The Lexus and the Olive Tree
Chapter One
Tourist with an Attitude
When I speak of the "the Cold War system" and "the globalization
system," what do I mean?
I mean that, as an international system, the Cold War had its own
structure of power: the balance between the United States and the
U.S.S.R. The Cold War had its own rules: in foreign affairs, neither
superpower would encroach on the other's sphere of influence; in
economics, less developed countries would focus on nurturing their
own national industries, developing countries on export-led growth,
communist countries on autarky, and Western economies on regulated
trade. The Cold War had its own dominant ideas: the clash between
communism and capitalism, as well as detente, nonalignment, and
perestroika. The Cold War had its own demographic trends: the
movement of peoples from east to west was largely frozen by the Iron
Curtain, but the movement from south to north was a more steady
flow. The Cold War had its own perspective on the globe: the world
was a space divided into the communist camp, the Western camp, and
the neutral camp, and everyone's country was in one of th ... read full excerpt from Lexus and the Olive Tree ebook
