The former British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair delivered a public lecture organised by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore on “The Crisis of Global Governance: Challenges and Solutions”. According to him, the world is opening up and becoming more interdependent on each other. Each country is concerned about the other and we cannot afford to overlook the situation in the continent of Africa. Africa should be included in the development process. Due to the process of globalization, opportunities are far greater for people today than ever before.
He pointed out some of the basic challenged that world is facing today – economic challenges like poverty and exclusion, environmental crisis and climate change, energy crisis, crisis related to the movement of people (migration) and the humanitarian and economic crisis in the continent of Africa.
According to him, the solutions to these problems do not depend on any one country, but all. The solution today is not protectionism but opening up. The effort in this direction needs to be multilateral. For example, the USA would not sign the agreement on climate change without taking China and China would not sign if it obstructs the growth of the country. He pointed out three basic strategies to solve the crisis of governance in world today – (1) building strong alliances, (2) reforming multilateral institutions, and (3) empowering the civic society.
In his concluding remarks, he mentioned that the solutions to terrorism do not come from governments but from peoples’ of different faith at the grassroots. Democracy, freedom and Justice are the global values that should be respected and upheld by the people for peace and prosperity in the world.
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