On Interdependence

This essay explores the crisis of global interdependence that has arisen from competing North-South perceptions of interdependence and from inequitable relations among Third World and industrialized states of the North. Illustrating the general features of the crisis through a case study of the Middle East, the author argues that techniques of economic, political and cultural cooptation have been used by the West to foster a form of interdependence that is of primary benefit to wealthier segments of the global community. To the degree that some Third World states (notably Egypt) now identify with the West, this strategy has been successful. However, the costs to world order are considerable. As they become more integrated into Western-dominated networks of “interdependence,” Third World states face intensifying social contradictions that cannot be resolved through socialist or other noncapitalist strategies. Redress of these problems requires a new legal category of ownership – internationalized property – under which corporate capital, power, and productive capacity would be transferred from the predominant domain of the North to a commonwealth of world states. This basis for world authority would avoid the side– and counter-effects associated with world government and would provide the foundation for a more just world order

Commonwealth · Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Face (sociological concept · Government (linguistics · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Redress · Social science · Sociology · Third world · World economy · Global Economic and Social Development · Law · State Capitalism and Financial Governance · World Systems and Global Transformations