fter 9/11 many liberal and leftist groups set up their protests across America. And the opposition to the World Trade Organisation and such bodies has increased. You discuss in your book the protests against WTO and what happened in Seattle, Switzerland and in other parts of the world. You say that the protesters are creating damage to their cause by going after the organisations and not after the countries. Please elaborate.
I think globalisation is lopsided, and has detrimental effects that have led to opposition. The opposition focuses on the international organisations that are the building blocks of globalisation. But such anger is misdirected because most of these organisations are associations of individual nations. An organisation such as WTO cannot be much better than its member countries. So the fault lies with the members, not so much with the organisations.
Of course, it is easier to attack the organisations than the countries behind them. But I think that is changing; people are increasingly aware that trouble starts at home.
In addition, I hope people will increasingly focus on the fact that there are a limited number of repressive regimes responsible for much of the poverty and misery in the world. A theory I think deserves more attention is the 'resource curse' -- that developing countries rich in natural resources are no wealthier than those without, but they tend to have more repressive regimes and more conflicts.
Photograph: MN Chan/Getty Images
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