Borders and Belongings

The author of this article does a fine job of summarizing everyoneelse's opinion of globalization into a coherent debate. Essentially,there are two thought processes that predict the future of global culture. First, there are those who believe that the global flow ofinformation, investment, trade and people across borders will create a"borderless world". These theorists argue that global capital marketswill dominate the policies of national governments and thenation-state will dissolve. The globalization of markets will createmultinational brands and modes of thought, making cultural autonomy athing of the past. Borders will be determined by televisionsatellites, radio signals, newspapers and magazines. It's a bitsevere, but makes complete sense. However on the other side of thecoin, some argue that the nation-state is not in decline, and that the globalization argument is too Eurocentric. The actions of WesternEurope to integrate do not represent the future of the world.Instead, borders will be determined by civilization. I like this argument more, as the earliest symptoms are already present. Thosecountries who share a cultural affinity cooperate with each other, andthose of different ideologies will cooperate and clash with others.This is evident in the growing anti-Western sentiments in many Arabic countries. Times are a changing.