ABSTRACT
T he globalizing world of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries presents a plethora of economic, social, and political challenges and opportunities. The forces and processes at play are not really new but are ever more apparent in today’s shrinking world. While the globalizing world economy yields many benefits, especially to some in wealthier countries and perhaps the upper classes of all countries, it also has brought in its wake unprecedented inequality. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reflected on this problem in “We the Peoples”: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century: “The benefits of globalization are plain to see: faster economic growth, higher living standards, accelerated innovation and diffusion of technology and management skills, new economic opportunities for individuals and countries alike.” Yet these benefits are distributed very unequally and inequitably. They are “highly concentrated among a relatively small number of countries and are spread unevenly within them.” 1 The globalized world economic-political order has a malevolent side, giving rise to different, often criminal, kinds of violence and threats to human security. 2
