The World is Not Enough:
Globalization, Guns, and Greed

by Kathryn E Smith

“…trade cannot be maintained without war or war without trade.”[1]
Globalization is defined in many ways, and although it has been expanding and contracting over thousands of years, it has only in the past two centuries become a topic of such interest. Many think of globalization as “primarily a monetary phenomenon,”[2] and although most definitions of globalization do only concern trade, it is more broadly “the process by which different regions of the world affect one another economically, politically, or culturally.”[3] Today, military might is paramount in the expansion of globalization. It may seem cynical to those raised in American high schools and higher education institutions to say that “the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist.”[4] And yet, truly “McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.”[5] Historically, this military protection of commercial interests has great precedence. As far back as the ancient city-states of Venice and Genoa, powerful navies were the basis of wealth.[6] In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Qing Dynasty of China pursued imperialist expansion, and conquered no less than four independent nations.[7]

British Imperialism

In the modern day, Europe, particularly Britain, dominated the international stage before the United States became a formidable military might. As early as 1614, the Dutchman Jan Peieterzoon Coen wrote to his directors at the East India Company, “Trade in India must be conducted and maintained under the protection and favour of your weapons, and the weapons must be supplied from the