Part of Series
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is scarcely ten years old, but it has already generated a mountain of debate, controversy, and outrage. Rulings on beef hormones and tuna-dolphin cases provide explicit examples of how the organization regulates into areas of individual consumer choice, ethical preferences, and cultural habits. The deep and far-ranging impact of the WTO on peoples' everyday lives means that it is not just an institution of interest to economists, but to everyone, a fact that was perhaps most graphically illustrated by the demonstrations that have become a regular feature associated with high-level meetings of the WTO. This book provides a carefully considered explanation of what the WTO is, what it does, and how it goes about executing its tasks, and gives a clear understanding of the mandate, structure, and functioning of the WTO that is essential to appreciating the controversy behind the organization.
Author
Amrita Narlikar is the president of the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studiesand Professor at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg, Germany. She was previously Reader in International Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Cambridge, founding Director of the Centre for Rising Powers, and a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. She is an expert on international negotiations, the political economy of international trade, and rising powers. Narlikar read history for her B.A. at St. Stephen's College, Delhi and graduated in 1996 with a M.A. from the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, earning the highest marks in the school's record. She was subsequently educated at Balliol College Oxford, where she completed her M.Phil. and D.Phil. in International Relations in 2000. She was a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College Oxford and has held academic positions in various universities including a Visiting Fellowship at Yale University, and an International Visiting Chair at Université Libre de Bruxelles. She was a member of the Warwick Commission on Multilateral Trade. Narlikar is the author or editor of 9 books and has published more than 50 scholarly articles. Her books include New Powers: How to become one and how to manage them (Columbia University Press, 2010), The World Trade Organization: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2005), and International Trade and Developing Countries: Coalitions in the GATT and WTO (Routledge, 2003). She is the editor of Deadlocks in Multilateral Negotiations: Causes and Solutions (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and guest editor of a May 2013 special issue of International Affairs on rising powers. Narlikar is the daughter of journalist and author Aruna Narlikar and physicist Anant V. Narlikar. She is the granddaughter of physicist Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar. (from Wikipedia)
