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International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Civilizations And The Twenty-First Century: Some Theoretical Considerations
by Robert W. Cox
Abstract
Since the end of the Cold War, globalization has become the central phenomenon in world politics. Civilizations, once geographically based, are now loosened from fixed space, as migration of peoples and of ideas has accelerated. A focus on the dimensions of intersubjectivity will give some understanding both of differences among civilizations and on transformations of civilizations. Attention is thus given to different forms of substantive economies, to historical dominance and subordination of civilizations and to the reawakenings of cultures; to what Sorokin called the sensate and ideational types of consciousness and to different forms of spirituality, and to relative orientations toward time and space. Two propositions are implicit in a concern for civilizations: (i) that there are alternatives for the human future, and (ii) that if different civilizations do coexist, the problem of mutual comprehension becomes paramount for the maintenance of world order. The implications for a research program are to study civil societies as the sources of intersubjective meanings, the maintenance of the biosphere as the basic material condition of existence of all civilizations, and world governance as the modus vivendi of a plural world.