ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the progress and consequences of corporate globalization up to early 1995. It also analyses the seriousness of the energy problem, and focuses on the occurrence of a global Hubbert peak in oil production. Despite sharply rising energy prices, nothing is done towards closing the incredible gap between the conspicuous consumption according to Veblen of the superrich and the denigrating poverty of the poor. It is far from certain that democracy will spread around the globe, as the optimistic modernization theory with Lipset claimed. The book discusses that more and more countries struggle with the Hobbesian dilemma of anarchy. The optimistic view on international law, launched by Kelsen early in the twentieth century, is hardly defensible today, as states still live in as much of an Hobbesian jungle.
