“Big Ideas of History” will save Globalization and Preserve Civilization

It is a truth (somewhat) universally acknowledged that globalization has given us the most remarkable sixty years of economic growth in world history. It is a process that has lifted hundreds of millions worldwide out of extreme poverty, and has helped raise life expectancy and literacy rates.

However, the rate at which economies have globalized and integrated is not congruent with that of international institutions and their processes. Extreme inequality, corruption and environmental degradation threaten the stability and legitimacy of many developing countries. These factors – combined with the growing confidence of anti-globalization campaigners, particularly in the recent economic crisis – have given rise to protectionist rhetoric about market control and regulation. How did we get to this position and how should we move forward?

Written by the former Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mike Moore’s new book entitled, “Saving Globalization: Why Globalization and Democracy Offer the Best Hope for Progress, Peace and Development, attempts to answer these questions by tracing the development of what he considers “the Big Ideas of History”: democracy, independent courts, the separation of church and state, property rights, a professional civil service, and civil society. Drawing insights from his experience in the WTO as well as in New Zealand’s political office, Mike Moore offers a vivid and provocative account of why globalization and democracy still offer the best hope for the future of humankind.

The author analyzes democratic capitalism from the period of the Greeks to the Geeks, and offers a new approach to the creation of a new international architecture that would promote equity and fairness.

Saving Globalization celebrates the achievements of free, democratic societies and global trade, and argues that a global future should be faced, not feared. This book is a thought-provoking read for anyone who cares about the future and freedoms of our civilization.

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“Saving Globalization provides an eloquent and persuasive defense of liberal democracy at a time when democratic values are embattled and scoffed at by some, under-valued and taken for granted by others. Mike Moore’s insights are relentlessly sensible, brilliantly presented, and is sure to infuriate those who have concluded that democracy is either inefficient or unfashionable. I expect this welcome book to serve for years to come as an arsenal of facts for advocates of democracy and development.”
– Madeline K. Albright, US Secretary of State, 1997-2001

Additional information on the book is available online the Wiley Press Room at http://as.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-59837.html .

Saving Globalization – Why Globalization and Democracy offer the Best Hope for Progress, Peace and Development
• September 2009 • Hardcover: 978-0-470-82503-7, USD$29.95 • 320 pp

Media wishing to receive a Review copy, or to schedule an Interview with the author should contact Alina Boey, Senior Manager Corporate Communications at aboey@wiley.com or phone +65-96565580.

About the Author:
Mike Moore is former Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and former prime minister, foreign minister, trade minister and deputy finance minister of New Zealand. He has been honored by over 16 governments and universities in the Americas, Africa, the Pacific and Europe. As Director-General of the WTO, the Doha Development Trade Round was launched and China joined the WTO. He serves on a number of commercial boards and is an Adjunct and Visiting Professor at several universities in a number of countries. He served on the UN Commission for the Legal Empowerment of the Poor and the UN Commission on Migration. As CEO of the Moore Group, he has advised governments and businesses worldwide, specializing in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He is involved with a number of think tanks and developmental groups, including the Global Leadership Foundation. In 2010 he intends to launch a new organization that will help fund schools in developing countries. Mike Moore is a political practitioner turned theoretician and Saving Globalization is his tenth book.

About Wiley
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