How Globalization Promotes War
by Steven Staples, The Polaris Institute
August 29th, 2003
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Globalization, more correctly called corporate globalization, is founded upon a conservative, free market-oriented worldview that seeks to limit the economic impact of government actions.
The institutions and agreements that codify globalization, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), place restrictions on government services and regulations that might inhibit corporate profits — while championing the government’s role in providing national security.
1. Globalization promotes the conditions for war.
Ethnic and religious differences mask the underlying economic causes of the more than 30 wars raging around the world today. Inequality, competition for dwindling resources, and environmental degradation are factors in the outbreak of armed conflict that are worsened by free trade.
Globalization undermines the ability of governments to regulate and mitigate the damaging effects of the market, which leads to an intensification of all of the economic causes of war.
2. Globalization promotes military spending over social spending.
“Security exceptions” in free trade agreements grant governments a free hand in military spending, but place limits on social spending. Thus, governments use military spending to achieve non-defense goals such as job creation, regional development, and subsidization of local corporations through defense contracts.
Since the late 1990s, world military spending has been on the rise and is now nearly $1 trillion a year — almost half of this is by the United States alone.
3. Globalization requires police and military protection of corporate interests.
Popular movements opposed to globalization’s harsh economic agenda have been emerging around the world, especially since the famous protests derailed the WTO in Seattle in 1999. Police forces have responded with increased repression and intolerance for political protests.
Armed with powerful new anti-terrorism laws such as the Patriot Act, security forces can use totalitarian-like measures to investigate and detain people whose only “crime” may be to advocate for a fair global economy that serves the interests of ordinary people.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is realigning and expanding its vast international network of bases along the frontiers of the global economy, such as in central Asia. And in places like Colombia, U.S. troops and weapons are being deployed where uprisings threaten corporate investments.
4. Globalization undermines citizen peace work.
Government and corporate interests can use trade agreements to limit the ability of citizens to lobby for government policies that promote peace. Legislative victories by citizens advocating economic sanctions or divestment campaigns against repressive states may be challenged and overturned by free trade regimes such as the WTO.
A successful citizen campaign encouraging local governments to not contract with corporations doing business in Burma/Myanmar was overturned by the U.S. federal government after it was threatened with a WTO challenge.
5. Globalization promotes corporate security over human security.
Globalization and free trade regimes align government interests with corporate interests, resulting in the state increasingly assuming the role of promoter and defender of corporate interests at home and abroad.
This focus on corporate interests comes at the expense of governments providing for the security of their citizens through social programs and public-interest legislation, and deters governments from undertaking international actions to promote peace and security and achieve the greater public good.
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