MLA Proseminar: Development & Globalization in a Multipolar World: MLA Proseminar: Development & Globalization in a Multipolar World

This seminar explores the changing meanings and drivers of economic development in a global economy that is simultaneously more interconnected and more divided than ever before. It is more interconnected in terms of the volume of capital flows, the expansion of transnational supply chains, and the diffusion of similar technologies and practices at a rapid rate. It is divided in terms of the growing gap between North and South and intensifying competition among major economic powers or blocs. But this state of affairs has not come out of the blue. Thus, the first part of the course offers a broad comparative-historical perspective in analyzing the experiences of different countries in different eras, sweeping forward from the Industrial Revolution and the post-World War II push for development and modernization to the post-Cold War era of globalization that has brought some new challenges while harkening back to some persistent challenges (such as international and intra-country inequality). Yet, as the second part of the course emphasizes, the present era is not merely an extension of past trends. We are now in an era where the advanced capitalist economies of the West, while continuing to increase their lead (in capita GDP), are collectively accounting for a smaller share of the world economy (in total GDP). This has been accompanied by expanding clusters of non-Western powers such as the "BRICS" (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) and the emergence of new institutions and initiatives designed to reduce dependence on Western-dominated international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organization (WTO). And the response of the most advanced economy in the world (the U.S, at least under Donald Trump) has not been to double down on the latter institutions but rather to employ familiar tools of economic statecraft - e.g. sanctions, tariffs & export controls - to try and thwart these challenges. At a minimum, these emergent trends call into question the previously assumed irreversibility of globalization and point to the possibility of a multipolar global economic order.