The fierce urgency of now: Toward a new multilateralism

Kevin P. Gallagher, Director of the GDP Center, recently published an Op-Ed, with UNCTAD Division on Globalization and Development Strategies (GDS) Director Richard Kozul-Wright, on the need for multilateral trade organizations to align with Sustainable Development and Paris Agreement goals.

The Op-Ed, titled “The fierce urgency of now: Toward a new multilateralism“, was published on the Brookings blog “Future Development” on June 24, 2019.

From the text of the Op-Ed:

In his “I Have a Dream” and “Beyond Vietnam” speeches, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of a “fierce urgency of the now” for “vigorous and positive action” on civil rights, peace, and social justice. Today, such action is just as urgent to tackle polarizing inequality, financial instability, and a breakdown of the climate system.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change can serve as a 21st century mission for vigorous and positive action. Ambitious efforts are underway at the local and national levels, but without concerted global action the big investment push and structural transformation that are necessary to achieve these shared goals will fail to materialize.

Gallagher currently serves as co-chair of the T-20 Argentina task force on “An International Financial Architecture for Stability and Development” to advise the G-20 and its members on financial infrastructure and monetary policy globally. He also served on the U.S. Department of State’s Investment Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and the International Investment Division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.  He has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at the Paul Nitze School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico; Tsinghua University in China; and the Center for State and Society in Argentina. You can follow him on Twitter @KevinPGallagher.