|
|
|
|
World Policy Journal
Volume XV, No 2, Summer 1998
What, asks Robert L. Heilbroner, in "The 'Disappearance' of Capitalism," distinguishes current economic thinking from the economic approaches of the preceding periods of the modern era? We have come to view economics as a science, he writes, and because of this there is an "absence of any recognition of the fundamentally social and political nature of all economies—that is, the core of political and social norms that provide the drive and the acquiescence without which no economic system, especially if marked by great inequalities, would long exist." There is no clearer example of this than "the nonexistence in virtually all contemporary professional economics writing of the essential term that announces this core in our existing society. That term is capitalism. "Heilbroner enjoins economists and others to broaden their vision of the future. While the market will clearly continue play a very important role globally as well as nationally, "its centrality is certain to be under increasing challenge."
In "Rethinking American Grand Strategy," Christopher Layne, who teaches international politics and military strategy at the Naval Postgraduate School, argues that although American hegemony may be sustainable for perhaps another decade, it cannot be maintained much beyond that period. "Over time, the costs and risks of the current strategy of preponderance will rise to unacceptably high levels. The time to think about alternative grand strategic futures is now—before the United States is overtaken by events." Layne elucidates an "offshore balancing grand strategy," the overriding objectives of which would be to insulate the United States from possible future great power wars and maximize its relative power position in the international system.
Has American culture truly become global? In "Democracy at Risk," Benjamin Barber expounds on his theory of "McWorld," a homogenized state where all countries begin to mimic American culture. A world of the "ubiquitous consumer," Barber explains, is a "world without citizens, and in a world without citizens . . . there can be little real freedom and no democracy." The danger in America's global culture is its "indifference" to democracy; its goal is to create consumers, not citizens. It is impossible to believe society can halt the move toward a global culture, but Barber offers ideas for making this culture democratic.
When international financial institutions (IFIs) used their political muscle to oblige Bosnian president-elect Momcilo Krajisnik to attend his own inauguration, other IFIs were less than enthusiastic. The organizations insist they are apolitical; yet, in "Aid for Peace," authors James Boyce and Manuel Pastor claim this interpretation of IFI responsibility is a "diplomatic fiction." "Economy and efficiency" cannot be divorced from "political considerations," they contend. To truly be effective, the IFIs must consider conflict prevention—even peace—as a condition for aid to countries in turmoil.
In "The Denuded Earth," Roger Stone, president of the Sustainable Development Institute, discusses the critical problem of forest loss worldwide. In flagrant disregard of promises made during international meetings such as the Earth Summit, logging companies continue to plunder the world's remaining forests "with the self-assurance of robber barons." Stone explains the devastating toll that global forest loss—and political inaction against forest degradation—will continue to take on a rapidly increasing world population, and offers realistic alternatives for recouping some of what we have lost.
"Only someone who has never heard a shot fired in anger can take the American culture wars of the last two decades entirely seriously." Thus begins David Rieff's provocative essay, "Therapy or Democracy? The Culture Wars Twenty Years On." "Given the startling rapidity with which the United States is becoming if not a culture-free zone then at least a place in which the arts and humanities count for little compared with commerce," Rieff observes, "any debate on culture is bound to signify less than its protagonists pretend. The decibel level has been and remains high, but this is in part precisely for the reason Henry Kissinger once adduced to explain the viciousness of academic politics—the stakes are so low."
In his enlightening article," A New Game," Frank Smyth poses the question: Has a new day in U.S.-Africa relations finally dawned? The American business community now seeks to "bring Africa into both the global economy and the global political structure," yet this is impossible with several countries still being ruled by terrorism-supporting regimes. Susan Rice, the new assistant secretary of state for Africa, is being lobbied hard as the "main architect of U.S. policy" toward Africa; her challenge is to address legitimate American economic interests while also resolving lingering issues of human rights violations in such places as Nigeria, Congo, and Sudan. Rice is willing to "think outside the box" when it comes to developing new policy, but can she come up with a strategy attractive to all sides?
In his review of Richard Holbrooke's To End a War, Stephen Rosenfeld, deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, details the pluses and minuses of the Dayton Accords, which brought the war in Bosnia to an end. Rosenfeld commends Holbrooke for constructing an "imperfect but best available answer to the conundrum of what shape Bosnia should finally take." But what is really needed in such circumstances as when the former Yugoslavia threatened to break apart, says Rosenfeld, is a "capacity to anticipate or, at the least, to help treat selected international disorders" before countries fall into chaos. This has become "a prime requirement of American statesmanship."