Globalization and "New World Order"

The phrase “New World Order” was first used on a large scale in American political discourse by Republican president George Bush Sr. He used it to refer to an order based “on the rule of law rather than the law of the jungle.” The Cold War had ended, and the American statesmen in whose favor it ended sought to create an international order based on international trade and rule of law.

Right now, the term “New World Order” is used by conspiracy theorists to claim that socialists are trying to impose an international tyranny. In fact, there are many conservatives who are into globalization. Most Republicans voted for free trade; and in a conservative megachurch that I attended the priest said that “God is globalizing His world.”

Is globalization a liberal ploy? No. In fact there are many conservatives who are into globalization. For business it means access to international labor and access to international markets. Most of the people who have opposed free trade have been on the Left, not the Right. They were portrayed as socialists engaged in protectionism. And now these supposed socialists are being accused of the opposite: Forcing globalization in order to impose tyranny on the world.

I am tight with a number of liberals in high places, and I can assure you that they have no such intentions. At most they want to prevail on other countries to support human rights and extend to other countries liberty and prosperity. That is nothing like tyranny. We are not seeing labor camps. We are not seeing concentration camps. We are seeing people doing meaningful good.

People who cry wolf are not credible when a wolf actually appears. There are plenty of real wolves on the horizon, from ISIS to neo-Nazis; and distracting people's attention with irresponsible conspiracy theory fabrications detracts from confronting these real enemies. The liberals do not want to exterminate anyone. There are plenty of Muslims and right-wingers who do.

Globalization is as much a conservative endeavor as it is a liberal endeavor. The conservatives want free markets, and the liberals want world peace. Both of these are positive directions; and it is wrong to see it as tyranny.