Convocation: Jagdish Bhagwati

Described as one of the most creative international trade theorists of his generation, Jagdish Bhagwati is a leader in the fight for freer trade. Bhagwati is Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was Economic Policy Adviser to the Director General of the GATT (1991-93), has also served as Special Adviser to the UN on Globalization and has advised the Indian government on economic reform. Currently, he is a member of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's High-level Advisory Group of the NEPAD process in Africa and is an External Adviser to the WTO. Five volumes of his scientific writings and two of his public policy essays have been published by MIT press. Three festschrift volumes of essays in his honor have been published in the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands. In addition to numerous invited lectures, Professor Bhagwati has received honorary degrees from universities on four continents. Bhagwati has published more than three hundred articles and fifty volumes and also writes frequently for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times, as well as reviews for The New Republic and The Times Literary Supplement. His most recent book, "In Defense of Globalization," has attracted worldwide acclaim. The title of his presentation is "The Critics of Globalization: Why They are Wrong."