Globalism

Globalism has multiple meanings. In political 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". While primarily associated with world-systems, it can be used to describe other global trends. The concept of globalism is also classically used to focus on ideologies of globalization (the subjective meanings) instead of its processes (the objective practices); in this sense, "globalism" is to globalization what "nationalism" is to nationalization.

Globalism as a concept dates from the 1940s. In the 21st century, the term "the globalists" was popularized by Alex Jones, and used interchangeably with the concepts of a New World Order and the deep state. The term is now frequently used as a pejorative by far-right movements and conspiracy theorists. It is sometimes associated with antisemitism, as antisemites frequently appropriate the term "Globalist" to refer to Jews.

Definition

Paul James defines ''globalism''

Early ideas of globalism were also expressed by Adam 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.

Manfred Steger distinguishes among different globalisms, such as justice globalism, jihad globalism, and market globalism. Market globalism includes the ideology of neoliberalism. In some hands, the reduction of globalism to the single ideology of market globalism and neoliberalism has led to confusion. In his 2005 book '' The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World'', Canadian philosopher John 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 their national interests in both positive and destructive ways.

Political scientists Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane, major thinkers of liberal institutionalism as a new international relations theory, generalized the term to argue that ''globalism'' refers to any description and explanation of a world which is characterized by networks of connections that span multi-continental distances, while globalization refers to the increase or decline in the degree of globalism.. 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.

Globalization has been used to describe international endeavours begun after World War II, such as the United Nations, the Warsaw Pact, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union, and sometimes the later neoliberal and neoconservative policies of nation building and military interventionism between the end of the Cold War in 1991 and the beginning of the war on terror in 2001. Historically in the international relations of the 1970s and 1980s, globalism and regionalism had been defined somewhat differently due to the Cold War. Analysts discussed a globalism vs. regionalism dichotomy, in which globalists believed that international events more often arose from great power competition (then U.S.–Soviet rivalry), whereas regionalists believed they more often arose from local factors.

Concept

The term first came into a widespread usage in the United States of America. The earliest use of the word is from 1943, in the book ''The War for Man's Soul'' by Ernst Jäckh, who used it to describe Adolf Hitler's global ambitions.
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." Examining the statistical analysis of published texts in English language provided by Google, Or Rosenboim found that the term ''global'' 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.

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 greatest economic power the world had known, with the greatest military machine in history.. In February 1948, George F. Kennan's Policy Planning Staff said: " 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.". America's allies and foes in Eurasia were still recovering from World War II at this time. 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 global economic integration, which had collapsed under World War I and the Great Depression.

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 the United States Department of the Treasury, towards the end of 1941.. By 1948, ''economic integration'' was appearing in an increasing number of American documents and speeches.. Paul G. Hoffman, then head of the Economic Cooperation Administration, used the term in a 1949 speech to the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation. ''The New York Times'' summarized it thus:

Globalism emerged as a dominant set of ideologies in the late twentieth century. As these ideologies settled, and while various processes of globalization intensified, they contributed to the consolidation of a connecting global imaginary. In 2010, Manfred Steger and Paul James theorized this process in terms of four levels of change: changing ideas, ideologies, imaginaries and ontologies. Globalism has been seen as a pillar of a liberal international order along with democratic governance, open trade, and international institutions. At Brookings Institution, David G. Victor has suggested cooperation in carbon capture and storage technology could be a future element of globalism as part of global efforts against climate change.

Usage in right-wing politics

''Globalist'' has been used as a pejorative in right-wing and far-right politics, and in various conspiracy theories, notably antisemitic ones.

Among the Christian right, particularly the Protestant right, ''globalism'' is an umbrella term which includes perceived secular aspects such as environmentalism, feminism, and socialism; globalism is believed to underlie the expansion of the New World Order – a prophesied enemy attempting to thwart Christianity – through organizations such as the European Union, United Nations, and World Trade Organization. Globalist values, promoted by the UN as a whole and the World Health Organization, among others, are perceived to be at odds with Christian values. UN conventions on discrimination against women and children's rights have thus been fiercely opposed by organizations and leading figures on the Christian right, such as Concerned Women for America, as methods to weaken parental rights, destroy the traditional family, and separate children from their religious and familial settings. The UN as satanic enemy is a theme in apocalyptic Christian media, such as the 1990s–2000s series '' Left Behind'', in which the UN is run by the Antichrist, as well as Pat Robertson's 1991 '' New World Order'' and Hal Lindsey's 1994 book ''Planet Earth 2000 A.D.: Will Mankind Survive?.''

In a 2014 YouTube video, far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones described the concept of globalism as a "global digital panopticon control system" which he considered to be "the total form of slavery".

During the election and presidency of United States president Donald Trump, he and members of his administration used the term ''globalist'' on multiple occasions. The administration was accused of using the term as an antisemitic dog whistle, and to associate their critics with a Jewish conspiracy. Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory refer to what they term "the Cabal" as a secret worldwide elite organisation who wish to undermine democracy and freedom, and implement their own globalist agendas. Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán has used antisemitic tropes in accusations against globalists, espousing a conspiracy theory of a world network controlled by Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros.

See also

* Alter-globalization
* Anti-globalization movement
* Cosmopolitanism
* Cultural imperialism
* Cultural globalization
* Dimensions of globalization
* Global capitalism
* Global warming
* Information Age
* Internationalism
* Isolationism
* New World Order (conspiracy theory)
* New world order (politics)
* Post-industrial society
* Power elite
* Ruling class
* Rootless cosmopolitan
* Techno-globalism
* Triple parentheses

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{{Globalization, state=autocollapse

Globalization
Ideologies
International relations theory
Postmodernism
Social theories
World government