What is the word "globalism", a term used by the new Brazilian Chancellor and by Trump?



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  On January 2, 2019, the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs in conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at Itamaraty in Brasilia

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Ricardo Moraes / Reuters

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"Globalism is constituted by hatred, through its various ideological ramifications," said the Brazilian Foreign Minister in his speech d & # 39; inauguration

The term "globalism", a term frequently used in speeches and criticism addressed to authorities such as the new Brazilian Foreign Minister, Ernesto Araújo, and US President Donald Trump, means many different things for good people.

For the new Brazilian Chancellor, for example, "globalism" is the "current configuration of Marxism", of which Brazil and the world must liberate themselves. "It's the economic globalization that has been driven by cultural Marxism," said the Chancellor in his blog Metapolítica 17.

In his address to the 73rd UN General Assembly, Trump dismissed the remarks of its president "ideology of globalization" which, in his opinion, is opposed to its motto "United States First". "I respect the right of every country to follow its own customs, beliefs and traditions," he said, adding that the United States is ruled by the Americans. "The United States will always choose independence and cooperation rather than global governance, control and domination." And instead of globalism, adopt the "doctrine of patriotism."

But what is globalism anyway? Experts interviewed by BBC News Brazil agree that at all other times in history, the term had a whole definition

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For these badysts, the term has become a "political slogan" or a "caricature" and represents, in the approach of the recent debates, ideas opposed to nationalism and

Political slogan

According to the Belgian linguist Jan Blommaert, professor of languages, culture and globalization in the world University of Tilburg in the Netherlands, the first aspect to emphasize is that the term is "vague" and that it part of a strategy of political discourse.

According to Blommaert, globalism, by example, is not synonymous with globalization, but "it is precisely the likeness with the "globalization" that confuses people and makes them believe that they know what we are talking about. "

The second aspect is that the term, says the professor, is the" ideal ammunition "of the 21st century, "perfect for social networks". "In Twitter's world, it's the ideal: it's a word with different meanings and multiple applications." "Ideas and long arguments are reduced to a word or phrase."

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Trump stated that the United States "rejected the ideology of globalism and adhered to the doctrine of patriotism "

"Globalism" is simply a "political slogan," American political scientist Joseph Nye, professor of international relations at Harvard and one of the fathers of the concept of "discreet power", told BBC News Brazil. email. power or ability of a country to influence decisions by its power of persuasion, as opposed to its military power).

The term "was used by populist nationalists to condemn elites involved in global commerce, such as trade and international institutions," said Nye.

But what does "globalism" mean as a political slogan?

Heidi Tworek, Professor of International History at the University of British Columbia in Canada, also spoke of the "lack of national sovereignty" regarding particular issues such as immigration and the trade.

For Blommaert, the word, as it is now used, has three meanings: antiglobalists are opposed to immigration and diversity ("debates against immigration avoid the word "racism" and replace it with "antiglobalism" ", he says.), transnational governance and, finally, are also left behind (" we blame immigration, diversity, the rise of women – the loss of " cultural traditions "and values ​​- and the construction of a system of transnational governance" Moreover, complaints of right-wing leaders against "globalism" may have a reason, says Gideon Rachman, editorial writer for the British newspaper Financial Times . For him, the use of the term with these meanings may be related to the global financial crisis of 2008.

"At that time, it was felt that something n & rsquo; Did not go with the "globalization project" There was discontent, Europe and the United States, and the feeling that those who created the system are those who have lost the least. "So, he says, Trump and others have benefited."

That is, if, before globalization was seen as an economic and technological process, a group of people continued to argue that behind the phenomenon, there was an ideology – "globalism".

"They say that [globalisme] was not inevitable, that it was not neutral and that It could be combated, "says Rachman

And he agrees:" The globalized world we are used to is the result of conscious decisions. Ideas can not be considered purely technocratic and separate from politics. They may have thought that it was largely technical but had political content.

Other statements by the Brazilian Chancellor Ernesto Araújo show that, for him, "globalism" has essentially characteristics "contrary to the nation" or contrary to the "homeland". "Globalism is constituted by hatred, through its various ideological ramifications and its anti-national instruments, contrary to human nature and to human birth itself," he said in his inaugural address.

The Minister also said: "Do not believe what globalism says when he says that to have economic efficiency, it is necessary to stifle the heart of the country and not to love the country Do not listen to globalism when it says peace means do not fight. "

Trump shares the concept of "loving motherland" as opposed to "globalism". In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2018, the US president declared that the United States "rejected the ideology of globalism and adhered to the doctrine of patriotism".

The Belgian linguist Blommaert summarizes: globalism basically means "the opposite". of nationalism in the 21st century. "The" anti-global "would be the nationalists of today -" but the term "nationalism" has become obsolete. "

Tworek, a professor from British Columbia, adds: with the suffix "ism", which indicates an ideology, to oppose "nationalism."

Ideological and conspiratory conception

Although giving a reason to leaders who protest against concepts that embody the term "globalism", Gideon Rachman of Financial Times points out that the fact that the ideology underlying the formation of the world to the integrated global economy as we know it today does not mean for as far as there has been a conspiracy to do this, and the right, he says, underlines this supposedly "conspiratorial" aspect.

"Putin, China, the European Commission, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton had a similar vision of free trade, attached to the idea of ​​an ec integrated world economy, "he said. "The triumph of ideology was that we had not realized that it was an ideology – it seemed like common sense."

And there was an opposition – this one is not new. He cites, for example, the 1999 Seattle protests, in which thousands protested against the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting.

Or even the independence of central banks: "All the sensible people said that money management should be done by technocrats, but there are now clashes against this idea, like those of Trump in the United States "

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Denis Balibouse / Reuters

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Thousands of people protested against the WTO in Seattle in 1999 (in the photo , the headquarters of the WTO in Geneva)

The Professor of Modern History at the City University of London and author of Gold Rosenboim's book entitled The Emergence of Globalism claims that Trump and other leaders " pretend "to protest against this" neoliberal globalism ".

For her, globalism is "the idea that politics must adapt to globalization or the cultural and economic conditions of an interconnected world".

This does not mean, she says, that all "globalists" have the same values ​​or goals within this world order. According to Rosenboim, Trump and other leaders use rhetoric to seem to protest against a specific type of "globalism", "neoliberal globalism" or that favors global economic interests over other interests.

The problem, she says, is that although they use this rhetoric, right-wing leaders do not really talk about "globalism". "It sounds more like a false version or a caricature of" globalism "." They say they are attacking the idea that 1% of the world's rich have taken advantage of this new interconnection condition, "he said." But there are a lot of rhetoric and a trick to appeal to people ignored by the neoliberal market. "

" Neoliberal globalism exists, but does not really protest. "They protest against a cosmopolitan liberal elite, not necessarily against individuals or institutions responsible for the creation of this type of market. "

" Globalism "before, before" cosmopolitanism "

The term" globalism "is not new and takes on a different meaning

At the turn of the century From 19 to 20, explains the Belgian linguist Jan Blommaert, a new culture related to urbanization was born. "We had the feeling that we were losing our traditions, that there was a new jaded mentality, that we were affected by consumption."

What people defined with this new mentality was the term "cosmpolitan". The American magazine Cosmopolitan for example, was launched in 1886. Already at that time, says the professor, the term "mondialiste" was used alternately with "cosmopolite".

Gold Rosenboim, of the City University of London, claims that in the 1940s, after the Second World War, "Western thinkers and intellectuals tried to think of a post-war world, concerned about the return of totalitarianism and militarism interconnection of the world, facilitated by the technologies of transport and communication ". She said that they thought about how the policy could be conducted "globally" and how values ​​such as "well-being and equality" were global and not related to a single country. And so, it would have appeared "globalism" in the sense that he was studying, of a policy that must adapt to globalization.

For Blommaert, it was rather in the 1960s, with the end of the colonies in the world and with major media events, the landing on the Moon and the Vietnam War, which changed the way the world was imagined.

"This is where we came to see the world as an interconnected system, the" global "as a notion, and we came to think that we live in a global world of zones and states with equal peoples, "he says. , citing "world leaders and icons" who have been known worldwide just before, such as Gandhi, Mao Tse Tung and Fidel Castro.

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Mao Tse-tung led the Chinese revolution of 1949

Thus for Blommaert, the term "globalism" replaced the term "cosmopolitanism", representing "the new tendency to get rid of an old world view, which was eurocentric, metropolitan, like of the imperial worldview in the UK ". According to the teacher, it was a good thing. "There was an idea that we could learn from other regions and cultures in an equal and respectful way."

For Rosenboim, "globalism was not perceived as good or bad." It was perceived as a necessity to respond to the new reality. "

Antisemitism

But the same word," cosmopolitan ", was used as something negative and anti-Semitic before the 1960s. It was the case in Nazi Germany. and Stalin's Soviet Union, according to Blommaert, was used to describe the "innate" characteristics of Jews, who would have no Germanic roots, in the case of Germany. the "rootless cosmopolitanism", or the Jews, represented a danger to Soviet sovereignty

Some see echoes of this "cosmopolitan" anti-Semitic meaning in the new sense of "globalism" in the twenty-first century. anti-globalist ": George Soros, 88-year-old American-Hungarian Jewish entrepreneur Born in Nazi-occupied Hungary during his teens, he emigrated to the UK He is now an investor and philanthropist who invests in progressive and liberal causes s

"He has no roots and is linked to international NGOs, so he is a typical" globalist "," says Blommaert. "It's a Jew who is again perceived as dangerous."

In 2018, the newspaper New York Times explained how the wickedness of Soros "pbaded from the edge to the edge", even the republican "globalist".

The American-Hungarian tycoon George Soros is the biggest symbol of the "globalism" of the so-called "anti-globalization".

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Luke MacGregor / Reuters

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According to Mariana Kalil, Professor of International Relations at the Superior School of War in Brazil, the term "globalism "was also used in Brazil

. , with the "great founder of Brazilian foreign policy", Baron de Rio Branco. At the beginning of the 20th century, he understood "the moment to change Brazilian foreign policy from Europe to the United States". He founded the Brazilian Embbady in Washington in 1905, where Joaquim Nabuco surrendered. He received the Pan American Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1906. It was the so-called "pragmatic Americanism".

"Pragmatic Americanism" moved to "pragmatic equidistance" under Getúlio Vargas and later became "globalism" in the 1960s, while the world "had many poles", says he

Brazil has begun to exercise "globalism". "It is not this" globalism "of which we speak now, which he defines as a" partisan politician ", but a" tradition of Brazilian foreign policy "

And what exactly was this Brazilian" globalism "? According to Kalil, this equates to a" pragmatism in foreign policy to diversify partnerships to increase their earnings. "And that, he says, "has nothing to do with a global conspiracy."

At the time of the administrations of presidents Jânio Quadros and João Goulart, in the 1960s, there was already talk of "globalism." And after that , "globalism was the basis of the foreign policy of military governments". Geisel's main policy was the so-called "responsible and ecumenical pragmatism", which involved dealing with everyone in a fundamental way.

However, this Brazilian "globalism" of the twentieth century is not related to "globalism". says today the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, which she defines as "a threat to the national interest and identity" – and which she says is not necessarily related anti-immigration ideas, for example, as Professor Blommaert says.

And, says Kalil, "the" globalism "of foreign policy is one thing, the globalism of rhetoric is another." In other words, it is impossible to know if the Chancellor will concretize his speech. "Araújo's speeches, in which he speaks of" globalism ", do not necessarily concern a radical change in Brazilian foreign policy and are positive, in Kalil's view, as they favor" their democratization ".

"We have never had such a democratic foreign policy to give voice to public opinion, and foreign policy is a public policy like any other," he said. 19659077] Have you ever watched our new videos in YouTube ? Join our channel!

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