Pascal Lamy was the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from 2005 till September 2013. He was appointed European Commissioner for Trade in 1999 and he has extensive experience of international organisations and their leadership. A socialist and former adviser to Jacques Delors, Lamy is a fervent supporter of regulated globalisation.

Globalisation has been faster and more widespread than expected — with the result, writes the author, that the global picture has changed completely during the past five years.
Based on his practical experience of the situation, Lamy poses a number of questions: why do politicians always favour local issues over international questions? How to create a system of governance that will allow greater mastery of globalisation? How to articulate the various echelons of power — global, regional, local? Will Europe and France have a role to play in the new configuration?
In this book, Lamy further develops ideas that he had broached twenty years ago: noting that geopolitics has made a comeback, he argues that efficient global governance depends on a consensus about the values resulting from globalisation. Europe, as the first supranational entity, is very well placed to take up the challenge. France, like the U.S., must accept that it needs to look to other countries for inspiration.
Efficiency and democracy go hand in hand. Because global governance will have to respond to the principle of subsidiarity, global problems will necessarily have to be relocated.

• The author is a renowned specialist on economic issues.