2023 CONFERENCE
THE CAMDEN CONFERENCE‘s mission is to foster “informed discourse on world issues.” We do this by means of our February conference, our community events at libraries during the autumn and winter, and our student education programs in high schools, colleges, and universities around Maine. Learn more >
Global Trade and Politics:
Managing Turbulence
February 17-19, 2023
Live from the Camden Opera House, the 36th Camden Conference will highlight the importance of global commerce and how it impacts our everyday lives. Speakers will explore alternative ways in which the interdependence of commerce, global politics and national security could be successfully managed for both competition and cooperation.
Camden Conference online registration is open now to all!
SPEAKERS
Peter Goodman
Keynote Speaker
Peter S. Goodman is the global economics correspondent for The New York Times, based in New York.
Over the course of three decades in journalism, Mr. Goodman has covered some of the most momentous economic transformations and upheavals – the global financial crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession, as the Times’ New York-based national economic correspondent; the emergence of China into a global superpower as the Shanghai bureau chief for The Washington Post; the dot-com bubble as a technology reporter based in Washington. During a five-year stint in London for the Times, he wrote about Brexit, the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, and the catastrophe of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Goodman has reported from more than 40 countries, including stints in conflict zones such as Iraq, Cambodia, Sudan and East Timor.
He has been recognized with some of journalism’s top honors, including two Gerald Loeb awards, and seven prizes from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. His work as part of the Times’ series on the roots of the 2008 financial crisis was a finalist for the Pulitzer.
He is the author two books, the best-selling DAVOS MAN: How the Billionaires Devoured the World (2022), a National Public Radio Best Book of the Year, and PAST DUE: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy (2009), which was named one of Bloomberg’s top 50 business titles.
David Brancaccio
Moderator
David Brancaccio is Host and Senior Editor of American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report. Most recently, his reporting has focused on ecosystems of innovation drawing on the 75th anniversary of the semiconductor revolution. He also covers regulation of financial markets, the role of technology in labor markets, digital privacy, sustainability, and social enterprises. His work has earned some of the highest honors in broadcast journalism, including the Peabody, the Columbia-duPont, the Emmy and the Walter Cronkite awards.
Mr. Brancaccio anchored the award-winning public television news program NOW on PBS until 2010. He is author of Squandering Aimlessly, a book about personal values and money. He is producing a feature-length documentary film about the intersection of art and science focusing on an exiled American rocket pioneer who founded the enduring science and art journal Leonardo. Mr. Brancaccio has degrees from Wesleyan and Stanford Universities. He grew up in Waterville, Maine and attended schools in Madagascar, Ghana and Italy. He enjoys bicycling, rocketry, and photography.
Agenda
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17
7:30 pm
WELCOME & OPENING REMARKS
KARIN LOOK
President, Camden Conference
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Is Globalization Over? (Spoiler: No)
PETER S. GOODMAN
Global Economics Correspondent
The New York Times
Discussion and Questions
9:00 pm ADJOURN
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18
8:45 am
PREVIEW OF CONFERENCE SESSIONS
DAVID BRANCACCIO
Host, Marketplace Morning Report
American Public Media
The Politics of Trade: How Did We Get to Where We Are Today?
DOUGLAS IRWIN
John French Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College
Discussion and Questions
10:00-10:30 am BREAK
10:30 am
What Future for Globalization?
CAROLINE FREUND
Dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego
People Who Live in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones: Norm Violation in Trade Policy
SIMON EVENETT
Professor of International Trade and Economic Development, University of St. Gallen, and Founder of the Global Trade Alert
Discussion and Questions
12-1:30 pm LUNCH
1:30 pm
From Rules-Based to Security-Oriented Trade Governance
MARK WU
Henry L. Stimson Professor at Harvard Law School
Will India Become an Economic Superpower and a Happy Nation at 100?
AJAY CHHIBBER
Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy, Georgetown University, and Senior Professor, Indian Council for Research on India’s Economic Relations, New Delhi, India
2:45 – 3:15 pm BREAK
3:15 pm
The Enduring Economic and Political Consequences of the China Trade Shock
DAVID AUTOR
Ford Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Six Horsepersons of the Apocalypse and One Effort to Rein Them In
PAUL SOLMAN
Journalist and Host of “Making $ense,” on The PBS NewsHour
Discussion and Questions
4:30 pm ADJOURN
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19
8:45 am
How Do We Get to an Inclusive and Sustainable Trading System Fit for the 21st Century?
JENNIFER HILLMAN
Professor of Practice at the Georgetown University Law Center, and Fellow of the University’s Institute of International Economic Law
The Changing Politics of Global Trade: Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?
JOHN E. SUNUNU
Member of the Boards of Directors of Boston Scientific and Lloyds of London and Former United States Senator and Congressman from New Hampshire
10:30 – 11:00 am BREAK
11:00 am ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
KARIN LOOK
President, Camden Conference
PANEL OF ALL THE SPEAKERS
12:30 pm ADJOURN
Baldwin, Richard. The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2019. (344 pages)
The new globalization is driven by knowledge crossing borders, not just goods, and its impact is more sudden, more individual, more unpredictable and less controllable; presents challenges to nations as they struggle to maintain reliable growth and social cohesion.
Bernanke, Ben S. 21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19. W. W. Norton & Company, 2022. (512 pages)
An explanation of the Federal Reserve’s evolution and speculation about its future.
Bernstein, William J. A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World. Grove Press, 2009. (496 Pages)
A sweeping narrative of world trade, from 3000 BC to globalization.
Bigelow, Bill and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World. Rethinking Schools Press, 2002. (402 pages).
Globalization and the social justice issues that are embedded in it, such as child labor, sweatshops, global warming, etc.
Blas, Javier and Jack Farchy. The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources. Random House Business, 2020. (302 pages)
Latest News
Camden Conference In the World-February 2023
Fewer than one in 10 of the Western companies that
Paul Solman, host of Making $ense on PBS NewsHour, will speak on February 18 at the Camden Conference
Supply chains strained and in disarray, war in Europe, a
WATCH: “Architecture as Expressions of Change: Considering Food and Ukraine”-talk by J. Brooke Harrington and Judith Bing
This presentation explores change: first, in the architectures of granaries
Upcoming Events
Gold and politics, growing world hunger, and Maine ships abroad
Upcoming Events
Peter Dugas on International Climate Policy & Trade
READING & DISCUSSION — THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: CAPITALISM VS. THE CLIMATE by Naomi Klein (Session #2: Extractivism; Environmentalists & Corporations; Climate Fixes)
Positioning the Roux Institute to expand K12 STEM education in Maine-on ZOOM
“Maine’s Climate Action Plan and Community Action” with Sarah Curran-in person and ZOOM
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
TESTIMONIALS
The weekend couldn't have been better planned or managed. What a rich and charming experience it was.
….the speakers were all first-rate and were all lovely individuals, and Indira Lakshmanan was everything you could ask for in a moderator. The venue, the peripheral events, the flow of the programming, the questions we got from the audience – all of it was a delight. I think the format, especially, is something I might want to draw on for other conferences I'm involved in… In short, I've been to many, many conferences as this certainly rates as among the very best.
What a phenomenal and timely program. Every speaker and every panel hit it out of the park. While we were reviewing how much my wife and I learned over the weekend, I realized that the speakers themselves very likely learned or developed new ideas themselves. And since they have a far larger impact on the events of the day, their experience from the weekend may have even more value than ours. Thank you to the Camden Conference. Five stars to the Camden Conference organization.
I was impressed by the skills, background and range of speakers … I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend such a conference.
I found this year’s Camden Conference to be absolutely amazing. For me, it was … one continuous increasingly gratifying experience from beginning to end. The panel members were all extremely knowledgeable in their areas of expertise. They were articulate and they all were extremely insightful. They truly were committed to helping all of us become better informed about this chaotic world we live in. The panel represented such a wonderful degree of diversity. More importantly is the fact that such diversity could have differing opinions and find common ground.
I found this the most relevant and meaningful Conference I’ve attended (and I’ve attended a lot). A wonderful, stimulating event in mid-winter Maine. I plan to attend the Conference annually.” Conference attendee
“The audience was very engaged, the questions were excellent, and it was very stimulating to hear people with diverse opinions debate with each other.
Camden is the next Davos!
Thank you again for inviting me to the Camden Conference, which was truly a wonderful experience. As I have told colleagues and friends everywhere, it was one of the best organized and best attended conferences I have ever spoken at. It was also, even more importantly, one of the most interesting. What a great cast of speakers. Please call upon me again if you think I will fit the topic of a future conference.
The conference, in my opinion was as good as I could hope for. It was wonderful. Such a terrific and credentialed and scholarly faculty. It was tremendous. And I learned a huge amount. I might not be so stupid when I hear talk about immigration and consider inserting my “two cents worth” - Thank you for a wonderful educational experience. Learning never hurts
…The Camden Conference just might be the best conference of its type in the United States.