Tarak Barkawi's rewarding study brings together two usually separate lines of investigation, enabling us to think differently about both war and globalization. This book shows how much historical sociology and international relations have to offer each other.
Martin Shaw, emeritus, University of Sussex If globalization is about the circulation of people, goods, and ideas, then warfare, not trade, has been its principal vehicle. Starting from this assumption, Barkawi examines India's participation in two world wars to shed important light on this neglected but critically important dimension of globalization. His case studies form the basis of a 'war and society' approach to globalization that has a lot to tell us about current dilemmas and choices, including the problem of terrorism.
Richard Ned Lebow, Dartmouth College Barkawi's brilliant analysis upends conventional ways of thinking about the relationship between 'war' and 'globalization'—of war as a historically important globalizing force, and globalization as a violent process that often is implemented through war. Lucidly written and compellingly argued, this book is a call for sanity in the conceptual murkiness and Orwellian doublespeak of the 'war on terror.'
Akhil Gupta, Stanford University Luminous in its sweep and fascinating in the range of its historical detail, this book exposes the deepest shibboleths about globalization and war. If you thought that globalization led away from war or that liberals have traditionally been antiwar, you will learn a lot from Tarak Barkawi. Globalization, he tells us, is war.
Neil Smith, author, The Endgame of Globalization Accessibly written, the book is full of historical examples which are used to problematise popular and academic images of social reality. . . . It makes a vital ontological assertion about the importance of inter-societal relations for understanding socio-historical phenomena and it provides many empirical examples to illustrate the point.
Cambridge Review of International Affairs
Tarak Barkawi’s important book on globalization situates the discourse of the past fifteen years in an historically informed framework that illustrates how often conflict and war have been handmaidens of the spread of global capital. His fine book is a cogent critique of the widespread assumption that the more free trade and democracy we have, the more peace we will have in the world. Instead, he argues that war itself is a globalizing force. One need go no further than the American war in Iraq to see that premise in action.
Bruce Cumings, University of Chicago; author of The Origins of the Korean War