The Declining World Order or Global Networks

The Declining World Order: America's Imperial Geopolitics

Author: Richard A Falk

This work delineates the impact of terrorism--and the American response--on the basic structure of international relations, the dimming prospects for global reform and the tendency to override the role of sovereign territorial states. Falk examines the changing role of the state, the relevance of institutions, the role of individuals and the importance of the worldwide religious resurgence, with its positive and negative implications. He also considers the post-modern geopolitics of the Bush presidency, with its emphasis on the militarization of space, the control of oil in the Middle East, and its reliance on military capabilities so superior to that of other states as to make any challenge impractical.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	The future of the state and state system	3
Ch. 2	Regionalism	45
Ch. 3	Global institutions	67
Ch. 4	Global civil society	81
Ch. 5	Toward global justice	107
Ch. 6	Religious resurgence	137
Ch. 7	Challenging citizenship	171
Ch. 8	Grasping George W. Bush's postmodern geopolitics	189
Ch. 9	The United Nations after the Iraq War	201
Ch. 10	Patriotism	215
Ch. 11	Human rights and civil liberties	227
Ch. 12	Will the empire be fascist?	241

Interesting book: Trying Again or Yoga Mom Buddha Baby

Global Networks: Linked Cities

Author: Saskia Sassen

In her pioneering book The Global City, Saskia Sassen argued that certain cities in the postindustrial world have become central nodes in the new service economy, strategic sites for the acceleration of capital and information flows as well as spaces of increasing socio-economic polarization. One effect has been that such cities have gained in importance and power relative to nation-states.
In this new collection of essays, Sassen and a distinguished group of contributors expand on the author's earlier work in a number of important ways, focusing on two key issues. First, they look at how information flows have bound global cities together in networks, creating a global city web whose constituent cities become "global" through the networks they participate in. Second, they investigate emerging global cities in the developing world-Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Beirut, the Dubai-Iran corridor, and Buenos Aires. They show how these globalizing zones are not only replicating many features of the top tier of global cities, but are also generating new socio-economic patterns as well. These new patterns of development promise to lead to significant changes in the structure of the global economy, as more and more cities worldwide are integrated into globalization's circuitry.
Includes contributions from:Linda Garcia, Patrice Riemens, Geert Lovink, Peter Taylor, David Smith, Michael Timberlake, Stephen Graham, Sueli Schiffer Ramos, Christoff Parnreiter, Felicity Gu, David Meyer, Pablo Ciccolella, Iliana Mignaqui, Eric Huybrechts, Ali Parsa. Also includes six maps.

Booknews

Contributors extend Saskia Sassen's global cities thesis to consider the information architecture binding global cities together in dense networks. They look at global cities in the South, including Shanghai, Mexico City, Beirut, and Buenos Aires, which are becoming key nodes in the emerging global urban system. Discussion encompasses firms and their global service networks, global capital exchange, and sociospatial impacts of the development of global city functions. Sassen teaches sociology at the University of Chicago. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)