Text 2 From diatribe to dialogue

Is globalization irreversible? Yes, it is. No one, of course, would deny that it has touched off ^[6] а backlash ^[7] - huge and sometimes violent protests at international economic meet­ings, stalling⁸ of the talks on а new trade round. Some pes­simists look at these events and draw а parallel to the his­tory of the world between the two world wars. In the 1920s, as today, progress in communications and transport led many to believe that an irreversible process of international со­operation had begun. Then those hopes were dashed ^[9] by а surge of protectionism and an explosion of nationalism and hatred.

This kind of comparison overlooks one crucial point. The process of globalization has gone much farther today than it had 75 years ago. The breadth ^[10] of the revolution in informa­tion technology and communications, the scope of economic and business integration, and the phenomenal volume and extreme mobility of international financial flows are creat­ing conditions that make this process truly irreversible.

So the real question is not whether globalization will proceed, but how smoothly. The lesson of the backlash is that globalization cannot remain а process driven mostly by business. The assumption that the public will happily applaud as globalization demonstrates its enormous bene­fits has proved quite wrong. The public has very real anxi­eties. The rosy ^[11] expectation that "a rising tide lifts all boats" was at best naive. The tide of globalization is raising only some boats, and to different levels and in different ways. The challenge of inequalities - in health, education, Inter­net access and fundamental prosperity - remains as press­ing ^[12] as ever, both within individual nations and between the nations of the world.

Even as we have learned that а market economy can do wonders, we also have learned that the market does not have all the answers. The reaction against globalization springs ^[13], in large measure, from а fear that globalization means the return to some new version of the law of the jungle. То prevent this, we must put in place new regulatory measures adapted to the new economic balance of power.

Private companies must assert ^[14] а much wider and stronger sense of corporate social responsibility. And we must listen to the responsible voices of а new "civil society", which are forcing а debate on which type we want.

People's sense of alienation and malaise ^[15] is aggravated by the feeling that the future is coming at us too fast and too brutally. We don't know who is governing whom, and the traditional system of representative democracy no longer responds to the new social, psychological and economic realities produced by globalization.

What should be our response to this malaise and to the backlash it is generating? We must not ignore the wide array ^[16] of different interests, motivations and philosophies that global organizations embody. Though many of them express widely shared anxieties, others are just groups look­ing for trouble. And then there are the self-appointed de­fenders of the developing countries whose lofty ^[17] zeal ^[18] does not always hide the fact that they are actually defending their own interests.

The challenge for those who would address the backlash ­against globalization is to open the right dialogue with the right interlocutors. This means drawing а clear line between those voices expressing legitimate concerns and others bent on using any high-profile international event as а platform to get their 30 seconds in the spotlight. Kowtow­ing ^[19] to the latter will just make matters worse by providing an appearance of legitimacy to extremists. This will have the almost automatic effect of hardening positions on the part of the businesses and governments they are attacking.

The challenge is to go from diatribe ^[20] to dialogue. А dia­logue will mean а lot of give and take, and it has to be based on а shared will by all parties involved, to search for constructive approaches to the challenges of globalization and the technology revolution. Globalization is irreversible. But it depends on partnerships between governments, busi­ness and civil society to reduce its costs and enhance its potential in the best way.

Comprehension