, United States

Join IPS and ILRF for a roundtable discussion about the Washington Consensus and the Development Debate in 2016 with the author of "Beyond Apologies" to reflect on re-defining the economics of wellbeing.