British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was right in his recent LSE speech: there is nothing inevitable about globalization. The current crisis puts its continuation into doubt, as protectionist calls grow louder and the policy response by major international players remains somewhat confused. It is important to recognize that the current juncture is crucial, and that the way the world is led out of this crisis will determine major features of the global order that will soon emerge.

Time, therefore, to start shaping a new global system that will manage globalization and the post-unipolar world that the George W. Bush administration contributed in shaping. Among the many ideas that have flown around on the subject, the proposal for a Global New Deal sounds particularly encouraging. Leaving the attempted analogy with the 1930s aside, it reflects the need for a genuine reform of our political and economic institutions so as to make them fit for a new age. Below I sketch out the general features of what seems to me a sustainable and efficient post-crisis world order.

A Global New Deal should not be solely an attempt to re-regulate global capitalism. It should be more ambitious, and include political and environmental dimensions suitable to the interconnected and highly complex world we live in. The fundamental values informing its operation ought to be peace and security, redefined and adjusted to reflect contemporary realities.

Peace should be preserved through the active consent of major and minor powers alike, expressed globally within the framework of a reformed United Nations. The Security Council’s permanent membership needs to become more diverse, and at the same time build a new institutional relationship with the G20 to better reflect the new power constellations of our era. The preservation of peace inside and outside national borders should be reinforced through the adoption of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ framework by all major international players (US, Europe, BRICS, Japan).

Security needs to be reclaimed from scaremongers, and go beyond crime and terrorism prevention. Firstly, a secure New Deal for Humanity ought to be redistributive from the developed to the developing world on condition of mutual respect for binding environmental targets applied flexibly to all UN members. Secondly, social security should become a policy target through the introduction of minimum goals as defined in the International Labour Organization’s Decent Work agenda. For the developing world and BRICS, preferential access to western markets should become conditional on the respect of minimum labour and social standards. Thirdly, economic security needs to entail the creation of new, binding global rules for globally binding markets. The current institutional infrastructure ought to acquire new regulatory powers

The crisis is a unique opportunity to come up with a tangible but bold, realistic but ambitious Global New Deal. The success of such an outcome will allow for the development of a modern multilateralism that unites distinct political cultures under the roof of humanity and applies the lessons of a bygone era to the realities of the 21st century.

It needs to be said that the success of such an endeavour is far from assured. Although the chances for a consensus around a new mode of global progressive governance are as high as ever in the last 50 years, failure to act can lead to bleak alternatives at national and/or international level. A few examples are:

A) A return to inward-looking economic protectionism accompanied by regions-based rivalries.

B) The rise of political extremism victimizing the most vulnerable (immigrants) and leading to repressive and authoritarian tendencies in the name of ‘law and order’.

C) The rejection of modern multilateralism in search of power politics by use of raw materials and energy resources by the emerging powers of the world system.

To sustain globalization we need to redefine it so as to include a strong political dimension based on peace and multilateral cooperation. The defeat of narrow-minded protectionism and its consequences goes through coordinated action based on the principles of justice and efficiency institutionalized on a global scale.