Written by S. H. Al-Musawi Now and then, politicians blame the global economy for the malfunctioning of their national policies. This is true to a certain extent. The global economic factor is bridging many societies together. The European Union started as an economic alliance, and is now heading towards political harmonisation. Global economy has meant that a crisis in south east Asia is not a local one. Information technology (IT) and US-led global entertainment industry fostered a tendency for spreading American cultural values.
Globalisation covers a great variety of social, economic and political change, and it is therefore not surprising that different disciplines have assigned different meaning to it. Globalisation is an abstract concept and it does not refer to a concrete object, but to an interpretation of a societal process. According to Heywood (1998), globalisation is a "complex web of interconnectedness that means that our lives are increasingly shaped by decisions and actions taken at a distance from ourselves. It implies that nation-states can no longer be viewed as independent actors on the world stage." However, it may not mean that the state is irrelevant, but that its role has changed and is now largely related to the promotion of international competitiveness. "Globalisation is a geographical shift in domestic economic activity around the world and away from nation-state", say Bannock et al (1997). Globalisation is therefore viewed as a process in which geography becomes less a factor in the establishment and sustenance of border crossing, long distance economic, political and socio-cultural relations. In the words of Albrow (1996), globalisation "restores the boundlessness of culture and promotes the endless renewability and diversification of cultural expression rather than homogenization or hybridization." Usually, globalisation is also meant to refer to the consequences it has. The biggest impact of lessening the factor of geography is on the concept of nation-state and nationalist ideologies. It is not yet clear The coming together of ideas has helped to melt down differences across the globe. It has helped to diffuse the feeling of nationalism, for example. Many local institutions are aspiring to be linked up to the global ones without having to go through their national set-up. A multi-national company can take decisions that affect the national economy, while the nation-state is unable to deter such decisions. Peter Mandaville (see ISIM Newsletter of March 1999) points out that the Internet (a main feature of a global environment) has become a forum for Muslims "for the conduct of politics within their religion." He rightly says that "in the absence of sanctioned information from recognised institutions, Muslims are increasingly taking religion into their own hands." The global nature of Islam enables it to be one of the main beneficiaries of certain aspects of globalistion. After all, Islamic principles are not very friendly to the rigid concept of nation-state, the main sufferer under a globalised environment. In fact, as Mandaville explains, "the rise of IT has led to considerable intermingling and dialogue between desperate interpretations of what it means to be 'Islamic' and the politics of authenticity which inevitable ensue from this also serve to further fragment traditional sources of authority." Indeed, Islamists, who had long suffered under absolute rule are now able to conduct debate and critically question many of the inherited dogmas. This IT-enabled global environment has led to the moderation of many of the extremist views that had been propagated by certain quarters, for transparency always results in limiting undesired actions and thoughts saiyed shahbazi www.shahbazcenter.org
