Tag Archives: Africa

Where Lies the Heart of Darkness?

Notes For a Lecture

A. INTRODUCTION

The central conundrum at the heart of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness  is: Why does Marlowe, the narrator, so admire the brutal Kurtz, as do others in the story [such as the Russian trader, the general manager]? Continue reading

Neoliberal Globalization: Are the Times a-Changin’?

Neoliberalglobalization since the late 1970s has restricted the policy autonomy of national states through a variety of pressures that “discipline” governments implementing measures deemed hostile to free markets. Yet the world is changing fast and the rise of China in particular is shifting the global power balance. Strangely, however, remarkably little has changed in the global order beyond some reshuffling of the dominant players and somewhat greater national independence in decision making. This argument is made at length in Civilizing Globalization, which I recently co-edited with Ali Burak Guven. Continue reading