The London School of Economics and Political Science The World Economic Forum: An Anatomy of Multi-Stakeholder Global Policy-Making A dissertation submitted to the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Parag Khanna London September 2010 Supervisor: Dr. David Held Word count: 79,586 1 UMI Number: U615B38 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615BB8 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. 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ABSTRACT A growing literature speaks to how non-state actors (both corporations and civil society) increasingly play roles in global governance such as lobbying inter-state deliberations or filling governance gaps in the provision of public goods. Far less analysis, however, has been devoted to how such actors attempt to supply new and original global policy processes altogether. How does a non-state actor acquire sufficient authority to become an anchor of global governance? Over the past forty years, the World Economic Forum (WEF), a business-funded and business membership non-profit foundation, has also gradually emerged as a standing site of multi-stakeholder interactions and negotiations. It convenes diverse actors through its various summits, facilitates joint initiatives among them, and attempts to shape procedural and substantive norms at the global level. Does the WEF’s role as a bridge among state and non-state actors make it a legitimate site of multi-stakeholder global policy­ making? What does the WEF story tell us about the conditions under which organizations can serve to anchor global policy processes within a multi-actor world society? This dissertation provides an anatomy of the WEF and account of how its functions have evolved in its first four decades. It argues that as the WEF has transitioned from a primarily business-driven management forum into a fuller multi-stakeholder vehicle, it has acquired sufficient recognition and authority to become a unique non-state hub of global policy processes. It attempts to demonstrate this through a detailed analysis of how the WEF’s roles have expanded to encompass various convening, facilitation, and norm entrepreneurship activities. It also examines whether the WEF’s evolving mission statements and business models have empowered it to adapt to its multiple constituents’ priorities while affording it increasing neutrality among them and independence from any one of them. Can the WEF (and similar multi-stakeholder bodies) move beyond being considered supplements to the existing inter-governmental organizations which anchor the international society of states towards being the main legitimate sites for world society interactions? This analysis contributes to the empirical literature on new global governance instruments as well as pluralist accounts of the evolving global policy architecture. Word count: 79,586 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments 5 Chapter 1: Introduction 6 Chapter 2: Multi-Stakeholder Global Policy 25 Chapter 3: The WEF’s Founding and Early Years 45 Chapter 4: The WEF as Convener 64 Chapter 5: The WEF as Facilitator 95 Chapter 6: The WEF as Norm Entrepreneur 157 Chapter 7: Global Policy vs. International Policy: Significant Case Studies 182 Chapter 8: Conclusion 200 Bibliography 217 Appendix A: List of Interviews 237 Appendix B: WEF Initiatives by Theme 241 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have possible without the willingness of the managing directors, staff, and other associates of the World Economic Forum to share their time, experiences, and insights with me. I am grateful for their accommodation and hope that this dissertation can contribute to a broader understanding of their constructive activities. My early graduate faculty mentors at Georgetown University, Tom Banchoff and Daniel Nexon, were instrumental in teaching sociological institutionalism and other qualitative methodologies for evaluating changing patterns in world politics. From Georgetown I am also grateful for the support of Michael Brown, Dean Robert Gallucci, and President John DeGioia. My close colleague from the Brookings Institution, Ann Florini, has been a supportive mentor and sounding board for ideas for close to a decade. The London School of Economics has provided an innovative and challenging environment to research and produce this dissertation. In the International Relations department I am grateful to Barry Buzan, whose early supervision of this dissertation provided much needed rigor and theoretical clarity. Robert Falkner and George Lawson in the IR department were also very helpful advisors, providing important comments that helped shape this project. I owe the most thanks to David Held of the Government department, who served as the main supervisor for this dissertation. His coaching on the theoretical, methodological, and empirical levels all substantially improved my scholarship. My parents Sushil and Manjula Khanna have encouraged and nudged my academic aspirations since my undergraduate days, and I hope they are pleased with the ultimate outcome. My brother Gaurav, the first in our family to attain a doctorate, has been a constant role model for his hard work and ambition. I dedicate this dissertation to my wife Ayesha and daughter Zara who have been highly supportive of my transatlantic trips and long stretches of intense research and writing. 5 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. OVERVIEW A growing literature speaks to how non-state actors (both corporations and civil society) increasingly play roles in global governance such as lobbying inter-state deliberations or filling governance gaps in the provision of public goods. Far less analysis, however, has been devoted to how such actors attempt to supply new and original global policy processes altogether. How does a non-state actor acquire sufficient authority to become an anchor of global governance? Over the past forty years, the World Economic Forum (WEF), a business-funded and business membership non-profit foundation, has also gradually emerged as a standing site of multi-stakeholder interactions and negotiations. It convenes diverse actors through its various summits, facilitates joint initiatives among them, and attempts to shape procedural and substantive norms at the global level. Does the WEF’s role as a bridge among state and non-state actors make it a legitimate site of multi-stakeholder global policy­ making? What does the WEF story tell us about the conditions under which organizations can serve to anchor global policy processes within a multi-actor world society? This dissertation provides an anatomy of the WEF and account of how its functions have evolved in its first four decades. It argues that as the WEF has transitioned from a primarily business-driven management forum into a fuller multi-stakeholder vehicle, it has acquired sufficient recognition and authority to become a unique non-state hub of global policy processes. It attempts to demonstrate this through a detailed analysis of how the WEF’s roles have expanded to encompass various convening, facilitation, and norm entrepreneurship activities. It also examines whether the WEF’s evolving mission statements and business models have empowered it to adapt to its multiple constituents’ priorities while affording it increasing neutrality among them and independence from any one of them. Can the WEF (and similar multi-stakeholder bodies) move beyond being considered supplements to the existing inter-govemmental organizations which anchor the international society of states towards being the main legitimate sites for world society interactions? 6 Much of the literature on transnational relations emphasizes how non-state actors influence official international institutions and norms. But the WEF is unique in that itnon-state is a body that seeks to incubate and drive its own norm-setting processes as much as to influence official ones. It therefore deserves more rigorous independent investigation. Some of the key questions which must be asked of such an innovative organization are: How does it acquire sufficient authority to be considered a hub of global governance? How does it establish neutrality among diverse stakeholders? This dissertation attempts to provide a framework to answer these questions, and in doing so, seeks to contribute