[lbo-talk] globalization & war

dredmond at efn.org dredmond at efn.org
Fri Sep 12 21:24:06 PDT 2003


Quoting Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>:


> <http://www.unitedforpeace.org/downloads/Globalization_and_War.pdf>.
> UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE <http://www.unitedforpeace.org> | 212-603-3700
> How Globalization Promotes War
> by Steven Staples, The Polaris Institute
>
> 1. Globalization promotes the conditions for war. Ethnic and
> religious differences mask the underlying economic causes of the more
> than 30 wars raging around the world today. Inequality, competition
> for dwindling resources, and environmental degradation are factors in
> the outbreak of armed conflict that are worsened by free trade.

As the marketing people say, numbers, I need numbers. The global periphery owes the global metropoles around 2.2 trillion EUR in hard currency debts.


> 2. Globalization promotes military spending over social spending.

Does it?


> Since the late 1990s, world military spending has been on the rise
> and is now nearly $1 trillion a year - almost half of this is by the
> United States alone.

This is an argument against the Mordorization of the US, not globalization.


> Meanwhile, the Pentagon is realigning and expanding its vast
> international network of bases along the frontiers of the global
> economy, such as in central Asia. And in places like Colombia, U.S.
> troops and weapons are being deployed where uprisings threaten
> corporate investments.

Again: this looks like good old-fashioned reactionary, obnoxious nationalism, rather than globalization.


> 4. Globalization undermines grassroots peace work.
> 5. Globalization promotes corporate security over human security.

It may be time to retire the term "globalization" in favor of "neoliberalism" or maybe just "multinational capitalism".

-- DRR



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