The Politics of the Global

2004
Author:

Himadeep Muppidi

Examines globalism as a social production, opening up new paths of resistance

Refusing the false choice between objectivity and subjectivity, Himadeep Muppidi considers the production of the global as an intersubjective process that reveals the different political possibilities (e.g., colonial coercion, postcolonial ambivalence, and postcolonial co-option) opened by global relays of meanings, identity, and power. Muppidi concludes by exploring a variety of spaces and strategies for resisting the colonization of the global.

The Politics of the Global is a pathbreaking work in the development of international political economy. Innovative and analytically rigorous, this book does a great deal to advance our understanding of globalization.

Timothy Sinclair, editor of Global Governance: Critical Concepts in Political Science

Though presented often as an objective process, globalization is frequently analyzed from subjective perspectives that are closed to their own historical and geographical specificity. Refusing the false choice between objectivity and subjectivity, Himadeep Muppidi considers the production of the global as an intersubjective process involving the interplay of meanings, identities, and practices from historically different locations.

Muppidi illustrates how the politics of globalization are played out in two multicultural democracies, India and the United States—particularly rich examples given the increasing interactions between them in the areas of global economy and security. Software experts and skilled professionals flow from India to the United States; the United States outsources service sector jobs to India. Although they differ in their approaches to worldwide regulation of weapons of mass destruction, India and the United States cooperate in opposing terrorism. Treating globalization as an intersubjective process reveals the different political possibilities (e.g., colonial coercion, postcolonial ambivalence, and postcolonial co-option) that are opened by global relays of meanings, identities, and power. Muppidi concludes by exploring a variety of spaces and strategies for resisting the colonization of the global.

Himadeep Muppidi is assistant professor of political science at Vassar College.

The Politics of the Global is a pathbreaking work in the development of international political economy. Innovative and analytically rigorous, this book does a great deal to advance our understanding of globalization.

Timothy Sinclair, editor of Global Governance: Critical Concepts in Political Science

This book is written with extraordinary clarity and sophistication and offers arguments of substantial theoretical and political significance.

Mark Rupert, author of Ideologies of Globalization: Contending Visions of a New World Order

Himadeep Muppidi has written a short, sophisticated, and provocative book that pushes its readers to think hard about global politics.

Perspectives on Politics

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Local and the Global

1. Colonial Globalities
2. Critical Constructivism
3. Globalization in India
4. Globalization in the United States
5. Productions of the Global

Conclusion: Resistance and Rearticulation

Notes
Works Cited

Index