Current prime area of interest
Last update: Sept. 9, 2010
- In 2010 I am working at the EMPA Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and
Research, St.Gallen, Switzerland, http://www.empa.ch/tsl
- In 2004 I am teaching a course in International Relations at the Geneva Campus of
Webster University.
- I am also doing research on the global digital divide, see also below. I have published a paper and organized a workshop on this topic at an
international conference held at the Zurich Polytechnic ETH in Zurich. In 2003 I maintain a Website on an ETH server
for our Working Group on the Environment and Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT), http://www.wsis.ethz.ch
- More specifically, my general field of globalization, or the academic discipline called
International Political Economy, IPE, combines a look at the monetary structure (as
described by Susan Strange) with trade policy. The latter, as the General
Agreement on Trade and Tariffs GATT in 1994 was reorganized in the World Trade
Organization WTO, has been expanding to cover not only trade in goods, but also a
fascinating, rapidly growing new area called Trade in Services.
- One of the new services being traded is telecommunications, driving the
spread of the Internet and giving rise to the New Economy.
- Liberalization of telecomms, though, in many countries entailing privatization of
infrastructure into the private sector, is calling attention anew to the old issue of
"universal service" of telecoms to underprivileged groups in society. And with
that we have localized a phenomenon called initially the "digital
divide", and later in a more positive light the digital opportunity, as in
the task force of the G-8, the DOT Force.
- In 1999 I worked on Climate Change, as I did in the early 1990's. After attending
conferences at MIT in Cambridge, MA, and at the CDG in Berlin, I made a presentation at
the launch of ASIS in Copenhagen
on the Clean Development Mechanism.
- Archive of COMPUTERS AND CLIMATE: ONLINE NEWSLETTER OF THE ASIS CLIMATE
CHANGE ACTION GROUP of which I was chairperson and editor.
- These theses were proposed for discussion at a Stuttgart
conference that took place from 27-28th July 1999.
- This work builds on a critical appraisal of Globalization and its effects on local
economies. One positive effect of Globalization is a more efficient division of labor, as
early 19th-century economist David Ricardo predicted would result in keeping with his
theory of comparative advantage. Negative effects, though, include:
- neglecting the primacy of politics while glorifying economics
- jeopardizing environmental and social standards until institutions are identified to
take up the challenge of correcting market failure (WTO, ILO). Possible solutions are
described in a document that I have helped to draw up, which is now an Annex to the 1998 Status
Report: Towards a sustainable information society.
- Speaking engagements include:
- Brussels, September 15th, 1999, on Green Purchasing
of ICT
- Zurich, February 29th, 2000,
on Climate Change and Sustainable Banking
- Brussels, February 21st, 2000, on ASIS.
- San Francisco, May 12-14, 2000, on ICT in Europe for Sustainable
Development
- Geneva, September
22nd, 2000, on the global digital divide. You can listen to the session on
"E-Colonisation" in a window with RealPlayer between the 15-18th markings
including the first question from the Wall Street Journal.(That question
came from Daniel Pearl, whose untimely
murder allegedly by Pakistani terrorists we mourn.)
- Minneapolis
MN, May 18, 2001 on the global digital divide. Here you can see me speaking.
- Bonn, June 8 and 27/28, 2001, on "International and European Integration with an
Emphasis on Trade Integration" in the context of Euro-Atlantic Relations in the
21st Century: The Challenges Ahead, TASA 2001, program in PDF format.
- Geneva, Dec.10, 2001, on a global green deal on Intellectual Property Rights at Webster University, as documented with my PPT slides in
PDF format on this supplementary
Website.
- Geneva, Feb. 13, 2002, presentation entitled "Public and private spheres of
responsibility in developed and developing countries" at Webster University, as documented with my PPT slides in
PDF format on this supplementary
Website.
- Berlin, Jan. 11, 2003, at the Boell Foundation on the World Summit on the Information
Society, program
- Orlando FL, USA, July 31- August 1-2, 2003, at the International Conference on
Politics and Information Systems
- Bordeaux, France, August 27, 2003, at the Universite d'Ete de
la Communication
- Tunis, Tunisia, Oct. 14-16, 2003, at the World Federation of
Engineering Organizations (WFEO)
My speaking qualifications are listed in this database
on sustainable development, and I am a member in the Global Development
Network.
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