Western Civilization from 1650 to the Present
Dr. Edrene S. McKay  (479) 855-6836  Email: EdreneMcKay@inbox.com
GLOBALIZATION, THE WAR ON TERRORISM,
AND THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM
UNDERSTANDING
GLOBALIZATION
The last quarter of the 20th century saw the development of a new phenomenon:
globalization. As communism continued to decline around the world, some economists
argued that capitalism had won the Cold War and that it was time for a new economic
era.
Giving globalization a historical context, New York Times "Foreign Affairs" columnist,
Thomas L. Friedman, recently observed: "Globalization involves the …integration of
markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before, in a way
that is enabling individuals, corporations, and nation-states to reach around the world
farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before, and in a way that is also producing
a powerful backlash from those brutalized or left behind by this new system…."
Friedman's comparisons of globalization to the Cold War are insightful: "Globalization
has its own defining technologies: computerization, miniaturization, digitization,
satellite communications, fiber optics and the Internet. And these technologies helped
to create the defining perspective of globalization. If the defining perspective of the
Cold War world was 'division,' the defining perspective of globalization is 'integration.'
The symbol of the Cold War system was a wall, which divided everyone. The symbol
of the globalization system is a World Wide Web, which unites everyone. The defining
document of the Cold War system was 'The Treaty.' The defining document of the
globalization system is 'The Deal.'"
Western nations hailed globalization of the economy as the answer to worldwide
poverty, but critics argue that it has proven to be another form of Imperialism, claiming
that companies from industrialized nations outsource jobs to developing countries to
find the lowest possible labor costs and less environmental controls. The World Bank
(WB), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) have developed global economic policies that largely ignore basic human rights
policies.
Is a global economy the solution to the world's social, economic, and political
problems? During the past 10-15 years, traditionally poverty-stricken countries like
Botswana, China, and Thailand have doubled their average per capita income by
importing technology from other countries. However, inequalities still exist and
worldwide the number of people who are forced to live in poverty actually has
increased. Although most of these people live in rural areas unaffected by the global
economy, do they stand to lose even more ground as jobs increasingly become centered
in the large cities?
For more on the critics of globalization and Third World poverty read Bauer: "Western
Guilt and Third World Poverty" (http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/atk/gpe/texts/bauer.htm).
To learn more about globalization, let's look as these aspects of the phenomenon:
Economics
ECONOMICS: Define globalization in terms of economics. Identify the economic
benefits of globalization and the issues and concerns associated with globalization. Do
some countries benefit more from globalization than others? What explanation can you
Globalization and the War on Terrorism
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provide for this?
What Is Globalization?
http://www.globalisationguide.org/01.html
Global Policy Forum
http://www.globalpolicy.org/
Yale Global Online
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/index.jsp
Coming Together: Globalization Means Reconnecting the Human Community
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/essay.jsp
World Bank: Globalization
http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/index.html
Time: Expand the Debate on Globalization
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/980202/special_report.expand_th25.html
Free Markets and Poverty
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/1/weller-c.html
McDonald's Corporate Site
http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp.html
The Biology of Globalization
http://www.ratical.org/LifeWeb/Articles/globalize.html
Human Rights
HUMAN RIGHTS: Consider the impact that globalization has had on human rights.
What does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights require of nations? Consider
how global companies support or abuse human rights. What responsibility should
global countries have to ensure acceptable working conditions for their employees? Is
the issue of human rights limited to certain continents or is it a worldwide issue? Does
globalization hinder or promote human rights?
Poverty and Globalization
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_2000/lecture5.stm
Nike Sweat Shops
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/index.html
Human Rights Principles for US Businesses in China
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/china/index.html
Justice for Refugees
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/1/schulz-w.html
Does Globalization Increase Child Labor: Evidence from Vietnam
http://www.eldis.org/static/DOC10311.htm
Amnesty Focuses on Globalization
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/2001/0530amn.htm
Environment
ENVIRONMENT: Consider how globalization impacts on the environment. Is
globalization the sole reason for environmental concerns? How are companies and
governments working together to address environmental concerns?
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What are the Environmental Aspects of Globalization?
http://www.globalisationguide.org/08.html
Is economic growth a cause of or cure for the environmental pollution?
http://www.eldis.org/static/DOC12489.htm
World Environment Foundation
http://www.wef.org.uk/press_Palampur.htm
Culture
CULTURE: Consider the key elements of a country's culture. How does globalization
affect these? What relationship exists between globalization and the decline of
individual cultures? Does globalization lead to a "monoculture?" Consider this in light
of the discussion on "Americanization" of the world.
Does Globalization Thwart Cultural Diversity?
http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/thwart.html
Vanishing Cultures
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/2000/culture/lost/main.html
Global Exchange
http://www.globalexchange.org/
Culture, Trade, and Globalization
http://www.unesco.org/culture/industries/trade/
How does globalization affect culture? Is it "Americanization?"
http://www.globalisationguide.org/07.html
LINKS BETWEEN
GLOBALIZATION
AND TERRORISM
A U.S. National Intelligence Council report "Mapping the Global Future," released in
2005, warned "Globalization has ushered in an age of pervasive insecurity, eroding
U.S. power while helping Asian rivals and giving extremist groups room to exploit the
discontented."
Just after the 9/11 attacks, Hendrik Hertzberg wrote in The New Yorker (9/24/01) that
globalization "...relies increasingly on a kind of trust -- the unsentimental expectation
that people, individually and collectively, will behave more or less in their rational
self-interest.... The terrorists made use of that trust. They rode the flow of the world's
aerial circulatory system like lethal viruses."
Terrorists Use
Technological Tools of
Globalization
The terrorist network at work today uses the technological tools of globalization, and
they ignore (or attempt to transcend) the normal definitions of the nation-state.
Furthermore, the extreme Muslim fundamentalists (and others) worry that unbridled
globalization can exploit workers and replace ancient cultures with McDonald's and
Mickey Mouse.
"...leading thinkers have begun to discuss one of the ironies laid bare by the terror
attack -- the same technologies that empower our lives turn into double- edged swords
in the wrong hands," according to the San Francisco Chronicle...again writing in the
days immediately following 9/11.
Questions for Advocates
of Globalization
Given all this, globalization cheerleaders need to answer some questions:

Is the War on Terrorism an excuse for the United States to extend
globalization to the Middle East?
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How can the tools of globalization be kept out of destructive hands?
Are you willing to accept more controls on the flow of goods and capital if it
will prevent criminal acts?
Can globalization go forward while also protecting the integrity of local
cultures and communities?
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reacted to the 9/11 attacks by drawing a direct
connection between the terrorists and anti-globalization protestors. The terrorists were
trying "...to stop the corrupting effect of Western civilization on the Islamic world,"
Berlusconi said, while "...the anti-globalization movement criticizes, from within
Western civilization, the Western way of life, trying to make Western civilization feel
guilty. That's why I see a singular coincidence between this action and the antiglobalization movement."
Questions for Opponents
of Globalization
The vast majority of those who oppose globalization have denounced all forms of
violence (both before and after September 11). But they still have some hard questions
to answer as well:



THINKING ABOUT
GLOBALIZATION
CRITICALLY
Could the more inflammatory rhetoric of the anti-globalization movement
inspire some people to violence, even terrorism?
Since opponents of globalization themselves use the tools of globalization to
organize, shouldn't they be more specific about what they dislike in
globalization?
Should opponents of globalization give up on street protests as a form of
action?
The 9/11 attacks changed many things, but globalization will continue, even if the pace
or direction is altered. Let's just hope the debate over the pros and cons of globalization
can take place in a civil atmosphere.
1.
A criticism that is leveled against capitalism by socialists and communists is that
warfare is a necessary part of the economic cycle of capitalism. Without warfare,
they say, the capitalist system would collapse. It was military spending in
Germany, with its expansionist policies, that brought about recovery in that
country, but also caused World War II. And it was World War II that ultimately
brought recovery to the United States and Canada. Is that overwhelming evidence
that capitalism requires warfare to survive?
2.
It's true that the experience of the Great Depression "changed the face of politics
forever." We now still expect the federal government to create jobs and support
economic development. But many of us complain when the government gets too
involved in regulating business activity. Are we being hypocrites about this? Do
we want our cake (laissez-faire economic policies) and eat it too (government
support of economic objectives)? Are we asking the federal government to be the
junior partner in a partnership between business and government? Because
business plays such an important role in the economic health and welfare of the
nation, are we saying that it should be calling all the shots, that it should have
more power than government?
3.
If we define capitalism as "an economic system in which all or most of the means
of production are privately owned and operated…and where investments,
production, distribution, income, and prices are determined largely through the
operation of a 'free market'…," the United States does not have a capitalist
economy. We have a system of "welfare capitalism" (an economic system that
strives to spread the benefits of capitalism throughout society). Please review this
is a short piece on the history of "welfare capitalism" in the United States:
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The historical development of welfare capitalism in the U.S.A.
http://tiss.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de/webroot/sp/spsba01_W98_1/usa1.htm
It was part of the Internet seminar "Reforming the Welfare State and Social
Security Systems: USA, Germany, Chile - A Comparison" that took place during
the winter semester 1998/99, at the Institute of Political Science, Melanchthonstr.
36, Tübingen, Germany, in cooperation with the Graduate School of International
Studies, University of Denver.
The article suggests that since the global Oil-Crisis (1974/75), the United States
has been in the process of "deconstructing" the welfare state. If this is the case, and
there is strong evidence that it is, what will take it's place? Will we go back to the
unbridled capitalism of the pre-New Deal era? If so, is that likely to lead to another
Great Depression? Or have we learned some lessons from the Depression Era and
are not likely to repeat the same mistakes? What is the future of capitalism in the
United States?
4.
Are capitalism and globalization two sides of the same coin? If capitalism is
evolving into something beyond the welfare state and business is gaining greater
control of world markets, what does the future hold?
Will government clear the path for globalization through warfare? Will it cease to
consider public welfare a priority? Will it support corrupt governments around the
world that are receptive to globalization? Will traditional societies be trapped in
poverty even as their way of life is torn from them?
Or will globalizations mean a higher standard of living for everyone? Will it
remove poverty, famine, disease, and injustice from the world? Will it introduce
democratic institutions and representative forms of government? Will it
eliminate violence? Will traditional societies accept change and see the benefits of
economic and technological progress?