Remy Schneider
Two Views of Globalization
Globalization is most often thought of as the circulation of goods and ideas throughout the world, making the world more homogeneous by destroying individual society’s traditions and uniqueness. Both the author of Globalization Goes to War and Two Years Later, a Thousand Years Ago believe that war is a key element in the process of further globalization of the world. The first author speaks of the war that had then (2/24/2003) yet to come in Iraq, and the second author is referring to a war in the past and the attack on the Twin Towers in New York City. The two authors, Robert J. Samuelson and Robert Wright, respectively, do agree about several items that are key to understanding globalization. Robert Wright believes that a century ago globalization was mostly the spreading of values over the boarders of America, but that Globalization “dates back to prehistory, when technologically driven expansion of commerce began” (pg. 2). He states that modern technologies such as cell phones and the internet have helped terrorists become more sophisticated in their means of organization, but “their grievances have grown partly out of globalization” (pg. 1) and the widespread use of these same technologies.
Samuelson does not discuss when globalization started, nor does he give a solution to help prevent globalization from becoming a damaging entity in itself, but he does start that this outcome is possible. Samuelson warns that globalization could be damaging because of an “overdependence on the US economy” (p. 6), but this statement does coincide with Wright’s theory that all countries are now linked together in a globalization web. Wright believes that “America is the natural leader of a moral revolution” (p. 4) that will secure globalization from becoming its own downfall. Samuelson is also aware of the problem that globalization has caused for the countries of the world fighting against terrorism, but does not articulate upon the subject as extensively as Wright. He does state that “commerce flourishes when there is economic confidence and political stability” (p. 6) and this confidence and stability cannot occur when there are terrorist attacks upon the leading countries of the world. Wright draws a comparison between globalization in the Middle Ages and globalization now; he compares how the Bubonic Plague moved “along avenues of commerce” from port to port and city to city. Free trade could much more easily spread the same type of contagious disease by terrorists then the world would like to think. Bioterrorism has a direct link to globalization through free trade, easy movement and technologies that can be accessed easily all over the world. Wright and Samuelson have the same belief about what the outcome of globalization could be, but the means by which conclusions to that outcome would succeed differ.