Fidler, David

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Indiana University Bloomington Maurer School of Law

Indiana Journal of Global LegalStudiesVolume 7 | Issue 1 Article 1Fall 1999Introduction: Globalization at the Margins:Perspectives on Globalization from DevelopingStates SymposiumDavid FidlerIndiana University Maurer School of Law, dfidler@indiana.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijglsPart of the International Law CommonsThis Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the LawSchool Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been acceptedfor inclusion in Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies by an authorizedadministrator of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information,please contact wattn@indiana.edu.Recommended CitationFidler, David (1999) "Introduction: Globalization at the Margins: Perspectives on Globalization from Developing States Symposium,"Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 1.Available at: http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol7/iss1/1Symposium on Globalization at the Margins:Perspectives on Globalizationfrom Developing StatesIntroductionDAVID P. FIDLER*The Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington and the IndianaJournal of Global Legal Studies organized the Symposium on Globalizationat the Margins. Perspectives on Globalization from Developing States tobring analytical focus to bear on the challenges that the processes ofglobalization present developing countries. Although many globalizationanalyses include developing countries within their ambit, much of theliterature on globalization leaves developing countries at the margins ofanalysis. The Symposium was an attempt to provide a forum in whichexperiencing globalization at the margins became the lens through which toreflect on the implications of this enigmatic, but seemingly all prevalent,phenomenon.The Symposium included a keynote lecture' and three panels: (1)Globalization, International Relations Theory, and the Developing World;2 (2)Globalization of Markets and Developing States;3 and (3) Globalization,Culture, and Civil Society in Developing States.4 The participants come from* Faculty Editor and Organizer of the Symposium on Globalization at the Margins: Perspectiveson Globalization from Developing States; Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University School ofLaw-Bloomington; M.Phil. in International Relations, University of Oxford, 1988; J.D., Harvard LawSchool, 1991; B.C.L., University of Oxford, 1991.I. Bruce Mazlish, A Tour of Globalization, 7 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 5 (1999).2. The articles under this panel's subject are Timothy Dunne, The Spectre of Globalization, 7 IND.J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 17 (1999) and Gregory H. Fox, Strengthening the State, 7 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGALSTUD. 35 (1999).3. The articles under this panel's subject are Maxwell 0. Chibundu, Globalizing the Rule of Laiv:Some Thoughts at and on the Periphery, 7 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 79 (1999); Ruth Gana Okediji,Copyright and Public Welfare in Global Perspective, 7 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 117 (1999); andDavid P. Fidler, Neither Science Nor Shamans: The Globalization of Markets and Health in theDeveloping World, 7 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 191 (1999).4. The articles under this panel's subject are Kevin Brown, Globalization and Cultural Conflict inDeveloping Countries: The South African Example, 7 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 225 (1999); GraciaClark, The Roots of Cultural Backlash in Contemporary Processes of Globalization, 7 IND. J. GLOBALLEGAL STUD. 257 (1999); and Lucy Taylor, Globalization and Civil Society-Continuities, Ambiguities, andRealities in Latin America, 7 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 269 (1999).INDIANA JOURNAL OF GLOBAL LEGAL STUDIESdifferent disciplines-history, international relations, anthropology, and law.The diligent and creative work of the Symposium participants have produceda wide-ranging, diverse, and stimulating set of articles. Their contributionsaddress important and complex subjects relevant to the future of developingStates, such as the meaning of globalization; globalization and internationalrelations theory; efforts to strengthen the State through international law; theimplications of the "rule of law" concept; the global protection of intellectualproperty rights; the impact of globalized markets on health; cultural conflicts;and changes in the nature and dynamics of civil society.Synthesizing the contributions of the Symposium participants has provento be beyond the capabilities of this editor. Instead, I would like to use thisIntroduction to reflect on some basic themes that the contributions raise. Thefirst is the continuing debate about the meaning of "globalization" and itspolitical, economic, and cultural implications. In various ways, the articlesdraw attention to how much "globalization" remains a contested, confusing,constructed, and controversial concept. This conceptual cacophony makesanalysis of the consequences of globalization difficult, particularly inconnection with globalization's impact on developing States. In addition,trying to focus on "perspectives on globalization from developing States" addsto this cacophony because globalization looks and feels like a differentphenomenon empirically and normatively when one lives at the margins ofworld politics.A second theme involves the importance of identifying what is old andwhat is new in the marginalization experienced by developing States in theglobal era. The contributions variously highlight that globalization merelyreinforces the marginalization that developing States have long experiencedin international relations. Developing countries have for decades sufferedlevels of poverty, conflict, and disease far greater than anything seen in thedeveloped world. The processes of globalization have not changed some ofthe fundamental problems that confront indigenous and exogenous efforts toimprove the political, economic, and social conditions in the developingworld: ethnic tensions, corrupt or repressive governments, poor economic andsocial infrastructures, declining terms of trade for important exports, lack ofinfluence in key international organizations, lack of sustained interest on thepart of developed countries, and the list could go on. Developed States stillhold the levers of power in the international system and are not shy aboutexercising their political, economic, military, technological, "and legal powerfor national gains often at the expense of governments and peoples in[Vol. 7:1INTRODUCTIONdeveloping countries. Notions of international or world justice and universalmoral solidarity remain weak, self-serving, or intolerant of the culturaldiversity present in the developing world.The marginalization experienced by many developing countries today isnot, however, identical to their historical marginalization throughout twentiethcentury international relations. The processes of globalization have broughtnew changes that exacerbate developing States' marginalization. During theCold War, the "margins" of the international system were often important tothe great powers as part of the struggle for supremacy between the West andSoviet communism. With the collapse of the bipolar, ideologically dividedinternational system, the strategic importance of many developing Statesdisappeared. In the "new world order," many developing States findthemselves marginalized in terms of the national interests of the great powers,the common interests, values, and prevailing ideology of the internationalsociety of States, and in the growing global power of non-State actors,especially multinational corporations. Layered onto all this is a deepeningtechnological inequality that places developing States even farther behinddeveloped States in accessing, benefitting from, and shaping the processes ofglobalization. Never great at any moment this century, the room for choice onthe part of developing countries has narrowed considerably in the era ofglobalization. The political, economic, cultural, and legal paths of the globalera have already been, or are currently being, blazed by the globalized Statesand non-State actors of the developed world.At a deeper level, the Symposium contributions suggest that, from theperspective of developing States, the global epoch contains a doublemarginalization. The basic features of developing country marginalization inthe Westphalian international system have not disappeared, and different typesof marginalization appear as the Westphalian system undergoes stress andmutations through the unfolding dynamics of the new global politicaleconomy. Globalized marginalization of the developing world is a complexand disturbing phenomenon that has yet to run its course. Where this dynamicand enigmatic process is actually taking a great deal of humanity will be oneof the most important empirical and normative questions of the next century.1999)

Introduction: Globalization at the Margins: Perspectives on Globalization from Developing States Symposium

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Introduction: Globalization at the Margins: Perspectives on Globalization from Developing States Symposium

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