Nyambati R. Aori

Nyambati R. Aori – University of Michigan, Public Policy

Nyambati R. Aori is a second-year MPP student at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy with a focus on International Policy (Poverty, Energy and Climate Change).  Mr. Nyambati R. Aori is the author of:  Energy and Socio-Economic Transformations in Asia and the Pacific: Short Policy Notes for innovative policy making; The Polluter Pays Principle Reviewed, Energy and International Investment in Asia and the Pacific; The Twenty First Century Robots;The 2007-2009 Financial Crisis and China’s Economic Reforms: Elucidating China’s  Export Tax Rebate and Currency Valuation Policies, among others.  Mr. Nyambati Aori is currently working on a project: Energy Markets in Asia and the Pacific, while co-authoring two ground-breaking publications with UNESCO Bangkok (RUSHSAP):  Energy, Equity and Environmental Security; and Ethics and International Investment in the Energy Sector and the Environment.

Globalisation and the 21st Century World

With the emergence of critical problems like atmospheric pollution, drug trade, currency crisis and AIDS, among others, that are direct products of new technologies and globalism, (because they can be distinguished from traditional political issues by virtue of being transnational rather than being national or local in scope), the reality of co-production accounts which emphasize the power of ideas in shaping the world order, while building on the recent neo-institutional approaches to international politics (or International Relations, for that matter), and which indeed highlights the role of scientific knowledge of transboundary environmental problems as a stimulus for the creation of new international institutions and regimes, has emerged. In this paper, we will argue that, despite the obvious advantage of having the humongous amounts of science and technology (like the computing power) at one’s disposal, it seems that some problems’ solutions yet rely on Politics and Policy, on humans’ puzzle-solving machinery, on our values and beliefs, on our cultures and even on our common sense, in addition to our ability to recognise patterns that elude to our hard drives. These are the new paradigms of the twenty first century that confront as well as challenge our conventional understanding of our globalising world.