Clash of Globalizations
Bear with me, I don’t comment on political situations often but I’ve been meaning to note down something about this for a while now…

Under a backdrop of a war no-one outside the government seems to want, I’ve been trying to look at the bigger picture. One article that has helped me get to grips with the entire notion of ‘globalism’ and it’s effects, and one I’ve returned to a couple of times was written by Stanley Hoffman: Clash of Globalizations.

Ultimately the discussions will continue, but seems to flex around the following questions:

1. Does a nation protecting an ?open society? (US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, etc.) have ethical obligations to undemocratic, closed societies and people outside its borders that should constrain foreign policy?

2. Should the modern nation state be thought as an egoistic atom in global relations, ultimately unbound by international law (the ?realist? position), or as a world citizen, cooperating with other nations in a transnational system and abiding by common codes (the ?idealist? position)?

The inclusion and exclusion of ‘states’ from those questions, and their answers remains the issues. We cannot engage Al-Qaeda in discussion, so what options do we have?

And, at present, how does this really relate to the situation in Iraq? Mr.Blair issued a statement today stating that Britain could fall under attack from Al-Qaeda at any time, and we could spend billions and not stop or even accurately anticipate when and where those attacks would be, so if we must, then we will go to war with Iraq.

I have yet to see accurate links between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. If you know someone who has them, please ask them to pass them on.