Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order

In the end, the faces of globalization that matter are not technology, economics, politics or rapid social changes. They are the 6 billion people who are affected by those factors. Globalization should neither be welcomed uncritically nor dismissed as wholly deleterious. We need better conceptions of global justice and criteria for evaluating social changes. On this point the essays by philosophically and theologically informed scholars can guide us. Social scientists like Gilpin are invaluable conversation partners. A principal ethical criterion must be the effects of globalization on the people who do not currently have the economic or political power to be part of our conversation. Those many faces of globalization are also created in the image of God.

Douglas A. Hicks is assistant professor of leadership studies and religion at the University of Richmond in Virginia and an ordained Presbyterian minister. He is author of Inequality and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press).

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