Friday, November 11, 2005
GLOBALIZATION AND WAR:PAUL KRETKOWSKI
Mr. Paul D. Kretkowski is a consultant and journalist based in San Francisco who writes on a range of topics including soft power, U.S. foreign policy, Middle Eastern politics and information warfare. His writing credits include, among others, Mother Jones, Wired, Business For Diplomatic Action and SFGate.com. Beacon, Mr. Kretkowski's blog, is devoted to exploring the concept and applications of " Soft Power" as articulated by political scientist Joseph Nye.
Globalization and War
by Paul D. Kretkowski
From a soft-power standpoint, the biggest wild card in globalization is that visual communication is becoming universal.
Billions of illiterate or marginally literate people can now receive not just faceless radio broadcasts, but hundreds of commercial and government satellite TV channels from around the world.
People who once relied on rumors or their governments' views of other countries can now access those countries' own images of themselves. Entire worldviews can be imported into sod huts via tin-can satellite dishes, as in Afghanistan. http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=7382 Where before people thought they "knew" the U.S. because their cousin's in-laws had a falafel stand in Detroit, they now think they "know" the U.S. because they can see actual Americans at the Oscars or on Baywatch.
The major question today is whether the increasing ability of everyone to see everything will lead to greater understanding—or to revulsion that contributes to increased terrorism and war. What will be the effects as two-thirds of the world realizes that it is shockingly poor?
In China and India the answer seems to be a conversion of those countries' normal industriousness into a consumer and private-enterprise boom. Other countries may follow suit—but what happens if their booms stall but images of wealth continue to be beamed from abroad?
In other regions, particularly in the Muslim world, the result is bafflement that the West's apparently godless, chaotic, mercantile societies can be so far ahead in nearly every measure of human development. Responses to this vary from denial and retreat to new attempts to close the gap.
Part of what Beacon tries to do is monitor this ongoing realization of the world's disparities and suggest how countries, companies and individuals can enhance their soft power in that environment. I welcome others' input as I continue examining ways to accomplish this task. ¶ 8:56 AM
Mr. Paul D. Kretkowski is a consultant and journalist based in San Francisco who writes on a range of topics including soft power, U.S. foreign policy, Middle Eastern politics and information warfare. His writing credits include, among others, Mother Jones, Wired, Business For Diplomatic Action and SFGate.com. Beacon, Mr. Kretkowski's blog, is devoted to exploring the concept and applications of " Soft Power" as articulated by political scientist Joseph Nye.
Globalization and War
by Paul D. Kretkowski
From a soft-power standpoint, the biggest wild card in globalization is that visual communication is becoming universal.
Billions of illiterate or marginally literate people can now receive not just faceless radio broadcasts, but hundreds of commercial and government satellite TV channels from around the world.
People who once relied on rumors or their governments' views of other countries can now access those countries' own images of themselves. Entire worldviews can be imported into sod huts via tin-can satellite dishes, as in Afghanistan. http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=7382 Where before people thought they "knew" the U.S. because their cousin's in-laws had a falafel stand in Detroit, they now think they "know" the U.S. because they can see actual Americans at the Oscars or on Baywatch.
The major question today is whether the increasing ability of everyone to see everything will lead to greater understanding—or to revulsion that contributes to increased terrorism and war. What will be the effects as two-thirds of the world realizes that it is shockingly poor?
In China and India the answer seems to be a conversion of those countries' normal industriousness into a consumer and private-enterprise boom. Other countries may follow suit—but what happens if their booms stall but images of wealth continue to be beamed from abroad?
In other regions, particularly in the Muslim world, the result is bafflement that the West's apparently godless, chaotic, mercantile societies can be so far ahead in nearly every measure of human development. Responses to this vary from denial and retreat to new attempts to close the gap.
Part of what Beacon tries to do is monitor this ongoing realization of the world's disparities and suggest how countries, companies and individuals can enhance their soft power in that environment. I welcome others' input as I continue examining ways to accomplish this task. ¶ 8:56 AM
Comments:
<< Home
"Entire worldviews can be imported into sod huts via tin-can satellite dishes"
Knowing this, what we in the developed world need to do is use the visual and other media to communicate to those in their "sod huts" the kinds of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will be useful to them as they confront the world beyond their realm of experience. This is not Start Trek and there is no Prime Directive. We have practical information that has been won through hardship and ingenuity and we have an obligation to share it with other people to help them connect with the Core. The alternative is to do nothing and cede the game to those who are hostile to globalization and thus make the world more dangerous.
So what we need to be doing is to setting up film production companies (for-profit, non-profit whatever works) to create documentaries to transmit this practical information and distribute it throughout the Gap. We need to be proactive and not reactive and we need to create the kinds of institutions designed to effectively communicate.
Post a Comment
Knowing this, what we in the developed world need to do is use the visual and other media to communicate to those in their "sod huts" the kinds of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will be useful to them as they confront the world beyond their realm of experience. This is not Start Trek and there is no Prime Directive. We have practical information that has been won through hardship and ingenuity and we have an obligation to share it with other people to help them connect with the Core. The alternative is to do nothing and cede the game to those who are hostile to globalization and thus make the world more dangerous.
So what we need to be doing is to setting up film production companies (for-profit, non-profit whatever works) to create documentaries to transmit this practical information and distribute it throughout the Gap. We need to be proactive and not reactive and we need to create the kinds of institutions designed to effectively communicate.
# posted by 
: Saturday, 12 November, 2005
: Saturday, 12 November, 2005<< Home
