The Current Discussion: How can we reduce our vulnerability to risks posed by global interconnectedness - from swine flu to financial contagion to terrorist threats? What risks do you see on the horizon?
The trouble with increasing global interconnectedness is that a lot of the time, nations aim for the lowest common denominator just for the sake of making cooperation possible. It's the easiest and the most obvious thing to do if we want to make any relationship work. It's a lot easier for nations in more advanced stages of development to make compromises than for the others to catch up. But this is a lose-lose proposition, not the win-win that they make it out to be.
Let me cite one example: The European Union got it right when it set standards for imported food. A decade ago, Indonesian fish and shrimp exporters were suddenly barred entirely from the Union's markets because of new higher food standards that had previously been imposed only by a few European countries.
Indonesian exporters had used countries with lower standards as gateway markets into to other parts of Europe. That was no longer possible after the European Union went for the highest common denominator, ignoring accusations of "Fortress Europe." Indonesian exporters eventually got the message, got their acts together and improved quality supervision. The last time I checked, Indonesia had resumed exporting shrimp and fish to Europe.
The same rigid rule should be applied when it comes to setting international health standards, financial regulatory systems, and security against terrorism in this era of increasing global interconnectedness.
The United States may be leading in some areas, as it should given its status as a global economic and political superpower. But the current global economic turmoil shows that it compromised on its own financial supervision, - it went for the lowest common denominator - albeit in a much more sophisticated way than happened in developing countries.
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