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Big Brother goes global
You've heard of money laundering; now welcome to "policy laundering". In the post-9/11 era of "international cooperation", governments find agreeing so easy they've taken to having unpopular domestic policy ratified by obscure international bodies. Reintroducing the policy at home then becomes easy: after all, it's in line with international standards. Invariably, these policies affect areas where civil liberties are an issue – above all surveillance – and little though we may realise it, have made massive inroads into daily life.
Big Brother goes global
Post 9/11, governments are increasingly tailoring "international standards" to ratify domestic policies that intrude on civil liberties. Welcome to the phenomenon of "policy laundering".
Introduction
Big Brother goes global
Gus Hosein
Walking on the dark side
Simon Davies
The complete ID primer
Barry Steinhardt
Three cheers for international cooperation
Tony Bunyan
Unaccountable Europe
Tania Simoncelli, Helen Wallace
Spiralling out of control
David Fewer
The genie in the information bottle
Joe Stork
The thin end of the cooperation wedge
David Banisar
The irresistible rise of a right
Karen Banks
Summitry and strategies
Christian Möller
The very model of a modern IGO
Clearly, it's time for civil society to adjust to the massive shift of power on the global political stage. "We must be wary of claims justified by 'international obligations', the need for 'international cooperation' and 'harmonization'," writes Gus Hosein. "As long as governments fail to show the same eagerness for more progressive regulatory regimes – on global debt and the environment, for instance – we must question their zeal for collaboration in other areas." Now read on for the bigger picture.
Published 2005-10-25
Original in English
© Eurozine
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