Secrets in Global Governance: Disclosure Dilemmas and the Challenge of International Cooperation in World Politics. By Allison Carnegie and Austin Carson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 362p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper.

Abstract

terterrorism policies made donations to the Tamil Tigers illegal, Rajaratnam stopped giving (p. 152). Hägel concludes that he exercised very little political agency beyond “following the rules of the game” (p. 153). No one is surprised when billionaires exercise agency to preserve and expand their wealth. The Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch’s political activities reflect this economic motive. The Koch brothers have donated generously to economic freedom initiatives, libertarian causes, deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, and protecting fossil fuel industries. Two Koch-funded think tanks, the Cato Institute and theMercatus Center, promote libertarian ideas. In the early 2000s the Kochs began to invest heavily in Republican candidates and politicians through the political advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity. The Koch brothers are committed to climate denialism, donating nearly $150 million to the cause from 1997 to 2017 (p. 167). Rupert Murdoch’s conservative media empire has shaped public opinion and promotes free-market capitalism. His shadow looms large over politicians in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia who seek favorable media coverage and take steps to avoid his wrath (p. 178). Hägel classifies Bill Gates’s and George Soros’s social entrepreneurship as the quest for public esteem, although both billionaires claim to bemotivated tomake the world a better place. Gates is devoted to public health, and Soros to open societies. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s endowment was about $50 billion in 2019 (p. 188). From 2008 to 2018 the Gates Foundation was the secondlargest donor to the WHO (after the United States), and its funding is mostly earmarked for specific purposes (p. 202). The Gates Foundation favors biomedical vertical approaches, focusing on drugs and vaccines for infectious diseases. It led an initiative, the “decade of vaccines,” that the WHO adopted and endorsed. The foundation outspends the WHO annually and has played a prominent role in shaping global health governance. George Soros’s contributions have been less clear-cut, and his Open Society Foundation’s goals are more difficult to measure. Open societies, human rights, independent media, education, and freedom of thought are all priorities. Unlike metrics that Gates embraces, such as the number of vaccinated children, Soros does not believe in quantitative metrics to evaluate his programs (p. 220). His impact is hard to assess, because his activities aim at wideranging structural change (p. 224), with one clear exception. Employing a counterfactual analysis, Hägel convincingly argues that Soros’s funding interventions in Georgia’s 2003 “Rose Revolution” had decisive impact. Overall, Hägel makes a compelling case that the seven actors he scrutinizes have not behaved in ways consistent with expectations of a “transnational capitalist class” analysis. The security actors seemed more concerned with “enthnonationalist” projects that clash with the “logic of capitalist peace” (p. 240). Gates appears to be addressing market failures in health, and Soros is critical of laissezfaire capitalism (p. 241). Hägel effectively argues that the billionaires examined here are “super actors,” rather than creatures of institutional logics: they act with an autonomy and flexibility enabled by great wealth. As long as they are at the helm of their philanthropic efforts, their personal preferences prevail. The democratic legitimacy of these actors raises deeper questions. Transparency and accountability are in short supply. Hägel’s book invites scholars to investigate the role of super wealthy individuals in international affairs and offers some creative methods to examine these largely inaccessible individuals. This book is a good contribution to an important research agenda going forward—politicizing the role of influential billionaires in an era of apparently weakening commitment to democratic norms. As Hägel reminds us, “The greatest danger may be that it becomes socially acceptable for the rich to rule” (p. 269).