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CCCA_V4No4_Q&A-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_Profile-FIN.qxd 10/27/10 3:01 PM Page 17 Q & A Parag Khanna directs the Global Governance Initiative at the New American Foundation. In his first book, The Second World: How Emerging Powers Are Redefining Global Competition in the Twenty-first Century, he examined the role of the U.S. the EU and China and the changing geopolitical landscape. His forthcoming book, How to Run the World, will be released in early 2011, and is being billed as a manifesto for mega-diplomacy in a borderless world where no one is in charge. A keynote speaker at this year’s CCCA World Summit in Toronto, he sat down with Senior Editor Yves Faguy for an interview. geopolitical marketplace of those things are happening at the same time. And on top of things. […]There are lots of different ways to look at these clus- that,it’s not just a world of states and empires,but a world of city ters. The notion of a sovereign nation-state as a central unit isn’t states and corporations.You have to balance all of those things at very useful or meaningful to me. the same time in your mind if you want to understand the world today. […] The cities idea fits into the broader notion of a new Q: Lawyers, who tend to look at the world in terms of Middle Ages, a world in which cities, corporations, NGOs and jurisdictions, might find this unsettling. religious groups all play a role in the world.That’s very medieval, A: But even lawyers who look at international business don’t and that thesis is more a part of my next book than the last one. divide the world strictly by countries — by those which have rule of law,protection of rights,good arbitration mechanisms and those Q: Medieval strikes me as a fairly negative concept. that don’t.You may think about the OECD world because there’ll A: It does in the West. But if you take the period I’m thinking be a set of regulations that govern the OECD countries with about — the 12th and 13th centuries, or pre-Renaissance — respect to corruption or whatever the case may be. But the U.S. you’re actually looking at the period of history where the Chinese, and EU free-trade areas have very strict rules and arbitration Indians, the Arab Islamic world, the Byzantine Empire, were all at mechanisms. In a different context you may look to the World their peak, in fact. It was only Europe that was experiencing a so- Trade Organization, which might be strong on anti-dumping called Dark Ages, although the commercial revolution all began practices,but not in [intellectual property rights].So your jurisdic- around the time of the Crusades and the Great Explorations began tions really vary a great deal depending on what sector you’re in the 14th century. So in a way you had a world like today with looking at, or who your trading partners are. But thinking strictly independent systems becoming more and more powerful.Today, in terms of nations isn’t really the key.The key is what clusters of China is powerful.India is powerful.The Middle East and the Arab countries or zones or even cities have good laws or bad laws.And World are powerful.That’s never happened since the Middle Ages. that’s a highly uneven terrain.The world is not flat by any stretch It’s a much better way of explaining what’s happening in the world of the imagination. today than to simply say ‘It’s like the 19th century’, when you had Prussia, France and Britain competing for power.That was a very Q: In terms of superpowers, how are China, Europe and small world, a European world. It’s very different world today.The America doing things differently? Middle Ages were actually quite similar. A: Every civilization or system has its own approach, and that’s why I spelled it out in the book as the three C’s.The U.S. has the CARLOS AMAT Q: In that power today is exercised by both nation-states coalition of the willing approach, Europe takes a consensus approach, and there are Asian consultative-type approaches. It’s and cities alike? not that anyone is doing all or anything wrong, or anyone is A: By nations, empires, trading associations and all sorts of HIVER 2010 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 17