The 1345th meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences took place on Thursday, October 2nd at 5.30 p.m. at the New Haven Lawn Club on Whitney Avenue in New Haven. This was the first meeting of the academic year and the second meeting to be held at this venue and also the second meeting at which the lecture was given before the dinner. The change in venue allows more members to attend, particularly the dinners, and the change in time allows for more discussion with the speaker as well as amongst the members. Some 75 members attended the lecture and 65 the dinner.

  The President of the Academy, Ernest Kohorn, welcomed the group and the Secretary announced the newly elected members: H. R. Gerjuoy, Professor, Graduate School of Public Affairs, SUNY Albany (ret), Yvonne Klancko, Learning Disabilities Specialist, Amity Regional School System, James Mazur, Professor of Psychology, Southern Connecticut Sate University, Manfred Noack, Senior Consulting Scientist, Olin Corporation (ret), Brian M. O'Connell, Associate Professor of Ethics, Law and Computing, Central Connecticut State University and Robert Jay Snyder, Professor of Physical Chemistry, Southern Connecticut State University. The Secretary said that it had been her wont to read a précis of the last talk in order to whet members' appetites, but this took time away from the speaker. The précis would now appear on the web.

  Thomas Byrne, a member, of Council, introduced the speaker, Dr Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico and presently the Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and Professor of International Politics at Yale. The title of the talk was "Whatever Happened to the Rise of Globalization in the 1990s?"

 Dr. Zedillo disagreed with Thomas Freedman's description of globalization as being new, driven by technology and providing prosperity by interconnectedness. He said that globalization was a human and political construct and that it was also not new-it had been practiced in 1492. Communication and transportation lead to prosperity and globalization was a good force for peace and stability. However, special interests are against globalization and the destruction of it leads to "bad things". No country can prosper without being open; globalization is not the problem but part of the solution. International trade has not increased in the last three years and has in fact failed for the first time since World War II. There are underlying forces affecting this phenomenon. The failure of the recent conference at Cancun was a worrisome development. Poor countries complained that rich countries were highly protectionist. September 11 was supposed to be a catalyst for a new approach. Economic interdependence had sparked caring but suddenly something happened and the promise was not fulfilled. Europe was now the bad boy because of its farm subsidies and the United States was seen in a similar role because it had blocked the importation of generic drugs, agreed to by 144 countries. Added to this, the emerging coalition of Africa and China has resulted in a world divided. Dr Zedillo wondered whether American leadership was being eroded and if it were, then the consequences would be costly for us and other countries. For global problems there needed to be global solutions and that meant cooperation. However he considered that the present war in Iraq is not being conducted in such a manner and also that our economic policy is not fiscally disciplined or responsible. If the international system is to be protected and improved, the hyper power must set an example of moral leadership and play by the rules of international law and institutions. Dr Zedillo concluded that only if this happens can there be optimism for the future.

 This provocative and stimulating presentation evoked several questions, among them the question of subsidies, Dr. Zedillo said that subsidies should not be linked to production. Another means of protecting producers must be found other than the destructive policy of protectionism.