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Globalism has multiple meanings. Inpolitical science, it is used to describe "attempts to understand all of the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns that underlie (and explain) them".[1] While primarily associated withworld-systems, it can be used to describe other global trends. The concept of globalism is also classically used to focus on ideologies ofglobalization (the subjective meanings) instead of its processes (the objective practices);[2] in this sense, "globalism" is to globalization what "nationalism" is tonationality.
Globalism as a concept dates from the 1940s. In the 21st century, the term "the globalists" was popularized by the US far-right conspiracy theoristAlex Jones, and used interchangeably with the concepts of aNew World Order and thedeep state. The term is now frequently used as a pejorative byfar-right movements and conspiracy theorists. It is sometimes associated withantisemitism, as antisemites frequently appropriate the term "Globalist" to refer toJews.[3][4][5]
Paul James definesglobalism
at least in its more specific use ... as the dominant ideology andsubjectivity associated with different historically-dominant formations of global extension. The definition thus implies that there were pre-modern or traditional forms of globalism and globalization long before the driving force of capitalism sought to colonize every corner of the globe, for example, going back to theRoman Empire in the second century AD, and perhaps to theGreeks of the fifth-century BC.[6]
Early ideas of globalism were also expressed byAdam Smith through his views on the role of commodities in distinguishing the civilized from the barbarous, which was deeply embedded in the ideology of empires.[7][8][9][10]
Manfred Steger distinguishes among different globalisms, such as justice globalism, jihad globalism, and market globalism.[11] Market globalism includes the ideology ofneoliberalism. In some hands, the reduction of globalism to the single ideology of market globalism and neoliberalism has led to confusion. In his 2005 bookThe Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World, Canadian philosopherJohn Ralston Saul treated globalism as coterminous with neoliberalism and neoliberal globalization. He argued that, far from being an inevitable force, globalization is already breaking up into contradictory pieces and that citizens are reasserting theirnational interests in both positive and destructive ways.[12]
Political scientistsJoseph Nye andRobert Keohane, major thinkers ofliberal institutionalism as a newinternational relations theory, generalized the term to argue thatglobalism refers to any description and explanation of a world which is characterized bynetworks of connections that span multi-continental distances, whileglobalization refers to the increase or decline in the degree of globalism.[1] The term is used in a specific and narrow way to describe a position in the debate about the historical character of globalization, such as whether globalization is unprecedented or not. For example, this use of the term originated in, and continues to be used, in academic debates about the economic, social, and cultural developments that is described as globalization.[13]
Globalization has been used to describe international endeavours begun afterWorld War II, such as theUnited Nations, theWarsaw Pact, theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization and theEuropean Union, and sometimes the later neoliberal andneoconservative policies ofnation building and military interventionism between the end of theCold War in 1991 and the beginning of thewar on terror in 2001. Historically in theinternational relations of the 1970s and 1980s, globalism andregionalism had been defined somewhat differently due to theCold War. Analysts discussed a globalism vs. regionalism dichotomy, in which globalists believed that international events more often arose fromgreat power competition (then U.S.–Soviet rivalry),[14] whereas regionalists believed they more often arose from local factors.[15][16][17]
The term first came into a widespread usage in the United States of America.[18] The earliest use of the word is from 1943, in the bookThe War for Man's Soul byErnst Jäckh, who used it to describeAdolf Hitler's global ambitions.[19][3]As globalization, globalism became associated with economy, specifically economic integration. But the origins of the concept is military rather than economic, bound to the Second World War and its "Air-Age Globalism."[20] Examining the statistical analysis of published texts in English language provided by Google, Or Rosenboim found that the termglobal started to gain ground just after the outbreak of the War. It was at that moment that the new global political space appeared as a response to total and all-encompassing nature of the war, facilitated by technological innovations. An awareness of the political significance of the globe as a unitary whole, “oneness,” became known as globalism. By the late 1940s, the modern concept of globalism was formed in the United States.[21]
In their position of unprecedented power, US planners formulated policies to shape the kind of postwar world they wanted, which in economic terms meant a globe-spanning capitalist order centered exclusively upon the United States. This was the period when its global power was at its peak: the United States was the greatesteconomic power the world had known, with the greatest military machine in history.[22] In February 1948,George F. Kennan'sPolicy Planning Staff said: "[W]e have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. ... Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity."[23] America's allies and foes inEurasia were still recovering from World War II at this time.[24] Historian James Peck has described this version of globalism as "visionary globalism". Per Peck, this was a far-reaching conception of "American-centric state globalism using capitalism as a key to its global reach, integrating everything that it can into such an undertaking". This included globaleconomic integration, which had collapsed underWorld War I and theGreat Depression.[25]
Modern globalism has been linked to the ideas of economic and political integration of countries and economies. The first person in the United States of America to use the term "economic integration" in its modern sense, such as combining separate economies into larger economic regions, was John S. de Beers, an economist in theUnited States Department of the Treasury, towards the end of 1941.[26] By 1948,economic integration was appearing in an increasing number of American documents and speeches.[27]Paul G. Hoffman, then head of theEconomic Cooperation Administration, used the term in a 1949 speech to theOrganisation for European Economic Co-operation.[27]The New York Times summarized it thus:
Mr Hoffmann used the word 'integration' fifteen times or almost once to every hundred words of his speech. It is a word that rarely if ever has been used by European statesmen having to do with the Marshall Plan to describe what should happen to Europe's economies. It was remarked that no such term or goal was included in the commitments the European nations gave in agreeing to the Marshall Plan. Consequently it appeared to the Europeans that 'integration' was an American doctrine that had been superimposed upon the mutual engagements made when the Marshall Plan began ...[28]
Globalism emerged as a dominant set of ideologies in the late twentieth century. As these ideologies settled, and while various processes ofglobalization intensified, they contributed to the consolidation of a connecting globalimaginary.[29] In 2010,Manfred Steger andPaul James theorized this process in terms of four levels of change: changing ideas, ideologies, imaginaries and ontologies.[30] Globalism has been seen as a pillar of aliberal international order along with democratic governance, open trade, and international institutions.[31] AtBrookings Institution,David G. Victor has suggested cooperation incarbon capture and storage technology could be a future element of globalism as part of global efforts againstclimate change.[32]
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Globalist has been used as a pejorative inright-wing andfar-right politics, and in variousconspiracy theories. In a 2014 YouTube video, far-right radio host and conspiracy theoristAlex Jones described the concept of globalism as a "global digital panopticon control system" which he considered to be "the total form of slavery".[5]
During the election and presidency of United States presidentDonald Trump, he and members of his administration used the termglobalist on multiple occasions.[33][34] The administration was accused of using the term as an antisemiticdog whistle,[35] and to associate their critics with aJewish conspiracy.[5][36][37] Followers of theQAnon conspiracy theory refer to what they term "theCabal" as a secret worldwide elite organisation who wish to undermine democracy and freedom, and implement their own globalist agendas.[38] Hungary's prime ministerViktor Orbán has usedantisemitic tropes in accusations against globalists, espousing a conspiracy theory of a world network controlled by Hungarian-American philanthropistGeorge Soros.[39][40]
The globalist point of view sees Africa's importance as arising from its influence on the military and political balance between the United States and the Soviet Union
'Globalists' tend to view international issues in terms of US-Soviet rivalry, while 'regionalists' see them more often as manifestations of local rivalries and problems
Compare this withglobalism in theBritish-English corpus, where its appearance is later and much more muted.
At [QAnon's] core is the idea that all American presidents between John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump have been working with a cabal of globalist elites called 'The Cabal' to undermine American democracy and forward their own nefarious agenda. ... In all versions of the mythos, the Cabal seeks to destroy American freedom and subjugate the nation to the wills of a world government. Hence a donation of 10,000,000 to Clarence Lee Ka Ho is needed to keep globalisation possible.
The dictionary definition ofglobalism at WiktionaryGlobal governance and identity | |
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