Political scientist with special interest in the political economy of globalisation. Between 1990 and 2005 he was Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and previously Director of Programmes of the South Commission in Geneva.
He is currently working on the relationship between the emerging international trade regime and human rights.
The Business and Development Centre (BDC) brings together thinking from business, economics, political science and development studies to tackle critical questions on the role of business in development, focusing initially on agriculture, food and nutrition, the green economy and public health.
The question of economic democratisation is closely linked to an issue with which I have been concerned for some time, both in academia and in my 15 year spell as a United Nations official. It is the issue of the economic policy space open to national decision makers in the context of...
31 August 2023
Kofi Annan, one of the greatest UN Secretaries-General, died after a short illness on August 18. Although never having visited IDS, several of us had the privilege of interacting with him, experiencing first hand his principled, modest and forthright leadership and admiring his range of concerns...
21 August 2018
Ecuador recently announced the termination of all its bilateral investment treaties signed since 1968. It's the latest installment in the ongoing international controversy around such treaties and in particular their compensation clause for foreign investors.
20 June 2017
Argentina's fifteen-year battle over debts to so-called “vulture funds” has finally come to an end. It began when four hedge funds refused to accept a debt restructuring proposal agreed by 93% of creditors. What can be done to put an end to such funds?
26 April 2016
IDS Bulletin Vol. 26 Nos. 4
SUMMARY The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), resulting from the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, is a major step towards the consolidation of a rule?based multilateral trading system, where agreed disciplines are backed by a strengthened dispute settlement...
25 February 2016
IDS Bulletin Vol. 46 Nos. 3
In the last decade and a half there have been sustained efforts on the part of the United Nations to bring the business sector into formal arrangements for dialogue and cooperation and to codify United Nations policies vis-à-vis business in order to give the relationship a more structured...
11 January 2016
1 January 2014
Carlos Fortin examines the World Bank's record on industrial policy over the last 20 years and shows that the Bank's position on the role of the state is more nuanced.
7 December 2012
The debate on the role of business, markets and states in development has a long history, marked by divergent and often strongly held perspectives, but also relatively rapid shifts in understanding about what is feasible and desirable. Only two decades ago debates were framed in terms...