It is a distinct privilege for me to have been invited by the manager of the Cyril Foster Fund at Oxford University to give this year's lecture.

Of course, the impressive list of my predecessors for the occasion makes me very modest, as I am far from displaying comparable talents and achievements. But I also feel immensely rewarded by what is very peculiar in this invitation: the wish of Mr Cyril Foster that such lectures deal with the ‘elimination of war and the better understanding of the nations of the world’. To devote our thoughts to these two essential objectives of humanity could bring us to the heart of the intense debate we are having now, all around the world, about globalisation. This is a debate about its opportunities, of course, but also its risks, which are so clearly demonstrated by the new breed of economic crises the world suffered during the 1990s, the instability of the world finances, the threat of marginalisation of the most vulnerable and rising inequality.

This debate about globalisation is striking by its intensity and even more by the contrast between the optimism of officials in charge who pretend that their efforts to adapt the system to the new realities should end up by making globalisation an opportunity for all and the total rejection of this view by many protesters in our streets, including here, I suspect.