NEW YORK – The Chazen Institute for Global Business today released video on-demand of “Globalization: Where Do We Go From Here?” – a special event marking the Institute’s 30th anniversary and showcasing its role in advancing research, dialogue and ideas on globalization. 

The event, which was broadcast live on March 19, 2021, virtually connected some of the most prominent figures in academia, industry, and policymaking to assess the state of globalization and forecast what’s next for the world’s marketplace. 

This wide-ranging conversation provided answers to pressing questions facing global business today as well as advice for those leading operations globally, including: What is the future of the World Trade Organization? There’s not much that Bruce Greenwald, Robert Heilbrunn Professor Emeritus of Asset Management, and Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and University Professor, agree on. But when it comes to the WTO, both say that fundamental change is needed. 

Stiglitz stresses that the body should change its unanimity rules. Greenwald is pessimistic, even if the rule changes. How has COVID-19 impacted supply chains? It has forced them to adapt. “There’s an increasing flexibility in enabling production to move closer to the consumer,” says Marie Ffolkes, CEO of TriMark USA. Who pays for US-China tariffs? According to research conducted by Chazen Senior Scholar Amit Khandelwal, the US economy lost about $25 billion as a result of the trade war. 

Khandelwal underscores that “the tariffs were a self-inflicted wound on the US economy.” Has the era of US-China cooperation ended? There’s a new conventional wisdom that cooperation with China has failed. 

“That’s just historically, totally wrong,” says Robert Zoellick, Former President of the World Bank, US Trade Representative, and Deputy Secretary of State. "The United States can never compete with authoritarian countries by figuring out how much we can close down or close off people, our strength is our openness." 

How important is ESG to investors? "I don't think today that anybody can be a good investor or have a world-class company if you don't have ESG imbedded in your thinking or embedded in the DNA of the company," answers Henry Kravis, Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kravis. 

Where are the opportunities for investors? Lulu Chow Wang, CEO of Tupelo Capital Management notes that “wherever there’s great change, seismic change, there’s opportunities for investors.” Bruce Greenwald thinks that the United States is going to be the tiger economy because it’s best at attracting global human resources. Watch the full event on-demand here. 

To learn more about the latest scholarship on globalization from the Chazen Institute, please visit gsb.columbia.edu/chazen. 

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About The Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business 

The Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business is the interdisciplinary hub of global business knowledge at Columbia Business School. 

By injecting a global viewpoint into coursework, supporting research on global business, and sponsoring provocative forums where business leaders and policy-makers engage in vigorous debate, we pool the vast wealth of knowledge that exists within Columbia Business School, distill it for people who operate in the world’s marketplace, and provide a global network for lifelong learning.