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By Loubna Flah
Morocco World News
Casablanca, June 23, 2012
The APD ( Association pour le Progrés des Dirigeants/ Association for the Progress of Leaders) hosted on Thursday in Casablanca another conference under the theme “ The New Economic Powers” delivered by Thierry Garcin , a professor of political science at HEC Paris and the at the Center for Diplomatic and Strategic studies. Mr. Garcin is also the author of the critically acclaimed book “The Biggest International Issues after the Fall of the Berlin Wall”.
In his address, Mr. Garcin listed the major economic powers that have currently the greatest share of global trade, namely the United States, Europe, and the new emerging economies, including the Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) in addition to the association of newly industrialized countries commonly labeled as the BRICS, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
In his presentation Mr. Garcin portrayed the United States as a declining power especially with the economic crisis hammering its financial and banking sectors. He anticipates a series of crisis to weaken further the American economy with serious repercussions at the international level. He noted the American government’s lack of control over the financial and the banking system. In addition, the backlash of failed wars notably in Iraq and Afghanistan has further crippled its economic and diplomatic prominence.
Talking about Europe, Mr. Garcin makes it clear that the European Union is becoming incrementally devoid of political convergence among its members. He argues that the European Union is no more than an economic organization especially with the arrival of new countries from Eastern Europe.
Mr. Garcin highlighted that Turkey’s application to join the European Union remains highly problematic. In fact, Turkey is viewed by many in the EU as being “different” from the European mainstream culture which may endanger the very nature of the European Union. On the other hand, Mr. Garcin highlighted the divergence existing between the European Union’s most powerful countries namely France and Germany. While the German Chancellor Angela Merkel lays emphasis on austerity as the only way out from the Euro zone crisis, Mr. François Hollande advocates more for stimulating growth rather than imposing policies of deficit cutting via the reduction of benefits and public services provided to citizens.
Mr.Garcin pinpoints also that the American isolationism and unilateralism have always disappointed its European partners. In fact the United States has undertaken on several occasions one sided actions, disregarding the importance of collective responsibility within the international community. Thus, American unilateralism has often sabotaged efforts to settle pending issues in many areas especially the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The reluctance to ratify the Kyoto protocol is another instance of American unilateralism.
The conference organized by the APD aimed at providing the participants with authentic background information. The previous conference revolved around Lessons in management taking Chinese Pragmatism as an interesting model. The APD Morocco is an organization that provides leaders and managers with training in new techniques through exposure to the most successful management models. It offers them a myriad of management strategies and innovative alternatives to boost their productivity and consolidate their presence in competitive markets.
