MEGADIPLOMACY: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (February 2, 2011)

You are not convinced in your review of Parag Khanna’s How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (New York: Random House, 2011), and neither am I (”Running the World,” January 29, 2011). When government, business, and non-governmental organizations start working together rather than at cross purposes, much can be accomplished, but running the world is beyond the reach of Khanna’s “megadiplomacy.” However, when dot.gov, dot.com, and dot.org start working together, much can be accomplished in more humble realms of urban, regional, national, and even international contexts. The breakdown between these realms slows everything down, and it often makes many problems insolvable. Laws, financing, and public participation must work together. Take megacities, for example. Take international water management problems, for another example. Most important, take droughts and floods, as well as other natural disasters stemming from climate change, which bring together several countries. This is where megadiplomacy could do wonders. Although Khanna stretches his argument beyond the edge of the credible, it still has much to offer.