Griffin Smith

Blog Post #4

                             

                         THE DARK SIDE OF EMBEDDED LIBERALISM

     Using Ruggie’s article on embedded liberalism as a jumping-off point, I would like to tack in the opposite direction of some of my previous posts and instead paint the picture that perhaps liberalism isn’t the saving new world order that many understand it to be and that it is perhaps simply a new rendition of an age-old monster.  This monster is the tedious game of international relations among states motivated by power and, perhaps more relevant in today’s context, the almighty dollar.

     Ruggie points out very early on that since World War II, world politics have been centered on efforts of cooperation through international organizations, specifically the United Nations.  We describe these institutions as bastions of fairness and cooperation, often subconsciously asserting the commendability of their actions and projects with descriptions such as “open” and “liberal”. But is this truly the case?  As Ruggie accurately points out, through these multinational endeavors not only does a global power hegemon emerge, but also an economic hegemon.  With the rise of globalization, national economies are now playing by the rules of a worldwide market where everything is defined by the measuring stick of the economic hegemon, which is often the seat of global power as well.  In turn, the system that is supposed to be promoting fairness and global development may in fact be keeping developing countries down.  This viewpoint is often overlooked, probably because it is easy to perceive something as fair when you essentially own the game.  Living in the United States, the virtual head of the world order and economy, I think we can sometimes be tricked into thinking the world is far simpler, and fairer, than it truly is.  However, I do not believe this situation to be directly the fault of countries like the United States or organizations like the U.N.  It is instead the result of factors in the current world economy that these powers fail to control.

    The first of these problems is one extremely common in third world or developing nations, which I will refer to as colonial mindset.  Colonial mindset is damage left over from colonial powers reorganizing and controlling these nations, and from the colonizers planting the idea in the heads of the indigenous population that their nation/race/system is inferior.  The result is visible today.  If you visit many third world nations (I visited the Solomon Islands), you’ll see that much of the indigenous population is complacent.  People often squat on sidewalks and street corners, doing next to no work and simply watching the day go by.  I believe this to be caused by one of two possible scenarios: (1) The people are so used to having themselves and their country exploited by higher powers that they believe work to be futile and of no benefit to themselves (they think their labor will be without reward) or (2) that they are conscious of foreign investment and infrastructure in their nation because of lucrative resources, and therefore know that the higher powers will always do just enough to keep the country from slipping over the brink into destruction.  In many remote parts of the world, it is common to be driving through the jungle only to come to a new bridge with an inscription of something similar to “a gift from the People’s Republic of China”.  As long as this exacerbated foreign involvement, whether good or bad, persists and countries are not allowed, or forced, to stand on their own, these “developing nations” will not develop.

     The second and perhaps most dangerous new factor of today’s world is the rise of the market state as the new medium of the nation-state.  With globalization, giant corporations now hold a huge share of power.  I have often heard said that the world of the future will not be dominated by an entity like the U.N., but rather by corporations.  This poses some serious risks and problems, especially for developing countries, because these corporations do not follow the same rules as states, nor are they constrained within national boundaries.  If the disproportionate power of these mega-corporations is not effectively reigned in, it could lead to havoc in the world economy.