Five Wars of Globalization

The illegal trade in drugs, arms, intellectual property, people, and money is booming. Like the war on terrorism, the fight to control these illicit markets pits governments against agile, stateless, and resourceful networks empowered by globalization. Governments will continue to lose these wars until they adopt new strategies to deal with a larger, unprecedented struggle that now shapes the world as much as confrontations between nation-states once did The persistence of al Qaeda underscores how …

…increased integration of poor countries to the global economy and better telecommunications have created a market where waste is traded internationally. Greenpeace estimates that during the 20 years prior to 1989, just 3.6 million tons of hazardous waste were exported; in the five years after 1989, the trade soared to about 6.7 billion tons. The environmental organization also reckons that 86 to 90 percent of all hazardous waste shipments destined for developing countries--purportedly for recycling, reuse, recovery, or humanitarian uses--are toxic waste.