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FACTORS APPROACH TO GLOBAL HUMAN DYNAMICS
Anoush Khoshkish
World International Studies Conference
Istanbul, 24-27 August 2005
Abstract:
“Global Human Dynamics”
probably
better defines the academic discipline of international relations.
“Nations,” which,
in the classic sense of the discipline referred to “sovereign
nation-states
with exclusive jurisdiction over their territory and population” no
longer
represent the sole – and according to some, not even the major – actors
on the
global scene. The diversity of actors, including IGOs, INGOs,
multinational
corporations, mixed courts, religious and ethnic entities – not to
speak of
drug cartels, terrorist organizations or arms dealers’ networks – calls
for an exploration of the
common
traits – factors – which characterize the new
players on
the global scene that
could categorize the dynamics of their intercourse differently.
THE SETTING
Why the 1990s? : "The New World Order"
Abundant literature has been produced on events which have led many to consider the 1990s as a turning point of global human dynamics. Readers who are familiar with that literature may find what follows in this section redundant; except for the fact that here we are looking for clues to factors by identifying actors and their characteristics.[2]
Up to 1990, the world
order
was still
broadly assumed to be a variation on the theme of the fiction of
sovereign
nation-states. The UN Charter is based
on it.[3] The super-powers and their Cold War blocks
functioned along its lines and manipulated that fiction. The Soviet
Union
turned Byelorussia and Ukraine into sovereign states in order to get
more votes
in the UN General Assembly. International
arrangements, such as Nato and Comecon
were created by nation-states. The Trusteeship
System was
geared towards producing more sovereign nation-states.
The Cold War, crystallizing the emergence of
peoples liberation fronts, accelerated that process. Colonial maps were
turned
into nation-state frontiers encompassing ethnicities with few
characteristics
in common or outright belligerence towards each other.
*
*
*
It would be rather superficial, however, to evoke the political alignment of nation-states during the Cold War within political camps without emphasizing the underlying economic patterns. Those underlying patterns predated the Cold War, beginning with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the Red Scare in America, and had to do with the economic ideologies of the two camps. While both camps claimed democracy – one in terms of pluralism, the other as the representation of the working masses by the Communist party – the nation-states in the two camps were mainly distinguished by their ideological economic systems of capitalism and communist socialism. The non-aligned powers fitted within a spectrum between free enterprise capitalism and state-controlled economies tending towards socialism, with varied degrees of mixed economies in between. What should be noted, however, is that because of the existence of the opposite economic pole, in order to be less vulnerable to the criticism of their own shortcomings when scrutinized in the light of the efficiencies of the other pole, each camp accommodated within its own economic model the strong points of the adversary. Thus, for example, the United States adopted Keynesian policies and introduced welfare state entitlements, while the USSR intermittently tolerated small private enterprises and instituted interest-bearing saving accounts.
In terms of economic ideologies, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the introduction of market economy in Russia, and the relaxation of entitlement programs in the United States can indeed be considered as a turning point in global human dynamics. As of the1990s, free enterprise market economy capitalism was proclaimed the winning economic ideology and embraced by an ever-growing number of countries.
The Run-Up to the "1990s"
Digging deeper into the exercise of sovereignty by nation-states, we may discern the circumstances and conjunctures which eventually led to present global patterns . On their own, each of these developments may seem as symptoms of the exercise of sovereignty. But looking at them in the context of the whole flux, we can see how they each triggered future events which eventually gnawed on nation-states’ exclusive jurisdiction. Let us trace some of the landmarks:
The attempt by the Mosaddegh government in Iran in the early nineteen-fifties to nationalize the oil industry was, on the face of it, an affirmation of Iran's sovereignty. Even though it failed, it did inspire other nation-states to use nationalization as a tool to affirm their nation-statehood and use the exploitation of their national resources by foreign powers and corporations as a source of revenue for their own economy. The nationalization of the Suez Canal by Nasser in 1956 was a landmark event. Particularly in the light of the fact that it made gun-boat diplomacy fail. The Mosaddegh nationalization attempt had made all those involved in international exploration and production of oil realize that the system as it stood was untenable. It triggered deals between the extracting and oil producing corporations and the oil rich countries for the recognition of the sovereign rights of the oil-rich countries over their natural resources. That led to the pivotal events of 1973.
The 1973 oil embargo by Arab oil producing nations and the ensuing oil price hikes did not only enrich many Moslem sovereigns and permit them to become players on the international financial markets, it permitted Saudi Wahabism to support the spread of Islam, arm Moslem fanatics in Afghanistan against the Soviets – with America's blessing – contribute to the rise of the Taliban and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism as a factor of global human dynamics penetrating and challenging nation-states.
*
*
*
The Helsinki Accords of
the
Conference
on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975 which, on the face of it,
legitimized the post-WWII Soviet frontiers and acquisitions, and in
that light,
could have been construed as a consolidation of the sovereign
nation-state
characteristics of the USSR and its satellites, also required its
signatories
to respect human rights and free expression. As an international
agreement, it
was, in fact, encroaching on the exclusive jurisdiction rights of its
signatories. It dulled the edge of the
state's prerogative for brutal public suppression of dissidents. It was
a
factor which eventually nudged Gorbachev towards glasnost. Of
course, it
should be viewed in the context of the growing corruption of the
Breznev's
rule, the burden of the arms race imposed on the USSR by Ronald Reagan
and the
economic and human hemorrhage of the Afghan war which led to
Gorbachev's perestroika.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
consecrated by
the Helsinki Accords oversaw the implementation of those accords and
has –
since the 1990s – intervened in many
trouble areas.[4] Other international structures and
arrangements such as the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) or the
Organization of African State (OAS) are other examples of regional
arrangements
which sovereign nation-states have empowered to intervene on their
behalf.
* * *
The European Union is, of course, the most eloquent attempt by sovereign nation-states to transfer parts of their sovereign prerogatives to an international institution. It presents a gamut of extra-sovereign arrangements: from The European Steel & Coal Authority, which was probably the earliest most sovereignty-independent body, the Common Agriculture policy – at once going beyond borders and yet designed as a vanguard against the vagaries of broader global interdependence – to the creation of the Euro with its constraints on nation-state monetary and fiscal policies. As we shall soon see, the rejection of the EU draft constitution by popular votes in France and the Netherlands in the spring of 2005 points out the discrepancy between the dispositions of the different segments and strata in different cultures.
*
*
*
It is probably in the economic and financial domains that the term "fiction" best applies to the concept of nation-state sovereignty. We need not linger on the obvious impact of international economic and financial institutions such as the BIS, the OECD, the G-8, the World Bank or the IMF to emphasize the constraints – and the benefits – that condition the nation-states' exercise of sovereignty. For our purposes here, it is more pertinent to evoke the role of economic and financial bodies that escape international political controls but influence nation-states' economic policies and potentials. Such are multinational corporations and credit rating agencies whose verdicts on the economic health of a country and its credit worthiness influence the nation-state's access to capital markets and to foreign investment.
*
*
*
Another
important
economic phenomenon was
the need for non-Western labor in the West after WWII. Germany, short
of labor
after WWII and keen on reconstruction, began importing labor, first
mostly from
Yugoslavia and soon thereafter from Turkey. By
the late 1950’s a wing of the Aachen cathedral
(Charlemagne’s
cathedral) was assigned for the Moslem Gastarbeiters to pray
towards
Mecca. With decolonization and economic expansion in the West after
WWII
immigration from non-Western countries increased. Labor shortages in
the West
were not only due to war demographics but also because Western people
were
reluctant to engage in low paying manual and unskilled labor. Much of
the
working class population had been used up as canon fodder.
Western
labor needs
coincided with the growing liberal and humanitarian tendencies to open
European
society to those who sought refuge from oppressive regimes and poverty
in the
under-developed economies. By the
1960's the combination of the two tendencies opened the flood gates to
non-Western immigration which, as we shall see in our later discussion
of
migration, has had a serious impact on global human dynamics.
*
*
*
All this is obviously an incomplete inventory. But it does give us a sketch of the politico-economic patterns which led to the significant transformations of the 1990s.
In terms of significance, however, these patterns pale in the face of the scientific and technological breakthroughs which, to a large extent, were the very cause of the transformations, and we shall soon identify as the "electronic revolution."
The bourgeois capitalism of steam engines, telegraphy and telephone had needed the frontiers of a sovereign nation-state to instill nationalism and loyalty in the masses and the work force, to protect the national industry and secure the national market.[5] In today's age of instant global electronic transactions, air-cargos, super-tankers, and outsourcing of customer services through exotic call centers, sovereign nation-state frontiers confine and handicap global capital.
The confluence of
politico-economic
phenomena and scientific and technological breakthroughs give us a
broad range
of extra-sovereignty patterns that contribute to the realization of the
obsolescence of nation-state frontiers and the assumption of the demise
of
sovereign nation-states.
The
Range of Extra-Sovereignty Patterns
-
At one end of the spectrum are legal structures adhered to by
nation-states, (treaties and conventions signed by sovereigns and
ratified by
their constituent organs – the legislature) which chip off the state's
sovereignty.
- International
intergovernmental
economic and financial bodies, as off-shoots of conventions, which gain a personality of their own and
can impose patterns of behavior on sovereign states through their
financial
muscle as is the case of conditionality attached to IMF/World
Bank
loans.
- Multi-national
economic and
financial corporations which, as they expand globally, escape the
sovereign
control of the state, and indeed may claim global identity gnawing on
the
sovereignty of a state and influence the state's behavior, such as
global oil
companies. Or, credit-rating agencies.
- Mixed international
courts,
which no
longer depend on the sovereign state judiciary but are composed of
judges
selected by business, union or non-governmental bodies.
- Cause oriented
non-governmental
organizations(NGOs) affiliated to international non-governmental
organizations
(INGOs), that influence the sovereign states' policies and patterns of
behavior, whether in terms of human rights, workers rights, corruption
or
environmental protection.
- Internal regions
claiming
autonomy
and independence from the central control of the sovereign state, with,
at
times, connection with global networks challenging the identity of the
controlling sovereign such as an ethnicity which overlaps sovereign
states
borders – Basques, Kurds, Serbs, Albanians, Zapatistas, Acehnese,
Timorese,
etc. – or a religion like Islam – in Chechnya, Kashmir, Nigeria, Ivory
Coast,
the Philippines, etc.
- Global networks,
crisscrossing
sovereign states and influencing their conduct, such as religions.
- At the other end of the spectrum, outlaw networks escaping or corrupting the sovereignty of states, with their own parallel economies and hierarchies, such as drug dealers, counterfeit producers, smugglers, arms dealers, mercenaries or terrorist networks.
Do these
patterns have traits in common? To answer
the question in the spirit of my "complex
approach,"[6]
we need to examine the evolution of these patterns from the
anthropologic/historic perspective.
The
Anthropologic / Historic Perspective
The evolution of human social organization affecting global human dynamics has corresponded to different stages of human species' interaction with its environment.
Before proceeding with
different
stages of temporal and spatial human evolutions let us keep in mind the
thread
of belief which runs through them all. It addresses the
species'
ever present fear of and search for the unknown and is a mighty
ingredient of
social organization.[7]
The fire
revolutions: When
the species learned to make and use
fire. The "social" dynamics
were those of hunters and gatherers, with close "genetic collective
consciousness" akin to primates, with early family and clan groupings.
The agricultural
revolutions: When
the species realized that water flows
downwards and began harnessing it for agriculture. The early needs for
division
of labor arose and led to structured clan hierarchy.
The urban
revolutions: When the species began
storing the
products of agriculture, leading to accumulation and concentration of
wealth.
"Genetic collective consciousness," family, and clan evolved into
what became the backbone of social organization, the tribe:
the
genesis of attribution, contribution, distribution,
retribution, tribute, tribune, tribunal.[8]
The arms and
transportation
revolutions – interspersed in other revolutions: From the discovery of the flint
and the
wheel, and the domestication of animals, to supersonic air travel and
intercontinental missiles. At different stages, different human
groupings came
across more efficient ways of transportation and invented arms superior
to
those of other peoples they came in contact with, creating new critical
masses
for domination patterns.
The industrial
revolution: When
the species learned to convert the
steam and combustion energies for productive purposes.
It disturbed the traditional social
structures which had evolved along the centuries on the basis of
traditional
tribal patterns – whether feudality,
kingship or guilds. With the emergence
of bourgeois capitalism the distinction between "community" and
"society" became more pronounced. The
"individual" was recognized as a social unit. Tribal
consciousness in social, economic
and political networks – as distinct from traditional lineage patterns
–
accentuated. In the West, it
happened in the context of the “nation-state,” the emergence of the bourgeoisie, the need for the creation
of national identity and nationalism. It
triggered class consciousness and the transformation
of professional guilds and the development
of
labor trade-unions. This social evolution led to class conflicts and coincided with, or rather was at once the
cause and consequence of, the transfer of the legitimization of power
to govern
from the divine right of kings to the people through the democratic
process. The sovereign nation-state was
increasingly
expected to assume the reponsibility to provide for its nationals the
care
that bourgeois capitalism and the industrial revolution had dislocated
from the
community to the society – from Gemeinschaft
to Gesellschaft.[9]
The electronic revolution: We noted earlier that the electronic revolution made the national frontiers of sovereign nation-states too confining for global movement of capital. In fact, the main features of the electronic age, namely, the enormous increase in the speed and spread of information and transportation, impacted the whole global intercourse of different social segments and strata and transformed the primordial tribal aspects of human dynamics.[10]
It is useful to note here one of the crucial features of the electronic revolution, namely, the fact that it changed the human species' interaction with its tools. Ever since the agricultural revolution, the species "manipulated" its tools. Hoes, wrenches and levers were extensions of limbs and muscles. The electronics – the computer, the joystick, or the cruise missile – require a much greater interaction with the brain, with greater temporal and spatial abstraction. The species has to replace the mechanical with the mental. It is a revolution. I wonder whether Ghengis Khan would take any pleasure being told at NORAD that the button he just pushed killed hundreds of thousands of people thousands of miles away! He would have preferred watching the tower of decapitated heads in Samarqand and Nishapour.
THE
FUNCTIONAL AND AFFECTIONAL DISLOCATION OF FACTORS
Factors
Approach
To
proceed further, I need to evoke here the factors approach, mentioned
earlier,
that I have used in my teaching and studies to identify the actors and
the
dynamics of their encounter.[11] Briefly, they are:
Radius of Identity: The prerequisite for the study of inter-entity dynamics is the existence of more than one entity with its own particular radius of identity. We need at least two entities with different radii of identity, and we need their encounter.[12]
If the encountering entities merge or overrun each other to the point of non-identifiably of distinct entities, the ensuing phenomenon will turn into one entity – granted, with power dynamic potentials that could remain of interest to our study, such as the struggle of components within an entity for autonomy and independence.
Point of Exhaustion: The existence of more than one entity implies that the encountering entities, if they attempted to overrun and absorb each other, would reach their point of exhaustion before achieving the total merger or absorption of the other.
Ordinarily Manageable Economy: That entities reach their point of exhaustion implies material limits to their capacity to advance beyond a certain point. How far they can go will depend on their level of technological, economic and organizational development. In its primitive sense, an ordinarily manageable economy changes with the development of new modes of production and control: from flint to semiconductors.
Understanding/Misunderstanding—Agreement/Disagreement: While failure to overrun and absorb another entity points to limitations of material potentials, the improbability of merger implies that there are discrepancies in the radii of identity of the encountering entities. That leads to the assumption that there are areas of understanding/ misunderstanding and agreement/disagreement which distinguish the entities from each other.
Élan: Observation of historical
facts reveals instances when extraordinary dispositions within an
entity have
created an élan and permitted the entity to expand far beyond
its ordinarily
manageable economy. These instances account for the overwhelming
potentials of certain empires which, in their ebbs and flows, created
networks
encompassing and linking a large number of entities with different
radii of
identity.
Legal, Moral and Ethical Depression / Attraction: Areas of misunderstanding and disagreement imply that each entity will perceive a relative level of depression – non-existence of legal, moral and ethical pressure on behavior and conduct – on the other side of the border. That depression may also be conducive to the attractiveness of riches which may be perceived on the other side of the frontier. Attraction can also be fuelled by such drives as curiosity or sense of adventure.
Circumstances and Conjunctures: Encounters between entities do not take place in a vacuum but in the context of what surrounds and influences them in time and space: circumstances; and what lays on their course: conjunctures.
Actors as Factors: From the factors perspective, actors are undeniably crucial components of global human dynamics. As factors, actors are molded by and mould other factors. But who are the actors? Entities or the "decision makers"? Does the entity create decision makers or do the decision makers drag the entity into a given direction? It is in the complexity of factors as they flow, their flux, that we should look for answers.
* * *
Before applying the factors approach to the electronic age phenomena we need to add the parameters of "segments" and "strata" to our formula.
Segments
and Strata
By segments and strata I
refer to
differentiations and stratifications within a culture that shape its
radius of
identity, and influence its global human dynamics.
By segments, I refer to
different
occupations, professions or social affiliations such as business,
agriculture,
labor unions, media, military establishment, educational system, or
different
bureaucracies within a culture, each with further ramifications.
By strata, I refer to the relative hierarchical power and influence of certain strata in relation to others within the segments in different cultures and the concomitant interests and values which emerge and mould the legal, moral and ethical norms of the entity. Social organizations and regimes of different entities may be more or less comparable, compatible or conflicting. The degree of conscious involvement of different strata and segments of a culture in global dynamics will be different from one entity to another.[13]
* * *
The factors reviewed
above,
which
brought about the modern sovereign nation-state in the context of
bourgeois
capitalism and the industrial revolution, can have more pronounced
functional
and affectional attributes. Radius of identity or
understanding/misunderstanding – agreement/disagreement imply affective
elements, while point of exhaustion or ordinary manageable economy
depend more
on the functional aspects of the entity. The affectional and functional
characteristics of factors gain particular plasticity when applied to
the
global "tribal" evolution of segments and strata in the electronic
age.
"Sovereign"
nationhood was affectional for the masses. It was, as referred to
earlier,
developed in terms of radius of identity, transforming patriotism into
nationalism. For bourgeois capitalism it was functional. It secured, as
noted
earlier, national labor, production and market. Much
of the functional and affectional fibers holding the
sovereign nation-state together are now dispersed in the global setting. Are capitalists still willing to pay taxes
to finance the workers' health care or are they more likely to move
their
capital and production to where they can get cheaper labor and lower
taxes? The U. S. capitalist may have
his legal residence in Ireland, his
business incorporated in the Cayman Islands, his suppliers in China,
his
markets across the world and his lobbies in major political and
economic nerve
centers safeguarding and promoting his global interests,
Testing the phenomena of the electronic age against the enumerated factors and their affectional and functional nature, we observe a modification of the "tribal" patterns of segments and strata on the global scale. Compatible and comparable segments and strata in different cultures find affinities with each other across the border, compromising their belonging to the radius of identity of their own respective entity. Bankers may find bankers across the border more compatible than the farmers within their own entity. A synergy of interests and values (a tribal affinity) may develop globally among the bankers. Inversely, rivalries and grudges between comparable but competing segments or strata may handicap relations between the entities. Farmers engaging in trade wars across the border may pressure the ruling strata to adopt adversarial stands against each other which they would not have done otherwise.
Broadly, we could schematize the affectional's two dimensions into that of:
- The masses, the middle and the working class attached to national identity and structures, and,
- Strata finding affinities and bonding amongst themselves across the globe, such as professionals issue of similar academic background and milieu; as well as families, clans and tribes of peoples moving across borders in great numbers such as Moslems of different origins in the West.
The functional could also be schematized into:
- The middle and the working classes, the wage earners, holding onto national educational plans, health care, unemployment, and retirement plans instituted in the context of the nation-state, and,
- Capital and financial flows across borders, seeking efficient cheap labor, profitable resources, lenient laws and lucrative markets.
The confluence of these dimensions give rise to global activism of some such as the NGOs pressuring governments and corporations on human rights and environmental issues, the camouflage of others such as the multinational corporations bribing governments and employing private armies, or global affinities feeding the terrorist ranks.
* * *
It
is the factorof "Legal and Moral Depression/
Attraction" that gains particular significance in the current global
context and requires a review of some of the current political, legal,
social,
economic and cultural parameters under its light.
POLITICAL, LEGAL, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND
CULTURAL PARAMETERS
Even though I shall
attempt
to
identify some of these parameters separately, it should be born in mind
that
they are intertwined phenomena of the global flux and the sections
below
overlap.
Political
/ Legal / Illegal:
We can look at global
human
dynamics
in terms of power politics or legal structures.[14]
In terms of power politics, at different stages of their emergence, particularly during their periods of élan, powers – military/political – may not behave according to “conventional” behavioral patterns recognized by established powers. They may, for example – and most probably do – break the rules of warfare as did the Germanic tribes attacking the Roman Empire, the Arab Moslem warriors overwhelming Byzantium and the Persian Empire, or the Mongols sweeping into China and across Asia and Europe. Indeed, it is the political dimension of global human dynamics that tends to dictate its legal aspects. As balance of power changes, the weightier parts modify the legal structures and nuances of global human dynamics. A recent example is the attitude of the present American administration, inspired by its "primacy" policy, towards international institutions and conventions – notably in its attacking Iraq without a UN mandate, giving cold shoulder to the Kyoto Environmental Protection convention or International Criminal Court.[15]
We can conceive of different layers of legal limits on the
sovereign actors, within and without, reflecting legal aspects of
segments and
strata variations. Take the case of the
constitution drawn up in 2005 by EU organs empowered by European
political and
economic elites to provide for the accession of new members and
increased cross
border economic fluidity that was rejected by the strata composed of
the
majority of the masses in certain countries when submitted to them in
referenda. While nation-states are
becoming more dependent on global economy, nationalism remains strong
among
their broader masses.
The
electronic age flux has also contributed to evolutions in the
application
of jus cogens, and the right of
intervention gnawing on foreign state immunity, which constituted the
cornerstone of mutual recognition of sovereignty.[16] The NGOs can mobilize the public opinion and
multinational corporations can lobby governments, to intervene in the
internal
affairs of other states in defense of human rights. Jus cogens
is, however,
practiced hypocritically: It was not exercised by the global community
in the
case of Hutu/Tutsi massacres in Rwanda. The intervention in the Ituri
region in
the Congo has been undertaken to make the efficient exploitation of the
natural
resources of the area possible. The Western intervention in different
conflicts
in former Yugoslavia had pronounced human rights components due to
their
implications for European identity.
* * *
And then there are those
actors who,
by the very nature of their activities perennially remain outside of
the
conventional legal framework. Their modus operandi
for gaining more means and power is to
exploit the weaknesses of the established order and corrupt it. Perennial in the sense that they are
recurrent features of global human dynamics and are, by definition,
“illegal”,
such as roaming mercenaries, smugglers or drug cartels.
They would cease to be
illegal as and
when they penetrate the "legal" systems and
gain respectability and legitimacy. But
then, if they do not altogether overthrow and replace the
legal powers that be, they become “subjects” of the laws, no longer
able to
decide and implement their course independent of the established order,
unless
they use their “legal” branch as a tool for their independent actions
outside
of the law. Such would be the case, for
example, of a drug cartel acquiring a banking network to facilitate its
money
laundering operations.
In order to advance
their
goals and
operate within the legal framework outlaw actors may create legal
fronts. This
has been the case of independence movements with an accepted political
fronts
but using terrorism to affirm their resolve, such as the Irish
Republican Army,
the Basque ETA or Moslem terrorist organizations using mosques as
recruiting
centers.[17]
Migration:
We noted earlier the
economic
factors
which contributed to the massive movement of the people across
frontiers since
WWII. They engendered, of course, political, social and cultural
consequences.
Schematically, they can fit in a spectrum going from:
1. Those who seek to
move in
search of
a better life. They move, per force, into
"other people's domains," because there are no longer
open spaces and places to explore and populate, as was the case of
massive
migrations in past centuries from Europe to "unexplored" lands – America, Australia or New Zealand. The move
now takes place with the acquiescence of the host cultures, or
clandestinely.
2. Those
who are sought after by certain economies: "Invited"
to
fill in certain economic positions – ranging from the Gastarbeiter in Germany or South-East Asian maids in the
Gulf Emirates' households, to computer experts imported into the
Silicon Valley
from India.[18]
These two perspectives of migration
lead us to the two important dimensions of assimilation and integration
of
immigrants that the Western cultures in particular have mismanaged and
are now
grappling with.
Mention
was made
earlier of the post WWII flood of non-western migration into the West.
Traditionally, Western cultures assumed that the few non-Western people
who
came to their shores, while enriching the Western cultures with some
exotic
aspects of their own culture, would be, over time, assimilated into the
superior, more advanced and civilized Western culture.
The new dynamics and volume of immigration changed Western cultures’ approach to the absorption of non-Western immigrants. Not only the volume and the speed of the flow impeded assimilation, so did the reassertion and universalization of human rights as a reaction to the Nazi experience. Cultures, traditions and beliefs of different ethnicities acquired equal values and had to be respected in their own right.
In
America, the
phenomenon coincided with civil rights movement and affirmative action
and eventually
turned the formula for national identity from the “melting pot” into
the
“tossed salad”.
Prejudice,
for that
matter, did not disappear. But the displayed tolerance and the avidity
for the
exotic softened the West towards non-Western cultures.
Among the prevailing prejudices was the
assumption that the non-Western was not capable to plan, organize and
execute
systematic technical processes – an assumption which was demolished by
the
meticulous planning of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Those belonging to the
non-Western
cultures migrating to the West gained a new awareness about the reduced
pressure to assimilate. Large urban and suburban areas in the West grew
into
ethnic pockets, with their own prejudices towards the Western culture
surrounding them. Those prejudices arose from a combination of
disapproval of
Western cultural excesses, reaction to the Western superiority complex
towards
them and frustrated national aspirations. Insofar as Moslem nations
were
concerned, the creation of Israel which they considered as an extension
of the
West was an additional source of frustration.
The
Fiction and Pitfalls of Global Free Market Economy:
The hinges of "Open
Door"
policy, long cherished by the United States, and now upheld as the
motto of
globalization, mostly swing towards the outside depression. I mentioned
earlier
the European Common Agriculture Policy as an example of extra-sovereign
arrangements by nation-states, but I added that it was also designed to
provide
self-sufficiency for the European nations and protect them from the
vagaries of
dependence on foreign suppliers of agricultural products. Presently,
that
policy is maintained through subsidies that distort global price
mechanisms to
the detriment of developing countries. The United States also secures
the
viability of its agriculture through different government programs.
In their embrace of
market
economy and
global free trade, nation-states, caught in the vortex of convoluted
affectional and functional paradigms, manifest schizophrenic patterns
of
behavior. At times, their avidity to attract foreign capital comes into
conflict with their drive to safeguard their national economic
patrimony in
order to keep control of their corporations and retain jobs. Two recent
cross
border takeover attempts illustrate the point. In
June 2004, at French government's instigation, The
French chemical
company Aventis had to abandon its plans to merge with the Swiss
company
Novartis and was taken over by the French chemical company Sanofi-Synthélabo. In July
2005, China National Offshore Oil
Corporation (Cnooc) faced with the U. S. Congress's hostility towards
its bid
to acquire the U.S. oil company Unocal withdrew its higher offer
leaving the
U.S. oil company Chevron as sole contestant.
Global free flow of
capital
is
presently taking place with few legal frameworks regulating it. The
manipulation of European bonds by Citigroup eloquently demonstrated the
pitfall. On August
2, 2004, Citigroup flooded the Eurozone
bond market by selling about
€12bn of the paper within seconds, only to buy back €4bn of it at lower
prices
slightly later.[19] Eurozone
governments awakened to the fact that their embrace of free capital
markets was
not supported by adequate regulatory mechanisms.
The free flow of capital
can
have
serious disruptive consequences for the economic process in different
countries, as in the case of strong currency exchange fluctuations due
to
speculation: such was the 1997 South-East Asian currency crisis. Global investment and hedge funds, by
controlling
the shares of national economic institutions, can dictate the latters'
course
of action and policies beyond what the national government deems
appropriate,
as was recently experienced by the Deutsche Börse.
Franz
Müntefering, chairman of the ruling Social Democrat party and a
close ally of
chancellor Gerhard Schröder, denounced financial investors as
"locusts" that "destroy everything and move on".[20]
Corporate
“global” social responsibility:
We noted earlier that
with
the
industrial revolution the sovereign nation-state was expected to
provide for
the welfare of its national masses. The 19th century
capitalist
bourgeoisie became conscious of the need to combat disease and
illiteracy in
the framework of the nation-state to produce fit and literate work
force. That scenario is now distorted by
globalization. Governments of
nation-states are reducing taxation and divesting themselves of social
responsibilities in order to attract foreign capital.
Corporate “global”
social
responsibility is one of the current hot issues of globalization. It
seems to
reflect new global assignments for the multinational corporation. After all, during the extractive and
colonial phases of imperialism, the corporations were to exploit
foreign
natural and human resources as best they could for the benefit of their
metropolitan nation-state. At times, they even served as instruments
for the
corruption of the peoples that colonial
imperialism aimed to conquer, as was the case, for example, of the
Opium Wars
between Great Britain and China. If any attention was to be paid to the
lot of
the non-Western masses, it was in terms of the “white man's burden.” And that was mostly accomplished by
converting non-Western cultures into Western faiths and making them
useful and
coherent for the colonial power's administration.
Why would multinational
corporations
now care for the people and the environment they were supposed to
exploit? A corporate executive's job is to
create
value for the shareholders, not to be a bleeding heart for the
exploited
workers in far away lands. It may be argued that as globalization has
spread
the "shareholders' interests" beyond national interests, it has
triggered the consciousness of the capitalist to the need for fit a and
educated work force globally. In
reality, however, in the globalized economy with dislocated functional
and
affectional dimensions of factors mentioned earlier, that may not be an
accurate evaluation of the evolution that is taking place. As noted
earlier,
capital can presently leap frog globally and go where
conditions are
most favorable.
The present concern for
corporate
social responsibility has more to do with public perception enhanced by
NGOs,
and the pressure of the domestic labor force to make the cheap labor of
the developing
economies more expensive for the corporations in order to keep jobs at
home.
Global media exposes the middle class homes in the West to the plight
and
poverty of the underdeveloped societies. Bleeding hearts have to be
appeased in
order to engage in guilt free consumption. The drum beating of
corporations for
global social and ecological responsibility is more inspired by
marketers than
executives' human rights concerns. Statistics
support this statement. The global poverty
ratio has worsened
dramatically since the introduction of market economy as the global
model.
*
*
*
The reverse of this
coin,
however, is
even more disturbing. Poverty is not going away. We mentioned earlier
the
growing access of Islamic movements to international finance and the
frustration of non-Western people in relation to Western culture. The
financial
muscle of Islamic fundamentalism is now filling the vacuum in the war
against
poverty by providing religious education, child care and health care
facilities
for the poor and serving as breeding ground for anti-Western discontent
and
terrorism.
PERNICIOUS PATTERNS
The image that emerges
out of
these
parameters is that of a global "order" with its legal premises in
flux. Reflecting on their dynamics, we come up with some pernicious
underlying
patterns. Patterns which, granted, are part and parcel of human reality
but
which, in the context of present global flux, have gained major
significance.
They notably include:
Corruption:
Corruption is a relative
term.[21] Besides outright bribery, it can imply
behavior considered corrupt by some, under certain circumstances, at
certain
times, and not by others. A case
dramatically illustrating this point in the context of the shifts that
are
presently taking place in the national and global standards of behavior
is
developing as these lines are being written. It is the case of the
wiretap of
Antonio Fazio, the governor of the Bank of Italy, who allegedly advised
the
chief executive of Banca Populare Italiana how to outmaneuver ABN Amro,
the
Dutch bank, for the acquisition of the Italian Banca Antonveneta.
Traditionally, the role of the national central bank governor was to
defend
national interests and keep financial institutions under national
control. But in the European Union
context, Mr.
Fazio's action is deemed as corruption of the process of free mergers
and
acquisitions.[22] That is, at the stratum of those in Brussels
who further the policy of unhindered free flow of capital.
That view which is not shared by many in the
Italian political strata. Indeed, they
are more concerned about the fact that telephone conversations can be
so easily
wiretapped.[23]
The classic sovereign nation-state implied an inviolate national patrimony and inculcated and expected a sense of loyalty. The Soviet Union, in its heydays of dictatorship of the proletariat, punished embezzlement of state property by capital punishment. But the relative dilution of national economies in the global context has now diluted the perception of national, personal and corporate interests.
No longer responsible towards a strict national social order and patrimony, those in control may use personal and corporate yardsticks. This observation reflects the evolution of behavior in countries which did have a strong national identity. In many newly concocted "sovereign nation states" of developing countries, where the sense of national identity, responsibility and loyalty is thinly rooted, the dominant tribe behaves "tribally" as exploiter towards the country it dominates and corruption prevails.
In terms of global political economy, corruption can be perceived as the oil for the cogwheels of corporate transactions and interactions. International organizations and NGOs do press corporations and governments to combat corruption.[24] But its reality cannot be ignored. Just the bribery side of it – as distinct from exchange of favors – is an approximately one trillion dollar annual blotch on the world economy. The phenomenon is hard to combat when it is woven into the fabric of an economy. And, in a world where the allure and privileges of wealth and the misery of poverty are constantly broadcasted by the media, when opportunities for personal gain present themselves to those who can "get away with it," the temptation is hard to resist.
Terror:
Terror is the process of
creating fear
in order to achieve a goal. It
transcends human species and is biologically woven into and practiced
by most
organisms. Closer to home, it is what law enforcement does. It is
elemental to
the basic factors of power. For the purposes of our essay here, in
order to
reflect on the Western quandary to deal with the phenomenon of
terrorism in the
electronic age, we need to examine the complex as an amalgam of the
assassins
of Hassan Sabbah of Mount Alamut in the twelfth century Persia, the
present
masses of non-Western youth growing in poverty stricken, ill educated
and
indignant populations cum internet – the networking tool that
the
earlier generations of terrorists could not have dreamed of. And, of course, we should add the effect of
the media, and the fact of the rise in the blood pressure of the
adolescent who
witnesses the infidel soldiers kick in the doors of their homes and
humiliate
their families and community.
The motivation of
classical
terrorists
in the modern West was "ideological." Ideology
is supposed to be based on rational premises. The
anarchist terrorists did not blow themselves up to go to heaven.
Ideology loses
its impact when its rationales are distorted and no longer correspond
to
socio-economic realities. And the ideologies which did breed terrorism
in the
West were systematically combated and discredited through
socio-political structures.
The present Moslem
terrorism
is not
based on rational ideology but on non-rational belief.
The Western handicap in dealing with the
present Moslem fundamentalist terrorism is the West's reluctance and
inability
to combat the Moslem fundaments that breed terrorism.
Those fundaments glorify the "Shaheed," – those who
offer their lives to the Moslem faith, fight the infidels,
and are promised rewards in heaven.[25]
It is unlikely that the
West
would
engage in frontal combat to weaken the premises of those fundaments.
The West
itself lost the battle of rational thought against religious
obscurantism back
in the seventeenth century and is fearful of antagonizing the masses of
Moslem
believers by criticizing the premises of their faith.
Islamic fervor is spreading through spasmodic cycles of
terrorist
threats, penetration, indignation, and recognition.
In order to be able to combat Moslem fundamentalist
terror, the
West needs to seriously promote global secularization of education and
alleviation of poverty through massive development programs permitting
equitable redistribution of wealth. But that is a tall order which does
not fit
the present contradictory currents of global human dynamics discussed
above.
Conspiracy:
Conspiracy is used here
as a
broad
terminology – that of its Latin origin of "breathing together!" In that sense, it is an extension of
corruption, because in terms of social life and order it is an
undercurrent.
The purpose here is not to sustain or refute conspirational theories
but to
reflect on the part of the phenomenon that is observable. It is a
reality that
without some degree of conspiracy, Karadzic, Meladic, Zwahiri or Bin
Laden
would not be still running loose.
"Breathing together" can
have different effects at different levels of social life.
The masses "breath
together"
in the open and depending on their number, organization and staying
power, have
an open effect. The anti-globalization meeting in Porto Alegre chanted
slogans
together, the students in Qoranic madresas sway and recite the Qor'an
together.
Their effect is what those who organize them draw out of their
"breathing
together." Conspiracy is a
dimension of the exercise of power at the decision-making strata. It is
the
dimension that manipulates and surreptitiously influences social life
and
structures. There are those who are more impressed and honored to be
participants in the Davos Annual World Economic Summit, and there are
those who
impress and set the tone of the meeting. It is the mix that cues the
attendees
to move in certain directions. Trilateral Commission, Free Masonry or
the Moslem
Brotherhood do leave their imprints on the course of events; as do
illegal
actors – arms dealers, private armies and others – in collusion with
governments and corporations.
Privatized
Security / Public Scrutiny:
"Privatized security"
covers
a wide range, going from guarded compounds and body-guards safeguarding
the
members of certain social strata to mercenaries and private armies used
by
multinational corporation and governments.
The phenomenon's
evolution
parallels
the parameters reviewed above. From the sacrifice of one's life for the
glory
and defense of the nation, Western cultures have moved to the emphasis
on the
"value" of human life. Conscription has
ended in most Western countries, and
massive soldiery
has been replaced by advanced weapons' technology.
That does not permit nation-state armies to intervene in
all of
the messy cases of multinational corporate interests.
The availability of arms
on
the global
market, the reduction in numbers in the armies, leaving many
professional soldiers
and military organizers idle, the availability of funds for creation of
offshore corporations recruiting and organizing, have made the creation
of
private armies possible. Recent cases
of private armies' involvement in global affairs include that of the
attempt to
overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial
Guinea, organized by "Executive Outcome," [26] "Sandline International's"
intervention in Sierra Leone and presently, "Aegis Defence Services"
role in Iraq. [27]
The emerging role of
private
armies,
and security forces is in the field of protection against terrorism.
They fill
a the vacuum that armies and the police forces cannot fill. Presently,
there
are some thirty thousand "private security personnel" engaged in
Iraq.
The need for private
protection leads
to reflection on another aspect of security which, even though not
directly
pertinent to our present topic, has repercussions on the global scene.
It is
that of the increasing public scrutiny by nation-states in order to
protect the
people from terrorism. More and more
people are resigned to be checked,
searched, monitored and observed, for their own good – a
phenomenon which, in the hands of
unscrupulous office holders could lead to police states handicapping
the
development of global legal structures towards respect for human rights.
Hypocrisy:
In the epilogue to my
essay
on The
Socio-Political Complex, I discuss the human phenomenon of "Ideal/Real/Hypocritical
Loop." [28] Briefly,
it is the human tendency to overshoot the critical
approach to reality into the two apparently opposite ideological and
hypocritical extremes – which, on the reverse side of the loop, meet
and are
confounded.
I am using hypocrisy
here not
in a
pejorative sense, but as a factor of global human dynamics in the broad
sense
of the term. In traditional parlance some hypocrisy was assumed in the
conduct
of diplomacy. But in classical contexts such as that of the Westphalian
world
order, diplomatic hypocrisy was part of a choreographed ballet. The
present
lack of clear orchestration of global human dynamics has lent itself to
its
unabashed practice. In the context of a world order claiming free flow
of
information, conflicting interests and values of different segments and
strata
are not easily reconcilable and are juggled by "spins" distorting
reality in the fast and furious spread of information fed by the media
to the
masses. The spins, however, also often spin the spinners into believing
in the
veracity of their own spins. Such was the case of the
existence/non-existence
of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
This essay is peppered
with
instances
of hypocritical behavior: Clamoring for free trade yet erecting
protective
barriers, etc. Hypocrisy includes, at times, selective use of information for
self-deception and "head in the sand" policies – looking the other
way in the abuse of human rights by a friendly authoritarian regime, or
paying
lip service to a threat to appease.
CONCLUSION: FACTORS GONE ELEMENTAL
The "new world order" is
in
flux, i.e., it is in disorder. It lacks clear legal premises.
The
dislocation of the functional and affectional attributes of factors
enumerated
earlier, caused by the electronic age globalization, has left us only
with the
very primitive stages of the factors for identifying the actors in the
present
global human dynamics. Indeed what is
left approaches the elemental sources of power.[29] In a nutshell, they are:
Independent
decision-making potentials:
Basically, whatever the actor can get away
with: Whether the Moslem terrorist
cells planning an attack; the present
United States' administration interpreting the Geneva Agreements to fit
its
exercise of habeas corpus in Guantanamo Bay; or foreign
exchange
speculation manipulating South-East Asian countries' currencies into a
major
economic crisis.
Network and organization: The globalized radius of
identity of strata
across nation-state frontiers: Whether the global investment funds'
collusion
in concerted action to influence the leadership of the Deutsche
Börse; the Al Qaeda and other
terrorist
organizations' support and supply to the multitude of pockets of their
dedicated adherents; or the Trilateral Commission's inspiration for the
course
of action to be taken by the strata identifying with it.
Implementation: The capacity to have decisions
implemented, i.e.,
having the means to carry them out – or having access to the means
through the
network (although that could reduce the independent decision-making
potentials): It is the amassing of troops
in the Persian Gulf by the United States in view of attacking Iraq –
which at
some point reached the point of no return – with no serious questioning
or
objection on the part of international institutions or neighboring
countries;
or the facility of procuring and activating explosives by terrorist
groups.
Sphere of control: The extent and
depth of the area and the population over which the decision for action
can be
effectively implemented: The U.S. Congress dissuading the Chinese oil
company
to acquire Unocal; Al-Qaeda instigating Moslem youth in England to
below
themselves up in terrorist acts; or Exxon hiring military support to
protect
its operations in Aceh.
Recognition: It is the factor entitling the actor
to operate within the network of other actors, whether “legal” or
“illegal”
according to certain standards set down by some of the actors. The legal spheres may vary and be particular
to a group of cultures and not others. Such
is, for example, the case of hawaleh, which
is a widespread
method of transfer of funds and credit among Moslem communities. Among
the recognized "illegal" actors are smuggling networks – arms
dealers, cigarette traffickers – or mercenaries, that are linked with
governments and corporations.
Spheres
of competence,
responsibility, accountability:
Not necessarily in the
legal sense, but in
the sense of being beholden to the word given and being able to
deliver: The
issuers of hawaleh are trusted and deliver, as do banks by
electronic
transfers; the 9/11 terrorists were funded and they delivered; Aegis Defence Services is competent in
providing mercenaries and delivers.
* * *
These factors can serve
as
measuring
rods for reflection on the future course of global human dynamics, the
shape of
the new world order to come, and the plausibility of different
scenarios,
whether viewed under the prism of clash of cultures, global civil
society,
American "primacy" or an emerging multipolar complex.
© 2005 Anoush
Khoshkish
Akim Inc.
New York.
[1] http://www.globalhumandynamics.com/ghd2.html
[2] Some of the literatures since 1990 include: Saskia Sassen, Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization, New York, Columbia University Press, 1996, – Globalization and its Discontents, New York, New Press, 1998; Stephen D. Krasner, "Westphalia and All That" in Ideas and Foreign Policy, Judith Goldstein & Robert O. Keohane (eds), Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1993, – "Compromising Westphalia" in International Security, 20(3). 1995, – Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999; Susan Strange, "Wake up, Krasner! The World Has Changes, in Review of International Political Economy, 1, 1994; Andreas Osiander, "Sovereignty, International Relations and the Westphalian Myth, in International Organization, 55, 2001. For earlier references see the notes of the article mentioned in 1.
[3] UN Charter, Ch.I, Art.2, Para.1.
[4] For the list of the areas and domains in which OSCE has intervened see http://www.osce.org/activities/
[5] See A. Khoshkish, The Socio-political Complex: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Life, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1979. Ch. 2 et seq. Also at: http://www.complexapproach.com/socio/chap12.htm
[6]
http://www.complexapproach.com/
[7]The Socio-Political Complex, op. cit., ch. 2, also at http://www.complexapproach.com/socio/chap02.htm
[8]The Socio-Political Complex, op. cit., ch. 3; also at http://www.complexapproach.com/socio/chap03.htm
[9] Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-1936), Community & society, New Brunswick, Transaction Books, 1957.
[10] Note that up to the industrial revolution I have qualified revolutions as plural. I have done so because anthropologic and historic indices point to the fact that earlier revolutions took place independently in different human groupings. It is important to keep this in mind, both for the realization of the development of distinct cultures and the different stages of the clash of cultures. On the early human revolutions see: - Charles J. Lumsden & Edward O. Wilson, Genes, Mind, and Culture, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1981. Also Charles J. Lumsden & Edward O. Wilson, Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1983.
[11]
For a
detailed treatment of factors see http://www.globalhumandynamics.com/ghd2.html
[12] To avoid the straight jacket of the fiction of sovereign nation-state, I identify the actors as "entities."
[13] See B.18-22 in http://www.globalhumandynamics.com/syllabus.html
[14] A. Khoshkish, Power or Authority :The Entelechy of Power, Lanham, University Press of America, 1991
[15] Nicholas Lemann, “The Next World Order,” in The New Yorker, 1 April 2002, pp.43-48; Zalmay M. Khalilzad, From Containment to Global Leadership: America & the World After the Cold War, The Rand Corporation pamphlet, October 1995.
[16] Lee M. Caplan "State Immunity, Human Rights, and jus cogens : A Critique of the Normative Hierarchy Theory" in American Journal of International Law, Vol. 97, pp.741-781, 2003
[17] See "The Dawn of the Dark Ages" at http://www.globalhumandynamics.com/911.html
[18] Wayne Cornelius et al. (eds), Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2004. Martin L. Philip, "Germany: Managing Migration in the Twenty-First Century"; Christian Joppke, Immigration and the Nation State, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999; Christopher Rudolph, "Security and the Political Economy of International Migration" in American Political Science Review, 97, pp.603-620, 2003.
[19] Financial Times of February 5, 2005 reported an internal Citigroup memorandum, which was dated two weeks before the August trades. It outlined an aggressive strategy to increase the bank's profits by destabilizing the Eurozone government bond futures market and "killing off" smaller rivals.
[20] Financial Times of May 10 2005
[21] http://www.globalpoliticaleconomy.com/art_corruption.html
[22] Financial Times, July 28, 2005, Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2005, and following issues.
[23] International Herald Tribune, August 6, 2005, "Italy is set to revamp wiretap law"
[24] Notably, the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and OECD Antibribery convention of 1997. See also: Transparency International, at www.transparency.org; R.T. De George, Competing with Integrity in International Business, 1993; P.W.F. Davies (ed.), Current Issues in Business Ethics, London, 1997; and M.M. Jennings, Business: Its Legal, Ethical and Global Environment, 5th ed. , Mason, Ohio, 2005. In the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline project, partially financed by the World Bank, the pipeline has been operating since 2003 under Chad's Petroleum Revenue Management Program which was created to oversee the proper use of the oil revenues to reduce poverty in Chad. Under that program most oil revenues are to be allocated to key sectors generating growth and helping most disadvantaged people. Under that program, an oversight body, the Collège de Contrôle et de Surveillance des Revenues Pétrolières (Committee of Control and Oversight of Petroleum Revenues), monitors spending and ensures transparency. It is a first!
[25] Qor'an, Surah 56.
[26] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3597450.stm
[27] http://www.aegisdef.com/iraq.aspx
[28] Op. cit.,
Epilogue. http://www.complexapproach.com/socio/epilogue.htm
[29] Power or Authority, op. cit. Also at http://www.complexapproach.com/Power/powerindex.htm
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