MULTIPLE-VECTOR GLOBALIZATION AND PERMANENT CHAOS
Gagik Harutyunyan
tics&nid=1732
03 April 2009
Though we tend to the order, one should not blame the chaos
groundlessly; it symbolizes both threat and power at the same time
M.Douglas
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The ongoing system changes should inevitably bring to the revaluation
of definite ingrained perceptions. This regards, for example, to
such a foundational notion as globalization, which started to be used
extensively in the end of the last century and is supposed to be one
of the main terms, which characterize the realities of world order.
In the context of political comments the term "chaos" is used
incomparably rarely in the mass media (more often one can meet
"controlled chaos" expression). However, in expert literature it is
considered to be the axial, because just notion "chaos", allows us,
as far as possible, to understand and explain complex phenomena
and processes.
The aspiration to give contemporary interpretation to the
aforementioned notions, in our opinion, is feasible and actual,
because it can promote to the adequate perception of present changes
and to predict, as far as possible, the later developments.
Imperial globalization
As is generally known, globalization has no strict scientific
definition, but this term, as a rule, is understood to be the growth
of the interrelation between the countries due to the integration
processes in economic and other spheres. It is supposed that, as a
result of globalization and taking into consideration the possibilities
provided by contemporary communicative and information technologies,
the common informational field will be formed, and this, in its turn,
will bring to the uniform world perception. There is also an opinion
that the main aim of the globalization is to reduce the chaos and
boost the growth of the level of the order.
Let us mention that the humanity have met local manifestations of
globalization since the formation of the first empires. It is known
that they are particularly the place where different ethnos, cultures
and even civilizations are mixed. As a result of imperial policy at
some extent integrated society, common, as far as possible, judicial
and economic fields are formed. The USSR, recollections of which are
still green in the mind, can be regarded as a classical example of
such a reality. It is obvious that the primary political objective of
"control centre" of any empire is to establish common game rules and
social and economic uniformity, as it is the main precondition for
the stability and viability of state system.
The community of the informational field in the empire depends on the
level of the development of the means of communication in the given
period and, of course, the civilizational potential of the society
formed in the result of integration of the imperial nation or various
nations. The so called temporal and informational permanency of the
empire is conditioned by that factor. For example, the notions and the
achievements in the cultural, political, judicial and other spheres
in the period of Hellenism and the Roman Empire are still used and
the same cannot be said about Hunnish or Ottoman Empires.
Globalization in unipolar world and imperial usage of "chaos"
The globalization in our age is, to a great degree, an expression of
"imperial" way of ruling. In unipolar system (now former unipolar
system) the main "regulator" and "supervisor" was the USA. Possessing
vast resources that world power dominated in all spheres, and the
globalization, in accordance with the views of the representatives of
American elite, was a necessary mean to world regulation and security
ensuring. At the same time, globalization in the American age differs
from the functions of the empires of the past by its high efficiency,
which is conditioned by the certain revolutionary changes in the
informational sphere.
It is remarkable that, according to the conceptual elaborations
of American "think tanks", the countries, which are out of the
globalizing field, are regarded as "unaccomplished" and on that
territories "chaotic processes" dominate. Such a situation constitutes
a threat to the national security of the United States that is why
the involvement of the "unaccomplished" states into the international
community is considered to be a primary objective.
At the same time, "chaotic" situations have a significant potential,
which usage and directing can be profitable from the military and
political and economic points of view for the global actor. That
means that "chaotic" regions and societies have their special place
and value in geopolitical processes.
It is characteristic that such approaches had also dominated in the
past. For example, the Greeks, the Romans and the Chinese percept
the peoples (tribes) who live out of the borders of the "globalized"
empire as "barbarians" and considered them to be very dangerous for
their state. At the same time, the empire often used those "barbarians"
on the assumption of its interests. It is significant that sometimes,
as a result of geopolitical developments, "barbarians" obtained
the status of the inheritors and the successors of the imperial
civilization as it happened after the fall of the Roman (Western)
Empire. The developments in the Byzantine Empire went in the other way;
the Seljuk-Turks who conquered the territory of the Empire from the
civilizational point of view could not inherit rich Byzantine culture
(today the main inheritors of the Byzantine Empire are considered to
be the Greeks, the Armenians and Slavonic nations). In the context of
all the aforementioned China can be regarded as an example of a stable
and permanent empire. Its people, if we take into consideration the
logic of historical developments, in general, possesses its territories
and is a permanent bearer of its own culture.
Peculiarities of globalization in multi-polar world
The situation within the multi-polar system, which is formed
today, changes, because the USA loses the monopoly of the
"regulator-supervisor" of the globalization. At the same time,
geopolitical actors, whose perceptions of the integrated global
space are different, have appeared. It means that new material and
non-material resource centres have been formed, whose globalizing
expansion pursues different aims and thus, it has different direction.
It is characteristic that today not only major powers but also the
international community, whose representatives very often join within
the format of non-governmental organizations (NGO), can be the actors
of the process of the globalization. Those organizations, using the
informational technologies (IT), are able to implement big projects;
thereby, they obtain the status of global actors. It is known that the
considerable part of those NGOs is directed by the big geopolitical
actors; but the impression is that in multi-polar system most of them
will start to work independently.
Let us also mention that in multi-polar world the countries,
which could not act independently in the "overorganized" unipolar
world. It is clear that the developed IT sphere afford them such
an opportunity. The influence of such countries on globalization
processes will be directly dependant on the civilizational and
intellectual resources they possess.
Multi-vector globalization and chaos
In the context of the aforementioned we should underline the fact
that if, for example, in economic and technological spheres the
direction of the actors of globalization may coincide, then the
vectors of civilizational and ideological expansion must have been
different. It means that the contemporary globalization may not to
"regulate" global community but it can promote to the lack of any
regulation and the emerging of chaotic developments. It is also known
that the periodicity of the events in the informational age grows and
the speed of the events also constantly rises. All these circumstances
should also promote to chaotic developments, because the community
and traditional governing bodies do not succeed to react adequately
in time on that events. It means that the current globalization also
contains the mechanisms of the emerging of "permanent chaos". This
factor, in our opinion, lies at the root of the current system crisis.
"Netocracy" – the world elite of intellectuals
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