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Globalization Shuffles Cards of the World Pack: In Which Direction is the Global Economic-Political Balance Shifting?
World Futures. 2014. Vol. 70. No. 8. P. 515–545.
The article offers forecasts of the geopolitical and geo-economic development
of the world in the forthcoming decades. One of the main accusations directed
toward globalization is that it deepens the gap between the developed and developing
countries dooming them to eternal backwardness. The article demonstrates
that the actual situation is very different. It is shown that this is due to the globalization that the developing countries are generally growing much faster than
the developed states, the World System core starts weakening and its periphery
begins to strengthen. At the same time there is a continuing divergence between
the main bulk of developing countries and the group of the poorest developing
states. The article also explains why the globalization was bound to lead to the
explosive rise of many developing countries and the relative weakening of the
developed economies. In the forthcoming decades this trend is likely to continue
(although, of course, not without certain interruptions). It is also demonstrated
that this convergence constitutes a necessary condition for the next technological
breakthrough. This has important implications for the hegemony debates. A
rather popular theory of hegemony cycles implies that the eclipse of the global
hegemony of the United States should be followed by the emergence of a new
global hegemon. This generates the dichotomy of the two main current points of
view—either the United States will continue the global leadership in the forthcoming
decades, or it will be replaced by China in this capacity. We do not find
the study of the future within this dichotomy fruitful. We believe that in a direct
connection with the development of globalization processes the hegemony cycle
pattern is likely to come to its end, which will lead to the World System reconfiguration and the emergence of its new structure that will allow the World System
to continue its further development without a hegemon.