Biting the bullet
If Éamon de Valera’s attempts to run a closed economy up until the 1950s resulted in nothing more than the highest emigration levels since the 1880s, then retreating from the world economy nowadays is certainly not an option open to any nation anywhere.
And of course it’s not just economics: environmental, security, food and health issues are all converging to mould every national political agenda. Increasingly it is global issues that will determine our quality of life, which will require resolution on a global scale. So argues UN veteran, Mark Malloch-Brown in The Unfinished Global Revolution.
