"We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments tend to be slow moving by nature, because they have to build political support for every step"
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Annan’s line lands like a calm rebuke delivered in a diplomat’s indoor voice. It’s not anti-government so much as anti-complacency: a warning that the tempo of global change has slipped out of the procedural rhythm of parliaments, ministries, and summit communiques. “Internet time” is the key phrase, a late-1990s/early-2000s shorthand for speed, volatility, and borderlessness. By borrowing it, Annan signals that power is migrating to networks - markets, platforms, civil society, even loosely organized publics - that can act and scale faster than formal institutions.
The subtext is strategic. Annan is defending democracy’s friction (governments “have to build political support”) while admitting its vulnerability. He’s naming the political constraint without romanticizing it: legitimacy takes time, and time has become a luxury. That tension sits at the heart of UN-era globalization debates he helped shape, where crises (financial contagion, conflict spillover, pandemics, climate risk) increasingly ignored national timetables, yet solutions still required national buy-in.
The “we” matters, too. Annan expands responsibility outward - to companies, NGOs, philanthropies, technologists, citizens - implicitly courting partnerships and voluntary action when treaty-making stalls. It’s also a gentle nudge toward accountability: if governments are structurally slow, waiting becomes a choice, and delay becomes a form of complicity. Annan’s intent is to legitimate fast, multi-actor problem-solving without surrendering the moral claim that public authority must eventually catch up and set the rules.
The subtext is strategic. Annan is defending democracy’s friction (governments “have to build political support”) while admitting its vulnerability. He’s naming the political constraint without romanticizing it: legitimacy takes time, and time has become a luxury. That tension sits at the heart of UN-era globalization debates he helped shape, where crises (financial contagion, conflict spillover, pandemics, climate risk) increasingly ignored national timetables, yet solutions still required national buy-in.
The “we” matters, too. Annan expands responsibility outward - to companies, NGOs, philanthropies, technologists, citizens - implicitly courting partnerships and voluntary action when treaty-making stalls. It’s also a gentle nudge toward accountability: if governments are structurally slow, waiting becomes a choice, and delay becomes a form of complicity. Annan’s intent is to legitimate fast, multi-actor problem-solving without surrendering the moral claim that public authority must eventually catch up and set the rules.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
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