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- 99 THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON KNOWLEDGE AND SECURITY By Judit Balázs Speak up if you know how to get over. The most difficult of all things is to speak.32 Introduction Present Globalization on the premises of corporate capitalism literally means an allover -tendency – no region is likely to escape its major trends. One of its aspects is the unjust circles of distribution, against which an indirect counteraction is appearing in the form of regionalism. If this neo-liberal process is allowed to continue, an unwelcome current of polarisation, pauperisation and criminality is sure to engulf the main regions of the countries worldwide. No social community may be left untouched. Globalization’s worldwide conquest took a start around the beginning of the 20th century. The first symptom was its impact on the world economy, not least in the form of deep recessions. Since that time Globalization has got a wider scope, and nowadays it applies to all walks of life. It affects almost all fields of social existence, and their asymmetric interdependence is getting all the more intensive. An overall result of the process: The forceful idea of competition makes the gap between the less developed 1. and the economically developed nations grow wider and wider. The latter have become differentiated through their efforts to gain economic 2. independence and dominance over as many other countries as possible, backed up by military preponderance. The most successful of them all are frequently referred to as “the members of the centre of the world economy”. As West European countries have failed to keep most of their leading positions, the “centre” has moved from the North Atlantic region (Europe and North America) to the Pacific region (North America and East Asia). The counteraction to such a worldwide dominance supported by state terror 3. has i.e. taken shape in the form of resistance through suicidal attacks of terror, the poor side’s weapon. The result of this kind of Globalization is global insecurity. Let us look at some problems inherent in these trends. 32 Ptahhotep’s exhortations. Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt around 2160 BC. - 100 The Role of Competition Adam Smith’s famous theory presupposed that: Free competition was an essential ingredient of any efficient economy; and 1. Every one of the self-interest-motivated individuals was guided by an 2. "invisible hand", and so contributed to the good of the whole. And indeed, history provides examples that the absence of innovative competition and international (or at least: regional) co-operation might result in economic atrophy. 33 This laissez faire prescription is disastrous to the world economy. Nations’ equal chances to fair competition have been distorted by historical, geographical, geopolitical and other circumstances. The situation is turning from bad to worse because of a widely accepted belief that we can achieve better positions by getting the edge over our competitors – even at the cost of disregarding humanitarian and environmental issues. In their essay entitled "The Limits of Competition" members of the so - called "Lisbon Group"34 point out that – unless the aggressive competition is restricted by public regulation – the world economy will soon come under the rules of a social-Darwinism that knows neither humanism nor environment protection. Obviously, there cannot be much "good of the whole" if competition disqualifies everyone except the winner. According to the Human Development Report,35 that is just what happens between the post-industrial economies and the developing countries on the global markets. Therefore, Globalization is not a process to unify free nations; it is a process which forces nations into a single hierarchical system. After the end of the "two polar world," most local wars have broken out because of competition for scarce resources or because the losers in the world wide economic competition rejected a humble rank in that untold hierarchy. The Gap between the Rich and the Rest The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter (1939) became known for analysing production circulation. As early as in 1939 he described capitalism as "the most 33 Some of the tribes in today’s Angola used to have an autarktic economy before colonisation. Any surplus was considered to be „straight from the devil” and confiscated by tribal chiefs. No enhancement of production – consequently no competition – was allowed. - In the 16th to the 17th century Ottoman Empire competition was hindered by severe control over trade-guilds. Some Western scholars point out that rivalry among trade-guilds might have fostered the...

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