ABSTRACT
Two issues are playing dominant roles in shaping the current political landscape. Processes commonly referred to as 'globalisation' are affecting every area of the world through environmental modification, electronic communications, financial shifts, and the evolution of a worldwide civil society. Juxtaposed with this multi-dimensional globalisation is US military primacy. In 2004, the United States spent $466 billion on defence; the next largest spenders were China and Russia, at $65bn and $50bn respectively.l These twin developments, one generalised across the planet and the other specific to the US, will interact in complex ways as the world responds to US military primacy, and as an increasingly globalised environment compels political, economic, humanitarian and military engagement between states.
