Table Of ContentH I G HN O O N
Current Affairs
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n this age of instant communication and biotechnology, on this ever-smaller
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planet, what kinds of problems have we created for ourselves? How do we
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tackle them in a world where the accustomed methods used by nation-states
may be reaching their natural limits?
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In High Noon, J.F. Rischard challenges us to take a new approach to the twenty
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most important and urgent global problems of the twenty-first century. Rischard
“Rischard brings a new perspective to global environmental issues
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finds their common thread: we don’t have an effective way of dealing with the prob-
facing our planet [and] offers a thought-provoking and somewhat
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lems that our increasingly crowded, interconnected world creates. Our difficulties
nontraditional approach to global problems and solutions.”
belong to the future, but our means of solving them belong to the past.
Rischard proposes new vehicles for global problem-solving that are startling
and persuasive. With its clear-eyed urgency and refreshing specificity, High Noonis 2 02 0
an agenda-setting book that everyone who cares about the future must read.
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“Even the unilateralists and sovereignists will find that international institu-
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tions are necessary because many of the issues raised by globalization are
s p Problems Solve Them
inherently multilateral.” —JOSEPH S. NYEin The Paradox of American Power o r
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J. F. RISCHARD is the World Bank’s vice-president for Europe, yet wrote this t e
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book in his personal name. He is from Luxembourg, and lives in Paris. e s
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US $16.95 / $25.95 CAN R
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HIGH NOON
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HIGH NOON
Twenty Global Problems,
Twenty Years to Solve Them
J. F. RISCHARD
AMember of the Perseus Books Group
New York
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Copyright © 2002 by J. F. Rischard
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
The opinions expressed in this book are solely those of the author, not those
of the World Bank or any other institution.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY
10016-8810.
Designed by Janice Tapia
Set in 11-point Berkeley Book
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rischard, J. F.
High Noon : Twenty global problems, Twenty years to solve them /
by J. F. Rischard
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-10 0-465-07009-4 (hc.); ISBN-13 978-0-465-07009-1 (hc.)
ISBN-10 0-465-07010-8 (pbk.); ISBN-13 978-0-465-07010-7 (pbk.)
1. Environmental degradation. 2. Global environmental change.
3. Environmental protection. I. Title.
GE140 .R57 2002
363.7—dc21
2002003520
EBA 06 07 08 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
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For Anthony, Christopher, and Alexandre
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Contents
Author’s Note and Warning ix
PARTONE:It’s Not Globalization, Stupid . . . . . . . . . . .1
1 Two Big Forces 3
2 Stretching the Planet to the Limit:
The Demographic Explosion 5
3 Doing Everything Differently: The New World Economy
and the Two Revolutions Behind It 11
4 Why the New World Economy Is So Radically Different 17
5 The Opportunities and Stresses of the
New World Economy 25
6 A Crisis of Complexity? 37
7 Three New Realities 41
PARTTWO:High Noon—
for Twenty Urgent Global Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
8 A Dangerous Gap 55
9 A Bad Feeling in Your Stomach: Unsolved Global Issues 59
10 Twenty Global Issues, Twenty Years to Solve Them 61
11 Inherently Global Issues 65
12 Sharing Our Planet: Issues Involving the Global Commons 69
13 Sharing Our Humanity: Issues
Requiring a Global Commitment 89
14 Sharing Our Rule Book: Issues Needing
a Global Regulatory Approach 113
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viii CONTENTS
PARTTHREE:Thinking Aloud—New Approaches to
Global Problem-Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
15 No Pilot in the Cockpit 153
16 Current Ways of Handling Global Issues
Aren’t Up to the Job 157
17 No Chance for a World Government 165
18 Pointers Towards Solutions: Networked Governance 169
19 Global Issues Networks 171
20 Good Things About Global Issues Networks 181
21 Controversial Aspects 187
22 Stepping Back: Other Solutions
Besides Global Issues Networks 193
23 Conclusion: Imagination and
a Different Type of Thinking 199
Postscript 203
Endnotes 205
Acknowledgments 227
Index 229
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Author’s Note
and Warning
This is not another book on globalization. In fact, before my
publisher pushed me to call it High Noon, I had my heart set on
It’s Not Globalization, Stupid.
Why take a swipe at globalization? Because like all mushy concepts,
it confuses rather than enlightens. Many people tend to relate it only to
economic items, like world trade and capital flows, when there clearly
are some other big things going on—such as the planet’s population
going from 5 billion a decade ago to about 8 billion less than a genera-
tion from now. Worse, some people imagine that globalization is dark-
suited men getting together every Monday morning in Washington or
New York to decide how best to make money by degrading the envi-
ronment and promoting poverty and distress throughout the world.
More innocently, most people mix up two things: global changes and
the failure to respond correctly to them.
So wherever you turn, you’ll see that the concept of globalization
brings about a mild paralysis of the brain. It leads to misdiagnoses,
witch-hunts, and spectacular misunderstandings. And as the debate
gets muddled, we all end up distracted from one of the most pressing
challenges on this planet: global problem-solving. If we needed a re-
minder of how urgent that particular challenge is, the events of
September 11, 2001, provided it.
The objective of this short book is to instill clarity into today’s de-
bates. In doing so, my vantage point won’t be that of the official from
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