Today we’re launching a new multi‐year, multimedia Cato project — Defending Globalization. The last few years have witnessed renewed criticism from the left and the right — in the United States and abroad — on the relatively free movement of things, people, capital, and ideas across national borders, a.k.a., “globalization.”
Unfortunately, the most common anti‐globalization narratives are not just inaccurate; they ignore the fundamental humanity of globalization and that, for all its foibles and missteps, global capitalism’s long‐term direction is undeniably positive.
Frustrated by the ossifying conventional wisdom that, actually, globalization has been mostly Bad, we set out to launch this Cato project, which will both correct the record and offer a strong, proactive case for more global integration in the years ahead.
To make our case, Defending Globalization will roll out over the next year or so a trove of new content, including,
An online library of relatively short, accessible essays on all aspects of globalization (economics, foreign affairs, law/politics, society/culture, history, etc.), written by Cato scholars and prominent outside experts;
An interactive quiz on the myths and realities of globalization;
New polling on Americans’ view of globalization;
A day‐long conference in January and other events in DC or elsewhere;
A searchable “Academic Library” containing all Cato “Research Briefs” summarizing scholarly research on trade, immigration, and related issues;
Videos and other media on both the facts and faces of globalization — real people who benefit greatly from our globalized world.
All this content (and more) will be available at this dedicated Cato website. Today, we’re leading off with my essay introducing the Defending Globalization project and seven others on a wide range of topics:
Comparative Advantage, by Don Boudreaux.
Globalization Creates a Global Neighborhood, Benefiting All, by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey.
The Dangers of Misunderstanding Economic Interdependence, by Dan Drezner.
The Misplaced Nostalgia for a Less Globalized Past, by Daniel Griswold.
U.S. Immigration Policy Lags Behind a Globalizing World, by David Bier.
Why Do We Need Trade Agreements At All? by Simon Lester.
Globalization Isn’t Going Anywhere, also by me.
Two weeks from now, and then every two weeks thereafter through the fall, we’ll roll out another three essays and additional multimedia content. (The aforementioned quiz, for example, will go live on September 26, along with essays on the World Trade Organization, digital trade, and the “American System.”) The Academic Library is also now live, as are essay pages listing both what we’ve already published and what we’ll publish in the weeks ahead.
Additional work will come online in 2024 as it’s ready. As you’ll soon see, we have a lot of new, different, and fun content in the works — content we believe will fill a big hole in the current debate on globalization and the future of global trade and immigration policy. We hope you enjoy it.
