2008 Conference proceedings

09:30 – 10:15 | Opening session

Presentation of the World Policy Conference

Thierry De Montbrial

President and founder of Ifri. President and founder of the WPC

The elaboration of a global capitalist system that is both efficient and fair is at stake.

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François Fillon

Prime Minister of the French Republic

But beyond institutional reforms, states must regain a central role in orientation and initiative.

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10:15 – 12:30 | Plenary session 1

HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal

Chairman of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies

Energy is an important issue between us as the developing countries and other countries that have, as the President of Estonia said, this petro-addiction.

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Jaap De Hoop Scheffer

Secretary-General of NATO

If the challenges are multi-dimensional, so must be our institutional response. Civilian and military institutions must work together and complement each other.

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Toomas Hendrik Ilves

President of the Republic of Estonia

When we want to achieve peace and harmony, the EU has to stand up as a union.

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Mario Monti

President of the Bocconi University of Milan

I think that if there has to be more state intervention in the European Union, it’s quite crucial that it happens at the community level rather than at the national level.

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Raila Amolo Odinga

Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya

It is a paradox that the continent richest in resources is also the poorest. It is a paradox that must be reversed, for the good of all.

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Hans Gert Pöttering

President of the European Parliament

Intercultural Dialogue must become an integral part of our policy-making.

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Debates

13:00 – 15:00 | Parallel lunch-debates

15:30 – 17:00 | Parallel Workshops

Workshop #1 – United States: what does the world expect from the “indispensable nation”?

Han Sung-Joo

Chairman of the Asian Institute for Policy Studies. Former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea

At the same time, as different means of communication become more readily available and extensive, public consciousness spreads in conjunction with the expanding horizon of information.

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Marshall Goldmann

Professor of Russian Economics (Emeritus) at Wellesley College, Former Associate Director of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University

One of the most attractive aspects of the US is that even after 225 years, the US still encourages economic and social mobility.

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Jim Hoagland

Columnist and Senior Foreign Correspondent for The Washington Post

What the world seems to await is better American leadership, not its elimination.

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Etienne de Durand

Director of IFRI’s Security Studies Center

As such, America is key to the international security architecture, and continued American engagement is needed in most parts of the world.

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Workshop #2 – Japan : what power, what strategies ?

Yukio Satoh

Former Ambassador to the United Nations. Head of the Japan Institute for International Affairs

The center of gravity of the world economy is shifting to Asia, but security conditions in Asia remain unsettled.

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Valérie Niquet

Director of the Asia Centre at IFRI

The relationship with China is today undoubtedly the most structuring one for the Japanese foreign strategy in its entirety.

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Workshop #3 – Is Europe with 27 and more member sustainable?

Kemal Dervis

Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Europe must be a bridge between the necessary answers to democratic aspirations and the concerns of its citizens.

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Yusuf Wanandi

Co-Founder, Member of the Board of Trustees, and Senior Fellow, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at Jakarta

Due to the financial crisis and the economic downturn in the EU, the process of integration has become more constrained.

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Michel Foucher

Former Ambassador to Latvia. Ex-Director of CAP

On a world scale, the EU functions as an economic and monetary center and as a successful laboratory of regional integration.

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Hans Stark and Kerry Longhurst

KL: Fellow at IFRI, specialist in European Security issues; HS: General Secretary of the Study Committee for Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) at IFRI

Enlargement fatigue means that there is not a desperate sense of urgency to bring in the states of the western Balkans, to confront the Turkish question more squarely nor to begin discussing the prospect of Ukrainian membership.

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Workshop #4 – An arc of crisis from Iraq to Pakistan

Volker Perthes

Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and Chairman and Director of the Board of SWP

Different approaches are needed for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Persian Gulf region, and the Arab-Israeli theatre.

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Shireen Hunter

Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, Distinguished Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Problems in this region and most especially in the three countries of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have roots both in recent developments, actions of the governments of the countries and key international players and events, and policies going back to decades earlier.

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Marc Hecker

Research fellow at IFRI, Department of Security Studies

The arc of crisis from Iraq to Pakistan cannot be stabilized without the involvement of regional powers.

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Workshop #5 – Which governance for which stability?

K. Shankar Bajpai

Former India’s Ambassador to Pakistan, China, and the United States, Chairman of the Delhi Policy Group

In such a global situation perhaps the greatest contribution each state can make to the common, continuous search for stability in the international system is to ensure effective governance within itself.

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Jean-Marie Guéhenno

Member of the United Nation’s Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on disarmament matters

What is new, and could change the threat is combination of WMD and terrorism.

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Marie-Christine Dupuis-Danon

International Consultant, Expert in Criminal Finance, Former Expert, Laundering of criminal money, UN Office for Crime Prevention

Because of the complexity and the diversity of matters, transparency is one of the most important issues.

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Laurence Nardon

Research fellow and the manager of the Space Policy Programme at IFRI

The base is for all countries to accept different religions and languages as well as to respect human dignity.

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Workshop #6 – The economy of knowledge, or education, still deserves an effort

Bertrand Collomb

Honorary Chairman of Lafarge. Chairman of Board of Directors of Ifri

Successful innovation models also require collaborative work between the public and the private sector, as evidenced by the financing of American universities.

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Anatoly Torkunov

Rector of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Science

Social role of education is strongly linked with sustainable development of nations, especially those who are under transition.

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Susanne Nies

Head of IFRI office in Brussels, senior research fellow with the IFRI governance and geopolitics of energy programme

The workshop has been dedicated to the issue how to generate, but exploit as well the new technologies in order to improve the knowledge economy.

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Workshop #7 – Credit crisis, financial crisis, economic crisis: what to do?

André Lévy-Lang

Associate Professor Emeritus, Paris-Dauphine University. Member of the Advisory Council of l’Institut de l’entreprise

The first policy change that is needed after this crisis is a revision of the scope of banking regulations in every major country, beginning with the United States.

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Gikas A. Hardouvelis

Professor at the Department of Banking and Financial Management, University of Piraeus, Greece

The current international financial crisis cannot be blamed on a single underlying cause but on the interaction of many different factors.

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Jacques Mistral

Head of Economic Research at IFRI

The recent financial turmoil has also brought into sharp relief the need to rethink many aspects of financial regulation and supervision.

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Françoise Nicolas; Eliane Mosse

Economist, Senior researcher at the Centre Asie of IFRI; Economist, advisor at IFRI for the Franco-Austrian Center for european convergence

One can also fear that in a climate of increasing poverty and unemployment, political radicalisation might occur, and jeopardize the way democracies operate.

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Workshop #8 – Regulation of migrations, a world issue

Mohammed Bedjaoui

Former Foreign Minister of Algeria

It must be noted however, that despite all its impact, positive or negative, migration largely has so far escaped the influence of international institutions capable of regulating it.

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Christophe Bertossi

Head of the “Migrations, Identities, Citizenship” Programme at IFRI

The objective should not be the militarization of borders but a common international effort to control and structure global migration according to the needs of all parties.

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Workshop #9 – Is the Gold becoming an arc of hope?

Henry Siegman

President of the “U.S./Middle East Project” (USMEP). Research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Programme of the University of London

Peace initiatives that seek an agreement on the cheap, and refuse to pay the price demanded by these fundamentals cannot succeed.

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Khadija Moshen-Finan

Head of the North African Programme at IFRI

The expression “Arc of Hope” is opposed to that of “”Arc of Crisis”” formed by countries like Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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20:00 – 22:30 | Dinner-debate

Pascal Lamy

Director-General of the World Trade Organization

The only way to make sure that emerging economies feel a shared responsibility is to acknowledge the new geo-political balance.

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10:00 – 12:30 | Plenary session 2

Abdoulaye Wade

President of the Republic of Senegal

As a liberal-minded individual, I feel that human beings always have what it takes to overcome the difficulties, the outcome will of course depend on how we deal with the crisis, but we, in my view, have what it takes to overcome it.

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Juan Manuel Gomez-Robledo

Representative of the President of the United Mexican States

Latin America remains the cultural reservoir of the West. It is not acceptable that the region once again be the object of economic and political envy of the major powers, especially if a form of new Cold War might return.

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Nambaryn Enkhbayar

President of the Republic of Mongolia

Geographically we live in different time zones, culturally or according to our religions – in different time ages. However in terms of development and good governance we have to live in one time zone, at the same age, that is in the 21st century.

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Stepan Mesic

President of the Republic of Croatia

After a war everybody is a loser! That is why I have continuously been making the same point: it is better to negotiate for ten years than to wage war for ten days.

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SaKong Il

Personal Representative of the President of the Republic of Korea

All countries in the world should make every effort to take full advantage of merits of globalization, while minimizing its downsides. A strengthened international financial architecture suitable to the changed global environment will be critically important as a basis for such efforts.

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Debates

13:00 – 15:00 | Parallel lunch-debates

15:30 – 17:00 | Parallels Workshops and a non plenary roundtable

Workshop #1 – Russia: domestic developments and external policies

Marshall Goldman

Professor of Russian Economics, Emeritus at Wellesley College

Unlike what happened during the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration’s policies are likely to be less threatening to Russia, yet the personal chemistry between Obama and Putin, and Medvedev and Obama, will be much cooler. It will be fascinating to see which combination produces the most cooperation between both countries.

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Sergey Karaganov

Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy

The habitual politically correct clichés will not help to improve the situation and build a new world. Meanwhile, the time is coming for creation.

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Anatoly V. Torkunov

Rector of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University)

Russia is a fully participating member of the international community. The UN and not NATO is defining the international “rules of the game”. The conflicts along the Russian borders are more or less settled. However, the influence in this region is split between several actors.

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Adrian Dellecker

Researcher at IFRI

For Sergei Karaganov, the main issue is clearly the US’s loss of status as sole superpower as fait accompli and the ramification this has for Europe-Russia relations.

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Workshop #2 – China: domestic developments and assertion of power

Yusuf Wanandi

Co-founder, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees and senior fellow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Foundation, Jakarta

The EU, like ASEAN, continues to be an elitist concept and has not become the concern of the general populace. The people feel that they are left out of the process.

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Valérie Niquet

Director of the Asia Centre at IFRI

For Tokyo, beyond the vital importance granted to the American defender, and it is a position of foreign policy of which Japan wants to make its mark, multilateral structures, including a reformed UNO in which Japan, with others, would find its full place, must remain a priority.

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Workshop #3 – India: regional power and/or world actor?

Jean-Luc Racine

CNRS Senior Fellow at the Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies (CEIAS), at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS Paris)

India is inventing her own way to be a democracy adjusting caste to competitive politics.

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Brahma Chellaney

Professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research

While we know the world is in transition, we still do not know what the new order will look like.

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K. Shankar Bajpai

Chairman of India’s National Security Board and Chairman of the Delhi Policy Group

We are becoming more aware of the world around us, of the challenges and the opportunities our increasing economic and military capabilities as well as our national needs, give rise to.

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Olivier Louis

Researcher at IFRI in charge of the India and South Asia Programme, and of the French Presidency of the European Union Programme

As such, India should find its rightful place amongst the others world powers.

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Workshop #4 – Sub-Saharan Africa: implosion or takeoff?

William Zartman

Professor at The Johns Hopkins University in Washington

Africa militated for independence—that is, self-government or government of one’s self by one’s self for one’s self— when it shook loose colonial rule beginning half a century ago.

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Robert Glasser

Secretary General of CARE International

For every dollar invested in disaster risk reduction and preparedness, roughly seven dollars are saved in disaster response.

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Alain Antil

Head of IFRI’s Sub-Saharan Africa program

In the next four decades, African societies will change drastically, massive geographical mobility is expected, and Africans will become predominantly urban.

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Workshop #5 – Israel/Palestine, a crucial international issue: what commitments for external actors?

Amine Gemayel

Former President of the libanese republic

Cooperation between the Lebanese State and the Palestinian Authority is not directed against any particular faction, but it is in the interest of all Palestinians and all Lebanese people.

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Henry Siegman

President of the “U.S./Middle East Project” (USMEP). Research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Programme of the University of London

Yet, for all that has changed, the Gulf countries cannot do without a U.S. security umbrella, for they have not developed the capacity to provide for their own security.

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Shlomo Avineri

Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Recognizing the limits of US power to broker a peace agreement in the Middle East doesn’t mean it is irrelevant.

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Bassma Kodmani

Executive Director of the Arab Reform Initiative

With other challenges building in the Middle East and elsewhere, it is all the more important to reassert the centrality of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

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Workshop #6 – Energy and climate: what diplomatic challenges?

Thomas Becker

Deputy Permanent Secretary in the department of International Policy and Climate change in the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy

The world is facing two very interlinked challenges: Climate Change and Energy security.

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Bruno Weymuller

Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of Total

Climate and energy issues represent major challenges. Awareness is growing of the need for international action but we must act intelligently.

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William C. Ramsay

Director of the IFRI Energy program. Former Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency

Despite the advantages of a global approach, the divergent interests of too many actors can well lead to a multiplication of compromises and a dilution of objectives.

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Workshop #7 – World food crisis

Hervé Gaymard

Member of the French parliament

It is in the South, particularly in Africa, that the question of what to do to make agriculture once again be a priority is being asked, and everyone should unite for this agricultural priority in the South countries.

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François Danel

Executive Director of “ACF: Action contre la Faim”

Although many countries are seriously affected by the food crisis, most of the affected children are still not treated.

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Aline Leboeuf

Head of the programme “Health and Environment” at IFRI

Hunger is a health issue, and has to be recognized as such. Solutions also are medical, especially regarding the fight against children malnutrition.

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Workshop #8 – Non plenary roundtable

Mohammed Bedjaoui

Former Minister of Algeria

Competence and transparency are the two fruitful teats of good governance.

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Han Sung-Joo

Chairman of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea

Even as security issues of both conventional and non-traditional nature continues to be relevant, new issues, such as environment, competition for resources, human rights, humanitarian crises, economy, and social well-being become increasingly important and relevant.

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Igor S. Ivanov

Professor at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO). Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation

Old pattern of relations are coming to a logical end, we need the new one. We have, all in all, a chance to reinvent the world, comfortable for us all.

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Hubert Védrine

Former French Foreign Minister

Westerners are discovering that they are losing, not their power and wealth which remain immense, but their monopoly. And the Western powers are not ready for that.

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17:15 – 18:45 | Plenary session 3

Kemal Dervis

Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Six months ago it was thought that despite the financial crisis economic growth would still hold. But now it is clear that we are in the midst of a crisis in which the adverse repercussions on the real economy are even more significant than anticipated.

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Jean-Claude Trichet

President of the European Central Bank

What makes the current crisis stand out is its extraordinarily large scale, the fact that it is hitting right at the centre of the international financial system and that it is deeply affecting industrialised countries.

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Debates

20:00 – 23:00 | Official dinner

09:00 – 12:00 | Plenary session 4

Christophe De Margerie

Chief executive officer of Total

Yet climate change is being announced everywhere as being the priority, simply because what is at stake is the survival of the planet. Remember that there won’t be any more financial crisis if the planet disappears.

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Pascal Couchepin

President of the Swiss Confederation

I think confidence has to be built over time. And I believe that if there is a positive lesson to be learnt from this crisis, there will be just one lesson, that is, that it will force statesmen over the world whatever their colour to be responsible and to act in a sustainable manner, to make promises that they can keep.

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Boris Tadic

President of the Republic of Serbia

By working together to solve the UDI crisis, we can restore the trust and reaffirm the legitimacy of the UN Charter and the international legal regime that flows from it. This is a time for strategic thinking and bold ideas.

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Thierry De Montbrial

President and founder of IFRI. President and founder of the WPC.

The future rules of the game will only be legitimate if they have been designed with the participation of everybody. One of the drawbacks of the current form of governance is that all its rules have been defined by a very small part of the planet.

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12:00 – 13:15 | Closing session

Dmitry Medvedev

President of Russia

Historically, Russia is part of European civilization and for us, as Europeans, it matters a lot what values will shape the future world.

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Nicolas Sarkozy

President of the French Republic

Between us, then, we must rebuild trust, the prerequisite for reviving an ambitious European-Russian partnership.

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Thierry De Montbrial

President and founder of IFRI. President and founder of the WPC.

One of the drawbacks of the current form of governance is that all its rules have been defined by a very small part of the planet.