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  • Newsart for The Misrule of Law

    The Misrule of Law

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  • Newsart for Obama’s Promised Land

    Obama’s Promised Land

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  • Newsart for Obama the European?

    Obama the European?

    WASHINGTON – Barack Obama began his second term as US President with an inaugural address that presented a broad vision of American governme…

  • Newsart for Europe’s Narrative Struggle

    Europe’s Narrative Struggle

    MADRID – The start of any year invariably prompts stocktaking, and 2012 certainly offers much to consider: the dramatic events in the Middle…

  • Newsart for Europe’s Regional Revolts

    Europe’s Regional Revolts

    MADRID – In both Catalonia and Scotland, calls for independence are growing once again – an indication of conditions not only in Spain and t…

  • Newsart for Europe’s Nobel Wake-Up Call

    Europe’s Nobel Wake-Up Call

    MADRID – In a decision criticized and praised in equal measure, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year’s Peace Prize to the Europea…

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Ana Palacio: The Turning Point

Can the World Bank, IMF, and UN Security Council be remade to reflect the shift of global economic power to emerging markets? Have the European Union’s problems discredited regionalism and revived nationalism? How should populists be politically contained? Are open economies compatible with political Islam?

Whenever the international system’s leading powers change, global turmoil invariably follows. But history offers little guidance for such moments, especially today, when so many players – new powers like Brazil, China, and India, and regional powers like Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey, South Africa, and Iran – are flexing their muscles at the same time. Moreover, for the first time in decades, America’s longstanding global leadership is in doubt almost everywhere.

All of this has made international relations more complex – and more combustible – than ever. Indeed, today’s leaders are obliged to act in the face of unprecedented transparency and instantaneous communication, which influences the substance, methods, and even the purpose of international diplomacy.

Few understand these challenges better than Ana Palacio. The first woman to serve as Spain’s foreign minister, she helped to craft the treaties governing the expanded European Union. And, as Senior Vice-President and General Counsel of the World Bank at a time when it was forging a new activist role in developing countries, she designed innovative ways to strengthen foreign-investment protection and national investment laws. Dubbed “Europe’s Lawyer” by The Wall Street Journal, she was Executive President of the Academy of European Law, and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council. 

Business and political leaders around the world seek Ana Palacio’s insights into the intersection of diplomacy, commerce, and law. Every month in The Turning Point, written exclusively for Project Syndicate, she distills the essential issues shaping an increasingly turbulent world.

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Ana Palacio

Ana Palacio, a former Spanish foreign minister and former Senior Vice President of the World Bank, is a member of the Spanish Council of State.

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