ABSTRACT
This editorial introduces the themes of the next four issues of the journal. As the current issue goes to press the World Trade Organization's meeting in Seattle is being disrupted by protests from groups with interests as divergent as tariffs against textile exports from developing countries, genetic modification of foodstuffs, and environmental damage. The world's media presents pervasive images of powerful governments and huge multinational companies holding poorer countries and local interests to ransom as they trample on human rights and traditional modes of cultural and economic existence. Alternatively, the images are of crazy people hindering the legitimate and serious business of the WTO. Trade talks have never received so much publicity, but in this instance the opposition comes from two entirely different sources - those who are against the WTO because they support old-fashioned protectionism and their own self-interest, and those who are opposed to free trade because of its effects on the weaker players in the global marketplace.
