An edited book titled Re-Globalization New Frontiers of Political, Economic, and Social Globalization was born from the 2019 and 2020 “Understanding Globalization” conference series held at the Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research, Bozen-Bolzano (Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, Italy). This edited volume by Roland Benedikter, Mirjam Gruber, and Ingrid Kofler is a novel collection of a number of publications focusing on responses to the question “What is re-globalization?” This book discusses reglobalization from a broader economic, political, and social viewpoint, reflecting the perspectives of different disciplines. One of the most important features of the book is that it deals with re-globalization from a socio-geographical point of view and offers predictions for the future course of this process. Therefore, this book will be of great interest to students, academics, and researchers and it is a worthy addition to any library. Although the book covers the re-globalization process in a broad context, basically, the authors of the book identify the driving result of re-globalization as the COVID-19 process.
The messages about the construction and future of the re-globalization process are consistent and clear in the book, although the authors reflect the perspectives of different disciplines such as technology, global security, global studies, health, climate, and environ mental sciences. The sequencing of issues involving the consideration of re-globalization is logical and easy to follow. This book is organized into four parts: (I) economics, politics, and society, (ii) communication, technology, and artificial intelligence, (iii) global security, education, and work and (iv) world regions and international relations. Below is a summary of key points from each section.
In the first chapter, “Re-Globalization – Aspects of a Heuristic Umbrella Term Trying to Encompass Contemporary Change,” Roland Benedikter discusses the changes that have taken place in the globalization model that the world has witnessed since the early 1990s and the main reasons that led to these changes. In this context, the author refers to the nationalist policies of some countries in the world and claims that these policies cause the differentiation of modern societies. Regarding the future, the author states that the existing historical and current developments show that states are too small to solve global problems and too big to solve local problems. According to the author, the future of re-globalization lies in contextualization, scaling, and glocalization rather than the logic of the nation-state.
In chapter 2, “De-Globalization or Re-Globalization? Unmasking the Populist Paradox,” Manfred B. Steger, discusses the concept of reglobalization from a political perspective and draws attention to the discourses of Donald Trump, focusing especially on the relationship between globalism and national populism. In addition, the author states that the nationalist policies adopted by some countries and their leaders, just as Benedikter mentioned in the first chapter, lead to a populist paradox, and claims that these nationalist politicians, who seem to be anti-globalization, do not behave like this when it comes to cultural and economic issues.
Chapter 3, “Rethinking Gender and Economic Globalization in the Twenty-First Century,” by Margaret A. McLaren, focuses on the relationship between globalization and the gendered division of labor. The author states that with globalization, women’s participation in the global formal labor market creates a new form of economic exploitation. By describing the negative effects of economic globalization through the privatization of health services, the author draws attention to the fact that this ultimately restricts poor women’s access to these services, and thus their jobs increase as they take on home care work.
In chapter 4, “Global Civil Society and (Re-) Globalization the Latest Chapter in a Long Story,” Louisa Parks and Niccolò Bertuzzi argue that in the process of re-globalization, there is a symbiotic relationship between global civil society (GCS) and institutions that hold official power in global politics. Drawing attention to the inseparable nature of the mutual relationship, they claim that a dynamic perspective focusing on the inclusiveness of this relationship is required rather than the impact that GCS will create in this new era.
In chapter 5, “Democracy and Its Possible Futures in the Globalized World,” Jan Spurk critically examines the understanding of globalization and democracy in the future. The author states that in the face of totalitarianism, the understanding of democracy, which includes parliamentary democracy, elections, and civil rights, has an important place in supporting globalization. On the other hand, the author states that such uniformity does not reduce the demands regarding democracy. In this direction, the author predicts that participatory democracy approaches may emerge in the future, where local initiative is high or that can produce a hybrid system between the elements of representative democracy and direct democracy.
In chapter 6, “Re-Calibrating Globalization, Policy Coordination, and Regulatory Cooperation in Times of Geopolitical Shift, Technological Change, and Climate Crisis,” Marc Uzan and Henning Vöpel state that the COVID-19 pandemic is a turning point in re-globalization. On one side this process offers an opportunity to rethink how it could be used to create sustainability, resilience, and prosperity, while at the same time, it can make it difficult to coordinate and cooperate with economic policies. Authors argue that this process creates uncertainty caused by populism, distribution problems, geopolitics, and industrial, fiscal, and monetary policies, and this uncertainty in fact requires re-globalization rather than moving away from it.
In chapter 7, “The Anthropocene Dilemma, an Ecologist’s View,” Roland Psenner discusses the consequences of globalization through the dilemma he defines as “The Anthropocene.” The stated dilemma underlines that while globalization causes an increase in the acceleration of global trade, on the other hand, this process wear global changes that re-globalization can bring: species extinction and climate warming
In chapter 8, “Communication, Technology, and Artificial Intelligence: What Does the Concept of “Indifferent Globality” Tell Us about the Making of the World Today?” Barrie Axford states that COVID-19 provides insights into the reshaping of globalization in terms of moral and normative contradictions. The author discusses his predictions about the concept of “indifferent globality” and draws attention to the importance of this concept in terms of social change and individuals’ understanding of globality.
In chapter 9, “All Ethics Is Global New Neuroethics in a Multipolar and Multicultural World,” James Giordano and John R. Shook, predict that one of the domains of re-globalization is the brain sciences, and as new neurotechnologies are developed, it will create an ethical problem and thus the globalization or neuroethics will become important. The authors draw attention to the contribution of well-structured multicultural neuroethics.
In the following years, the authors argue, reglobalization has inspired fresh innovations not only in science and technology but also in ethics and politics.
In chapter 10, “The Pandemic, Artificial Intelligence, and Algorithmic Governmentality,” Romuald Jamet and Kim Truchon (Jamet) argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has paved the way for the emergence of a new form of governmentality called algorithmic. This type of governmentality relies on artificial intelligence-related technologies (Big Data, data mining, machine learning, deep learning, etc.) and ensures the readability and predictability of human behavior. According to the authors, in the long run, this will lead to the re-globalization of socio-political governance and will enable a global reconfiguration of the balance of power.
In chapter 11, “Conspiracies and Risk Communication in Times of Global Panic,” Julie Alev Dilmaç discusses how conspiracy theories emerged due to the lack of communication between global regulatory authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic and what should be done in the future. The author considers the emergence of these complete theories as a natural reaction and even draws attention to the positive aspects of the individual by pushing them to question, which is a democratic orientation. The author proposes to include the issue of dissemination of accurate information to the public in the globalization reform project as a precaution in future crises.
In chapter 12, “Global Health Security in an Age of Re-Globalization,” Kathryn E. Bouskill argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed critical security vulnerabilities to the policies of global health security. The author states that rising nationalism is undermining global health security governance, just as other authors have touched on in other chapters of the book. The author claims that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven once again how important it is for globalization and global health security to be compatible with each other and provides an important opportunity to prioritize global health security in the future.
In chapter 13, “Coronavirus Challenges in the Global World of Education,” Barbara Isching pay special attention to the needs of disadvantaged children should be developed in the future.
In chapter 14, “Re-Globalization and Its Challenges for High-Skilled Labor and Its Consequences at the Regional Level,” Ingrid Kofler and Mirjam Gruber argue that for re-globalization, COVID-19 is important to show the changing trend of the labor force market. According to the authors, the COVID-19 crisis has shown that automation, layoffs, and job losses require rethinking the future course of the labor market around the world.
In chapter 15, “A Matter of System? Economic Cultures and Capitalism along China’s New Silk Road,” Hannes Thees, Harald Pechlaner, and Wei Manske-Wang discuss re-globalization through China’s logistics and New Silk Road (NSR). According to the authors, the NSR will play an important role in shaping re-globalization in terms of its potential to build trust in the value chain, regional integration, and political relations among transition countries.
In chapter 16, “Can Africa Contribute to Re-Globalization?” Robert Mudida argues that the focus of African countries on the opportunities offered by the digital economy and digital diplomacy that has developed with COVID-19 has made Africa an important part of the re-globalization process. In this context, the author considers Africa’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a critical driving factor facilitating economic convergence among the rest of the world.
In chapter 17, “The Pandemic and the Crisis in the System of International Relations,” Alexey Gromyko draws attention to the increasing inequalities in international relations with the pandemic. At this point, he states that protectionist policies are dominant on the basis of inequalities, and points to the existence of international relations based on mutual limitation rather than increasing cooperation in the future.
In chapter 18, “Latin America’s Challenge for the Twenty-First Century Can Turmoil Ultimately Lead to Exemplary Reforms?” Carlos Cruz Infante discusses the concept of re-globalization in Latin America. The author describes the current situation in Latin America as the Holland Disease and states that this disease prevents some sectors from investing in Latin America. The author states that in the process of re-globalization, a series of reforms are required in Latin America to fearlessly fight monopolies and oligopolies and avoid the control of exchange rates, but also strengthen the legal and financial capacities of the state through tax revenues.
In summary, this timely book informs us that the world has entered the re-globalization process. This process, which is known as the ‘new normal’ among the people, especially with what COVID-19 has brought, indicates a paradigm shift. Therefore, this book is an important attempt to discuss what humanity may face economically, socially, and politically in the future. The authors of the book both make due diligence and make inferences about the future of globalization. The authors of this book have pointed out three common themes of reglobalization. The first of these is the COVID-19 process, and what it has introduced. The second is the rising nationalist rhetoric, which means that, as the authors point out, the world oscillates between globalist expansion on the one hand and nationalist retrenchment, on the other. Finally, the book highlights China’s distinctive role in re-globalization.
