Globalization facts and faults

This chapter lays out the various layers of the globalization process and explores the subordination of the cultural and moral dimensions of life to the economic and geopolitical interests of the corporate world that reduces the meaning of human development to financial growth. It examines the transformation of international liberalism, envisaged by classical liberals like Locke and Kant as world peace, into neoliberalism under the influence of political realism and neorealism and shed light on the role neoliberalism plays in undermining liberal democracy abroad and at home. The chapter looks at the two major conceptions regarding the trajectory of globalization into the future: convergence and clash of social orders. Convergence is often promoted by the advocates of liberalism as best represented in the work of Francis Fukuyama, while the clash theme is advanced by conservatives and neoconservatives and best articulated by Samuel Huntington. The chapter shows how the convergence process is initiated by the introduction of realpolitik motif and operation that embrace a hierarchical relationship between the North and the South. It finally highlights the efforts of the neoconservatives and neorealists to demonize Islam and paint it as the complete ‘other’ of modern civilization.