Global Governmentality

3    Global networks, international networks, actor networks

Gavin Kendall¹

In the globalization literature, much has been made of the origins of global power and domination in Western imperialism and colonialism. For example, Giddens (1990) argues that modernity – which is characterized by an increasingly global character – has to be understood along four dimensions, each of which has become increasingly global and less local, and all of these four dimensions have developed from an immature form in imperialist and colonialist practice. These dimensions are the system of nation-states, the world capitalist economy, the international division of labour, and the world military order. For Giddens, all four have been transformed in modernity, ...