The Social Foundations of Global Conflict and Cooperation: Waves of Globalization and Global Elite Integration Since 1840

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

This research studies the relationship among globalization, global elite integration, and global conflict and cooperation from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The main research question is the extent to which the changing social foundations of global elite integration contributed to the myriad forms of global conflict and cooperation during waves of globalization and periods of backlash, and can thus help us predict future global conflicts. For instance, a more thoroughly integrated global elite, based on broader social foundations cutting across lines of race, class, gender, nationality, and civilizations, may be able to prevent the kind of chaos that characterized the last wave of deglobalization. Conversely, instability and conflict can be expected if elite power rests on increasingly narrow, militarized social foundations and related forms of exclusivist identity and citizenship typical of periods of hegemonic decline and globalization backlash. We will analyze and delineate the social foundations of elites cross-nationally by investigating the most powerful individuals, families, firms, states and international organizations for selected countries in ten targeted years: 1840, 1860, 1880, 1913, 1929, 1950, 1970, 1980, 1995, and 2004. We will examine the links among global elites to determine the degree and strength of their connections and their changing social foundations. We will use three inter-related research designs. The first analyzes a subset of elites from key core countries; the second is cross-national and includes all countries and regions where comparable data on unequal forms of civil, political and social citizenship, stratified in welfare or warfare-welfare states, or other important aspects of political, socioeconomic structure and links can be found; the third focuses on the largest regional and global international organizations. Using a combination of structural equations modeling, network analysis, GIS mapping, and comparative historical analysis, we will assess the relationship among the social foundations of globalization, global elite integration, and global conflict and cooperation over time. The broader impacts of this research include the following: Project databases, animated global maps on the project web site, and publications will provide valuable data for students, scholars, NGOs and public policymakers. Project data on the relationship between waves of globalization, global elite integration and their changing social foundations will aid initiatives to promote equality, democracy, inclusive forms of citizenship and global cooperation.