ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the state of the debate on globalization as a source of historical, ideological, philosophical and cultural contention. It sets out that many approaches and debates are predicated upon multidisciplinary foundations. These debates and controversies raise important epistemological and ontological issues concerned with explaining and acting out the politics and critical politics of globalization. The very word globalization implies a teleological and deterministic deity bereft of human agency or of political will. Economic and technological approaches to globalization have tended to regard globalization in a rationalist and scientific manner. The debate on globalization was particularly pertinent for the discipline of International Relations. During most of the 20th century international relations was dominated by the paradigm of realism. The global society has heralded both opportunity of mobility and at the same time, new global risks such as nuclear apocalypse and global environmental destruction.
