An opinion piece published by Dr Ian Goldin on the influential blogging website, the Huffington Post, has sparked renewed debate and public engagement with the issue of financial regulation and global governance. Entitled "Only a New Global System Can Handle a World of Explosive Risk", the piece focuses on the importance of applying the lessons of the recent financial crisis to other looming catastrophes such as climate change, global pandemics and bio-terrorism.
The piece has been published with the conviction that understanding the roots of the crisis is fundamental to preventing the next crisis. As Dr Goldin comments, "The notion that somehow the issue is now understood and so that society is able to establish the means to prevent another crisis is a dangerous idea and plays into the current short-term approach to the crisis".
Dr Goldin's main argument is drawn from a forthcoming article in the inaugural issue of the journal Global Policy, which highlights the fact that recent decades of globalisation have created a world which is more interconnected, interdependent and complex than ever before.
The article explores the idea that the implications of this growing interdependence have been largely ignored and that the failure of the international financial regulation system - the most developed and best-equipped global governance system - to recognise or manage the new vulnerabilities associated with globalisation in the 21st century illustrates the scale and urgency of the global governance challenge.
Dr Goldin is a member of the Editorial Board of Global Policy, an innovative and interdisciplinary new journal which aims to develop the accuracy and policy relevance of relevant academic research. Global Policy was officially launched in Paris on 10 January. A further launch event will take place in London on 22 March.