The state of the world is in a 'vacuum' and it is now time for the global citizenship to acknowledge the end of globalization and to work at reinventing itself, says John Ralston Saul, an author and the husband of Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson.

Globalization is just an economic theory; it's already had an over-extended 30-year run, and is now dead, argues Ralston Saul's new book, The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World.

Since 1995, there has been increasing evidence that the economics of globalization just don't work, Ralston Saul told a packed audience at the Yukon Arts Centre Monday evening.

He drew examples to Brazil, Argentina and New Zealand, three countries which all but tore up the paperwork that tied them to globalist agendas.

Globalization is a belief system with flawed logic, he told the audience.

It arose out of politicians in the 1970s believing they didn't have power to invoke change and telling the public there were larger forces at work, he said.

However, the Western-based concept failed to resolve some of the issues it promised to cure, including reducing the importance of the nation state, boom and bust cycles and turning dictatorships into democracies.

'What I'm saying is there was a theory that said it knew how to organize the world,' Ralston Saul said last night, 'and things like racism and violence would wither as a result and they didn't, as a result, and therefore it failed. Therefore people started to notice it was failing and started to take other sorts of action.'

In an interview with the Star this morning, Ralston Saul said the Yukon's experience with globalism has not been much different from the rest of the world.

'The problem with the last 30 years, from the point of view of the North, the tendency was to extenuate the idea that there is a centre and it is somewhere else,' he said. 'It's always somewhere else, which is the essential idea of globalization. You don't have any power the power lies elsewhere with larger forces.'

However, Ralston Saul said, the North is exerting itself in fighting against the idea that the power is elsewhere.

Communities like Whitehorse and Mayo demonstrate that power exists here, he said.

'You know, this works for them. They don't care if it works in terms of economic theory,' he said.

'You're at an interesting moment where people have affirmed that being a northerner works in and of itself, but really, not much work has been done at developing economic theories and practices which explain how that works.'

The North has a proven ability at developing northern-centred policies that have the logic needed to work in the territories, he said.

A lot of northern policies don't naturally fit into the terms of economic competitiveness, when defined under the prism of globalization, yet the policies have permitted people in the territories to reaffirm themselves as northerners, he said.

'I think there is a lot of work to be done in assuring that the North is not going to be jerked around again by the South or by the Outside. Part of that is just to look at any kind of economic solution and saying, Is this simply a slightly dressed-up version of the old thing?', which is boom and bust cycles run from somewhere else. Or, Is this a new approach, which is north-centric?''

Ralston Saul alluded to various economic and infrastructure projects occurring in the Yukon. They include the proposed Alaska-Canada railway, the proposed Alaska Highway gas pipeline and the use of public-private partnerships (P3s), though he declined to discuss any particular policy issue affecting the territory.

However, he did say Yukoners need to carefully consider the impact of future projects in what he argues to be a post-globalist world.

'There's a lot of talk about training northerners so they get benefit out of new industrial projects, building projects, but you've always got to stand back and say, Is this simply to do with the building of projects, is there a long-term benefit to northerners, or is it simply short-term benefit of building something?'

'What we have to be aware of are very old-fashioned models that pretend to be new models,' he said.

The globalist era has already demonstrated many ideas and theories attached to both the public and private sector to be false, he said.

'There were a lot of ideas what if we privatize railways or we privatize water, this would automatically produce a more efficient outcome. In some cases, this has been true. In other cases, this has been not true. So there is no sort of clear answer.'

The use of P3s, like the possibility of using one for building the Dawson City bridge, also doesn't have a clear answer, he said.

'Public-private, maybe there's some cases where it will work, but you'll have to look very, very carefully to know. The mantra of, you know, If we bring in the private sector, it will be more efficient.'

'It all depends. Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on what you're talking about. It may be, a public-private arrangement may in fact make it impossible to succeed, because they'll impose short-term profit requirements, which means you can't make long-term investments.'

There are lots of other models that can be used when looking at projects and developing policies, he said. People need to acknowledge that models can be reinvented in a way that isn't traditional in the public or private sense, he added.

'There are many things that could be run by sort of independent boards, which include citizens, which are arm's-length from government. So you don't have the problem of how much government can manage or the problem of the short-term interest of the private sector,' he said.

This sort of citizenship involvement is important as the world works through the vacuum it's in, Ralston Saul told the audience last night.

Right now, citizens have the ability to step forward and have an influence in redefining the new global status that will likely emerge in the next five to 10 years, he said.

There is no way of truly knowing what the new world will look like, said Ralston Saul. However, the world is now at the point where average citizens can have tremendous power, he said.

'It think this moment is a moment of opportunity for citizens to actually intervene and shape society,' he said.

'The key to it is that you can't actually ask a middle-level official to reform themselves. What you can do is establish a different political consensus and the political consensus provides the leadership which makes it possible for the middle level to change.

'You can't bully them into changing, you actually have to lead them into changing,' he said, adding, 'and that's why the role of the citizen is so important at this point.'

Ralston Saul concluded his book tour Monday night. It took him across central and western Canada.

He will now be joining the Governor General on an official tour of the North, which will see visits to Pangnirtung, Grise Fiord, Resolute Bay, Pond Inlet, Iqaluit and Alert.

Clarkson is scheduled to preside over a special citizenship ceremony at 5:00 this afternoon at the Yukon government administration building.