Globalization: A Short History of the Modern World PDF
Preview Globalization: A Short History of the Modern World
Globalization Also by William R. Nester Globalization, War, and Peace in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) Globalization, Wealth, and Power in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) Globalization A Short History of the Modern World William R. Nester Palgrave macmillan GLOBALIZATION Copyright © William R. Nester, 2010. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10691-8 All rights reserved. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-29038-3 ISBN 978-0-230-11738-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230117389 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nester, William R., 1956– Globalization : a short history of the modern world / William R. Nester. p. cm. 1. Globalization—History. 2. International relations. 3. World politics. I. Title. JZ1318.N47 2010 303.48(cid:2)209—dc22 2010014445 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2012 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Globalization, Perils, and Prospects 1 Part I From the Dawn of Civilization to Versailles 1 Modernity and Its Discontents 9 2 The Rise and Fall of Civilizations 15 3 From Feudal to Modern Europe 19 4 Global Imperialism’s First Wave 27 5 The Nation-State 35 6 Liberalism and Nationalism 39 7 The Industrial Revolution 47 8 Global Imperialism’s Second Wave 57 Part II From Versailles to Copenhagen 9 Peace, Prosperity, and Collapse 67 10 The Rise of Communism and Fascism 73 11 The Anticolonial Struggle 81 12 Global War and the Postwar Liberal System 85 13 The Cold War from 1947 to 1968 93 14 The Cold War from 1969 to 1991 113 15 The Post–Cold War World 131 vi CONTENTS 16 The Post–September 11 World 139 17 The Faustian Dilemma 145 Notes 153 Index 173 Acknowledgments I want to express my deepest appreciation to Farideh Koohi- Kamali, the Editorial Director, Erin Ivy, the Production Manager, and Rohini Krishnan, the proofreader for all their wonderful support in producing my book. They are all as nice as they are true professionals. I N T R O D U C T I O N Globalization, Perils, and Prospects Globalization . . . enables us to reach into the world as never before and it enables the world to reach into each of us as never before. Thomas Friedman The farther back you look, the farther ahead you are likely to see. Winston Churchill Politics happens when there is conflict among individuals or groups. Power is the means those in politics use to assert their interests. Politics and power thus are inseparable and as old as humanity. Throughout history, people have expressed politics and power in a variety of ways. International politics began with the emergence of the first organized states thousands of years ago. Global poli- tics is more recent—it appeared about five centuries ago when imperial European states began to mesh the world’s far corners together through conquest and trade. Today we live on a planet characterized by globalization or the ever more complex economic, cultural, legal, social, psycho- logical, technological, environmental, and, thus, political interdependence.1 Until recently globalization’s development was slow. Although countries increasingly traded, allied, and negotiated with each other, the divisions among them far outweighed 2 GLOBALIZATION: HISTORY OF MODERN WORLD the ties, and nations often settled their conflicts with war or the threat of war. However, since 1945, despite or more likely because of the “Cold War,” globalization has developed rap- idly and profoundly. Today all humans are formally tied to all others through their country’s membership in the United Nations and numerous other international organizations, along with the personal benefits of international trade, tele- communications, travel, and the Internet. Yet globalization has a dark side—it destroys as well as creates jobs, wealth, and lives, while every human lives under the shadow of potential nuclear and ecological extinction. Globalization means that any major international event can affect us, in varying ways, and likewise every major national issue is, in varying ways, an international issue. When the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks break down, when the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) changes its production quotas, when tropical forests are destroyed, when greenhouse gas clog the atmosphere, when the Tokyo stock market plunges, when terrorists strike, we, in tiny and usually unobservable ways, are affected. Likewise, when Washington is tangled in gridlock, when pollution drifts across to Canada, when the Defense Department builds new weapons systems, when the economy expands or contracts, when the dollar’s value soars or plummets, when the national debt doubles or triples in eight years, when the United States goes to war, Americans affect the world. The differences between international and domestic problems are increasingly blurred. Ever more sophisticated computers linked in an ever denser network are a major force driving globalization. Governments, corporations, intelligence agencies, terrorist groups, and any- one else plugged in have unprecedented power to communi- cate, share information, spy, resolve problems, or create new crises. With a few taps on a keyboard, gigabytes of informa- tion or carefully concealed viruses can be whisked around the planet. People respond to that potential power in different
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