The Defeat of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment: National Movements Confront Globalism

Abstract

Before the ‘Battle in Seattle’ imprinted the image of young anti-globalization activists confronting riot police and shutting down international trade negotiations, the MAI died in October 1998 when France and then Canada pulled out of the talks. The MAI’s defeat was the first time citizens’ movements punctured the aura of corporate globalization as the inevitable direction of history. Fresh from unexpected victory, anti-MAI leaders helped organize Seattle, and subsequent ‘antiglobalization’ confrontations.