Globalization and Its Enemies

I have liked Daniel Cohen's work since 1996 when I first read his paper "Tests of the `convergence hypothesis': some further results" published in the Journal of Economic Growth (September). So, I came to the current book with a positive preconception - and I am glad to say I was not disappointed. The provocative title of the book is misleading to the extent it conveys a black and white message: globalization on one side; its enemies on the other. Not so. The central point is an argument against the false notion that the wealth and income disparities between the West and the Third World resulted from either religious differences or exploiter-exploited relationships between the two regions. The book points out that what some have interpreted as the result of evildoing on the part of the West are simply impacts of unintended consequences of technology. The book uses an example from Algeria where a technology like DDT intended for mosquito eradication and therefore malaria and typhoid elimination had the indirect effect of allowing a population growth which needed more food, which needed more land and other resources to grow the food, and in the end resulted in inequalities and reduced happiness. The example makes clear that the consequences of globalization "transcend the simple categories of Good and Evil" (pp. 2-3). Globalization is not a monolithic and one-time phenomenon; instead it is a sequential and systematic Westernization of the globe that began with the "discovery" of America in the 15th century, was expanded by the English merchants in the 18th century, and has picked up pace to-date. During its early phases globalization brought to non-Western regions both cures (e.g., medicine) and infections (e.g. smallpox), but it is not so clear that all that was intentional. What is clear is that globalization dashed expectations in that many ended up disappointed that after voluntarily abandoning their cultures for Western civilization, they soon discovered, for example, that "far from delivering the free entry and transparency dreamed of by economists, the socalled information society creates its own barriers, replacing those that technology breaks down. [Thus], the enemies of globalization are arrayed in two opposed camps. One camp ... is that of the Mullahs who denounce the Westernization of the world. The other camp is that of [those] who fight the exploitation of workers by capital." (p. 5). However, the two arrays are simplifications because "to understand the current act of globalization within the confines of religion or exploitation is to miss globalization's singularity" (p. 6). The [] added. Following Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, among others, Chapter 1 debunks explanations of world disparities in terms of pre-destinies such as genetics and geographies. I detect some hedging here, but the book finally settles on the importance of "initial conditions". For example, countries with large amounts of land can accommodate m