Meeting Challenges or Matching Challengers?

The title of this volume is highly suggestive of how defensive even the strong proponents of globalization have become in this debate in recent years. Speaking of “meeting globalization’s challenges” rather than “challenging globalization’s challengers” transmits a certain sense of admission of guilt about the downsides reputedly brought about by the process of increasing international economic integration. This twist of the language could project a most welcome intellectual humility on the part of globalization’s proponents. But it could also be interpreted as signaling a weaker conviction about the benefits of globalization on their part, liable to misuse or abuse by