Globalization and World Insecurity

Abstract

Globalization, Security, and the Nation State: Paradigms in Transition. Edited by Ersel Aydinli, James N. Rosenau. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. 282 pp., $75.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-7914-6401-6). Ever since the terrorist attacks in September 2001, there have been intense discussions about the causes of terrorism—the latest major security threat faced by states in the post-Cold War era. One of the main causes mentioned has been globalization, however defined. The argument is that globalization leaves a large chunk of the world's population behind economically, socially, and culturally, in both developed and developing countries. As a result of the insecurity that they feel, many such people are likely to engage in a fierce battle against globalization and those driving and benefitting from it. The proposed solution, therefore, is to redistribute the gains and losses from globalization. This is what the G-8 leaders were attempting to do at Gleneagles while bombs were going off in London last July. This is more or less the starting point for Globalization, Security, and the Nation State , which is a loose collection of essays on the links between these three concepts. As Ersel Aydinli and James Rosenau, the editors, clearly state, “throughout this book there is a preoccupation with the extent to which globalization has served as a source of terrorism and insecurity” (p. 2). More generally, the book's concern is with “the impact of globalization on the conduct of international affairs, on the capacities of states, and the security of both peoples and their collectivities” (p. 1). Chapters 1 and 2, by Mohammed Ayoob and Ken Booth, respectively, attempt to show to what extent globalization has changed the world and made it more insecure and dangerous. Unfortunately, their …