Globalization and Democracy: Second International Conference of the ICDT
CEID and the ICDT are convinced that, with the advancement of globalization, the mutual interdependence between countries of the world is escalating as never before. Besides the economy, this phenomenon affects all fields of society, politics and culture. Isolated societies have become powerless in managing knowledge- and information-based economies and incapable of taking part in the ever widening and deepening network of our globalized world. These processes evidently undermine traditional societal structures and present de facto threats towards them.
Therefore democracy, being the most adequate form of government in the presence of an information society, has become an essential component of development. It is self-evident that closed societies, not being receptive enough towards the concept of democracy, are defending themselves against this phenomenon. This “self-defense” can take on the most different forms, starting with the repeated overemphasizing of the concepts of sovereignty and non-interference in other countries’ internal issues to global terrorism.
Global terrorism, which is constantly confronting globalization, hit when the world was wholly unprepared for its coming. The Westphalian system, regulating the network of states and its security components, which include international law, international institutions and our entire military and non-military toolkit, is not in the right circumstances to handle these new threats effectively.
The asymmetric nature and unpredictability of the threat and the fading distinction between external and internal threats pose a great challenge as well, as it proves to be very difficult and in fact almost impossible to avert threats posed by actors who do not respect democratic values with traditional tools of democracy. This also hinders the functioning of basic self-defense methods of democracy, and for this reason it is extremely difficult to handle the permanently present contradictions between democracy and security.
It is for all these facts that the ICDT and CEID have decided to devote its second Annual Conference to the issue of the influence of globalization on economy, security, and democratic transitions.
Dr. Imre Szekeres, Minister of Defense of Hungary, inaugurated the conference on “Globalization and Democracy” in the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal on Monday, November 10, 2008. Afterwards, internationally renowned and distinguished leaders and experts presented and held open discussions on the influence of globalization on security, society, economy, and democratic transitions.
These leaders and experts included, among others, Ricardo Lagos, former President of the Republic of Chile; Dr. Sima Samar, Chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; Dr. MS Gill; Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports of the Republic of India; Governor George E. Pataki, Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on Climate Change Issues; David J. Kramer, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Dr. Andrei Illarionov, Director of the Institute of Economic Analysis in Moscow; and Robert Benjamin, Senior Associate and Regional Director of Central and Eastern Europe Programs at NDI.
CEID organized the first panel on Globalization and Security. Speakers were Alyson Bailes, former British diplomat and former Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI); Professor Doutor Armando Marques Guedes, President of the International and Institutional Commission of the Portuguese Institute for Democracy (IDP); LT Gen. László Tömböl, Commander of the Hungarian Joint Forces Command; and Andreas Gross, Member of the Constitutional Council of Zurich and Political Scientist.