Three Steps in the Globalization of the International System: Global Networks from 1000 B.C.E. to 2053 C.E. (2005)
18/06/05 16:25 Filed in: publicatons
In
Globalization and Global
History, edited by
Barry K. Gills and William R. Thompson (2005)
London: Routledge.
Most treatments of
globalization view it as a relatively recent and
unique process. Combining frameworks of political
geography (world city and network analysis) with a
long-term oriented IR framework, further evidence
is provided for the emergence of an informational
network economy, global in extent, cyclical in
occurrence, and evolutionary in nature. The chapter
empirically traces the origins of today's global
digital infrastructure (in the form of ICT
networks) from the emergence of a commercial
Phoenician system emerging 1000B C.E. over the
13/14th century Italian city-state and 16th century
Dutch maritime commercial networks. The focus on
networks and the re-emergence of global cities as
central nodes in the world economy highlights the
need to add data beyond the state as the level of
analysis for studies of the international system.
At the same time, however, it makes evident the
need to view these nodes as an embedded part of a
state-based international system.