Conspiracists often claim that a shadowy cabal is in control of the world.
But is it really corporations? Nation states? Markets? Or no-one in particular?
Auckland University law professor Guy Fiti Sinclair explores who really has the power at Raising the Bar 2022.
Photo: visuals / unsplash
Climate change, global financial shocks, the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – the international community seems to be lurching from crisis to crisis, with no apparent end in sight.
Even in Aotearoa New Zealand, where we feel relatively sheltered, we are not immune from the rising tide of social issues facing other countries, be it economic inequality, political extremism or violence.
In this feverish environment, conspiracists often claim that a shadowy cabal exerts control over the world. But who actually does? Corporations? Nation states? Markets? Or no-one?
Assoc. Prof. Guy Fiti Sinclair, a Samoan-Kiwi lawyer and historian raised in Papua New Guinea, provides an historical perspective on the shifting fortunes of international law and governance over the past century.
From empires to nation-states, from international organisations to markets, and from global to regional governance – he analyses the current set of international crises, who is trying to control them, and how.
Dr Guy Fiti Sinclair
Guy Fiti Sinclair is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean (Pasifika) at Auckland Law School. Photo: Supplied
Dr Guy Fiti Sinclair is an Associate Professor at Auckland Law School. He studied law and history at the University of Auckland. Guy practised as a commercial lawyer for 10 years before completing a doctorate in international law at the New York University School of Law. He has published widely in international law journals. His book To Reform the World: International Organizations and the Making of Modern States won the 2018 Book Prize of the European Society of International Law.
This session was broadcast in association with the University of Auckland’s Raising the Bar night, held in August 2022
Photo: University of Auckland
