Globalisation - a bibliographical guide for the perplexed and bewildered

The two campaigning books mentioned are: Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schuman, The Global Trap, London: Zed Books, 1997; and …

The two campaigning books mentioned are: Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schuman, The Global Trap, London: Zed Books, 1997; and William Greider, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism, London: Penguin Books, 1997.

The definition of economic globalisation is from Alan Tonelson, "Globalisation: The Great American Non-Debate", Current History, November 1997. James Rosenau's essay, "The Complexities and Contradictions of Globalisation" is in the same issue. Rosenau's book, Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier: Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World, Cambridge, 1997, explores the issue in greater detail. See also Brigid Laffan ed., Constitution-Building in the European Union, Dublin: Institute of European Affairs, 1996, and a recent collection of essays, edited by Peter Gowan and Perry Anderson, The Question of Europe, London: Verso, 1997. A good introduction to political globalisation is Mary Kaldor, "Cosmopolitanism Versus Nationalism: The New Divide?", in Richard Caplan and John Feffer, eds., Europe's New Nationalism, Oxford, 1996. On neo-medievalism see Heikki Patomaki, "Rewriting Security in the European Political Community in the Making", paper to Royal Irish Academy, 20-22 November, 1997. A sceptical approach towards radical theses on globalisation is taken by Paul Hirst in "The global economy - myths and realities", International Affairs, July 1997 (the quarterly journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London) in his review of Martin and Schuman in the RIIA monthly The World Today, December 1997, and in Prospect, the London monthly of ideas, under the heading "Globaloney", February 1996. His book with Graham Thompson, Globalisation in Question, Cambridge, 1996, goes into greater detail. Robert Taylor takes the same approach in "Global Claptrap", Prospect, December, 1997. For the views of distinguished international economists on Ireland see Alan W. Gray, ed., International Perspectives on the Irish Economy, Dublin, 1997.

Linda Weiss's "The Myth of the Powerless State", New Left Review, September-October, 1997, also doubts the strong case. But Susan Strange, "The Erosion of the State", in the same issue of Current History and in her book, The retreat of the state: the diffusion of power in the world economy, Cambridge, 1996, argues strongly in its favour. See also Neil Middleton and Phil O'Keefe, Disaster and Development, London: Pluto, forthcoming, 1998.