Globalization and the Cultural Grammar of ‘Great Power’ Aspiration

Abstract

Treating globalization as an initial point of departure to examine how cultures may have a bearing on great power ambitions, one can identify and challenge seven popular fallacies surrounding the concept. Available histories of globalization amply demonstrate that it is not a new phenomenon and secondly, that it must not be simplistically equated with everything western. Further, ongoing processes of globalization suggest that conceptions of what constitutes ‘culture’ and similarly what constitutes ‘greatness’ are complicated and of crucial consequence in ascertaining any correlations between culture and predispositions to great power standing. One should not assume that greatness in conventional international relations usage is inevitably a generic predisposition of all cultures. The notion of an essentialist national culture is highly contentious as there is likely to be considerable divergence of opinion amongst diversely socially positioned domestic constituencies with regard to both the content of greatness and cultural inclinations to greatness as understood in the dominant international relations idiom.