Les liaisons fructueuses - RUIG-GIAN

ty, while respecting and protecting the environment.
The preamble of the agreement reached by Ministers
in April 1994 establishing the World Trade
Organisation laudably asked members to sign up
to : “allowing for the optimal use of the world’s
resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable
development, seeking both to protect and
preserve the environment”. However, making a
reality of this goal has challenged policy makers
the world over since the ink on the agreement was
dry.
Diplomats trying to solve this challenge in Geneva
in the present day have been fortunate however to
have the support and encouragement of a worldclass
academic community. The analytical skills
and multi-disciplinary approach offered by scholars
has helped to open trade negotiators’ minds.
More than this, a recent programme funded by the
GIAN has been a neutral convenor of players from
different governments, international organisations,
and think tanks. Over the space of two years, the
use of small group discussions chaired by University
of Geneva scholars has allowed negotiators to speak
their minds in a safe and creative atmosphere. This
has led in turn to better quality communication and
problem-solving, as well as a rich new body of shared
knowledge and analysis for both partners.
In the months ahead, as attention increasingly
turns to the sustainable development challenges
posed by climate change, the Geneva academic
community needs to more boldly help trade negotiators
and other diplomats better understand the
inter-linkages between different disciplines and
perspectives. The current generation of multilateral
actors and scholars needs to more urgently than
ever co-construct a viable low carbon development
vision. It demands more tightly drawing together
expertise from economics, law, engineering, crosscultural
dialogue, business studies, and the natural
sciences. But there can be no better environment
than Geneva to bring these elements together.
Policy makers are insufficiently informed, networked
and mobilised to deal with the scale of the
climate challenge. Even after the major reports by
climate scientists in 2007, minds are too closed. As
Alexander Graham Bell noted, the most successful
people were those who : “carefully advance step by
step” with the mind becoming “wider and wider –
and progressively better able to grasp any theme or
situation”. This is the major outcome of collaboration
between the academic and diplomatic worlds.
And it is why the academic communities converging
on Geneva therefore have an important, urgent
and ever more needed service to perform.
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