The World Trade Organization

In Seattle, November of ‘99, the World Trade Organization, a virtually unknown institution to most people was the star attraction in the media for several days. However, the mobilization of protest demonstrations against international institutions didn’t start in Seattle. There were demonstrations at the WTO meeting in Geneva in 1998 and at Bank/Fund meetings throughout the 1990’s. But the overall ferocity of this demonstration at Seattle was unprecedented and perhaps a new trend has been established. Even if that were so it would be wrong for us to judge the anti-globalization movement by its representation from the media.

The invisible impact of the NGO’s on the international policy processes and institutions may turn out to be more important over the long run. The main objectives of the mobilization networks are to heighten public awareness of the target international institution’s role in globalization and, by doing so, to change its agenda and mode of operation – or, in the case of the more extreme members of the coalition, to shut it down. While these networks are loosely knit coalitions of very unrelated groups an analysis of the networks at Seattle show that a significant proportion are environmental, human and gender ri

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The lead role of environmentalists in the policy process is manifest in both

the domestic and international arenas. com, since the networks are so diverse both in mission and location the message must carry a simple, common theme: anti globalization: pro-democracy. has increasingly expanded the

formal involvement of NGO’s in all its activities. But Rio was a landmark since earlier multilateral treaties did not provide official access to NGO participation.

But in the end, of course, the establishment of a new tomorrow

will require leadership on the part of countries both willing and responsible. But if one reviews the impact of NGO’s on the World Bank the answer would certainly be yes. So perhaps the best conclusion to this paper should be based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: we can know where we are but not where we’re going or where we’re going but not where we are. Rio changed that in a most dramatic. Further, after Rio, UNCED requested the UN to formalize the rules for NGO participation and since that time the U.

In 1993, the Bank established the position of Vice President of Environment and Sustainable Development and expanded its concept of development to cover three “goals”: economic (growth, equity and efficiency); social; and ecological (ecosystems, biodiversity, carrying capacity, etc.

Since the main objective of mobilization networks is to influence public

opinion and through that route initiate change in the policy processes of the international institutions, has the dissent industry been successful? In the case of the WTO, I would argue that it’s too early to tell. A major change in the World Bank’s operations is documented in a case study of the Narmada dam project in India, which was financed by the Bank until 1993 when the loan agreement was cancelled.

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