The PRC@LSE, Niall Ferguson and Me

From left to right: your humble IPE blogger (in need of a haircut), Li Fan who is Deputy Director of the Department of Policy Planning at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Niall Ferguson who is Philippe Roman Chair for 2010-2011

"Emmanuel, let's take a photo with Professor Ferguson before the LSE IDEAS sign!" said my colleague from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Dr Li Fan at our farewell party yesterday for The Ascent of Money guy. Despite being somewhat miffed at the Chinese government at the moment for largely unexplained strong-arm tactics over the South China Sea--or the West Philippine Sea as our local media now calls it--I couldn't begrudge the kindly Li Fan. Hence the photo. Having completed compulsory military training, I am of course subject to being called up to serve in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. While the prospects are remote, I have enduring anxieties about being sent to certain death defending Philippine interests in the Spratly Islands against the vastly superior PLA. I'm not keen on suicide missions.

At any rate, I am sure that I've mentioned that PRC Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is an alumni of the LSE. Being ever so fond of his alma mater (or something to that effect), they send ministry officials to visit us as Chevening Programme Visiting Fellows every half a year or so. These fellowships are partly funded by HM Foreign and Commonwealth Office and they provide an opportunity for us to interact with the current batch of Chinese policymakers. Certainly, it lets us at LSE IDEAS--staffed as it is with former diplomats--understand our counterparts in the world's rising power that little bit better.

You would expect me to say this about my employers, but the basic idea underpinning our work here at LSE IDEAS is conceptually sound: by gathering academics, diplomats and policymakers under one roof, we are able to draw from a wider range of ideas in solving questions of diplomacy, strategy and international affairs. Oftentimes academia degenerates into something isolated and impractical with lots of number-crunching for its own sake but with few policy implications. We try to strike a balance: while we attract folks like Niall Ferguson who offer distinctive (if controversial) perspectives on various economic phenomena, we too welcome diplomats who actually *do* international relations.

Though he has his detractors, Henry Kissinger who Professor Ferguson is preparing a biography about could never be accused of being a bookish academic as he hosted the now-famous Harvard International Seminar which featured many names who would soon be a who's who of global leadership in the sixties. I wonder why Americans don't have a similar programme: instead of churning blood-curdling invectives against the PRC on a regular basis, why doesn't the US have a diplomatic outreach effort centred on academic exchange to learn more about those conducting foreign policy in China? If a second-string world power does it, why not America? Though I often am at odds with what Niall Ferguson writes, I fully agree that the US has no grand strategy at the present time which it used to have with Kissinger.

I've learned quite a lot from interacting with my PRC colleagues since they are seated right next to me. Although they are quite often quick to toe the (Chinese Communist) party line when in doubt, there are moments of candour which I value as a citizen of one of China's smaller neighbours.

The occasion for this photo is the impending departure of Niall Ferguson from our happy little camp in Holborn.The day before that, Li Fan explained "What China Wants" in compressed form as she too is leaving soon for Beijing. It should thus surprise no one that my time here is limited as well since I will depart for parts unknown in due course. There's a big world out there and I shall be taking the IPE Zone show on the road for the umpteenth time. But, it will be good to recall a time when I was at the centre of it all with diplomats from the world's rising power and the famously itinerant economic historian of our age, among others.

LSE Events Tues: Ballmer, Ha-Joon Chang, KGB

I sometimes wonder if we here at the LSE have a monopoly on having the most intriguing speakers coming to campus to deliver a talk. Is there any place you'd rather be if you're at all interested in the social sciences? I certainly can't think of one as an embarrassment of riches always seems to occur, especially at the start of term.

Sometime last term, I wrote about a day that had both Paul Collier and Adam Posen deliver interesting talks that I unfortunately wasn't able to attend since there was a third I was more interested in. Well, this Tuesday, there's going to be Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and longtime critic of development orthodoxy Ha-Joon Chang coming to speak who I probably won't be able to see because there are other presentations I'm keener on. You see, there are another four events occurring that should hold interest to a general audience. Incredible.

Once more, London readers are invited to come along and listen to any of these presentations. Those who can't make it can hear the podcasts as we make them publicly available, too. I guess part of what makes LSE unique is its ability to draw so many interesting authorities discussing a myriad of topics. If you're thinking of a place to get an MA for a year, it's certainly an unparalleled draw. On Tuesday, let me count the ways:

(1) Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, needs no introduction. While Bill Gates has dedicated his life to good causes, the often-combative tech supremo is still keen on growing the software giant. Microsoft almost famously missed the Internet wagon due to Gates' reluctance to recognize its potential. Apparently, Ballmer & Microsoft are keen on not missing out on possibly the Next Big Thing--cloud computing. He's spoken about it at length before, and now it's his turn to address a British audience:

Seizing the Opportunity of the Cloud: the Next Wave of Business Growth
Department of Management public lecture

Date: Tuesday 5 October 2010
Time: 8.30-9.30am
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Steve Ballmer

The pervasive nature of technology and the ever increasing pace of development are rapidly changing the way we work, live and play. These changes bring enormous opportunity for individuals, organisations and society. For more than three decades, Microsoft, and current CEO Steve Ballmer, have played a vital role in leading a technology industry that has transformed the world of business in dramatic fashion. In one of the opening public lectures of the LSE term, Ballmer will discuss what's next, how cloud computing is radically altering paradigms, and new business opportunities enabled by the cloud.

Steve Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation. He joined Microsoft in 1980 as the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer's leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company. Ballmer and the company's business and technical leaders are focused on continuing Microsoft's innovation and leadership across each of the company's core businesses. Variously described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit over the years.

(2) There' s also a promising looking engagement dealing with how Spain's third largest savings institution is dealing with Europe's trying times. Financial institutions are likely the focal point in whether the EU gets out of this episode alive, and among EU nations, Spain is definitely too big to fail. So, if the survival of Spain and, indeed, European Union interests you, do come along:

Some thoughts on the macroeconomic situation: the role of La Caixa
LSE Enterprise and the Catalan Observatory

Date: Tuesday 5 October 2010
Time: 11.30am-12.45pm
Venue: Thai Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Juan Maria Nin

Juan Maria Nin will be discussing the financial crisis with reference to the Spanish economy.
Juan Maria Nin is President and CEO of La Caixa.

(3) For those interested in how former KGB have assumed positions of political-economic power in Russia and beyond, we also have an interesting talk for you courtesy of Andrei Soldatov who's followed the rise of the likes of Vladimir Putin:

The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB
LSE public lecture

Date: Tuesday 5 October 2010
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Andrei Soldatov
Chair: Dr Roy Allison

Andrei Soldatov – a journalist who has covered Russia's security services for more than a decade – penetrates the secret world of the FSB to illustrate how, abetted by their most famous alumnus Vladimir Putin, the security services were given unprecedented rein, and emerged a more shadowy and powerful force than the Soviet KGB.

Andrei Soldatov and his The New Nobility co-author Irina Borogan are-founders of Agentura.ru, a highly respected website covering the Russian security services. Soldatov and Borogan worked for Novaya Gazeta from January 2006 to November 2008

(4) Negotiation is a very interesting and important field of study. At the global level, trade agreements and peace pacts are forged. At the corporate level, deals are done and contracts must be negotiated, At the individual level, you and I need to haggle prices with vendors and hammer out salary details with employers. Stuart Diamond, one of the experts in this area, has a new book he's introducing that he will talk about:

Getting More
Department of Management public lecture

Date: Tuesday 5 October 2010
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Professor Stuart Diamond

You're always negotiating. Whether making a business deal, talking to friends or even driving a car, negotiation is going on. And most of us are terrible at it. Experts tell us to negotiate as if we live in a rational world. But people can be angry, fearful and irrational. To achieve your goals you have to be able to deal with the unpredictable.

Negotiation expert Stuart Diamond reveals the real secrets behind getting more in any negotiation - whatever 'more' means to you - in his new book Getting More|, published on the 7th October by Portfolio Penguin, and joins us at LSE to offer accessible, jargon-free and innovative insights into negotiation.

Stuart Diamond is Practice Professor of Legal Studies and Adjunct Professor of Law at Wharton. He has taught and advised on negotiation to corporate and government leaders in more than 40 countries. He teaches negotiation and entrepreneurship at Wharton Business School, where he runs the most popular course. Diamond is President of Global Strategy Group which advises companies and governments on negotiating, and also CEO of Four Star Airlines. He has consulted extensively for the United Nations, and worked as a journalist for the New York Times.

(5) Development students are undoubtedly familiar with Ha-Joon Chang who believes globalization is rigged in favour of developed countries via Friedrich List's metaphor of "kicking away the ladder." (More on him in a recent post.) Not only did the likes of the US freely violate intellectual property of European powers when it was in its infancy, but it also made frequent use of subsidies and tariffs to promote activity earlier on. However, today's international regimes prohibit such practices, allegedly disfavouring the rest of us latecomers. Chang is here to promote his new book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism:

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
Department of International Development public lecture

Date: Tuesday 5 October 2010
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Ha-Joon Chang
Chair: Professor Robert Wade

We may like or dislike capitalism, but surely we all know how it works. Right? Wrong. Today, most arguments about capitalism are dominated by free-market ideology and unfounded assumptions that parade as 'facts'. This lecture in which Ha-Joon Chang will talk about his new book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism| tells the story of capitalism as it is and shows how capitalism as we know it can be, and should be, made better.

Ha-Joon Chang is a professor in the faculty of politics and economics at Cambridge University where he has taught since 1990. In addition to numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, he has published seven authored books (three of them co-authored) and eight edited books (six of them co-edited). His most recent books include Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World (2007), Kicking Away the Ladder - Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (2002), which won the 2003 Myrdal Prize, Restructuring Korea Inc. (with Jang-Sup Shin, 2003), Globalization, Economic Development and The Role of the State (2003), and Reclaiming Development - An Alternative Economic Policy Manual (with Ilene Grabel, 2004). His writings have been translated into 13 languages.

Ha-Joon Chang has worked as a consultant for many international organisations, including various UN agencies such as UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and a number of governments on development policies. He was awarded the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.

(6) And lastly we at LSE IDEAS are hosting Philip S. Golub, the French journalist who's (surprise!) not keen on American bossiness post-Cold War:

Power Profit and Prestige: A History of American Expansionism
5 October 2010, 6.30pm, COL.B212

Power, Profit and Prestige applies incisive historical and sociological analysis to make sense of the United States' post-Cold War imperial behaviour.

Philip Golub argues that an embedded culture of force and expansion has shaped American foreign policy. He will show how these deeply rooted assumptions about American primacy, in a world where America is no longer able to set the global agenda, may lead the US empire into a crisis of its own making.
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It's a mind-boggling line-up of interesting events, I'm sure you'll agree. I'd go to all of them if I could but I'm afraid I can't separate myself into four!

IPE Zone is Now Available on Amazon Kindle!

Dear readers, in my constant quest to provide you with the best possible service, please note that the International Political Economy Zone is now available on Amazon Kindle. A few years back, Twitter asked me to join and I thought, "Why the !&£$ would people want to follow 40-letter snippets from other folks?" That shows you how much I knew way back when. In any event, I still don't follow tweets even if they've effectively surpassed blogs as sources of folks linking here, rendering Technorati and similar sites practically obsolete.

However, I have not been able to pass up the opportunity to include this blog on Amazon. (BTW, if you are a user of databases like LexisNexis and Proquest, this blog's content is already accessible there.) I remember Amazon's financial statements being a spreadsheet case study in an accounting course I took during my MBA years. Back then, my inclination was, "Why does the prof bother with this e-tailer when they're all just going under in a few years?" While I appreciated buying stuff for less than at bricks-and-mortar stores, I was understandably cautious about Amazon turning a profit eventually. Remember, this was way back in 2000 when the Super Bowl was filled with ads from various e-commerce startups that bit the dust shortly thereafter in the absence of a real business model other than adding "e-" to their name. But, as we all know, Amazon has survived and thrived.

So, mea culpa to Amazon (a decade late) and may it live long and prosper. Anyone with the good sense to offer this blog to Kindle readers is in my good books. This underdog wants to run with the big dogs, and I now have some credentials to show I'm doing so! I don't write a little girlie man blog here. Even now, I follow the principle of kaizen--constant improvement.

I'm Off to Iran; Light Posting Until Wednesday

Dear readers, I mentioned earlier that I was invited to present at a conference on multiculturalism run in conjunction with UNESCO Iran. And so I'll be leaving shortly and should be back sometime during the middle of next week. Being an inherent believer in peace, love, and understanding, I am off to learn more about how cross-cultural communication can function better in our stressed-out world.

At the same time, I'll be presenting on how the "ASEAN Way" which is the diplomatic process used by Southeast Asian countries might serve as a template for fruitful cross-cultural collaboration--especially in the economic sphere. Here is the abstract of my talk if you're interested.
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The ‘ASEAN Way’ as a Paradigm for Intercultural Dialogue

Since its formation in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has grown in stature to become the preeminent regional organization in East Asia. At the beginning, its focus was on fostering peace in a region with a tumultuous past. Its success in this respect has been reflected by the lack of major conflicts among founding members Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei (1984), Vietnam (1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), and Cambodia (1999) have, since joining ASEAN, also contributed to securing peace in the region. This situation has set the stage for ASEAN to work towards the establishment of a single market by 2015.

What makes ASEAN unique among other regional integration projects is the cultural and political diversity of its membership. Those of Europe (European Union) and North America (Nafta) have predominantly Christian democracies; South America (Mercosur) Roman Catholic democracies of Latin lineage; the Caribbean (Caribbean Community) postcolonial Christian democracies; and the Middle East (Gulf Cooperation Council) Islamic monarchies. By contrast, ASEAN has a plurality of religions—Buddhism, Catholicism, and Islam; and political systems—fledgling democracies, Communist republics, a monarchy, and a military junta.

Despite the challenges of accommodating cultural and political diversity, however, ASEAN has made notable strides in setting foundations for durable economic, socio-economic and security mechanisms in Southeast Asia. Over the years, ASEAN has developed a mode of diplomatic conduct now known as the ‘ASEAN Way’. Given the plenitude of vexing global governance questions we face that require more political-economic cooperation among countries with diverse cultures and polities—the environment, the world economy, and so forth—the ‘ASEAN Way’ holds strong suggestions on how fruitful interfaith dialogue and cross-cultural communication can take place. Drawing from the ASEAN experience, this paper explains how unity in diversity may become more of a reality worldwide by distilling the virtues of the ‘ASEAN Way’.
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Until then, best regards to all!

Call for Papers: Int'l Econ Law in a Time of Change

I thought those who work in fields at the intersection of international economic law and global governance would find this event interesting. Our friends over at the University of Minnesota Law School sent along a notice of their upcoming symposium. By all means, get in touch with them if the subject matter is of interest...
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The International Economic Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law wishes to solicit paper and panel submissions in connection with its Biennial Conference at the University of Minnesota from November 18-20, 2010. The conference is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with a broad cross-section of international economic law specialists and hear from prominent keynote speakers including Professor Jose Alvarez at NYU and WTO Appellate Body member Ricardo Ramirez (Mexico).

Under the theme of International Economic Law in a Time of Change: Reassessing Legal Theory, Doctrine, Methodology and Policy Prescriptions, the Interest Group has issued the following call for papers:

“The start of the second decade of the twenty-first century is witnessing a confluence of events affecting international economic law that calls for re-evaluation. The international context has radically changed. Most analysts contend that we are shifting toward a multi-polar world in light of economic transformations in China, India, Brazil, and other developing and transitional countries, coupled with economic stagnation in the United States and Europe which are beset by a financial crisis and embroiled in foreign wars and security concerns. These developments have arguably complicated international economic governance, yet other factors–such as the current financial crisis–press consideration of new forms of international economic governance, such as the G-20. Global economic interdependence, exemplified by global production and supply chains, calls for sustained attention to international economic law and institutions.

With this backdrop, the November conference will organize sessions that address the full range of international and transnational economic law. We encourage scholars to submit papers or panel proposals related to trade, investment, international financial regulation, transnational private law, and development law, as well as their intersection with social regulation such as over global warming, labor rights and consumer safety. This call for papers welcomes submissions that provide new analytic frameworks, reassess legal theory, evaluate developments in legal doctrine, engage in empirical analysis of the way international economic law operates, and provide guidance for policymakers, regulators and adjudicators in this time of international economic change.”