NAFTA and Beyond: Alternative Perspectives in the Study of Global Trade and Development

For more than three decades, rapid advances in technology, transportation, and communications have facilitated economic integration on a world scale. Since its implementation in 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement has increased the capacity of investors to move across international borders further fusing points in the hemisphere economically but also giving way to new patterns of migration and development. Toward the end of the 20th century, Argentina’s near collapse brought scrutiny upon the effects of neo-liberal policies. The consolidation of the European Common Market and the emergence of other regional blocs are reshaping trade, market competition, and political stability. Although the meaning of the word ‘global’ remains contested, such events reflect transformations of a qualitative and quantitative character.

The anticipated and unintended consequences of globalization have become a central focus of analysis in the social sciences but there have been few opportunities for specialists in various fields to engage in a dialogue about the explicit and unintended consequences of neo-liberalism.  The papers below were included in a volume of Annals of the American Academy of Social Science, bringing together a distinguished group of scholars to examine a variety of issues surrounding recent processes of development and trade from an interdisciplinary perspective. For more information, see the brochure.

Is there such a thing as globalization? What are the social, political, and environmental repercussions of neo-liberal economic policies in Latin America and elsewhere?  Is the world’s new economic landscape ushering in supra-national institutions? What about the character of social movements, both those emerging in opposition or in compliance to globalization? These are among the questions that the articles broach.

The papers were presented at a conference held on December 2-3, 2005 at Princeton University. The event was made possible by the generous support of Center for Migration and Development, Institute for International and Regional Studies, Program in Latin American Studies - Leonard Horwitz *68 Fund, Center for Globalization and Governance, Fund for Canadian Studies, International Economics Section, Mexican Migration Program, Office of the Provost, Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Campus Life, Princeton Environmental Institute, Program in Urbanization and Migration, University Center for Human Values, and Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs.