War and Globalization

This chapter is about war and globalization in the 1990s. Tripathi begins with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the US-led Gulf War against Saddam Hussein’s occupation forces to liberate the small emirate. As the mid-1990s approached, the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan defeated rival Mujahideen factions, establishing themselves as the rulers of that country. Tripathi then turns his attention to Europe, the breakup of the Soviet Empire, and civil society movements coming to the forefront in the push for democracy. But the wars in the Balkans, and the disintegration of Yugoslavia after decades of communist rule, caused widespread bloodshed and human rights abuses. On the one hand were conflicts. On the other hand was globalization that triggered a rapid process of political, economic, technological, and cultural exchanges and enabled the world to become interconnected. Tripathi points out that globalization did not bring benefits to all, as its advocates had professed. There were “winners” and “losers.” Globalization created polarization in societies and challenged governments.