Globalization of Crises and/or the Crisis of Globalization
183not only through the media but from friends, family, and strangers–anyone
who has a camera or cell phone with Internet access–or access to other
information transmission capabilities on a global level.
It is important to emphasize that it is a much more complex phenomenon
than the ratio of emerging crises and technological development. The world
is in transition, marked by the strong interdependence of all social entities
in which we simultaneously accelerate societal integration at all levels.
This process is referred to in one word–globalization. Therefore, in our
work we have accepted the definition of globalization in which it is, “the
unification of human efforts and activities in the direction of accelerating
the integration of humanity on a global level, driven by the unprecedented
movement of people, technology, capital, information, ideas and cultural
values among states and nations, but in a way that neither the states nor the
people do not control this process in desired extent.”^4 Since the fall of the
Eastern block division at the end of the 1980s, the image of the world has
greatly changed. Shifting from the phases of elation and the significant
growth of the world economy, especially in the U.S.A. and the EU, we
have a situation of entering into an economic crisis which will require us
to overcome many more elements than just the psychological aspect of
losing confidence in the “invisible hand of the market.” Our analysis has
pretensions to point out that all these crises are, more or less, connected
and represent an expression of the epoch in which civilization on our
“small” planet currently exists. They are all, in different ways, expressions
of transformation of our social, economic and political relations, and
represent a kind of failure of state institutions to adapt to these new
conditions of life and work. In the twentieth century, national states and
other creations/institutions of "the Westphalian system" represented the
mechanisms for managing all aspects of social life at both the state and the
international community level. Trust in these institutions is largely based
on the fact that we believed that they had had the "will" and the capacity to
cope with crises and to optimally manage the risk that was constantly
growing. Nowadays, when the crises (financial, economic, security, or
environmental) are beyond the limits, we have lost trust in those
traditional mechanisms and pillars of the international system. However,
new kinds of global systems and institutional frameworks, which are
necessary to adequately face the challenges of the twenty-first century,
have not yet been built. This is exactly the key paradox of our time.
Collective issues, which should be solved, increasingly take on a global
(^4) Miletiü, “Globalizacija i njen uticaj na tranziciju Srbije“, 237.