Join the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business in welcoming Gary Gereffi '70, professor emeritus of sociology and director of the Global Value Chains Center at Duke University, as he presents “Bridging the Gap Between Business, National Security and Sustainable Development in the 21st Century.” The World Trade Organization (WTO) rules-based order that once defined globalization is rapidly giving way to geopolitical pressures, climate change, and national security considerations. The U.S.-China power struggle, product shortages, and supply chain fragmentation associated with the COVID-19 global pandemic have triggered a massive rethinking of global supply chains and strategic vulnerability. Growing competition for access to critical minerals prompts a gold rush to find and secure control of these vital raw materials with potentially profound environmental impacts. The opportunity horizon for people experiencing poverty is shaped by how private funds rather than aid are invested across Africa and Asia. Business and governmental leaders struggle to keep up and search for the right strategies and policies. In this discussion, Gareffi seeks to answer how new U.S. industrial policies affect this environment, how this new reality will impact extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change, and should schools of global affairs address and incorporate the growing reach of business and private finance into their identity and curricula on sustainable development.
Originally published at mckennacenter.nd.edu.