From World Order To Global Disorder

Anti-globalization activism world-wide attests to the tensions between globalization and civil society. To better understand this fraught relationship, Dorval Brunelle compares two social orders separated by a half-century. The post-World War II order entailed a broad vision uniting three complementary objectives � security, justice, and welfare � which were entrusted to a network of international and national institutions. In contrast, globalization, with wealth as its only objective, is undermining and overhauling the values and institutions of the previous order, including the United Nations and the welfare state. From World Order to Global Disorder demonstrates the profound effect of globalization on relations between the state, civil society, and markets, as well as on collective and individual rights. As neo-liberalism evolves into globalization, governments are eschewing their role as public guardians and are instead bartering the very assets and resources their citizens' labour and activism created and preserved. However, no constitution makes governments owners of collective assets: governments are merely trustees. In this context, the world's citizens have a tremendous task before them: in the wake of the welfare state, their social forums are indispensable in the quest for a more just and equitable world.

This collection of original articles offers an up-to-date, critical review of the global political economy today, covering such topics as international finance, corporate governance, military power, international labour standards, global health, human rights, and more. Assembling a group of top scholars, the editors are able to provide a wide-ranging yet coherent survey of contemporary international institutions and how they are governed. In the process, they offer a useful basis for understanding the financial crisis of 2008. Relations of Global Power is the only book available that examines the many different dimensions of the international regulatory structure across a range of issues, placing them all within the context of neoliberal globalization. It will be of interest to scholars of political science, sociology, policy studies, public administration, and global studies, and will also appeal to activists and members of alter-globalization movements.

The benefits of the U.S-led order and the many international agreements that the United States has championed to open up the world to the free flow of goods, services, ideas, and people, no longer look so promising. This shift has caused a public backlash against globalization not only in the United States but also in many Western countries. The major powers either do not comprehend the risks of the current transitional period or they do not have a clear vision for a new international order that will be broadly acceptable and thus considered legitimate by most other states. With these concerns in mind, the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations asked leading scholars from major power countries to address a common set of questions about the current international order.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War in 1990, the world suddenly felt a safer place. The triumph of the West promised a new era of peace and stability accompanied by an economic revolution based on new technology. Global Disorder. Reviews called it alarmist and out of tune with the mood of the times for suggesting that the rise of ethnic nationalism, the globalization of capitalism and a series of humanitarian and security crises signalled a drift towards a new world crisis. facing today's world and added far-reaching proposals for the reform of global security. In the first three parts he outlines the rise of the USA to its dominant position as the world's first megapower, describes the sources of instability that create global disorder and threaten world peace and the dangers in the globalization of capitalism free from political control. The final part outlines reforms and actions that western democracies, particularly the USA, must undertake.

An examination of the complex international system of the twenty-first century from a variety of perspectives. Proceeding from critical theoretical perspectives and incorporating case studies, the chapters focus on broad trends as well as micro-realities of a Post-Westphalian international system. The volume demonstrates that re-thinking fundamental assumptions as well as theoretical and methodological premises is central to understanding the dynamics of interdependence.

We no longer inhabit a world governed by international coordination, a unified NATO bloc, or an American hegemon. Traditionally, the decline of one empire leads to a restoration in the balance of power, via a struggle among rival systems of order. Yet this dynamic is surprisingly absent today; instead, the superpowers have all, at times, sought to promote what Jason Pack terms the 'Enduring Disorder'. He contends that Libya's ongoing conflict-more so than the civil wars in Yemen, Syria, Venezuela or Ukraine-constitutes the ideal microcosm in which to identify the salient features of this new era of geopolitics. The country's post-Qadhafi trajectory has been molded by the stark absence of coherent international diplomacy; while Libya's incremental implosion has precipitated cross-border contagion, further corroding global institutions and international partnership. Pack draws on over two decades of research in and on Libya and Syria to highlight the Kafkaesque aspects of today's global affairs. He shows how even the threats posed by the Arab Spring, and the Benghazi assassination of US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, couldn't occasion a unified Western response. Rather, they have further undercut global collaboration, demonstrating the self-reinforcing nature of the progressively collapsing world order.