Heikki Patomäki
Routledge (Nov. 2007)
http://www.routledge.com/books/The-Political-Economy-of-Global-Security-isbn9780415416726
About the book: The Political Economy of Global Security argues that the contemporary era has been becoming similar in some important respects to the era of 1870-1914. Both neoliberalism and the emerging new imperialism tend to represent late 19th-century Western Europe and North America as the model for the future. In the words of Friedrich Hayek, ‘though we neither can wish nor possess the power to go back to the reality of the nineteenth century, we have the opportunity to realize its ideals…’. A well-known neo-imperialist, Max Boot, concurs with Hayek when he writes that ‘Afghanistan and other troubled lands today cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in jodhpurs and pith helmets’. However, even a partial return to the 19th century ideals and practices is very likely to be highly counterproductive in the 21st century world, and it may also become a recipe for a major catastrophe.
On the basis of this partial historical analogy, and related analysis of layers of agency, structures and mechanisms, Patomäki constructs three scenarios of possible global futures, with a number of variations of each. Seeing potential for a major catastrophe in the first half of the 21st century, his scenarios also stress the dialectics of crises, collective learning and emancipatory transformations. Although grounded on explanatory models, scenarios are not predictions. Any social system is in some ways vague, ambiguous and liable to ruptures and transformations. Scenarios often lose their basis when the world changes. Moreover, scenario construction is understood also as a self-reflective exercise in cultural studies, moral philosophy and creative ability (in the same way that both research and development and the arts are creative).
Hence The Political Economy of Global Security discusses the normative and poetic underpinnings of the 21st century vision of global Keynesianism, democracy, justice and ecological sustainability.
About the author: Born in 1963, Heikki Patomäki is Innovation Professor of Globalization and Global Institutions at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia and Professor of International Relations at the Universityof Helsinki, Finland. His research interests include philosophy of social sciences, political theory, futures studies, peace research, global political economy and global democratization. His other recent books in English are: Democratising Globalisation. The Leverage of the Tobin Tax (Zed, 2001), After International Relations (Routledge, 2002), A Possible World: Democratic Transformation of Global Institutions with T. Teivainen (Zed, 2004), and Globalizing Finance and the New Global Economy. Vol. 2 of Globalization and Economy, co-edited with P. James (Sage, 2007).
Contact: heikki.patomaki@helsinki.fi
