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| International Forum on Globalization | |
|---|---|
| Name | International Forum on Globalization |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founders | Noam Chomsky, David Korten, Naomi Klein, James Gustave Speth |
| Location | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Fields | Globalization, Trade liberalization, Environmentalism, Social movements |
International Forum on Globalization is an independent think tank and advocacy network established in 1995 that engaged scholars, activists, and policymakers on issues related to globalization, trade agreements, multinational corporations, environmental policy, and social justice. It brought together figures from across the anti-globalization movement, the environmental movement, and labor movement, influencing debates around World Trade Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement, and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency policies. The Forum convened conferences, authored critiques, and partnered with organizations to challenge neoliberal Washington Consensus-era policies and propose alternatives rooted in sustainable development and economic democracy.
The Forum was founded in the mid-1990s by activists and intellectuals responding to the expansion of World Trade Organization authority and the 1994 implementation of North American Free Trade Agreement, with early participants drawn from campaigns opposing GATT-era rules and contests like the 1999 protests in Seattle. Founders and collaborators included figures associated with Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth International, Oxfam International, and Public Citizen, as well as academics who had worked on United Nations Conference on Environment and Development agendas and Brundtland Commission outcomes. The organization staged conferences in cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Vancouver, and Geneva, linking to networks formed around events like the World Social Forum and protests at Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization. Over time it engaged with policy debates at venues including United Nations Environment Programme, International Labour Organization, and meetings of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Forum articulated goals of critiquing corporate trade liberalization frameworks like General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade derivatives, advocating for ecological stewardship modeled after recommendations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Brundtland Commission, and supporting reformed financial architecture influenced by critiques of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. It aimed to promote alternatives emphasizing local control seen in campaigns connected to La Via Campesina and Transition Towns, promote human rights frameworks advanced by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and defend labor standards championed by International Trade Union Confederation affiliates. The Forum also prioritized linking anti-corporate globalization work with movements around biodiversity protections under the Convention on Biological Diversity and indigenous rights networks like those mobilized at United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The Forum operated as a decentralized coalition with a small secretariat in San Francisco coordinating a broader advisory network of scholars and activists drawn from institutions including Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, University of Oxford, and London School of Economics affiliates. Leadership included prominent public intellectuals connected to Institute for Policy Studies and Worldwatch Institute, and worked alongside policy experts who had served at bodies like the United Nations Development Programme and World Bank. Its governance combined steering committees, working groups responding to episodes like Seattle WTO protests, and ad hoc coalitions formed for campaigns involving partners such as Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, and Center for International Environmental Law.
The Forum was prominent in organizing critiques of the World Trade Organization and legal frameworks underpinning investor-state dispute settlement seen in NAFTA Chapter 11 disputes, and it supported direct actions associated with the global justice movement. Campaigns targeted corporate practices exemplified by multinationals litigated in cases before World Bank Group funding decisions and protested transnational corporations at shareholder meetings connected to entities like Chevron Corporation and Monsanto Company. The group convened conferences addressing alternatives to neoliberalism and hosted panels with participants from Friends of the Earth, International Forum on Globalization collaborators, and allied academics who had authored influential critiques in venues such as The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times op-eds. It organized training for activists using materials drawn from networks including Global Exchange, The Working Group on Indigenous Affairs, and Committee for Trade Justice-style coalitions.
The Forum produced reports and briefing papers critiquing instruments like the General Agreement on Trade in Services and investor protections modeled on Bilateral Investment Treaties, and it published policy proposals advocating public-interest trade frameworks influenced by alternatives discussed at World Social Forum gatherings. Publications engaged with scholarship from contributors associated with University of Massachusetts Amherst and think tanks such as Economic Policy Institute and Brookings Institution critics, and were cited in debates hosted by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and European Parliament hearings. Reports analyzed case studies including disputes involving Philip Morris International and environmental impact assessments of projects financed by the Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.
Throughout its existence, the Forum partnered with a wide array of organizations: environmental NGOs like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth United States, and WWF International; labor bodies including AFL–CIO, Confederation of British Industry-opposed unions, and International Trade Union Confederation affiliates; social justice networks such as MoveOn.org and United for Fair Trade coalitions; and academic networks tied to Institute for Development Studies and International Forum on Globalization-adjacent scholars. It joined coalitions for campaigns with Oxfam, ActionAid International, Third World Network, and groups mobilizing around Debt Relief initiatives and Jubilee 2000-style debt campaigns.
Critics accused the Forum of conflating disparate issues and promoting policies that some economists and policy-makers labeled protectionist, drawing rebukes from proponents of free trade policies affiliated with World Bank and International Monetary Fund staff and commentators at Financial Times and The Economist. Some industry groups and trade law scholars connected to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development critiques argued its reports underestimated benefits of trade liberalization cited in analyses by Peterson Institute for International Economics and National Bureau of Economic Research affiliates. Debates also emerged over alliances with direct action groups involved in protests such as those in Seattle (1999) and the legality of civil disobedience tactics; parliamentary inquiries in some jurisdictions debated the implications for public order during mass mobilizations.
Category:Non-profit organizations based in the United States