Globalization at Crossroads of Warfare, Revolution, and Universalization: The Islamic Panacea, Stratagem  and Policy Instruments
By Muhammad Iqbal Anjum


A Retrospective on Globalization

The world has entered the 21^st century along with a hope of globalization-based development of all nations, regions and inhabitants of the world.  Today, globalization is the most fashionable current economic issue on the whole globe.  However, it is the most controversial global issue as well. Today globalization stands out as one of the most universally condemned movement among the global masses.  Numerous contemporary violent protests against globalization witnessed at several places in the east and west must be an eye-opener for the champions of globalization. Therefore, globalization deserves a frank debate, pragmatic analysis and a truthful policy response from all humans as well as nations of the globe.

At the outset, it is important to have a clear historical perspective of globalization.   It is important to note that globalization is not merely a twenty-first century phenomenon.  Of course, the era of true and original globalization commenced with the advent of the first human and the Holy Prophet Adam (Peace Be Upon Him) on the newly created borderless globe without nation states.   In this borderless world, a globally mobile community of humans grew over time and practically moved freely along with their goods, services and assets all over the globe in its inherent pursuit of prosperity and development.  This desirable ideal pattern of globalization deserves to be called universalization. This original scenario characterized that phase of human history as the golden age of globalization.

In that golden age of globalization, means and ends of the natural movement of globalization were humans themselves in contrast to the limited scope of the contemporary globalization which is concerned only with the free global mobility of goods, services and capital.  The advent of Islam reinforced the movement of universalization. The Holy Qur’an upholds the universal right of humans to migrate from one territory to another territory in order to improve their living standard. This fact is clearly implied in the following meaning of the Qur’anic verse:

"(Allah has) made earth subservient to you, so traverse ye through its tracts and enjoy of the sustenance which He furnishes."(67,15)

Moreover the aforementioned fact is supported by the practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and his companions (Allah Pleased With Them) to persuade people to migrate from lands characterized by scarce means of livelihood to other lands characterized by abundant means of livelihood as a result of which the surplus population of Hijaz initially migrated to the fertile lands of Egypt, Iraq, Syria etc., and then it gradually migrated to Abyssinia, Algeria, Morocco, Spain,  Sudan, Tunis etc.  Of course, the aforementioned Qur’anic verse and the Islamic historical facts imply that Islam recommends the accomplishment of tasks of economic development of all human beings in a universal and global framework and that it rejects the nationalistic geographical barriers which effectively deprive the global citizens of their right of free mobility all over the globe and hence negate their right of economic development.

It was a blessing of this golden age of globalization that West got rid of the legacy of its dark ages by having free access to the wealth of the original scientific and technical contributions made by the Middle East and India.

The golden age of globalization ended with the rise of strong self-interested western nation states between 16^th and 19^th century in the background of western theory of nation states which has been premised in the western civilization’s inherently inhumane, regressive, and anti-globalization  strategic agenda of accomplishing disintegration of humanity as well as the globe through the policy of divide and rule.  This tragic historical scenario confirms the universal truth that the universally integrative and progressive process of globalization can never coexist with the regressive process of disintegration.  This fact is documented by Kalim Siddiqi (1984, 7):

“Another important precaution taken by the western civilization has been the drawing of political frontiers where none existed before. A glance at the political map of the world shows that there are boundaries and frontiers today that, for the most part,  are less than a hundred years old.  In Africa, ‘national’ frontiers cut across tribal populations. In some cases, a single tribe has been divided into several ‘nations’. Virtually every frontier that exists in the Muslim world today has been created since the First World War. The creation of Muslim states that divide the Ummah today is a part of the western civilization’s drive towards achieving the disintegration of traditional Muslim societies into small subservient societies. At the same time, the West created identical but competing ‘national’ leaderships in these areas.  Thus a people with a long common history and, like the Arabs, even a common language and culture, were given mutually exclusive and conflicting “national interests.

”The violent and selfish pursuit of wealth by the western nation states culminated into slave capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, European as well as global wars, and into the survival of fittest western states.  In this background, the western colonial powers developed at the expense of their colonies in Latin America, Asia and Africa by abducting humans and seizing their regions for enslavement  as well as by capturing their surpluses through controls on raw materials, markets, international trade and planning.  Paul A. Samuelson (1973, pp.788) acknowledged and documented the ugly practical manifestations of slave capitalism as following:

“Little has been told in our history books about the black civilizations and cultures that were flourishing in Africa when the noble Teuton was still cowering over primitive campfires in Northern Europe. We do know how the profit motive led the slave trade: pursuing maximum profit-motive equating marginal revenues and costs, so to speak, merchants used bribery and force to abduct Africans in order to sell them in the New Word…...

Hence, the Invisible Hand  of competition caused the tidewater regions to specialize in the production  and reproduction of slaves, for sale to the fertile lands westward.”

Later, the so-called modern globalization was launched by Britain in the 19^th century and then it was revived by USA at the end of the cold war.  Of course, global peace is a prerequisite for globalization.  In a peaceful scenario, globalization proceeds to exploit the gains from international trade through promotion of efficiency and uniformity. 

The contemporary movement of globalization has been instituted and led by the western world. This movement views the world as a global village and seeks the economic integration of all the countries existing on the globe in order to ensure their economic convergence and development.  Thus, globalization gives rise to a global economic space in which two series of actors meet. One series of actors includes nations, established on certain territories, which tend to regroup in the form of regional organizations. The other series  consists of the enterprises  which establish the essentials of the regional organizations and favor the transfer of technology as well as the  diffusion of knowledge. Convergence means that the poorer countries are required to achieve a faster growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than the GDP growth rate of richer countries.

In this setting, globalization is generally perceived as a universal phenomenon in which social and economic relationships experience immense expansion and reinforcement in a manner that the events of one locality affect other regions of the globe.

It is important to note that the advancements of science as well as technology and the consequent expansion of the market mechanism have been the real forces behind the movement of globalization.  Of course, the expansion of globalization has been taking place in all directions. However, the economic dimension has been playing a central role in the process of globalization.  In this setting, it is extremely hard to explain the process of globalization merely in realm of science, technology, culture, and environment without taking into account the economics of the market expansion.  Therefore, globalization is being increasingly perceived as a worldwide process of increasing integration of the national economies into the expanding international markets.  Indeed, the aforementioned mesmerizing agenda of globalization challenges the notion of territorial state, undermines the national borders, and enormously influences the life-style of a nation particularly in case of smaller and more vulnerable countries.  So the globalization may be bad from the point of view of cultural diversity. Consequently, smaller countries are facing the twin challenges of digesting the foreign influences as well as effectively pursuing their national priorities within the internationally imposed framework of globalization.

The free trade doctrine of Adam Smith has been advocated by economists who view trade as an engine of growth and development since the time of Adam Smith. The free trade doctrine heralded the global campaign for free international trade as well as the economic integration of different countries. This campaign, which gained ascendancy originally under the headship of Britain during the middle decades of the 19th century and subsequently under the leadership of the United States since 1930s, has recently culminated into a global movement called globalization.

Western Perception of Globalization and Its limited Scope

Globalization was conceived in the writings of the Scottish enlightenment (Khan,  2000, p.21).  Historically, according to the conclusion of Bordo and Kornelia (IMF,1997, p.112),  the process of globalization observed before 1914 could hardly be termed globalization because large parts of the world did not participate in it and because the then existing low speed of transport and communication was not conducive to organization and operation of markets and firms at the global level.

However, in the context of globalization, the West has perceived global economic space as a place where two series of actors interact with one another.  On one hand there are nations, which are established on territories and tend to regroup themselves in the regional organizations and  on the other hand there are enterprises which produce and effect most of relationships among territories and  favor the transfer of technology and the diffusion of knowledge. Globalization, for the first time, has become like one of the thorough international changes, thanks to the reduction in costs of transportation and communication and to systematic deregulation of markets. Nevertheless, it is not essential that this scenario keeps on in all circumstances. As it happened during 1980s, globalization develops itself in such a way that leads to a major rupture in the performance of the enterprises which assign an essential role to the rate of exchange and which adjust to new conditions of growth.

Flows of international capitals are the most spectacular manifestation of the process of globalization. The financial markets remain open 24 hours out of daily 24 hours. The resulting massive flows of capitals, which have numerous effects on the daily lives in the economies, accompany decrease in the movement of the internationalization of the enterprises.

Long ago, the logic of a firm/company  coincided with one of its nation of origin. There was time when the international trade used to represent the mainly the international economic relations. When a production localized in a country A is exported for satisfying the demand in the importing country B and for creation of wealth as well jobs to benefit the country A, the country B can only benefit from one part of the gains from trade. Two types of the international commerce develop. One type of trade resulting from the specialization of the partner countries of the international trade such that each one exports or imports different products. The other type of  trade grows between countries characterized by the same level of development such that each one simultaneously exports and imports similar products inside.

Beside the international trade, one has afterwards observed the appearance of foreign direct productive investment as the second form of internationalization.  The firm of country A then becomes in creating or taking over (i.e., some more ) subsidiaries in countries B, C, D, etc. This productive direct investment, which goes beyond simple creation of commercial subsidiaries, can respond to several types of  motivating factors such as impossibility of producing the sufficient quantities in the country of origin, impossibility of selling sufficient quantities of output in the targeted country’s market, the possibility of better satisfying the demand in the countries of thriving countries, possibility of producing in the most favorable conditions of certain thriving countries.  Multinational firm create jobs in the country which welcomes and often this phenomenon is accompanied at the  expense multinational firm’s country of origin from which that firm gets  increasingly disassociated itself.

The most recent form of the internationalization is the enterprise network.  Instead of creating or acquiring strictly controlled subsidiaries within a hierarchical structure, it has to increasingly knit some contractual relationships with the partners emerging in the thriving country especially when it is experiencing industrial take-off.   The partnership is gifted by numerous advantages  because it permits at the same time to reduce the contribution of capitals and the number of executives/managers leaving the country, manages the national sensitivities/abilities carefully, and better integrates themselves in the local context. More flexible relations, facilitated by the  accelerated development of the means of communication, add themselves to the old model of the multinational enterprise and modify, the flows of international trade. This final form of evolution and development, which has begun to shape itself in 1980s has become described by Robert Reich.

Of course, the aforementioned myopic perception and practice of globalization points to just a limited practical scope of globalization ranging from internationalization to regionalization. This view is quite contrary to the anticipated universal and humane-centered approach of globalization.

It is important to note that the contemporary movement globalization is the flag-bearer of liberalization of international trade in goods and services, and the worldwide application of the rules of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules as well as the Basle regulatory standards.  However, the agenda of globalization is incomplete and defective because it does not seek the free mobility of labor across all countries and regions of the world. At present, WTO is the major vehicle of globalization despite the fact that it is being increasingly condemned everywhere by the poor masses of numerous developing as well as developed countries.

Robert Mundell, has also identified a key link between globalization and foreign investment the benefits of globalization.  According to him benefits of globalization depend on the foreign investment and its magic package of capital, technology and markets.

Signs of globalization have been appearing in the form of gradual reductions in quantitative and qualitative barriers against international trade as a result of the ever-growing pressure of capitalist super powers, their allies, and their financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Consequently, the international goods markets have been expanding along with a dramatic growth in international flows of goods, the number of internationally tradable services has been growing, and capital has been swiftly flowing in diverse ways across numerous countries and regions.  This has happened not only due to the continuously declining costs of transportation and communications but also due to declining tariffs and other barriers to trade.  In this background, multilateralism-based globalization seems to offer golden opportunities for improving the levels of development and welfare of all the developing as well as developed countries in a long run scenario.

Despite the aforementioned hopefulness associated with the prospective outcomes of the implementation of free trade doctrine, empirical facts imply that the free trade-based process of integration has been affecting the nations unevenly as well as increasing international economic inequalities.  This perception is reinforced by Gunnar Myrdal’s opinion that the free trade-based expansion of markets often strengthens the developed countries, possessing manufacturing industries which have the lead and which are already fortified by the external economies, as well as weakens the developing countries whose unprotected industries are being out competed by cheaper imports from the developed countries. 

This point of view has been practically confirmed by the alarming scenarios of stagflation and the deteriorating living standards in developing countries which have been resulting from the implementation of Bretton Woods institutions’ policies of mandatory globalization. In this background, in contrast to developed countries’ trend of viewing globalization as a vehicle of economic development, the under-developed countries believe that globalization is actually the neocolonialism which has been instituted for ensuring the further economic and strategic empowerment of the western capitalist developed countries at the expense of the under-developed countries on the basis of the theory of “might is right”.

Unfortunately, several measures of the flag-bearers of globalization contradict their own announced agenda of multilateralism-based globalization and point to their greater interest in regionalism than in multilateralism-based globalization.  For instance, the developed countries’ fervent regionalist trends are reflected by their enthusiastic acts of establishing and promoting certain regional blocks^[1] such as European Union, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, Association of South East Asian Nations, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) etc.  This scenario emerges in the background of the western approach of  considering regionalism and multilateralism as complementary phenomenona. This is why the capitalist developed countries are indeed promoting their own regional blocks in the guise of their so-called campaign of globalization. Consequently, 87% of world trade is concentrated in just three regional blocks- namely the European Union, NAFTA and APEC (Naqvi, 1999).

In this background, researchers confirmed a gradual increase in GATT^[2]-evading trade restrictions and a departure from free multilateral trade-based globalization during 1980s.   Such negative factors led to the ascendancy and rule of regionalism, on the global level, which is self-evident from the existence of over one hundred regional organizations accounting for more than 50% of the global trade.  This perception is reinforced by Nawab Haider Naqvi’s finding that 87% of global trade is concentrated in only three regional blocks – European Union, North American Free Trade Agreement and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). 

The aforementioned arguments highlight the existing conflict between multilateralism-based globalization and regionalism, as well as the following global facts:

-      Trends of globalization and regionalization are simultaneously existing on the globe.

-    Capitalist champions of globalization are camouflaging their regionalist agenda under their propaganda campaign of globalization.

-      The missing commitment of the movement of globalization to ensure the free mobility of all humans across all countries and regions of the world, which is the universal human right, is the prime deficiency of the globalization which makes it to become a human deprivation-oriented global phenomenon.  Therefore the contemporary globalization is far away from the ideals of globalization despite all the tall claims of its proponents.

In addition to the already mentioned significant beneficial aspects of the globalization, it is necessary to highlight some additional historical achievements of the modern globalization. It is important to note that in the first phase of modern globalization ranging from mid-1800s to the end of World War 1, there occurred dramatic economic convergence in per capita incomes among today’s industrial countries due to large international flows of goods and capital along with large international migratory flows.

In the recent phase of modern globalization since mid-1980s, the world trade has increased twice as fast as the world GDP.  Now a larger number of countries are participating in globalization.

Clearly some countries have benefited from the success of this engine of this growth.  For instance, the US economy has experienced very rapid growth over the past two decades along with the creation 40 million jobs. On the other hand, the recent globalization has not only resulted into lack of cross-country convergence but also caused a sharp decline in the upward mobility of developing countries within the international distribution of average per capita incomes. For example, the number of developing countries in the lowest income quintile has increased from 52 in 1965 to 84 in 1995. Similarly the number of developing countries in middle- income categories fell rapidly from 49 in 1965 to 21 in 1995.  In this background, many poor countries like Pakistan have emerged as highly indebted countries. 

Total public debt as a % of GDP has dramatically increased from 66.3% in mid 1980 to 100.5% in mid 2000.  Pakistan experienced average inflation rate of 14% in 1990s. Government of Pakistan’s Economic Survey 2000-2001 has confirmed that on the average income distribution has worsened in the last three and a half decades and that the caloric-based poverty has increased from 17.3% in 1987-88 to 33.5% in 1999-2000.  Moreover, the decline in the already insufficient education expenditures as a percent of GNP from 1% in 1988-89 to 0.5% in 1999-2000 as well as the health expenditures as a percent of GNP from 2.5% in 1996-97 to 2.2% in 1999-2000 point to the missing commitment of the Government of Pakistan to the imperatives of human capital formation and human development .

It is important to note that the decade of 1990s proved to be a lost decade for Pakistan on the basis of the empirical findings of the World Bank’s Chief Economist Dr. Nicholas Stern. Consequenlty, Pakistan has entered the 21^st century at least as a politico-economic slave of the Western capitalist super powers who want Pakistan to permanently practice the dependant capitalism according to their newly branded grand scheme of globalization. Dr. Nicholas Stern’s following observations have painted a gloomy picture of the future of economic growth in Pakistan:

“the probability that current macroeconomic and trade policies will be able to revive growth does not seem high.”

Instead of gaining from the process of globalization, Pakistan has lost her economic sovereignty.

The loss of Pakistan’s economic sovereignty is mourned in the following response of one of the old pillars of Pakistan’s establishment Ex-President Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan[3] in the context of Pakistan’s policy of privatizing the public enterprises:

“Pakistan is not a “free agent”-it has always been greatly affected by what the developed world wants it to do.  This is true for all underdeveloped countries and the developed world has not been consistent in what it wants underdeveloped counties to do.   In fact, Pakistan has been forced to do what developed countries want it to do.  The inconsistency [in terms of economic strategy dictated by the developed countries] has taken the form of:  (1) stress on macroeconomics and increasing growth of GNP; then  (2) basic needs; and now (3) “free” markets-there is no such thing as a free market.  Through out these inconsistent economic policy mandates from the developed countries, no body has even stopped to consider the results of policy.  For example, what will be the impact [of privatization] on people in terms of prices, inflation, the environment, [and] employment with the sale of public enterprises?  These concerns are not considered –we just must pursue “free” market policies.

Consequently, Pakistan has always been a low income country since the time of its independence despite living in the age of globalization.   The lack of convergence in case of Pakistan can be explained in the light of the neoclassical theory. The final result of the neoclassical theory, poor countries would eventually catch up if they could satisfy the following conditions:

(a)  they save as well as invest at the rich countries' saving rate and investment rate

(b) they ensure that  their  rate of population growth becomes equal to the rich  countries' population growth rate

(c ) they acquire the same technology which is possessed by the rich countries.

Of course, Pakistan can never satisfy the third condition within the prevalent regionalist environment of globalization because of two reasons:

1.       A. Q. Khan's paper entitled "Restricted Areas of S&T and Ways to Develop Such Technologies in the Muslim World" highlights the fact that the capitalist developed countries have strictly labeled the Islamic countries as prohibited areas for the transfer of advanced technologies such as computer technology, chemical and biochemical technologies, and the technologies related to software development, aerospace, electronics and defense production.

2.       Some clauses of WTO as well as the agreements on Trade-Related Investment Measures tend to slow down the pace of technological advancement in developing countries as well as cause hurdles in the transfer of technology to the developing countries.

In this background, Pakistan can never realize her dreams of convergence and development.

Thus practically, everything is not fine with the globalization.  Of course, the historical process of globabalization has been accompanied by the good as well as bad outcomes.  Unfortunately, the bad outcomes of the process of globalization have culminated into the worst agonies and tragedies for the masses in the east as well as in the west.

The Stratagem, Rules of the Game (So-Called Laws), and Vehicles of Capitalist Globalization

The capitalistic goal of maximizing national wealth has been pursued through a capitalistic politico-economic stratagem of dictating their desired patterns of trade, gains from trade and terms of trade as well as  instituting bilateral, regional, multilateral trade wars along with conventional and nuclear wars culminating into a politico-economic and strategic vicious cyclical sequential process of globalization. The cyclical sequential process of globalization involves colonization (i.e., invasion and control of other countries’ lands, energy resources, other materials and enslavement of the populations of the invaded countries while at the same time losing hearts of the inhabitants of the invaded lands/countries, and, colonization (colonialism), decolonization (neocolonialism e.g., experience of Pakistan and Palestine whose incumbent President Yasser Arafat has been forced by Israel to live at his base in the West Bank (Palestine) in a situation of house arrest since  November 2001), and recolonization (colonialism  e.g., experiences of Afghanistan,  and Iraq).

The aforementioned  stratagem is implemented by enforcing the following rules of the game (i.e.,  the  so-called “laws”) of globalization:

-           Law of Dividing the Humanity by promoting the Western agenda of nationalism and, thereby,  instituting an ever-increasing number of  “nation  states”

-           Law of “Might is Right” culminating into the so-called “Principle of Preemptive Strike”

-           Law of Survival of the Fittest

-           Law of Perfect Disinformation operationalized through Manipulation of all global means of communication as weapons of mass disinformation. (e.g., American President Bush and his allies successfully disinformed the whole world, for a number of years,  by claiming presence of weapons of mass destruction and they used this false claim as a justification for invading Iraq)

-           Law of International Division of Labor

-           Law of Indiscriminate Exploitation

-           Law of Double Standards[4] and Multiple Standards in International Trade, Finance and Strategic Affairs allowing the promotion of American and European farmers through provision of subsidies and forcing countries like Pakistan to abolish the practice of providing subsidies to their farmers

-           Law of instituting and promoting fearism, in the minds of all humans by projecting the danger of imminent revival and dominance of Islam through the establishment of a universal Islamic Caliphate, implied by Henry A. Kissinger’s following latest assertion (Kissinger, 2004):

            “The basic adversary is the radical, fundamentalist militant fringe of Islam, which aims to overthrow both moderateMuslim societies and all othersit perceives as standing in the way of restoring an Islamic caliphate”

-           Law of instituting politico-economic and strategic Crusades through the formation of Global Alliances including a powerful network work, which is well-known as so-called “Establishment”, of the likeminded political leaders, academicians, and civilian/military bureaucrats on levels of the world, nations, regions, provinces, cities, villages, and clans who try their best

-           Law of Clash of Civilizations

Of course, World Trade Organization is the prime vehicle of Globalization. Other vehicles of globalization are Multi-National Corporations, UNO, IMF, World Bank, ILO, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, capitalist central and commercial banking systems and Global Strategic Alliances of all countries’ ruling elite, political parties, military, and civilian bureaucracy which have conditioned by the forces imperialism and colonization and which ensure not only the perpetual division of the human universe into the First  World, Second World, and Third World but also the inequitable distribution of politico-economic and strategic power as well as incomes among the aforementioned three types of world and their constituent countries.  These undesirable outcomes are partly because of the fact that the institutional structure and framework of United Nations (UN) has been significantly distorted according to the following argument of Singer (1995, 12):

“The UN has been created  and on paper  the  UN General Assembly and the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) have been given the necessary mandates; the IMF and World Bank on paper are Specialized Agencies of the UN and their Terms of Agreement make them subject to guidance by the UN. But in fact the unified UN System has been disintegrated into two separate systems.The ‘Bretton Woods‘ system has not only become separate and independent, but also immensely more powerful in the development field  than the UN system. The main reason lies in the different systems of the voting and decision-making. The UN is govgerned by a rule of a-country-a-vote, while the Bretton Woods system is a-dollar-a-vote system. This gives the financially powerful countries firm control of the Bretton Woods institutions and this has led them to concentrate their support and resources on them, while withholding them from the UN system where since the independence of many new countries they are in a voting minority… This has set up a vicious circle for the UN system.  By withholding resources, the system has become crippled and incapable of playing its assigned role in development. This is then interpreted as failure and incompetence and becomes a reason  or pretext for further withholding of resources thus setting of a vicious circle.

Singer’s aforementioned argument clearly explains the contemporary fact of the persisting dominance of USA in the institutional set-up of the Bretton Woods system, realized through the manipulation of the US dollar as the vehicle currency, which ultimately conditions the inequitable nature and characteristics of the process of globalization.

Agonies of Globalization

Globalization results into the displacement of domestic producers by the low-cost foreign producers foreign producers. In this background, not only the domestic producers loose profits but also numerous domestic workers such as textile workers and unskilled workers become jobless. In the absence of free international mobility of labor, the unemployment rate assumes alarming levels at which the human lives become so extremely miserable that the glamour of globalization-led lower prices expires in the mindset of the deprived masses and thereby sows the seeds of the degeneration of globalization into an anti-globalization movement.  Numerous losers in the process of globalization become the champions and the advocates of movements of “protectionism” and anti globalization” which are the flag-bearer of imposing tariffs and quotas on international trade.

Another agony of the globalization-based financial integration is the international transmission of the international financial crises through the globally linked markets.  In this age of globalization, any national and international economic crisis emanating from even small disturbances is a direct outcome of the closely linked international markets. For example in the late 1990s, the domestic problems of Mexico, Russia, and Thailand caused chaos in the stock markets and the bond markets of the whole world.

Here it is important to consider the case of American investors who invest their funds in Thailand in the pursuit of high returns.  The financial crisis starts when American investors anticipate trouble and pull out their funds from Thailand. This negative development also spills over into financial crisis in other countries who try to support and sustain their exchange rates and financial institutions while confronting a massive speculative onslaught. Such economic crises are ultimately manifest into social and political disruptions and dislocations.

In this historical background, globalization has already raised several fresh challenging issues for policy makers.  Now policy makers are professionally bound to empirically determine whether gains from globalizations are worth the domestic costs of globalization.  In addition, they must resolve the key question of the economic rationale and scope of preventing the investors from fast pulling out of the invested funds in a manner of threatening the domestic markets.

Globalization at the Cross roads of Warfare and Universaliztion

Of course, keeping in view the numerous potential benefits of globalization, the persistence of the movement of globalization seems to be better than the absence of globalization.  However, the ever-growing confrontation of the global masses with the contemporary movement of globalization is threatening the very future of the western capitalist movement of globalization.  This is due to the numerous contradictions between propaganda and practices of the flag-bearers of globalization as well as due to the defective and incomplete agenda of globalization. These factors have stranded globalization at the strategic crossroads of either culminating into a peaceful humane movement of Universalization based on free global mobility of humans or degenerating into an anti-human movement of western regionalism, hegemony, neocolonialism, warfare, and war-lordism.

The road to universalization promises integration, development, security, respect, and prosperity of all humans of the globe.  The global mobility of all factors of production in the framework of universalization promises many benefits.  The prime benefit will be the maximization of global output by promoting efficiency in the labor-supplying as well as labor-receiving countries.  Inflow of labor in the labor-receiving countries can open up the production bottlenecks by reducing inflationary pressures and thereby boosting the aggregate supply. In case of inflow of managers and technical experts, the recipient countries can experience improvements in productivity.  Similarly the labor-exporting countries will receive workers remittances.  For example, total worker remittances amounted to $70 billion dollars in 1995.  In case of returning workers, the returning workers will be bring valuable skills for the benefit of their home country. In short, the universalization will overcome the problem of poverty of opportunities for all humans.

The aforementioned roadmap requires change in the very thinking, personality, and character of the champions of globalization.  This inevitably requires them to give up the worship of the twin western idols of self-interested nation states and Euroism or Americanism for ensuring the culmination of globalization into universaization. Of course, the agenda of universalization requires all humans to elevate their statures to such heights where artificial borders drawn under the influence of the western theory of nation states will become invisible and ineffective.  Such a constructive universal vision of the champions of globalization will restore a borderless world originally created by Allah for the common benefit of all humans of the globe.  As a result, the contemporary champions of the movement globalization  will  transform the colonial character of the movement into a universal character.  This development will ensure the elimination of the contemporary divisions of the globe which are being manipulated through the western control over the modern science and technology.  The unrestricted access to the global public good of technology, according to point of view of neoclassical economists, will allow technology to act as a social and economic equalizer on interpersonal, inter-sectoral, and international levels and will ensure income convergence on international level. 

Another prerequisite of globalization is that the champions of globalization, instead of causing political instability in developing countries like Pakistan where governments are caused by them to fall like the fall of wickets in one day cricket, must practice the policy of non-interference.

Moreover, it must be realized that global peace as a pre-requisite of globalization. Thus global peace must be given all chances for ensuring universalization. The champions of globalization should give up their foreign policy of engineering their puppet regimes in almost all nation states, overthrowing their defiant puppets, committing aggression against the non-capitalist countries, and instituting regular global war patterns which have virtually set the global village on wild fire. The ever-increasing heat of this fire of perpetual global injustice is leading to the awakening of the conscience of the global masses of East as well as West.  The whole world is pregnant with an inevitable global revolution, to be launched by the global masses, which is imminent like the uncontrollable dynamics of the Islamic revolution of Iran and which can never be stalled by the contemporary global powers/forces of regression, aggression, injustice and disinformation disguised in the form of so-called globalization.  In this background, the decades of dynamics of the Islamic revolution of Iran have great lessons for the global oppressed masses and for the Islamic as well non-Islamic regimes.

The Stratagem, Principles, Vehicles and Policy Instruments of Universalization

Islam, as a universal religion, champions, institutes and promotes the human-centered progressive ideals as well as actual patterns of universalization for the balanced spiritual-cum-material development and empowerment of the personality of all humans existing on the globe irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds, times  and places wherein they live. In this context, the following Islamic stratagem of universalization evolves out of the universal Islamic values of comprehensive human enlightenment:

By obligating the pursuit of all sorts of beneficial knowledge, Islam communicates revealed  knowledge about the nature of the inherently dignified and respectable status of both the human being and the humanity as vicegerent of Alllah (Subhanu Hu Wa Ta’ala) and as the best of all creatures, including the ever-developing borderless physical universe, created by Allah (Subhanu Hu Wa Ta’ala) and entrusted to all humans for their service, need-fulfillment, development, and politico-economic as well as social empowerment of all humans who are individually integrated with one another, with humanity and  with universe through the unifying  universal knowledge of Tawhid (Oneness of Allah (Subhanu Hu Wa Ta’ala)).  The highly enlightening practicable teachings of the Holy Qur’an[5] and the Holy Prophet Muhammad[6] (Peace Be Upon Him) transform humans into  universally mobile as well as mutually beneficial citizens who may be called “universizens”.  Islam envisages a universally integrated progressive human society consisting of the Islamically educated and enlightened humans functioning as ideal Universizens.  Islam ensures that all universizens have maximum access to beneficial knowledge and perfectly true information  through all possible modern Islamic means of communication. The resulting Islamic enlightenment of  universizens, conditioned by the Islamic principles of justice and benevolence, brings the universal human society into the light which wins hearts of all universizens, levels or moderates all universizens on the socio-economic and political plane in universal framework, integrates all of them through the Islamic institution of universal brotherhood, makes them more dynamic, powerful, prolific, progressive, and prosperous thereby leads them to the climax of a peaceful universal civilization, modernization,  economic development, and eternal success. 

The Islamic stratagem of universalization is executed by ensuring the application of the following Islamic principles:

-           Principle of enjoining good and forbidding evil

-           Principle of ensuring respect of all universizens

-           Principle of free mobility of all universizens in general in the physical  universe

-           Principle of ensuring socio-economic, political and regional justice as well as benevolence for all universizens while establishing the might of right

-           Principle of swift dissemination of perfect knowledge and information among all universizens

-           Principle of responsibility and accountability of all universizens

-           Principle of free universal trade and investment along Islamic lines

-           Principle of making decision on the basis of mutual consultation

-           Principle of transparency

-           Principle of self-help and universal cooperation for human development, empowerment and security

-           Principle of promoting cooperative competition among all universizens.

Human as Universizens and their institutions of universal caliphate based on the Ummah-level  Shuratic (politico-economic) process are the prime vehicles of Islamic universalization. The set of additional vehicles of Islamic universalization includes the Islamic values, Islamic enlightenment-oriented academic institutions (Mosque, Madrasah, Amr Bil M’aroof Wa Nahi Aa’nil  Munkar, Salaat, Hajj, Fasting), Zakaat, voluntary sector, universal free-trade/market, Islamic central and commercial banks,  Mushrakah, Mudarabah, technology, and the Islamic means of mass communication.

The set of policy instruments of Islamic universalization include

a)         progressive humanitarian policies of realizing human development, economic growth, need fulfillment, full employment,  equitable distribution of income and wealth, and economic stability

b)         the Islamic enlightenment-oriented policies of ensuring equal access of all universizens to the modern facilities of progressive Islamic scientific education and truthful information by establishing all possible facilities means of mass communication

c)         policies of eliminating ethnic nationalism,  nation states, and national borders dividing the human universe

d)         policies of equal socio-economic and political opportunities for all universizens

e)         policies of eliminating wars and promoting harmony, peace, and integration among all universizens

f)          policies of balanced regional economic development

g)         the policy of optimal riba-free monetary management of the single Islamic universal currency by instituting Islamic universal monetary policy regime

h)         policy of instituting Islamic fiscal federalism designed along the lines of the fiscal model of Zakat.

Lessons from Dynamics of Iranian Islamic Revolution

February 1,1979 signifies a revolutionary threshold in the history of Iran as well as the world as a whole.  Before this date,  the Western puppet regime of Iranian monarch westernized Iran and made Iran a strategic-base camp for the Western capitalist powers and, thus, instituted as well as accelerated the uncontrollable dynamics of the Islamic revolutionary struggle launched by the oppressed but revolutionized Iranian Muslim masses.  The date of the Islamic revolution of Iran merely symbolizes another swift victory of the Islamic spiritual revolutionary forces as a divine reward for the glorious sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of people against the centuries-old materialistic secular Iranian regime which had been effectively backed by the Western powers. In other words, this date reflects the formal recommencement of the contemporary process of eternal Islamic revolution instituted in Iran for revolutionizing the entire global human race.

The crystal-clear universal lessons of the Islamic revolution of Iran for all aggressive materialistic global powers and their allies among the rulers of the contemporary Muslim countries are being highlighted as following:

a) The Islamic spiritual forces are capable of bringing about Islamic revolutions in all walks of human life.

b) The Islamic revolutions are always and everywhere possible as an indigenous phenomena and these revolutions can never be reversed by launching disinformation campaigns and by imposing unjustified wars and sanctions.
c) Especially, economic sanctions have been a blessing in disguise for Islamic Republic of Iran for reinforcing her resolve and economic capacity in order to successfully accelerate economic growth according to the Islamic development priorities and, thus, to sustain and enhance her politico-economic and strategic sovereignty. 

d) In contrast to the most recent natural demise of anti-Islamic revolution regime in Iraq, the healthy persistence of the Islamic regime in Iran signifies the continuing victory of the Islamic revolution in Iran against the anti-Islam western powers and their puppet regimes.

e) The most recent  results of the elections in Iran reconfirm the success and ever-popular nature of  the Iranian revolutionary process despite the persisting western sanctions and propaganda war against Iran.

Indeed, there is potential of a peaceful universal revolution in the East as well as West against the overwhelming regressive forces/powers which have been surviving merely on the basis of global disinformation,  wars, enslavement,  and human disempowerment.   Now, the contemporary Islamic revolutionary forces face the challenge of simultaneously realizing the ideals of the Islamic revolution in the form of peace, prosperity, and human development/empowerment in their country, as well as liberating the global masses from the aforementioned  regressive powers of the world.

Conclusions

If the globalization has to survive and succeed in ensuring equitable global development, then humans must be the focus of the movement of globalization. Without the provisions for free international mobility of humans globalization is incomplete, inhumane,  and immaterial.  Otherwise, the voyages of globalization along the roads to nationalism and regionalism will culminate into neocolonialism, trade wars, world wars, global recessions and the global destruction.

The western civilization has consumed many centuries in discovering the slogan of globalization.  In my view, the process of awakening of the human conscience for practically heralding the movement of universalization may take some more centuries.

Global peace can be ensured through a transition from the nationalism-based globalization to universalization which may integrate the entire humanity through universal human values within the original peaceful framework of a border-less univese. Let us strive for the universal peace, prosperity and development of all humans by promoting the universal values and, thereby, realizing universal ideals.   Universal human values, which are like universal truths, are indeed capable of benefiting all humans irrespective  of their regional background.

The contemporary oppressed and exploited humanity finds itself at threshold of a global revolution and universalization. Iran’s Islamic revolution has the potential to provide a ray of  hope to global masses for establishing a just, progressive, and humane global order on the basis of the Islamic panacea in the form of a program of human development–oriented universalization.
 

[6]The Holy Qur’an (13, 17 )  declares, “ While that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth”.  According to the meaning of the Saying of The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),  the best among the human beings is that person  who provides benefit to the human beings.