International Relations
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Abstract
Global Civil Society (GCS) is a tantalizing concept within contemporary political discourse, yet the term sometimes seems to offer a catch-all for all kinds of opposition groups and proffered alternatives. Mary Kaldor recognizes this conceptual uncertainty, but insists that the idea of GCS ‘expresses a very real phenomenon, even if the boundaries of the phenomenon vary according to different definitions’ (p. 3). The book offers a useful historical survey of the concept, from Plato to post-modernism, to help explain its re-emergence, and its potential, in the context of globalization. Drawing heavily on the revolutions of 1989 – which she sees as the birth-place of the concept – Kaldor describes a moment in which the medium is (at least in part) the message: the revolutions were the manifestation of principles of non-violence and selforganization that enabled the joining of peace, human rights, and disarmament groups. Kaldor sees a unity among the diverse voices of GCS, the makings of a form of ‘global governance’ that will involve ‘the transformations of ... unilateralist war-making states’ into ‘multilateralist law-making states’ (p. 110). While recognizing a serious challenge postSeptember 11, she nonetheless holds forth the vision of ‘a global security system based on humanitarian law’ (p. 110), what she later calls ‘a global social contract ... in the service of humanity’ (p. 158). Kaldor admits this vision is utopian, ‘but it may be that only a utopian answer can offer a way out of this cycle of destruction’ (p. 156). Regrettably, she seems to see no contradiction in the fact that, even in her own argument, this ‘way out’ requires a degree of societal security that must legitimize the very state system that drives this cycle. The book gives remarkably little space over to considering those forces that oppose, infect, co-opt and (when necessary) crush GCS. Thus Kaldor’s ‘way out’ seems based on a marginalization of political realities, relying too much on ideas and not enough on their actualization.