Jeffrey Haynes is professor of politics at London Guildhall University and author of Politics in the Developing World (Blackwell Publishers, 2002).
Globalization and the Middle East: Economy, Society, and Politics
edited by toby dodge and richard higgott
London, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2002. 200 pages
Hardback: £45.00. Paperback: £16.95
The (in)famous “clash of civilisations” thesis of the conservative US academic, Samuel Huntington, was first articulated in the early 1990s. Huntington’s key argument was that, following the end of the Cold War, a new, global confrontation was under way—between the (Christian) “West” and the (mostly Muslim, mostly Arab) “East”. The events of 11 September 2024 have focused with alarming clarity such concerns.
Since Huntington’s original pronouncement, millions of words have been expended on the vexed topic of globalisation. However, like other currently debated terms, such as “democracy” or “development”, the meaning of “globalisation” is keenly contested. In fact, “globalisation” is such a ubiquitous, vague and hyped concept that it often does not make sense in and of itself. We can only understand how it works—and does not work—by examining how, when and why it is employed, and by whom.
Although “globalisation” names a process that is still unfolding, there has been no shortage of attempts to define it. Is it possible to understand globalisation as an objective process by simply mapping the relevant facts in order to assess key global trends in relation to social, political and economic organisation? Because analysis of globalisation is almost always cast in wider normative and ideological contexts, with value judgements to the fore, many would answer “no”. In fact, attitudes towards globalisation and its impact on the developing world, including the Middle East, are sharply polarised.
Defences of globalisation come with a powerful cluster of liberal assumptions. Globalisation is said to bring overwhelmingly beneficial consequences, including: (1) greater economic efficiency, via the spread of markets; (2) more effective international institutions; (3) better mechanisms for problem-solving; and (4) more political choice and openness as a result of the spread of democracy. Much of the literature in praise of globalisation has resonance with the functionalist writings of the 1960s and 1970s relating to the problems and prospects of the European Union. Writers such as Ernst Haas argued that technical co-operation to manage specific problems would ultimately yield a superstructure of political behaviour in which the sovereignty of the nation-state would be steadily eroded and circumvented—an outcome seen as a welcome development. In short, the liberal proponents of globalisation similarly believe in its progressive impact on economic, political and social behaviour.
In their view, the end of the Cold War clearly demonstrated the superiority of the values and belief systems of the West over those of its communist rival. Now, it was believed, we would see not only the completion of capitalism’s global expansion but also the universal extension of liberal democracy. The result would be a peaceful and prosperous new world order, a modern golden age. Globalisation would advance the wellbeing of millions of people around the world, through the liberating impact of the spread of markets, democracy and human rights. To promote these developments, international organisations and global institutions would be strengthened and better focused to address pressing global problems. In addition, informal cross-border structures would further develop, involving the interaction of local groups and grassroots organisations from all parts of the world.
Western governments and Western-controlled financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, believe that economic globalisation is overwhelmingly positive for developing countries. They argue that the benefits are especially clear when seen against the dismal failure of various types of economic planning, including the central state-planning of the communist world and the dirigiste variety practised for long periods in many Middle Eastern countries. The latter had two main problems: (1) economic mismanagement by politicians and bureaucrats, and (2) “rent seeking”, that is, attempts to profit by becoming the sole producer and/or distributor of a good or service. Both are seen as habitual, unwelcome aspects of state economic involvement in the Middle East. By contrast, argue proponents of economic liberalisation, the “discipline of the marketplace” results, on balance, in fewer errors of judgement.
Critics of the economic liberalisation/marketisation approach point to two problems with the pro-globalisation case: (1) it misrepresents the past, exaggerating state economic failures in the Middle East and elsewhere in the developing world; and (2) ending, or even drastically scaling down, the state’s economic role removes the possibility of social measures to protect the weak from market failures.
Economic liberalisation involves measures to extend and enhance the operation of market forces, measures such as the denationalisation of industry and the freeing of labour markets from state control. Opponents say that economic liberalisation, an integral aspect of globalisation, has been hijacked by a market liberalism that puts the mechanisms of the market before both the natural environment and the wellbeing of millions of people, not least in the developing countries of the Middle East. In other words, economic globalisation is an outcome of liberalisation that has adverse socio-economic and human consequences. Macroeconomically, the most significant retreat has been from the policy of demand management to reduce unemployment. Another aspect of macroeconomic liberalisation is the adoption of floating exchange rates and the abandonment of capital controls. Critics of globalisation reject the consensus acceptance of market capitalism and argue that the current system is unfair, structured to benefit powerful vested interests. They highlight what they see as the following undesirable consequences of globalisation:
● migratory and refugee exoduses in the developing world and the former eastern European socialist bloc;
● impoverishment caused by the restructuring of global production and finance;
● growing disparities in economic and environmental conditions between the industrialised West and the rest of the world;
● war and political conflict both within and between countries.
Overall, the anti-globalisation view is that globalisation is a highly politicised process that creates both winners and losers; and most among the latter are to be found in developing countries.
The contributions to Globalization and the Middle East, written by a first-rate team of mostly UK-based scholars, elucidates the nature of globalisation’s impact on the Arab/Muslim Middle East. Following an introductory chapter, the book is divided into three sections, each comprising three chapters. The first section is entitled “The Middle East in Global Perspective”. The first chapter, written by the editors, explains how globalisation is perceived in Western academic and popular literature. Fred Halliday then discusses how Middle Eastern scholars view globalisation. The third chapter, a treatment of Britain’s foreign policy in the Middle East, is somewhat anomalous in that it doesn’t address the issue of globalisation.
The second section of the book is entitled “Globalization and the Gulf”. Ali Sadik examines the economic implications of globalisation for the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Mai Yamani weighs the impact of the Arab satellite television station, al-Jazeera, on popular opinion in the region. Ali Ansari then shifts the focus to Iran, analysing what might be called the influence of “cultural globalisation” on its people.
The third section deals with “Globalization and the Wider Arab Middle East”. It contains chapters by Maha Azzam (“Between the Market and God: Islam, Globalization and Culture in the Middle East”), Toby Dodge (“Bringing the Bourgeoisie Back In: The Birth of Liberal Corporatism in the Middle East”), and Rodney Wilson (“The Challenges of the Global Economy for Middle Eastern Governments”). Unfortunately, there is no concluding chapter to pull together the themes and findings of the book, nor an index to help the reader pursue subjects of interest. In sum, what we have here is a book of nine individually interesting chapters that do not comprise more than the sum of their parts.
Many observers, including several of the contributors to this book, would agree that under globalisation a disjuncture is developing between the formal authority of the state and the spatial reach of contemporary systems of production, distribution and exchange. These systems seem to limit the competence and effectiveness of national political authorities. The consequence is that to a large extent many concepts of national economic policy formulation are now of doubtful value.
This is not to argue that national rules and policies are obsolete or no longer needed; rather, it is to make the point that they cannot work unless close attention is paid to what is being done elsewhere in the world. In other words, it is increasingly necessary to work with the grain of global events and developments. Attempts to devise and put into practice strategies that ignore international developments are bound to fail. National controls and regulations have only limited effectiveness if they are at odds with wider international conditions. More specifically, the globalisation of economic relationships has in recent years significantly reduced the possibility of deploying whole ranges of national economic policies. Faced with a global division of labour, lack of capital controls and the power of the world financial markets, individual governments now find it much harder to intervene and manage their economies.
Overall, Globalization and the Middle East makes it clear that the trends in this direction are entrenched and irreversible. Globalisation throws into doubt the relevance and effectiveness of individual countries as meaningful aggregations in terms of managing economic activity. The book underlines how markets and societies in the Middle East—even as their distinctive identities are preserved—are becoming more sensitive both to one another and to external actors.
