Jomo Kwame Sundaram’s Blog

NATO geopolitical strategy has now joined the ‘coalition’ of Western geoeconomic forces accelerating planetary heating, now led again by re-elected US President Donald Trump. Industrial Revolution Economic development is typically associated with the spread of industrialisation over the last two centuries. The Industrial Revolution involved greater energy use to increase productive capacities significantly. Burning biomass and fossil fuels greatly expanded mechanical energy generation. The age of industry in the last two centuries has thus involved more hydrocarbon combustion to increase output. Uneven development has also transformed population geography. Tropical soils were far more productive, enabling higher population-carrying capacities. Hence, during…

Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) appeal captured US mass discontent against globalisation. In recent decades, variations of America First have reflected growing ethnonationalism in the world’s presumptive hegemon. Deglobalisation? Trade liberalisation probably peaked at the end of the 20th century with the creation of the multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO), which the West kept outside the UN system. With deindustrialisation in the North blamed on globalisation, their governments gradually abandoned trade liberalisation, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis. Free trade mahaguru Jagdish Bhagwati has long complained of the weak commitment to multilateral trade liberalisation. Most recent supposed free trade agreements (FTAs)…

Many in the West, of the political right and left, now deny imperialism. For Josef Schumpeter, empires were pre-capitalist atavisms that would not survive the spread of capitalism. But even the conservative Economist notes President Trump’s revival of this US legacy. Economic Liberalism challenged Major liberal economic thinkers of the 19th century noted capitalism was undermining economic liberalism. John Stuart Mill and others acknowledged the difficulties of keeping capitalism competitive. In 2014, billionaire Peter Thiel declared competition is for losers. A century and a half ago, Dadabhai Naoroji, from India, became a Liberal Party Member of the UK Parliament. In his drainage theory, colonialism and imperial…

Ending US dollar dominance alone will not end monetary imperialism. Only much better multilateral arrangements to clear international payments can meet the Global South’s aspirations for sustainable development. De Gaulle v US Dollar Challenges to US dollar hegemony did not begin with the BRICS. French President Charles de Gaulle famously dissented in the 1960s. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, his Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs between 1962 and 1966, coined the phrase ‘exorbitant privilege’ to complain of US dollar dominance. With the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, the US can buy foreign goods, services, and assets on credit. It…

Corporate-dominated food systems are responsible for widespread but still spreading malnutrition and ill health. Poor diets worsen non-communicable diseases (NCDs), now costing over eight trillion dollars yearly! Unhealthy food systems A recent UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) study of 156 countries found that such food systems account for unsafe food and diet-related NCDs. FAO estimates related ‘hidden costs’ at about $12 trillion annually, with 70% ($8.1 trillion) due to NCDs such as heart disease, strokes and diabetes. Such costs significantly exceed these food systems’ environmental and social costs. FAO’s annual State of Food and Agriculture 2024 (SOFA) investigated hidden costs worldwide. These…

La próxima Conferencia sobre Financiación para el Desarrollo de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (FpD4), que se celebrará en Sevilla entre el 30 de junio y el 3 de julio de este año, debe abordar en su cuarta edición los principales desafíos financieros de los países en vías de desarrollo. Los recientes retrocesos registrados en materia de desarrollo sostenible y en las políticas para combatir el cambio climático dotan a la FpD4 de una importancia crucial. FpD4 La FpD4 es fruto principalmente de los esfuerzos liderados por el G77, el grupo de países en vías de desarrollo del sistema de la ONU.…

The forthcoming fourth United Nations Financing for Development conference must address developing countries’ major financial challenges. Recent setbacks to sustainable development and climate action make FfD4 all the more critical. FfD4 The FfD4 conference, months away, will mainly be due to efforts led by the G77, the caucus of developing countries in the UN system. The G77 started with 77 UN member states and has since expanded to over 130. The 1944 Bretton Woods conference outcome was primarily a compromise between the US and the UK. In 1971, when its Bretton Woods obligations threatened to undermine its privileges, President Richard…

The new geopolitics after the first Cold War undermines peace, sustainability, and human development. Hegemonic priorities continue to threaten humanity’s well-being and prospects for progress. End of First Cold War The end of the first Cold War has been interpreted in various ways, most commonly as a US triumph. Francis Fukuyama famously proclaimed the ‘end of history’ with the victory of capitalism and liberal democracy. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and allied regimes, the US seemed unchallenged and unchallengeable in the new ‘unipolar’ world. The influential US journal Foreign Affairs termed ensuing US foreign policy ‘sovereigntist’. But the…

Despite uneven economic recovery since the pandemic, poverty, inequality, and food insecurity continue to worsen, including in the Asia-Pacific region, which used to fare better than the rest of the Global South. Food Matters These trends are not new but have been around for some time. Food security has deteriorated worldwide for a decade and will likely worsen. Food security measures are more indicative of well-being than traditional poverty measures, which reflect cash incomes subject to inflation and spatial variations. After all, over half of the poor’s incomes worldwide are spent on food. Due to global heating and rising sea levels, seawater…

Western financial policies have been squeezing economies worldwide. After being urged to borrow commercial finance heavily, developing countries now struggle with contractionary Western monetary policies. Central Banks ‘Unconventional monetary measures’ in the West helped offset the world economic slowdown after the 2008 global financial crisis. Higher interest rates have worsened contractions, debt distress, and inequalities due to cost-push inflation triggered by ‘geopolitical’ supply disruptions. Western central bank efforts have tried to check inflation by curbing demand and raising interest rates. Higher interest rates have worsened contractionary tendencies, exacerbating world stagnation. Despite major supply-side disruptions and inappropriate policy responses since 2022,…