speaker: david m. malone, under‐secretary‐general of the united nations, rector of the united nations university (unu), tokyo
time: 13:15-14:45, may 27th, 2015
venue: room 302, school of public policy and management, tsinghua university
language: english
bio:
david m. malone, born in 1954, became rector of the un university (unu), headquartered in tokyo, japan, with the rank of under‐secretary‐general of the united nations, on march 1, 2013. unu, a confederation of research institutions and partnerships located on all continents, serves as the un’s principal think‐tank.
malone was educated at the university of montreal, the american university of cairo and harvard university and holds a d.phil from oxford university. he continues to coordinate with friends and colleagues ambitious collective research projects, currently on: india’s international relations; the law and practice of the united nations; and the evolving role and characteristics of the un security council, with each expected to yield a major publication over the coming three years. he recently published international development: ideas, practice and prospects, a near‐encyclopaedic survey of the topic co‐edited with bruce currie‐alder, ravi kanbur and rohinton medhora.
he was president of canada’s international development research centre (idrc), one of the world’s leading funders of policy‐relevant research in developing countries (2008‐2013). a career foreign service officer, he served as canada’s envoy to india and non‐resident ambassador to bhutan and nepal (2006‐2008) and as a canadian ambassador at the un (1992‐1994).
he has published extensively, in academic and lighter veins.
abstract:
international debates over development were tremendously contentious from the 1970s until the 1990s, with many set-backs in practice challenging the consensus ideas of the development economics community, which ruled supreme and ignored what other disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, history and geography, as well as political science, might usefully have taught us. ever since the new millennium, development has taken root more seriously in africa (with average growth rates in the 5%-6% range) and in latin america where social development has been more notable than economic growth. in asia, while experience has varied, many countries have established successful or at least encouraging development tracks, strongly spurred by the early example of post-war japan and the more recent and different one of china. a successful indian model with elements of wider application may well yet emerge. what do we know now, and why should we be cautious about consensus among the experts?