RESPONSIBILITY IN THE GLOBAL AGE

The 5^th Annual Travers Ethics Conference

Libby Anker, Graduate Student in Political Science

The 5^th Annual Travers Conference convened in April to address issues of ethics and globalization. Participants included economists, political scientists, lawyers and private sector representatives, all gathering to examine institutional, state and private responsibilities for global justice. Col. Charles Travers, sponsor of the conference, stated that this conference intends to address ethics and accountability, explaining that for true global responsibility to occur, "ethics must have honor and must reach very high standards."

Keynote speaker Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, explored the term globalization, stating, "The term is one that circulates rather happily globally but does not have conceptual underpinnings." Sassen explained that globalization usually refers to international institutions that shape economic, political, and social systems at the national level. She wants to "de-nationalize" the concept of globalization, arguing that global action is often concentrated in micro-level environments, especially the city. The city is where those actors that have little formal power can accumulate non-institutionalized power. The city, to Sassen, creates a new form of citizenship and politics based on destabilizing the older hierarchies of national power. In the global age, citizens do not need to be tied to formal institutions to gain power.

The first panel at the conference addressed issued of institutional responsibility. Three panelists analyzed the problem of justice and international organizations.

Berkeley Economics Professor Pranab Bardhan examined the problems of social justice regarding the conditions of the poorest humans throughout the world. He argued for regulating the behavior of international corporations and actors through international institutions, such as the World Trade Organization. Bardhan finds that international organizations provide a crucial mediating factor between countries that have unequal resources and therefore unequal bargaining power.

Varun Gauri, economist for the World Bank, finds that the global era "makes international cooperation more urgent in a moral sense." He finds that wealthier governments do have responsibility to help alleviate global poverty. Globalization makes it possible for individuals and institutions to do more, and therefore moral obligations are increasing to help mitigate poverty cross-nationally.

Columbia University Professor of Philosophy Thomas Pogge found that the most ignored types of human rights in the global era are social and economic. Pogge examined the global factors that explain why the overall incidence of global poverty is increasing. He stated that economists often attribute poverty to local or national factors, while disregarding the multinational systems of power that may create and inflame the problem. Global poverty is caused by multiple factors, and therefore all people are responsible for the problem; all are morally obligated to help diminish it.

The second panel examined state and national responsibilities in the global age, and panelists specifically addressed ethics, immigration and refugees.

Jack Citrin, Berkeley professor of Political Science, analyzed main issues regarding immigration policy; specifically, he examined open border options, immigration entry requirements, rights and responsibilities of immigrants. He distilled the three major ethical standpoints regarding each of these issues, liberalism, communitarianism and nationalism, and agued that these three divergent perspectives lead to deeply variant policy proposals.

Lecturer of Political Science at Berkeley, Amy Gurowitz argued against the symbolic enforcement of national borders in the United States, stating, "there are no indications that our border control policy has significantly reduced the number of undocumented foreign workers." She explained how this policy creates hazardous and unlawful conditions for undocumented workers. Therefore, to protect human rights, border controls either need to be a real commitment or they should not exist.

Human rights lawyer Patty Blum explained the situation of the refugee as what happens when the state abdicates responsibility for protecting its citizen. The refugee no longer feels safe in his or her own land and must seek safety in another country. However, Blum points out the UN’s contradictory stance on the refugee. No nation can return a refugee to the place of his or her human rights violation. However, international law does not obligate any nation to accept refuges. Without international human rights institutions, this problem remains prominent.

The third panel at the Travers Conference addressed private and individual responsibilities within the demands of the global economic system.

Stanford Professor of Philosophy Susan Okin analyzed the responsibility of individuals to alleviate the issues of inequality. She explained that people often assume responsibility for distributive justice within their own countries, but not within the global community. She argued that on a global scale, "people assumed to have no previous interconnections, no history." Okin finds that history should affect us, as individuals living in the United States, in showing us what we owe the world in terms of material redistribution. History explains how current situations of wealth and poverty came to exist, and why we do have responsibility for global distributive justice.

Steve Weber, Berkeley professor of Political Science, stated that within the global economy, "markets require regulation." The values that regulate the market are the responsibility of the regulated society. He argues for an increased role of private actors and corporations in regulating the market. Although the economy is global, governance should be regional or local, with private actors overseeing the system.

As a representative of the private sector, Joshua Skov explained how small, private actors can work responsibly within the global economic system. Owner of Good Company, Skov certifies globally responsible companies that produce consumer goods. Skov argues that consumer-driven social action is "one arrow to have in the quiver of social change."