Popular Writer Calls Globalization the New World Order

Popular Writer Calls Globalization the New World Order

BY MICHAEL CINELLI
Rice News Staff
May 27, 1999

World leaders, political and economic pundits and the news media have constantly
referred to the past decade–the aftermath of the demise of the Soviet Union
and communism–as the post-Cold War era.

"During the last 10 years we’ve been speaking about what the world isn’t
because we didn’t know what it was," said Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

"Well, the statute of limitations on calling this the post-Cold War era
has run out, and it’s time we called it by what it is: globalization,"
he told an audience packed into Rice’s James A. Baker Hall on May 12.

Friedman was on campus as part of a tour promoting his latest book, "The
Lexus and the Olive Tree," which details his observations on the changing
world order. The program was sponsored by Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute
for Public Policy.

"Globalization is shrinking the world from size medium to size small,"
Friedman said. "This is not just a trend, it’s not just some economic fad.
This is an international system that has replaced the Cold War system."

The Cold War was characterized by one overriding feature–division. Until communism
collapsed in 1989, the world was a divided place "and all threats or opportunities
grew from who you were divided from, and it was symbolized by a single item–the
Berlin Wall," Friedman said.

Globalization is characterized by integration.

"In this new system, threats and opportunities flow from who you’re connected
to, and it is symbolized by a single word–the Web," Friedman said.

During the Cold War the two superpowers–the United States and the Soviet Union–were
in charge and the leaders of those countries tried to resolve matters using
the "hot line."

With globalization everyone is connected and everyone is empowered, Friedman
contends.

In this new system, "it’s just like the Internet: we’re all connected
but nobody’s quite in charge. During the Cold War the first question anyone
asked was ‘How big is your missile?’ In globalization the first question is
‘how fast is your modem?’"

What distinguishes the two systems is the nature of power. During the Cold
War power was a balancing act with states interacting with other states. In
globalization the state-to-state model still exists, but now there’s the state
supermarket and the state superempowered power plays.

"What happened when you blew away all the walls at the end of the Cold
War and you wired all the world, individuals can now act on the world stage
directly, unmediated by a state," Friedman said. "Individuals can
become superempowered."

An example, Friedman said, was retired U.S. Gen. Perry Smith and his battle
with CNN/Time Warner concerning the broadcast last year of "Tailwind,"
an erroneous broadcast report that the United States used chemical weapons during
the Vietnam War.

Smith was a consultant for the media conglomerate but when the producers of
the "Tailwind" segment ignored his evidence that the report was not
true, he quit consulting and launched an e-mail campaign–enlisting the support
of four other retired generals–against the program and CNN/Time Warner.

"His e-mail campaign was so compelling that he had CNN/Time Warner begging
for mercy," Friedman said. "So five retired generals using e-mail
brought down a major media conglomerate."

Smith and his military friends were empowered by technology, Friedman concluded,
one of the major forces of globalization.

Friedman’s full speech is available on the Web through Rice’s Streaming Audio
and Video Server, http://riceinfo.rice.edu/rtv/.