The Global Century: Globalization and National Security, Volumes I and II
Although globalization is generating prosperity and integration, it also poses new threats and disruptions that must be managed. In this massive compendium of essays, experts explore globalization's consequences for American national security and ask how the United States can adapt through cooperative strategies of international engagement. The challenge is that although the "core" of market-oriented democracies is committed to evolving norms of the global economy, outlying countries such as China, Russia, and Iran either feel threatened by globalization or resist playing by its rules. To narrow this divide, the editors argue, a new national security strategy must promote norms of peaceful change, democratic governance, and enhanced institutions of cooperative security. Other chapters assess globalization's impact on alliances, religious and national identity, corporations, energy security, rogue states, naval strategy, and the developmental prospects of regional powers. Many of the insights are not new, but together the chapters underscore the complications and unevenness of globalization's impact. The editors' thesis that the "core" must become globalization's master is also important. What the volume lacks is a discussion of the hard choices the United States must make if such a strategy is to succeed.
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