Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy By Claude E. Barfield 300 pages; AEI Press (Washington); $30

Excerpt:

In those heady times, before anti-globalization protests and deep mistrust of free trade in the United States, a grand edifice for world trade seemed possible. In the eyes of Claude E. Barfield, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, this dream has collided with reality after six short years. "The WTO is overextended and in danger of losing authority and legitimacy as the arbiter of trade disputes among the world's major trading nations," Mr. Barfield writes in his new book, Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy: The Future of the World Trade Organization.

Carter Dougherty is an international trade reporter on the business desk of The Washington Times.

Claude E. Barfield is a resident scholar at AEI, where he is director of trade policy studies, as well as science and technology policy studies.