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This site includes some short writings by Dr. Curtis Francis Doebbler on globalization.

Why we need to stop the Globalization of the US and IFI's


Just a few reasons why we need to stop the current trends in Globalization, including the world financial institutions and the US government

Curtis Doebbler

It is true that globalization is not all bad or all good, but when a project like globalization is put to the end of solidifying global inequalities, perpetuating poverty, increasing disempowerment, and more recently, justifying the aggressive use of weapons of mass destruction, then it is bad. It is how we use globalization that is that counts and to date our record is not good.

Across the globe the rich are getting richer and the gap between rich and poor is growing. This is as true in the United States as it is in Zambia or Egypt or Israel. This reflects a grave lack of concern with the basic human rights of huge numbers of individuals. The World Bank and IMF and American government constantly claim that they want to address this concern. The World Bank has even gone so far as to engrave its alleged intention on to stone at the entrance to its illustrious headquarters in Washington, D.C., just blocks from the seat of government of its largest shareholder. The commitment, however, is no where to be found in its governing instrument of the Bank nor have the Bank or the IMF taken sufficient steps to reverse the trends that are gradually sending more and more people into the poverty trap. They have failed to act effectively not over the course of a few months or years, but over decades. Decades ago the fallacy of the greed-based policies of our current economic system were first made clear to the world’s financial institutions and their shareholders. Nevertheless, the result was policies and actions that continued the trends of impoverishing more and more people. On occasion there has been rhetoric, but the actions speak more clearly and forcefully then words.

If it is true that it the international financial institutions and the United States are incompetent in their global governance that merely exacerbates things. That these institutions are trying, but just can’t seem to get it right means that there is even more need to abolish them as they are irreparably broken. The other possibility is that they don’t want to get it right or even worst that they think they are getting it right. The World Bank has had more than its share of individuals who have spoken out against its, and the IMF’s, policies. The United States government is also replete with dissenters who have spoken out against policies that harm the most vulnerable around the world. Even Presidents have realized that the US must reform. For example, President Clinton tried to provide universal health care to American citizens who are in need, a basic human right, but this initiative was opposed by Congress and many of America’s leading (both in medical talent and wealth) doctors. Time and time again action to protect the most vulnerable and to give them an equal chance have been hampered by vested interests. Such failures, thus, appear to be conscious and deserve to carry the consequences of fault as would any premeditated action.

While the world’s poor are being burned alive, the world’s elites are fiddling. While the incomes of elites everywhere sky-rock, these same elites continue to shift the blame for the problems of poverty and disempowerment from one to another or to the victims in an attempt to avoid responsibility by some act of lavation—if the blame never rests on any identified actor, then no blame exists. Thus when the World Bank points the finger at the IMF, the IMF either points back or shifts the blame to the United States. The United States in turn shifts the blame to the victim, Europe or back to the international financial institutions. This game of the musical chairs of exploitation has gone on for decades and it continues with morbid consistency today. Even if some of these actors are innocent, the fact that they are all part of the same game should be damning for them all. The World Bank and IMF are essentially controlled by the United States because the American government is its largest contributor. As a consequence, the polices of the World Bank and the IMF often mirror the policies of the United States government. This is not coincidence. If these bodies are going to work together to harm global society, they must share the responsibility for their misdeems. If they don’t agree with the ‘devils pact’ they are enveloped in, then they should break out of it. Neither the World Bank nor the IMF have effectively and publicly opposed the United States’ policies and the United States has not opposed the polices of the international financial institutions that play into its own hands. Instead of breaking up, the collusion appears to be growing stronger as the World Bank and IMF have increased the use of some practices that they had previously disavowed. Examples are the cost recovery strategies of user fees and budget cuts that characterize structural adjustment programs.

The United States has also developed new strategies. For example, the United States has made it clear that it will not only politically coerce the international financial institutions into compliance with its will, but that it will exercise its military muscle as well where it sees fit. This new move from the boardroom to the war room in the name of protecting United States’ interests has been met with silence from the international financial institutions. They even appear to have welcomed it by, for example, rushing to Afghanistan’s aid not merely with assistance, but with loan forms to capture this ailing country into the debt trap before it has the chance to start functioning as a sovereign country. The United States’ policy to use first strike force as an instrument of foreign policy is in direct violation of international law. It is also as dangerous to Americans as it is to the rest of the world as it exposes Americans everywhere to an almost perpetual threat of violence from countries and peoples who have a well-founded fear that the United States will attack them and want to try to preempt the attack. Combined with the policies of greed being pushed within international financial institutions, the use of force beyond of the farthest reached of international law spells even greater doom and suffering for the world’s most vulnerable people.

Today we are at a crucial point in history. We either standup against the institutions that are oppressing human rights, disrespecting international law and contributing to hardship throughout the world or we submit to these forces. If we choose the latter then our legacy of failing all humanity is cemented for all of human history. If we chose the former—even as single individuals—at least we will leave the legacy of having tried to preserve humanity.