BIOGRAPHY
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The
Thirteenth Annual Series (2001-2002)
of the LeFrak Forum
and
Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy:
GLOBALIZATION, AMERICANIZATION, AND AMERICAN HEGEMONY
As the
1990s progressed, one shorthand way of describing the emerging
new order began to take hold: “globalization.” Many
expressed the view that the era of the Cold War had been succeeded
by the era of globalization. This new characterization was
based on some developments that were universally recognized:
a striking increase in international trade, investment, and
capital flows; dramatic progress in communications technology
(especially the rise of the Internet); and a considerable
enhancement of the role of multinational institutions, along
with a corresponding weakening of state sovereignty in both
law and practice.
Yet others
argued that these elements of globalization were at best only
part of a much more complex picture. They noted that technological
and economic integration was often accompanied by increasing
political disintegration and fragmentation, with old states
breaking up along ethnic lines (or in danger of doing so)
and new states coming into being. At the same time, sharp
new divides were being created between the winners and losers
from globalization, both among states and within them.
Finally,
many claimed that the apparent eclipse of traditional power
politics was either wholly illusory or merely a temporary
phenomenon and that the crucial underpinning of globalization
was the hegemony of the United States, the sole superpower
of the post-Cold War period.
Clearly,
the debate about the nature of the new international system
very much involves the question of the current and future
role of the United States in the world. Is globalization,
in fact, Americanization? Is there American hegemony and,
if so, is that good or bad?
Some
have argued that September 11 changed everything. But September
11 did not render obsolete the debate about globalization
and America’s role in the new international system. Rather
it brought that debate to a new peak of intensity.
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