AFD-EUDN 2009

7th Conference Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and European Development Research Network (EUDN)

AFD and EUDN, the European Development Research Network, have been organizing annual conferences since 2003 on development related topics. The conferences are key events for promoting European research and attract a lot of people from the North and South.

9th December 2009, Paris
Conference Center Pierre Mendès-France
Ministère de l’Economie, de l’Industrie et de l’Emploi
139, rue de Bercy 75012 Paris 
 
With François Bourguignon, Pierre Jacquet, Mustapha Nabli, André Sapir, Carlos Winograd et Alan Winters

And with the participation of : Martin Balepa, Daniel Cohen, Ernesto Cordero, Jean-Michel Debrat, Ahmed Galal, Yves Goudineau, David Held,  Bassma Kodmani, Justin Lin,  Jean-Philippe Platteau, Jean-Michel Sévérino. 
 
The collapse of the iron curtain and the Soviet system aroused the immense hope of a united world that would transcend all the differences between nations, whether economic, technological, or ideological.  The drive towards the globalisation of the world economy was to be instrumental in making countries converge economically while the end of the cold war was expected to shape a homogeneous entity largely adhering to the rising liberal ideology.  Today, twenty years later, one is compelled to reckon that the dream has not come true. 

On the one hand, the increased economic interdependence on world level has had the effect of encouraging the rise of new countries on the world scene, particularly in East and South Asia as well as Latin America.  Their emergence has brought about profound changes in the hierarchy of economic powers, causing new and deep insecurities in the advanced countries of the West.  The temptation of protectionism has grown as a result.

On the other hand, the homogenisation of political and value systems has not occurred and has probably been put in reverse.  Due to a conjunction of complex factors that include geopolitics, anti-Western feelings have grown in some regions of the world, particularly in Muslim countries.  The difficulty inherent in the choice between following the so-called Western path and maintaining the values of the ‘imagined’ traditional civilisation has thus been exacerbated in these regions, giving rise to serious tensions in international relations and to the posturing of countries in the southern hemisphere as the new champions of victimised nations (e.g., Iran).

The speakers will at covering the aforementioned issues by adopting the standpoint of major regions of the world.
 
Should you need further information regarding the conference and your participation, do not hesitate to contact Cécile Valadier valadierc@afd.fr