United States, Globalization and the International System

The belief that globalization has resulted in a multipolar global village transcending political, territorial, economic and socio-cultural particularities seems to be mistaken. On the contrary, it has been a convenient metaphor for the US to promote its own political and economic thinking on all nations at the expense of their cultural, social, economic and political diversity through the instrument of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and the process of homogenization of production, labour and trade. The developing countries have remained captive to the wishes of these US-based corporations. Globalization has not meant more democratization, freedom, independence or emergence of a multipolar world and regional powers. Instead, it has become an expedient euphemism for the US to decide the economy of the entire globe by its own domestic imperatives of providing a luxurious life style to its own citizens. The disintegration of Soviet Union and the end of Cold War, instead of ushering in a new world order, has resulted in the emergence of the US as a great leviathan, which by virtue of its own military prowess feels free to spread auits own liberal market economy binding all the nations of the world to all its nuances at the cost of their independence and sovereignty. American foreign policy behaviour with respect to Afghanistan, Iraq and global climate change negotiations is a testimony to this fact.