Globalization and Maritime Power

Prior to September 11, 2001, most Americans viewed globalization as primarily —perhaps exclusively—an economic phenomenon.1 The economic evidence —rapidly shifting flows of world capital, expansion of overseas markets and investments, the global connections of e-commerce and the Internet, as examples —seemed readily apparent, even if some critics viewed globalization itself as an illdefined term. But appropriately defined or not, the concept of globalization had already achieved considerable stature, causing corporate boards and shareholders to thirst after presumably growing international markets, Internet junkies to claim their own transnational community, and antiglobalization protestors to smash municipal trash cans from Seattle to Washington.