Global Policy Institute

The Global Policy Institute was created in 2006 as a Research Institute of London Metropolitan University. It brings together academics from the social sciences and business disciplines to analyse the dynamics of globalisation and formulate policy solutions. The Institute’s research and consultancy will be of direct practical use to decision-makers, policy formation, business users and civil society groups, and it will offer partnerships within and beyond the academic community.

The Institute is well placed to study the second phase of globalisation. In its first phase neo-liberal policies were advanced by OECD countries under American leadership. Markets were liberalised, politics democratised, and cultures were open to outside influences. Some of the drivers of the first phase remain powerful but the joint effect has been checked in the face of recent tendencies towards the formation of a multi-polar world.

Regional geo-political blocs wish to change the agenda of trade liberalisation. They also seek to shape the worldwide movement of rights and democracy to conceptions of community and the common good, which are not exclusively individualist in inspiration. And the forces of consumerism and lifestyle choice in many regions exist in an unresolved tension with the desire to project and create a distinctive identity and way of life based on culture and religion.

The second phase of globalisation will be challenging to understand and analyse as well as to work and live with. There is now a global awareness of the limits to resources like water, energy, and other key commodities as well as the geographically specific implications of climate change. Among enlightened opinion across the world, issues of social and ecological sustainability, social justice and equity have been placed on the agenda; equally, there exists a hobbesian world in which interests and resources are secured through conflict. Law, regulation and governance will become central to a new, inclusive, global order.

London is presented with both opportunities and responsibilities in the second phase of globalisation. It has attained a special status as a global city, becoming a premier business and financial centre. London has unique advantages: its time footprint covers over 90% of the world’s markets, its possession of the world’s common language, and its historically proven law and commercial procedures. London can also advance corporate governance and responsibility, equity in law, social justice and rights in politics, and the economics of reform and prosperity. The Global Policy Institute is committed to its London context. It is based at Jewry Street in the City of London, can draw on its international connections, and has well established links with practitioners in business and financial services.

References

The Global Policy Institute at London Metropolitan University * [http://www.global-policy.com]