Divided Nations: Why global governance is failing, and what we can do about it

by Ian Goldin

With rapid globalization, the world is more deeply interconnected than ever before. While this has its advantages, it also brings with it systemic risks that are only just being identified and understood. Rapid urbanization, together with technological leaps, such as the Internet, mean that we are now physically and virtually closer than ever in humanity's history.We face a number of international challenges - climate change, pandemics, cyber security, and migration - which spill over national boundaries. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the UN, the IMF, the World Bank - bodies created in a very different world, more than 60 years ago - are inadequate for the task of managing such risk in the 21st century.Ian Goldin explores whether the answer is to reform the existing structures, or to consider a new and radical approach. By setting out the nature of the problems and the various approaches to global governance, Goldin highlights the challenges that we are to overcome and considers a road map for the future.

Genres: Politics, Economics, Nonfiction, Political Science

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2013

About the author

Ian Goldin is a professor at the University of Oxford in England. He took up his most recent position as director of Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, in September 2006. He is the Oxford University Professor of Globalisation and Development, and holds a professorial fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I wrote this review for a graded assessment in my "International and Regional Organisations" course.

Reading “Divided Nations” in 2024 (almost 2025) feels like reading something published 50 years ago. So much has transpired since British economist Ian Goldin published his book in 2013. To his credit, so much has also happened—and was happening—by that time. If he had extended his already broad scope even in the slightest, his book would have come out twice as thick. Reconciling Goldin’s perspective and arguments with more recent events, this review will provide a critical assessment of how much of the book holds water.

Goldin was first and foremost an economist whose early career saw him as principal economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) prior to 1996 and Director of Development Policy and Vice President at the World Bank. Moreover, it must be noted that Goldin is a prolific writer and researcher. He has published 25 books, over 60 articles, and has been cited over 5000 times according to the latest data from Google Scholar. His language in “Divided Nations” must not misguide you about his credibility. He wrote his book for the layman; however, students of International Relations (IR) may profit from his insights and recommendations that could complement what knowledge and understanding of international affairs they may already possess at the time of reading. After all, having written not for fellow academics, economists, or researchers, Goldin noted that he had merely intended for “Divided Nations” to “stimulate thinking and through illustrative examples to suggest ways in which the global governance challenges of the 21st century are new and how we need to adapt to them” (p. 178).

Globalisation presents a paradox in having spawned global issues along with accelerated worldwide progress, hence the emergence of various global institutions. Among these emergent issues, Goldin focused on finance, climate change, pandemics, cybercrime, and migration. Among the myriad global institutions, he focused on discussing the structure and shortcomings of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods Institutions, namely the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). After recommending solutions and providing core principles to guide them, Goldin then identified two priorities when reconciling the paradox of globalisation:

First, to be sustainable globalization must be inclusive. … Second, there is a danger that globalization leads to the spreading of global harms more rapidly than global goods. (p. 164)

Furthermore, central to his thesis is the difficulty of global institutions in catching up with emerging problems brought about by globalisation. How do his ideas fare today?

Seven years after “Divided Nations” stressed that pandemics are more alarming than financial and economic crises, COVID-19 effectively put the fast-paced world to a halt. Goldin was onto something in his comparison of the virality of pandemics and ideas in cyberspace, but he missed the mark. Despite noting the coincidence in the paradigmatic shifts in technology via the Internet and in international relations via the end of the Cold War, he failed to see how the ‘viral’ nature of ideas have the potential to exacerbate other issues he discussed, but more notably pandemics.

Also, Goldin’s focus on cybercrime seemingly reveals how he could not help but keep on the economist’s hat. While his discussion on cybercrime coherently centered heavily on finance, it is slightly puzzling why there is almost no mention* of human rights abuses that proliferate through the connectivity granted by technological advances even by 2013 standards. Indeed, cybercrime has broken into online spaces that seem secure, and takes on many forms. Arguably worse than theft of property or even identity are the human rights abuses that proliferate throughout social media. Not only deep web sites but also private messaging apps have become the go-to hub for individuals and groups engaging in such crimes**. One would think that, after illustrating how WikiLeaks exposed government corruption, Goldin would also note how human rights abuses as well as physical and sexual abuse of women and children have become more rampant in part due to growing interconnectivity.

Finally, it seems that little heed has been given to his primary recommendations for solutions to these emerging global issues. While more transgovernmental networks and forums have emerged notably among developing countries, they have been facing similar problems to global institutions as outlined in the book. Civil societies have compounded their reach and influence in no small part due to social media. No new global institutions have been formed. The UN has not taken away the veto. The Bretton Woods institutions have not yet successfully encouraged its most influential members to reform policy. Views of state sovereignty have not changed so much. The mandate to make decisions regarding global issues still appears to largely remain in the offices of global institutions led by Western countries.

These observations do not mean Goldin was wrong—far from it. He was right to suggest that the emerging global issues require creative solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a disaster in terms of public health, but also in terms of confidence in public institutions, not excluding the ones at the global level, as well as in terms of information communication. Success or failure by states in dealing with COVID-19 might mean different things to any two given individuals. This much was obvious even among individuals who led states. Efficiency and legitimacy remain as important things to consider not only for global institutions but also for new transregional networks and individuals whose ability to shape the community and the world around them keeps dramatically growing. Goldin’s arguments in “Divided Nations” holds water; its readers benefit from catastrophic hindsight.

* The only mention was a complaint about how disclosing one’s identity merely served to “fence off abuse” (p. 145), an opinion which one minute of scrolling on any given X—formerly Twitter—feed immediately dispels.
** Mozur, P., Satariano, A., Krolik, A., & Myers, S. L. (2024, September 7). How Telegram Became a Playground for Criminals, Extremists and Terrorists. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/07/te...

[Elizabeth Gabhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be a pretty good introduction to globalization issues for someone who knows little about it.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this during the 2020 Lockdown, the section about pandemics hits a little to close to home!

[sillypunk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose his was fine, but didn't really offer any solutions, just some general directions.

[Mediuschung · Rating 2 out of 5]

讀咗林冠麗嘅中譯版，完全中伏，將歐化文字完全譯進書中，讀下去言文不通，難以理解。
即使英原文亦一大堆廢話，重複的文字不斷及不著題，特別花三分一篇幅寫嘅第一篇，令人想放棄。編輯亦得不夠嚴謹，「事實上有傳言證實」都寫得出......，咁都叫學者可以收皮。

But still there is something insightful provided.例如個全球機構嘅管治三重點：有效性、正當性、幾何多變已議題為主嘅會議結構，最後一點相當值得更多嘅研究to better perform efficiency.

Read in 2016

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. About 60% of this book is a simple primer on international institutions and current global threats. Fine, but not anything most who read it won't know already.

30% of the book attempts to answer 'Why Global Governance Is Failing' by essentially saying 'because International Anarchy'.

10% (at best!) looks at 'What We Can Do about It'. In scant detail. Without any real concrete ideas or analysis.

In all: fine for a primer on international governance. Fairly useless at actually answering the question that its title puts forward.

[Dan Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book but a little disappointing. For me, the author spends too much time pointing out the problems and not enough on the potential solutions. It's not surprising that the potential solutions are covered thinly - it's hard for any of us to see any decent solutions. Also rather dry - it was hardly unputdownable...

[Lauren]

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