IPE’s Darwin on Globalization and Technology

Abstract

Joachim K. Rennstich's book, The Making of a Digital World, offers insight into globalization from a theoretical international political economics perspective. The author argues that the global world system is the result of an ongoing evolutionary (rather than a revolutionary) process that can be traced historically and that the role of technology in the current stage is primarily facilitating geographic reach. Rennstich proposes a theoretical construct to address underlying puzzles: how did globalization come to be? Is it a spontaneous phenomenon, or can its genesis be traced throughout history? Is the role of technology in globalization causal or proximal, and are the technology changes of the twentieth century evolutionary or uniquely revolutionary? The primary argument of The Making of a Digital World is that the status of the world stage at any given point is the result of an evolutionary process that can be traced through history. Chapter 2 begins by exploring the literature surrounding historical evolutionary processes. Rennsitch begins his study by examining the nature of the evolutionary process posited by George Modelski and William Thompson (Modelski and Thompson 1996). The evolutionary world politics framework (EWP), as it is called in the study, separates history into leadership cycles. Each cycle represents a particular state's leadership in two definitive economic sectors. The leading technologies in each leadership wave are termed “technological styles” and resemble Thomas Kuhn's idea of scientific paradigms (Kuhn 1962). The leading state begins as the leader in one economic sector and, through a process of organizational learning, is able to develop a second leading sector. Eventually, however, a new paradigm replaces the old, and a new leading sector reaches dominance. The previous leading state either loses its supremacy or perceives the shift in sector dominance early and prepares in such a way as to ensure its continued leadership. This particular phenomenon is described as the Phoenix cycle. Rennstich extends this framework beyond Modelski and Thompson by positing a new leadership cycle that encompasses the leading sectors of today's global system. This cycle is lead by the United States, and the leading sectors are that of information and communication technologies (ICT) and biotechnology.