...what is called globalism today is a strangely ambiguous ideology. It is sometimes said that this ambiguity is merely a pose, a messaging tactic born of political opportunism. But most of its adherents genuinely believe in it. They genuinely believe that they are acting in the interest of their nation-states, even if they no longer believe that their nation-states have any distinctive purpose or significance. In this sense, they do not merely claim to be good citizens of the world; they claim that being a good citizen of the world is the same as being a good citizen of one’s nation, and vice versa.
The post–Cold War political project is not sincere globalism. Rather, its ideal of an “open society” (a more accurate though still self-serving term) is better described as a form of “synthetic” globalism. What might be called authentic globalism acknowledges the difference between the universal and the particular and simply rejects or subordinates the particular. Synthetic globalism, however, attempts a synthesis of the universal and the particular: it does not repudiate either but denies any difference between them.
This synthesis is no longer tenable. The promise of “globalization” was that national interests would converge toward a global harmony of their own accord. The whole point was that global interests did not need to be politically imposed, but that the rational pursuit of particular interests would inevitably lead to the same goal. With the relative decline of the United States (along with the West generally) and the consequent movement away from a “unipolar” world, however, it is increasingly difficult to believe in this naive vision. On the contrary, since the end of the Cold War, the greatest beneficiaries of the “liberal international order” are precisely those countries that have ignored it or manipulated it for their own national and mercantilistic interests.
The Three Fusions by Julius Krein https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/08/the-three-fusions/
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...what is called globalism today is a strangely ambiguous ideology. It is sometimes said that this ambiguity is merely a pose, a messaging tactic born of political opportunism. But most of its adherents genuinely believe in it. They genuinely believe that they are acting in the interest of their nation-states, even if they no longer believe that their nation-states have any distinctive purpose or significance. In this sense, they do not merely claim to be good citizens of the world; they claim that being a good citizen of the world is the same as being a good citizen of one’s nation, and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThe post–Cold War political project is not sincere globalism. Rather, its ideal of an “open society” (a more accurate though still self-serving term) is better described as a form of “synthetic” globalism. What might be called authentic globalism acknowledges the difference between the universal and the particular and simply rejects or subordinates the particular. Synthetic globalism, however, attempts a synthesis of the universal and the particular: it does not repudiate either but denies any difference between them.
This synthesis is no longer tenable. The promise of “globalization” was that national interests would converge toward a global harmony of their own accord. The whole point was that global interests did not need to be politically imposed, but that the rational pursuit of particular interests would inevitably lead to the same goal. With the relative decline of the United States (along with the West generally) and the consequent movement away from a “unipolar” world, however, it is increasingly difficult to believe in this naive vision. On the contrary, since the end of the Cold War, the greatest beneficiaries of the “liberal international order” are precisely those countries that have ignored it or manipulated it for their own national and mercantilistic interests.
The Three Fusions by Julius Krein
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/08/the-three-fusions/