Doctoral Dissertation Research: Power Shifts at the World Trade Organization

中国、印度和巴西等大型新兴经济体正日益成为重要的经济和政治力量中心，挑战着美国及其西方盟友的传统主导地位。这一转变被认为是现代历史上最重要的转变之一。这种权力转移将如何影响国际经济和政治，是世界各地学术界、商界和政策界争论的中心问题。本项目将通过分析世界贸易组织（WTO）当前发生的变革来解决这些争论。世贸组织是全球经济治理的核心机构，它正受到国家间相对力量平衡变化的深刻影响。虽然世贸组织历来由美国和少数其他富裕工业化国家主导，但在过去十年中，巴西、印度和中国已成为世贸组织的主要参与者。本项目将分析世界贸易组织新权力结构的性质，并评估这种权力转移对世界贸易组织话语和政策的影响。这项研究将利用在日内瓦世贸组织以及巴西、印度和中国贸易部进行的实地研究，采用文献/档案研究、与贸易决策者面谈和直接观察相结合的方法。对世界贸易组织发生的转变的分析有可能产生丰富的理论见解，并为政治社会学家关于全球政治经济结构和组织的核心关注提供辩论信息。国家间权力分配的变化将如何影响全球政治经济的治理，这一问题是各学科学者的主要理论关注点，也是政策制定者的实际关注点。通过广泛传播本研究的成果，本研究将对学术理论和政策制定做出重要贡献。

Large emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil, are becoming increasingly important centers of economic and political power, challenging the traditional dominance of the U.S. and its Western allies. This transformation has been identified as one of the most important in modern history. The question of how this shift in power will impact international economics and politics is at the center of debates in academic, business and policy circles around the world. This project will address these debates by analyzing current transformations taking place at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is a central institution in the governance of the global economy and one that is being profoundly affected by changes in the relative balance of power between states. While the WTO has historically been dominated by the U.S. and a small group of other rich industrialized states, in the last decade Brazil, India and China have emerged as major players at the WTO. This project will analyze the nature of the new power structure emerging at the WTO and assess the impact that this shift in power is having on the discourse and policies of the WTO. The study will draw on field research at the WTO in Geneva and in the Trade Ministries of Brazil, India and China, using a combination of documentary/archival research, interviews with trade policy-makers, and direct observation. Analysis of the transformations occurring at the WTO has the potential to yield rich theoretical insights and inform debates of central concern to political sociologists regarding the structure and organization of the global political economy. The question of how changes in the distribution of power between states will affect the governance of the global political economy is of major theoretical concern to academics across a range of disciplines as well as of practical concern to policy-makers. By broadly disseminating the results of this research, this study will make an important contribution both to academic theory as well as policy-making.