The Globalist

by John Walsh

Peter Sutherland is probably the most influential Irish person ever and a key figure in world history over the past 25 years. Peter Sutherland was once described as having the best CV in the world. He was Ireland’s youngest ever attorney general; the youngest ever European Commissioner; former chairman of Goldman Sachs International; former chairman of BP; UN special representative for migration and special adviser to the Vatican.
His time as head of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was the high point of his career and a defining moment in modern history.
He presided over the signing of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations. After eight years and much squabbling, what seemed like an impossible task in 1986 – to reach a global agreement on the removal of trade barriers and create true market liberalisation – came to pass under Sutherland’s stewardship in Marrakesh on April 15th, 1994. He would go on to become the first head of the World Trade Organisation. More than any other individual he unleashed the forces of globalisation. Mickey Kantor, the US trade secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency, described him as the “father of globalisation.”
In an appearance before a House of Commons select committee on migration in 2012, he said countries should aim at less “homogeneity” in their populations by allowing in more migrants.
This prompted a backlash against him and everything he had come to represent.
In the last two years of his life, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump delivered two huge blows to the world order that Sutherland had helped to construct.
THE GLOBALIST is the first in-depth biography of an international power-broker who was instrumental in shaping the global economy that we know today.

Genres: Current Affairs

360 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2020

Reviews

[Adrian Fingleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am possibly being a bit generous with four stars, but how and ever. I guess the main selling point of this book for me is that it features successive episodes that I lived through, so I have my own recollections of the events as well. In a practical sense, I thought Sutherland was a very able and well-connected man, who seemed to have a great intellect and a penchant for doing good. I think, because this book is effectively an authorised biography, the author is a bit too flattering at times, which grates. Sutherland did end up in many situations of power where things went awry below him, but the author rather lets him off the hook in these situations. But it's very readable, I'm fairly convinced that he was in essence a decent man and fun to be with, and while I would balk at the saintliness which at times is suggested it's a decent trawl through the early 70's up until his untimely death at the age of 71. Worth a read.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative and important read for the topic of globalisation.

[Stephen Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about a great modern Irishman.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A biography of the Irish lawyer and international statesman Peter Sutherland charting his career at the Irish Bar, as Attorney General, European Competition Commissioner, architect of the GATT agreement, partner at Goldman Sachs, chairman of BP and, finally, at the UN.

The book is a good account of Sutherland's life written in a journalistic style that's easy to read. The author conducted many interviews in the course of his research with Sutherland's friends and acquaintances and he quotes extensively from them, too extensively in many cases and they could have been have been better integrated into the text. The book is pretty flattering to Sutherland too, being a sort of progressive equivalent of a Catholic hagiography.

The strongest parts of the book are the accounts of Sutherland's roles in Goldman Sachs and BP, it's very interesting to see this job from the inside. And Sutherland's warning over Brexit show that the author's account of Sutherland's nose for danger and risk was no exaggeration.

[Ted Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and informative. That one man could achieve so much....

[Ryan Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read but the content seemed to repeat itself often.